Page 32 of Dark Alleys

“Been around. Took a couple days off and did nothing but sleep.”

“Know how much I’d like to do that?” he laughed.

Nice guy. They called himSparky. Used to be an electrician before he bought the bar.

After one in the morning, the Mafia club boys started drifting in, but they sat at a long table near the back of the bar, and I wasn’t close enough to hear what was going on.

They definitely weren’t going to invite me to join them and then spill their plans for the next big drug buy from the cartel.

I had to find that out on my own.

Didn’t have to wait long for action. One of the Mex club girls plunked her skinny ass on the stool next to me and started getting cozy.

So fuckin’ cozy it was dangerous.

Lucia Lopez. Beautiful girl with long, shiny black hair that almost reached her butt. Too thin for my liking, but I wasn’t interested so what did it matter?

Her sitting on the next stool to me spelled trouble and I considered finding another place to sit. Cowardly way out of the situation, but my arm…

“You gonna buy a thirsty girl a drink?” She winked at me.

“You think Mario would get pissed at me if I bought you a drink?”

“Don’t know and I don’t care. I don’t belong to him. He only thinks I do.”

“You guys have a fight?”

She shrugged her thin shoulders. “Like you care?”

“I don’t want you doing something to piss him off and then getting hurt because of it, Lucia. I’d hate to see that happen.”

My phone signaled a text, and it was Regan.

“Are you coming by the bar?”

“On my way.”

“That your girlfriend?” asked Lucia.

I shook my head.

Lucia smiled. “Guy who looks like you could have any woman on the fuckin’ planet.”

I grinned. “Thanks for that thought, Lucia. I’ll see you again.” I tossed a bill to Sparky, and he nodded his thanks.

Mahaffey’s Bar and Grille. Montopolis.

I dropped by Regan’s bar on my way home intending to stay for one beer. No fuckin’ way I was going to let her get her hooks into me for her own purposes—whatever they turned out to be.

I sat on the end stool, and she flashed me her dazzling smile. Her teeth were white enough to blind a person. My shades were in the truck.

She served three guys, then plunked a pitcher of Shiners down in front of me.

“I only need one glass. I’m not staying.”

“It’s almost closing time. Why don’t you follow me home? You didn’t get the lunch I promised you. I’ll make you breakfast and maybe we’ll get to know each other a lot better.”

Get to know each other.

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