A light began to blink up in the corner of the Queen’s Lair.
Charlie laughed at me. “Showtime. How convenient. I’m sure whatever else you were going to blather on about would have been not even remotely pointless.” He picked up the mic sitting next to the camera. He switched it on and blew into it. People from below us began to cheer, knowing what was about to begin.
I muttered threats under my breath as I leaned forward to watch the show. It wasn’t going to be the same without the others here, but at least I could forget all the life lessons Charlie had just laid out for me. Ah, the spoils of youth.
And I really did forget—mostly—when instead of the queen from Phoenix bursting out onto the stage, a familiar purr echoed around the bar as a leg clad in red fishnets stuck out from behind the curtain, long and slender. “The bitch is back,” Helena Handbasket growled.
The crowd went nuts.
I turned wide-eyed to Charlie. He grinned at me as he muffled the mic against his chest. “Told you that you needed to be here tonight. Surprise, Kori.”
The curtains parted as the lights flashed. Helena Handbasket burst out onto the stage. She was fierce and fabulous, and it hit me then that even though it’d only been a couple of weeks, I’d missed my friends fiercely.
“Damn right!” she crowed into the microphone. “Did you cocksuckers think you could ever be rid of me?” She licked the length of the mic as everyone screamed at her. “I thought not. And if you did, go fuck yourself. Because even though my vacation was restful and filled with me getting… filled, I couldn’t stay away forever. So I return to you, well rested and well fucked, both as the power bottom and the power top that I am. My boo can attest to that.”
“Jesus Christ,” a voice filled with familiar disdain said from behind me. “I told her not to say that. I have a fucking reputation to maintain.”
I whirled around.
There, standing in the Queen’s Lair, the door closing behind them, were Paul and Vince Auster and the Homo Jock King, a constipated look on his disgustingly handsome face.
I almost fell down trying to get to them. I did lose a shoe, but I’d worry about that later. Vince caught me as I jumped at him, wrapping those big arms around me as Paul squawked when I accidentally kicked him in the junk.
“You bastards!” I cried into Vince’s ear. “What the hell!”
“Hi, Kori,” Vince said happily, squeezing me so tightly my back cracked. “We came back from our honeymoon early! Sandy said you were sad, and I know how much you like it when I hug you, so here I am.”
Goddammit. I loved that asshole. I pulled back to glare at him, my legs still wrapped around his hips. “You should have told me.”
“Then it wouldn’t be a surprise,” Paul said, still holding his balls. “Also, keep your feet away from me. They’re freakishly strong, and I’m sure I just lost a testicle.” He laughed when Vince set me down and I went to him. He wrapped an arm around me, kissing the side of my head. “Hey, girl. Looking good.”
I ignored the burning in my eyes. It’d only been two weeks. “You too,” I managed to say. “You look… weirdly tan. Like you should have a mustache and be saying inappropriate things to teenagers still in high school.”
He shoved me away. “That’s it. Moment over. Get the hell off me.”
I turned to the Homo Jock King. “Darren.”
He glared at me.
I waited.
He sighed and opened his arms.
When one gets an invitation from a King (asshole though he may be), one takes it. “It’s good to see you,” he muttered in my hair. “Sandy missed you. I didn’t.”
“You’re a liar,” I whispered in his ear.
He grunted but held on for a moment longer before letting me go.
“Did we get her?” I heard Helena say from below.
Charlie glanced back at us before raising the mic to his lips. “We did. Good job, Helena.”
“Damn fucking right! And oh, my babies, I have so many things to tell you. But first, let me take you back to a different time. When things made more sense. When the world was young and we didn’t have a single care. When a former Mouseketeer all but flashed us her cooch.”
The crowd went nuts as Christina Aguilera’s “Dirrty” started playing overhead.
And just like that, all was right again.