His blue eyes narrowed. “Why not?”
“You’re watching your weight, remember?” My voice was oh so kind but loud enough for everyone around us to hear. “Good for you, trying to get rid of your potbelly. Not to mention that male pattern baldness that’s starting to set in. But hey, the hat covers that up, right?”
Vance’s eyes bulged with anger, and his mouth dropped open, but only strangled syllables escaped.
I gave him a sweet smile, slipped the tongs out of his hand, and piled the rest of the dates onto my plate so that he would have to wait for the pixies to bring out another tray.
I slapped the tongs into his chest. “Later, Vance.”
His fingers fisted around the utensil like he wanted to brain me with it, but I was already grabbing a glass of sweet iced tea and striding away.
I put Vance out of my mind and carried my food over to the table where Devon and Felix were sitting, along with a tall, muscular man with onyx skin and black hair peppered with silver threads. Oscar was hanging out with some of the other pixies at a table next to the windows.
Devon and Felix were dressed in nice shirts and black pants, just like me, but the man was a completely different story. He sported white linen pants and a lime-green Hawaiian shirt patterned with exploding volcanoes spewing scarlet lava. The garish combination of green and red made him the most colorful thing in the room. White flip-flops covered his feet, while a white straw hat was hooked on the back of his chair.
Mo Kaminsky, my friend and fence, looked at me as I pulled out a chair and sat down next to him. “So, kid, whatcha got for me today?”
I reached into my pocket, drew out the small stone statue of a Fenrir wolf that I’d swiped on my way to the dining hall, and set it down on the table. “And you?”
Mo grinned, reached into one of his own pockets, and drew out a crystal paperweight shaped like a tree troll.
I grinned back. “Nice.”
Felix eyed the statue and the paperweight. “Um, aren’t those supposed to be in one of the downstairs living rooms? Don’t you guys ever get tired of stealing stuff?”
Mo and I looked at each other, our grins widening. “Never,” we said in unison.
Every day, Mo and I each swiped some trinket from somewhere in the mansion, then brought it to dinner to see what our spoils were, so to speak. Last week, we’d both gone for a pair of silver bookends in the library. He’d gotten one and I’d snagged the other. Of course, since we both officially worked for the Family now, we weren’t actually stealing the items. If we had been, Mo would have been taking the pilfered goods down to the Razzle Dazzle, his pawnshop, and either fencing them to one of his shady contacts or foisting them off on some unsuspecting tourist—for twice the items’ value.
Every day after Mo and I showed off our spoils, we switched items and tried to figure out where the other person had gotten their trinket from so we could return it to its proper place. I didn’t mind putting everything back . . . too much. It was a fun game and it kept my skills sharp. But I’d been so busy helping Devon with the tree troll and other Family problems the past few days that I’d fallen behind and had a backlog of shiny knickknacks sitting on the vanity table in my bedroom.
So Mo slid the Fenrir wolf statue into his pants pocket, while I slipped the troll paperweight into mine. Then, we both resumed eating as though we hadn’t stolen anything at all. Mo and I weren’t exactly troubled by things like sticky fingers and guilty consciences.
Felix eyed my plate. “You and the bacon again—it’s like a disease or something.”
I picked up one of the bacon-wrapped dates. “How can something that tastes this good possibly be wrong?”
Felix groaned, but I grinned and popped the date into my mouth. The bacon and fruit combined for a rich, smoky-sweet flavor, while the gorgonzola cheese added a bit of creaminess. A perfect little bite and so good that I polished off the others on my plate, went back to the buffet, and got several more.
Vance Groves glared at me as I walked by, since he was sitting close to the buffet, but I ignored him and returned to my table.
Dinner was fun and boisterous, with Felix and Mo competing to see who could outtalk the other. Felix told Mo all about our tree troll problem, while Mo chattered on about all the odd items that people had pawned at his shop today. The two of them barely shut up, except to take a bite of food every now and then. As much and as fast as they talked, it was a wonder there was enough oxygen in the room for both of them at the same time.