Vin's Rules (Outer Settlement Agency) by Lyn Brittan

canister. “Everyone works here, even me. I manage a group of girls in one of the shops here. We make the lotions and soaps for town.” She wiggled the jar in the light then dropped it in Allie’s cupped hands. “This is our latest batch of cream. It helps with the dry air. Consider it a welcome gift.”
    Allie popped it open, smile still locked in place. “Thank you, Mama. Smells amazing.”
    Actually, the opposite, but he repeated Allie’s gracious words under Mama’s impenetrable gaze. The woman clapped her hands and joyous Venetian music started to play. “Eat and drink. Mama’s orders,” she said with a laugh and click-clacked away.
    Mama’s call to drink was taken with unbridled zeal. The more the Reds and Tans drank, the louder the room got. One by one, Blues and Greens started slipping away, carrying the cricket loaves with them, leaving the poor souls serving drinks behind. Fake smiles fell, replaced by longing glances toward the exits.
    Vin waved away drinks every few minutes. “Time to leave.”
    “Mama,” Allie spat through clenched teeth, “is watching you. When she doesn’t think I’m looking, she’s nodding for someone to bring us more drinks.”
    “Poison?”
    “No. They’re using the same tankard to pour it. Maybe they just want us drunk.”
    “Not drunk so much as incapacitated. Let’s go.”
    No sooner had he stood up than Mama stomped over. She got in close with her breath humid and fetid from the feast. “Stay. Drink. It’d mean the world to us.”
    Graham came from nowhere, mere inches from Allie. “Please don’t hurt my wife’s feelings by refusing her generosity. I hurt when she hurts. Wouldn’t you hurt if Allie hurt?”
    There it was. The first unveiled threat. Phrased with a smile and light words, it was the sort of threat one could almost fool themselves into believing it didn’t exist.
    Nothing but grins and soft gestures.
    He’d been wrong to label one as more evil than the other. He’d gone headfirst into the trap of ranking evil. That kind of thinking slowed you down. You don’t rank evil.
    You just don’t.
    You fight it or run from it.
    They were two twisted people ruling their own dodgy world. The society here wasn’t based on gender. Nope, another trap he’d fallen into. This wasn’t an issue of identity, rather power and separation. Like others before them, they may have used gender as a means to an end, but their purpose was domination.
    A broken spirit.
    The loss of will.
    He doubted who mattered to these bastards so much as how .
    Vin slapped a smile on his face and snatched a bottle from the nearest woman in blue. After a jaw-swelling swig of the burning stuff, he wrapped his arm around Allie and kissed the top of her head. Whatever happened next, he’d take the burden for her.
    Vin tried to give the bottle back, but Mama shoved it against his chest. “We’ll be devastated if you don’t finish it. If you need to head to bed right after, we’ll understand. Such a tough journey you’ve had.”
    Vin nodded his thanks, sat down, and pulled Allie into his lap. The King and Queen of Crazy left them alone after that. Sort of. He felt their gaze and knew they were being watched. Allie’s whispered words confirmed his suspicions.
    She draped her arm around him and tucked her head at his neck. It was a lover’s hold, one working so well that Mike turned away to afford them some measure of privacy.
    “There’s no way to avoid drinking that without being obvious,” Allie said in his ear.
    “Yep. I’ll drink all of it.”
    She shimmied back to face him with her eyebrows raised sky high. “You drink that whole thing and you’re toast. I can smell it from here—that stuff’s too strong for one person to finish.”
    “Too strong for two, to be honest. I’m still downing it.”
    “We’ll split it. I can handle my liquor.”
    “I think one of us should keep a clear head all night.” Vin angled her chin until their lips nearly touched. “And one