Bo swayed and leaned heavily on Bruce to regain her balance. Bruce looked at both Tamsin and Dyson. ”I’ll have her downstairs by seven.”

Tamsin bore her eyes into Bruce and smirked. ”Make sure she throws up. I don’t want her puking in the car. We’re in for a long ride.” Then, looking at the downcast Bo. ”Apology accepted. Now go to sleep.”

”Naming this the rain forest was pretty accurate.” Kenzi downed the last drops of her third beer—maybe it was her fourth or fifth, she’d stopped counting, they both did. On account of the weather, they’d had the compound all to themselves for days.

Lauren stood on the opposite side of the bar, reminiscent of Trick at the Dal, except there weren’t as many glasses to polish or Buckthorn or much else to drink outside of beer and a local moonshine gifted to them by the villagers made from cane sugar and things Lauren and Kenzi would rather not know about. Lauren plucked a grey bottle from one of the crates and set it between them. ”Should we try it?”

Lauren popped off the top of bottle and poured a sampling of the milky brew into a small cup. She lifted it to her nose and inhaled. ”Not too bad.”

Kenzi perked up in her chair. She watched as Lauren dipped the tip of her tongue into the cup, like a person wading into a lake just up to their toes to test the temperature. She figured Lauren was now in doctor mode as her expression was unreadable.

”Well?” Kenzi stared at her now.

”Inconclusive.”

”What does that mean?”

”It means, inconclusive.”

”Give me that!” Kenzi swiped the cup from Lauren and downed it in one chug, her chin settling against her neck, wincing, tears breaking the corners of her eyes as the warm nectar dripped down the back of her throat. She put a hand up to her chest. ”Ack!”

Kenzi slid the now empty cup back to Lauren and pointed at the bottle. ”Your turn.”

Lauren nodded and poured herself a cup. ”Here’s to you, kid.”

”Just shut up and drink it. No stalling.”

Lauren winked at Kenzi and downed the cup quickly. She hummed, searching upward as if she were attempting to solve a mathematical problem in her head. ”Viscous,” she tipped her tongue against her teeth. ”Sweet but not overly so. A slight acidic after taste…and hot. Oh yes, warm.” Lauren felt the heat radiating behind her ears, glowing, no, more like pulsing. The corners of her lips curled into a smirk, the kind that usually preceded mischievous, after-hours, lost-in-Istanbul-or-Barcelona-or-wherever-the-hell-we-are, Lauren.