His Queen of Chaos
"Look at me, J. Not at it. At me. You're going to a doctor in eleven minutes and you're going to be so annoying about this bullet for the rest of your life that Darius is going to wish it'd hit him. You're getting your cake. Stay with my voice. What kind of frosting."
"Buttercream," Little J whispered. "Not the, not the whipped stuff, that's, that's for weddings -"
"Buttercream," I agreed. "Stay awake and it's yours. Fall asleep and I eat it. Those are the rules."
The kid laughed, or tried to, a wet awful sound, but his eyes stayed open, and they stayed on me, and Malik, one hand still fisted in my shirt, kneeling over all three of us in a thousand-dollar suit with two men's blood on it, the