Destiny: The Girl in the Box #9 by Robert J. Crane Read Free Book Online Page B

make that mistake again. Ariadne tends to watch the dollars and cents.”
    “She’s never fought me on anything,” I said, pretty settled on that rib eye. I was trying to figure out how a steak could be worth fifty dollars. And I’d had some pretty good steaks before. “Is this steak really fifty bucks?”
    Scott looked back at the menu. “Yes.”
    I closed the leather volume in front of me. “And it’s a piece of meat?”
    He cocked his head at me, eyes filled with curiosity. “Yes …”
    There was a low-hanging light above our table and I leaned across, under it, my shadow darkening the unsullied white tablecloth. “It’s not like … magical meta steak that has powers beyond those of a regular steak? Able to—I don’t know? Cure cancer for the eater? Give them off-the-charts sex appeal that will allow them to sleep with anyone?”
    “No,” Scott said, and he seemed amused. “Well, maybe on the sex appeal. It’s just a steak, albeit probably a very good one. Haven’t you ever eaten at a fancy restaurant before?”
    “I used to go to Biaggi’s sometimes in Eden Prairie Center,” I said, thinking about the Italian place that Zack and I had gone to. I felt a pang of embarrassment thinking of Zack locked up in my head right now, probably watching this whole scene play out in … well, dismay. Or horror. Something. “I used to love Santorini’s, but I’m pretty sure their steaks topped out at about thirty dollars or so.” I had also gone there with Zack. My cheeks burned with embarrassment, but I didn’t dare check on him, not now.
    “We should go to Manny’s in Minneapolis some time,” Scott said. There was a gleam in his eye as he spoke. “Or Pittsburgh Blue. They’ve both got steaks for fifty dollars.”
    “I haven’t even gotten over eating one steak for fifty dollars and you’re already trying to talk me into two more?” I glanced back at the menu and then shut it. The price was not going to fall anytime soon simply by me staring at it in disbelief. “That’s ballsy.”
    “Confident,” Scott corrected.
    I looked at him as I put the menu down. “I admire your optimism, but it might just be unfounded. I don’t see myself going out for a lot of fancy dinners once we get back to Minneapolis and I—as you put it—pick up my baggage.”
    “This problem won’t last forever,” Scott said with a light shrug as he matched my movement and put his menu down as well. The black leather binder stood out on the white tablecloth. “You’re going to figure out how to use your powers, and we’re gonna beat Sovereign and Century like they’re a cheap steak and we’re a tenderizing hammer.” He paused. “See what I did there? What with us being in an expensive steakhouse and all—”
    “Subtle.” I cut him off, letting my fingers hold up my face as I leaned on my elbow, staring at him. “Listen … I don’t know what you think is going to happen, but I—” I glanced around. There was no sign of our waiter, for which I was actually grateful, in spite of being hungry enough to order the uncooked, unskinned hindquarters of the cow if it were available now. “I think your faith in me might be unfounded.”
    “You’ll get it,” he said and waved a hand at me in utter dismissal. “I’m surprised you haven’t gotten it yet, I mean—”
    “I don’t know how to do it,” I said, brutally cutting him off. “I’ve tried. I dug deep, talked to my little collection of matryoshkas within, and—it doesn’t work. No chance. Nothing. They’re not even talking to me at this point.” I leaned back in my chair, feeling like I’d achieved some mighty victory by throwing this desperate, horrible information at Scott right in the middle of a restaurant so fancy I wasn’t sure even my most expensive clothes belonged here.
    “Hello, my name is Garion, and I’ll be your server tonight,” a shorter man said as he approached us with a little flourish. His uniform was natty-neat and matched