Flame (Fire on the Mountain #2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

guess there’s not much I can do except make sure I’m there to support them tonight. “I’ll be at your room around four with my tux.”
    “And the ring, bitch!” he calls out after me as I walk out of the room. “Don’t forget the fucking ring!”
    I flip him the double bird over my shoulder without turning around, and I know by the warm tone of his laughter that all is right between the two of us.

    Whoever designed the first tuxedo needs to be shot. I mean, I know he—or she—is already dead, but I’d like to shoot them once or twice more, just for some personal satisfaction. Revenge for coming up with this torturous contraption that has way too many goddamn pieces and feels like a vise squeezing around my already swollen neck. Fucker.
    “Is everyone ready to go? The guests have all been seated and we’re heading out in five. Speak now, or forever hold your peace.” The Nazi wedding coordinator Emmy hired may be the most high-strung person I’ve ever met, but I guess that’s what makes her good at her job.
    Glancing first at Gunner to my left, then Rhino on my right, I’m also guessing it was her idea for these brutal suits, because the three of us couldn’t look more out of place in these black bowties and suspenders if we tried. Between Gunner’s neck tattoos and the gauges in his ears, and Rhino’s electric blue Mohawk dyed this morning to match the wedding colors, I’m probably most suited for the look, except the tailor screwed up my alterations and the jacket won’t button around my chest, and the hem of my pants doesn’t reach my shoe. So I look like a fucking clown. A clown waiting for a flood.
    Today has been shit, and I’m clearly not living up to my title of best man. Right now, mediocre man might be pushing it, and that’s with the help of the drugs.
    “You ready, bro? Still sure about all of this?” I ask Gunner in a voice low enough no one else can hear. I don’t want anyone to think I’m trying to talk him out of it, but I don’t feel like I would be doing my job if I didn’t confirm one last time.
    With a shit-eating grin on his face, his head bobs. “Abso-fucking-lutely. Not one single doubt.”
    “Good. I’m really happy for you.” I offer a small smile as I nod along with him. “I love you both. Would do anything for either of ya.”
    Angling himself toward me, he wraps his arms around me and pats my back in a man-hug. “I know, fucker, but now’s not the time to develop vaginitis. Go out there, dazzle everyone with your charming smile, and give me the ring when they ask for it. We can jack each other off using our tears as lube later.”
    “Shit! I knew I forgot something!” My eyes grow wide while I begin to frantically pat around the five thousand pockets in the jacket and pants, acting like I’m searching for something.
    Gunner’s face pales several shades. “You’ve got to be kidding me. What was the last thing I told you when you left this morning, dude?”
    Our exchange catches the attention of the Nazi wedding coordinator, who’s been talking to God-knows-who in that earpiece since we got in the room two hours ago. She rushes over in a frenzy, throwing death daggers at me with her beady black eyes.
    “Where is it? Where did you leave it?” she barks, her neck turning bright red as she fists my lapels.
    I want to drag this little charade out a bit, make Gunner squirm to the point he’s so relieved when I do pull it out that he’ll coast right through the ceremony unfrazzled. However, I’m afraid female Adolph may actually kill me later, so I bend down and retrieve the ring from my black trouser sock—my sock that can be seen without even hiking up my pant leg, no less.
    Lifting it in the air, I hold it in front of my cousin’s face and stifle back the laugh threatening to escape. “Calm your tits, yo. I may feel like ass and look like a clown, but I’m not a fucking assclown. I’d never let you down, especially not something like this. Now,