that I fell in love with last night. “I knew you were a saucy one when I first talked to you. You proved it last night, too.”
I blushed at the reminder of our night. I was still ashamed that I had let things get so out of hand, but it was impossible to regret it. At least, not yet.
“Jed! Get the fuck over here!”
I recognized that voice. I hadn’t seen his bike outside when I’d arrived, but with so much of my attention on Nightshade it was easily possible I’d missed it. Frank sat at a wide table in the back corner of the bar, papers spread out in front of him as he glared in our direction.
“Shit. Are you ok to start right now? It’s pretty simple, and I’m sure any of the guys would be glad to help you out if you need to know where anything is. There isn’t a man who will walk through that door today that hasn’t served himself from the bar a hundred times or more.” Jed didn’t wait for an answer before he turned and walked to meet with his superior at the back of the bar.
The two men sunk into a furiously heated debate as soon as Jed reached the back table. Fuck. I need to find a way to get over there and listen in. I have the feeling that something’s going down, and it’s exactly what I’m here to figure out.
I took my place behind the bar and tried to keep an eye on the argument going on without making it seem like I was paying it too much attention. It was impossible to tell what they were talking about from so far away.
Thinking quickly, I opened the bar fridge and pulled out two cold beers. It’s a long shot, but worth a try. Frank was set up to see anyone approaching the table, but he was deeply involved with Jed sitting beside him, so it was possible they wouldn’t notice me until I overheard something.
My plan went for naught when Frank caught me out of the corner of his eye and cut off his sentence mid-word. I had just gotten close enough to start to be able to make out individual words, but all I heard was “... those stupid bean...”
Jed looked over when Frank stopped talking, and sprang out of his seat to come and take the beers from my hands. “Thanks, Leslie, but don’t come over here again, got it?” He said it in a reassuring way, but there was no mistaking the threat implicit in Frank’s stare.
“Sorry, Jed. Just saw that you boys didn’t have anything to drink and thought I would take care of that for you!” I kept my voice cheerfully upbeat, as though I didn’t realize that I had interrupted anything of consequence.
“I appreciate it,” Jed said. “We appreciate it.” Frank’s continuing stare said otherwise. “Just go back and mind the bar, and I’ll come and see you when we’re done, ok?”
It was a clear dismissal, and even the normal girl I was role-playing as would have taken it as such. “Sure thing boss.”
I stood behind the bar, pouring a beer or whiskey every few minutes for one of the club members who ran dry. It was unlike any other bar I had been in the way that none of the men sat on the stools at the bar itself. Last night had been the same thing. Instead I made the rounds and took orders, or sometimes a man would come up to the bar and ask me immediately. From the way their eyes followed my curves around, I could tell that I was their favorite new decoration.
A big man, both in weight and stature, squeezed through the front door. His hair was full on grey, and he was easily the oldest member of the club I had seen except for the decrepit bar man, Steve. His dark leather jacket was emblazoned with the patch that denoted a member of the brass. From my preparation I knew him as the treasurer of the club, Gus.
He came directly up to the bar and took a seat in front of me, to my surprise. “Well hello there young thing. I heard rumors that we’d finally given Steve retirement and Jed had hired a pretty woman to replace him, but they didn’t do you any justice.”
I decidedly immediately that I liked Gus. He spoke with the candor of