Page 2 of Bloody Kingdom

Lucy’s hand flies up, shushing me. “No, no. Let’s hear what he has to offer.” She leans across the sticky wood counter, pushing her ample tits up, showing off her cleavage in her tight leather top. “I’m curious, baby. You think you could add some sunshine to my life?”

“Maybe not to yourwholelife, but for the night? Hell yeah.” The kid smirks confidently.

Poor baby, he has no idea what he’s in for.

“You think you could take me home? Rock my world?” She trails a finger across the counter as she bites her lip.

“I know I could.” The guy puffs his chest out.

Lucy tilts her head. “Do you want me to tell you how I see our night going?”

“Yeah, sweets, tell me all the nasty things you want me to do to that rockin’ bod.”

Ugh. Douchebag.

The smile on Lucy’s face grows, the evil gleam in her eyes shining brightly. “Okay honey, this is how I see this going. You’ll take me home, and we’ll barely make it through the door before you start pawing at my breasts like a middle schooler. You’ll kiss me, my guess is you’ll use too much tongue and you’ll taste of stale alcohol and whatever fruity-flavored vape you’ve been hitting all night. I’ll push past it because I’m horny and it’s been a minute since I’ve gotten laid. A girl has needs after all.”

I have to cover my mouth with my hand to hide the smile growing on my face.

“Once we finally make it to the bedroom, you’ll rip off that cute polo and your khaki shorts, then you’ll climb on top of me. You’ll make it four thrusts before you’re seeing Jesus. You’ll then roll your sweaty body off mine and promptly pass out from the copious amount of alcohol you’ve consumed. I, then, of course, will have to pull out my handy-dandy battery-operated boyfriend to finish the job.”

I’m hardly holding back the laugh that is bubbling up in my throat as I watch this exchange. The more Lucy talks, the more the man’s face falls as the realization that he’s made a grave mistake sets in.

“So, what do you say,babe? Let’s skip all that shit and you just let me go home alone to my vibrator in peace,” Lucy asks him with a tone that is dripping in false sweetness.

The frat guy’s face is now red in anger and embarrassment. Glaring at her, he bites out, “You’re a bitch.”

Smiling happily, Lucy salutes him coyly. “We all gotta be good at something, sport.”

“I’m going to get you fired,” he vows, shouting over the loud music.

Lucy tilts her head back and cackles. “I would honestly love to see you try.”

I can’t help it, the laugh I’ve been holding in finally escapes and I double over in hysterics as I watch the poor man stomp away.

One of the few good things to happen in the past couple months is that I was reunited with Lucy. I was away from her—from home—for five years. Sure, we talked on the phone all the time and she visited me once in Boston, but it wasn’t the same. Now I work with herandlive with her. We’re together more than we are apart.

“You’re so mean, I love it.” I wipe away the tears that fall from my eyes from laughing so hard. “He just thought you were pretty and wanted to make your night better,” I jokingly pout, like I’m truly offended on behalf of the frat boy.

“I don’t want men to think I’m pretty, I want them to be scared of me and leave me the fuck alone,” Lucy shoots back.

“You’re in the wrong industry then.” I gesture around the bar and at the clothes we wear. St. Sin is a club here on Bourbon Street, the waitstaff and bartenders wear more revealing clothes than some strippers. I’ve worn tank tops longer than the leather dress I’m currently wearing. My new attire is a far cry from the modest medical scrubs I’m accustomed to wearing, but I was desperate for a job and Luce has the manager wrapped around her finger. She just batted her eyelashes and Ray hired me on the spot. It’s not like I don’t have experience serving alcohol, I started pouring drinks for my mother at the age of five.

Plus, Ray said I was‘pretty enough’,and it didn’t matter if I knew how to mix a drink since looks are all he cares about anyway.

He’s a real southern gentleman.

Lucy slips around me so she can grab a bottle of vodka off the glass shelf behind the bar. The shelving unit goes all the way to the ceiling; a sliding ladder sits off to the side so we can climb and reach the bottles at the very top. The entire thing is backlit by gold LED lights, matching the black and gold theme of the club itself.

“I bitch about this job a lot, but we both know I was never meant to sit behind a desk or save lives like you.”

Saving lives like me.This makes my stomach knot and guilt shoot through my body. Lucy knows why I abruptly left my job as a trauma nurse in Boston, and it wasn’t because of my ability to save lives. Quite the opposite, actually.

“I have no idea what else I would rather be doing, than this.”

I wish Lucy could see that she was meant for greater and bigger things, but as long as she’s content working as a scantily clad bartender, I’ll support her. Bartending was never my goal either, but I need the money.Bad.

The pay and tips I make here are just keeping me afloat. I’m going to have to figure out quickly how to make some extra cash. Barrett will be here soon looking for his monthly payment and I don’t even have half of it socked away.

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