Page 58 of Diary from an Inked Throne

I slammed my hand down on the table, making Violet jump. “See! There you go! I didn’t even think of that. Tell us all the gossip.”

He thought on that for a moment. “It was mostly pretty boring, nothing that would interest anyone, but I did get paid one night to insult a woman’s husband.”

My mouth dropped open. “Insult him? How?”

Whip shrugged. “She gave me a list of things. That he had a chode dick being the biggest one…” He laughed. “Or I guess, smallest one.”

“That’s so mean!” Violet said, horrified expression on her pretty face.

Whip shrugged. “It was. But they both got off on it… It was kind of weird now that I’m thinking about it.”

Dax had a tipsy smile playing all over his perfect mouth. “I once got banned from a craft store.”

I squinted at him. “What sort of craft store? Wait, that’s not important. Why? How? What did you do?”

X was ready with an accusing taco, waved in Dax’s direction. “Please tell me you got caught stealing glitter. That’s the gateway drug of the craft world.”

Dax folded his arms. “No.”

More accusatory taco pointing. “You started a black-market Cricut business?”

“No.”

“You got into a fistfight over scrapbook stickers, didn’t you? Like some soccer mom took the last pack of seasonal pumpkins and you saw red.”

Dax shook his head. “I’m not admitting to anything more than that. Who’s next?” He looked at Luca. “I think you have something to confess, don’t you?”

Luca swirled his straw around in his drink. “Not that I can think of.”

Dax wasn’t letting him off that easily though. “Something you confessed to me in that church basement…”

Luca narrowed his eyes and glared at Dax. “A lot of things were said in that church basement, Dax. Things that we swore would never be mentioned again.” He gave Dax another pointed stare. “Be cool.”

But Dax was well on his way to tipsy town and wasn’t having any of it. “You know what I’m talking about.”

I put my hand on Dax’s arm. I knew he and Luca had gotten close while they’d been held prisoner. I hated the circumstances that had forced them together, and yet I couldn’t deny I liked the outcome. The two of them almost more than friends now, though not in the way Lynx and Luca were.

The relationship between Dax and Luca was something different.

Something more like brothers.

And sometimes brothers went too far. I knew that, since I had a few of my own. “Stop. He doesn’t have to tell us anything he doesn’t want to.”

Dax raised an eyebrow at Luca.

He rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’m obsessed with Married at First Sight.”

I stared at him. “The reality TV show?”

“Yes! Don’t judge me! It’s a trainwreck I can’t look away from, and I’ve reached a point where I don’t even want to.”

Lynx seemed equally stunned. “When do you even watch it? We were on the road together for weeks, and I never saw you watch an episode.” His eyes widened. “Wait, is that what you were watching every time you put your headphones on? I thought you were just listening to that country band you like—”

X cocked his head to one side, studying Luca like he’d never seen him before. “You like country? Like, yeehaw, trucks, beer, and spin your girl around a dance floor sort of country? Are you secretly a cowboy, Luca?” He glanced over at Whip and Levi. “We should tell Ace. Maybe they can go line dancing together.”

The idea of Luca, Mr. Mafia, wearer of suits and scowls, two-stepping around a honky-tonk was hilarious.

Luca gave Lynx the middle finger then extended it to the rest of us. “Are we spilling all my secrets here? Don’t forget to tell them I wrote Sons of Anarchy fanfic.”