Page 31 of Dark Alleys

Nobody listening to my complaint and still too caught up in the mellow afterglow to move, I lit up another smoke and wondered if I was in love with Regan Shay.

“No. It ain’t the same as when I was crazy out of my head over Yvonne. This is different. I want Regan for different reasons. Want her but I can’t trust her. All the warning signs are there.”

“I can feel the trouble surrounding her. Bad energy. Regan is not what she seems. She’s not a simple bar owner trying to get her profits up. She wants me for a reason, and I can already feel her starting to use me.”

“But for what?”

“She’s a manipulator and she uses her body and her great looks to get what she wants.”

Wish I knew what that was.

“Here I sit in her townhouse talking to myself. She won round one. I have to make sure there ain’t a round two, or who knows what I’ll be doing on the losing end of her goddamned puppet strings.”

I have to use my head. No way I can ignore the danger signs. I can’t keep seeing her even though a part of me wants to.

I stood up, gathered my clothes up off the floor and got dressed. “I’ve got to get out of here.”

Riverside Bar and Grill. Austin.

On the drive back to my other life, I grabbed Whataburger and fries and ate while I drove. I needed to touch base with the low-lifes in bar number one and find out what I’d missed in the dark alleys while I was bleeding out in my hovel.

First thing pissing me off was people in my space in the back corner. Three bikers were making my booth their home.

I could’ve made them move, but trying not to attract any attention, I sat in the next booth over. Didn’t like it and it didn’t feel right.

My angle on the bar was slightly skewed.

Lily hurried over to bring me a pitcher and flashed me a big smile. She leaned in and whispered, “Where were you? I was getting worried.”

“Working. No need to worry. I’m back now.”

“Brandy and Crissy were both in here looking for you.”

“They can keep on looking, Lila. I’m not interested in either one of them.”

Lila laughed. “Those girls got no morals. What standards they do got are dragging in the dirt.”

I laughed as I filled my glass with Shiners. “You called it, Lila.”

She’s too nice to be working here.

Nothing going on at the Riverside Bar. None of the Tango assholes I was interested in were here. Looked like a wasted trip.

I finished my beer and moved on to the next gang I was watching. Maybe I’d get lucky and turn over a rock there.

Dry as a Bone. MLK District. Austin.

The Mex Mafia boys hung out in this bar—Dry as a Bone—one of the toughest areas of the city. Not far from their clubhouse and their watering hole of choice.

Blacky wanted them bad for all kinds of filthy shit they’d been responsible for, and for all the time I’d put in so far, I had nothing useful.

Not yet.

That’s what surveillance was all about.

Waiting.

“Where the fuck you been, Lukas?” asked the bartender. I sat at the end where I was out of the mainstream, and he brought me a pitcher, a frosted glass and a coaster.

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