Page 2 of Devil's Bargain

She held his gaze and said, “If you have to call me anything, call me Jazz.”

“Jazz.” He nodded. “Got it. Right. Like the—okay. I was sent to deliver something to you.”

And the cable along her spine ratcheted tighter, tight enough to crack bone.God.She wasn’t carrying a gun, not even a pocketknife. Even her collapsible truncheon—a girl’s best friend—had been left on the hall table at home. Great. Of all the nights to tempt fate …

He must have read it in her face, because he smiled.Smiled.And the smile matched the eyes, dark and gentle and completely not right for a guy pretending to be a Hell’s Angel reject.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad,” he assured her. “In fact, I think you’ll find it pretty good. Not a subpoena or anything.”

He started to unzip a pocket on his leather jacket. The zipper was stiff. As he tugged at it, she asked, “How’d you find me?”

He didn’t look up. His head stayed down, but she saw tension accumulating inhisshoulders for a change. “Sorry…?”

“How’d … you … find … me.” She kept her voice cold and flat. “You follow me from home? You watching my house?”

“Nothing like that,” Borden said. “I was told where to find you.”

She rejected that one out of hand. “I’ve never been here before, asshole. How could anybody tell you to come here to find me?”

He conquered the pocket’s zipper and wrestled out a red envelope. “Here,” he said. “I’ll wait until you read it.”

“Because?” She didn’t take the envelope.

“Because you’re going to have questions once you do.”

He gestured with the envelope again. Big, red, square, like a thousand Valentine cards she’d never gotten over the years, but it was long past Valentine’s Day and she was in a far-from-romantic mood.

She let him hang there for a good thirty seconds, watching his outstretched hand slowly sag with rejection, and thought,Well, what the hell, at least I can throw it back in his face if I actually take it.

She was reaching for it when Borden lowered the envelope and sat back, staring over her shoulder.

She felt alarms going off in the back of her head and risked a look. A shadow loomed behind her.

Two shadows, actually. Big ones.

The weight-lifting trucker twins had taken an interest.

“Ain’t that sweet?” one of them said in a high, girly voice. He was wearing Doc Martens boots, battered blue jeans and a faded T-shirt that read Kinnison’s Feed & Supply. A three-day growth of straggly beard. Watery eyes. “Faggot’s giving the lady acard.” He made wet kissy noises.

His buddy was a grimy Xerox copy, except his T-shirt read Highway to Hell and was ripped at the sleeves to show off massive biceps. Tattoos, of course. You could never have too many of those. His mostly involved thorns, blood drops and naked women. The AC/DC fan ambled around Jazz and followed up his buddy’s comment with a shove to Borden’s shoulder. Borden rode the motion and slid off the bar stool. He wasn’t a small guy, and he had good bones, but he wasn’t a fighter, Jazz could see that at a glance.

“Hey!” Jazz said sharply, standing up, as well. “Back off, guys. I don’t want any trouble.”

“Youdon’t,” Borden said under his breath. “Right. What was I thinking?”

“Yo, leather boy, shove your cute little Valentine card up your ass, you’re bothering thelady” said the one whose T-shirt advertised Kinnison’s. He was the power of the two; Jazz knew that from a half-second glance. He had intelligence in those narrow light eyes, and a kind of lazy satisfaction. This was what he’d come here for, to find somebody to pound over a few drinks. She was just a convenient excuse.Lady.Yeah, right. She looked the part.

Borden’s voice had gone dangerously soft, his eyes closed and dark again. “Is that right? Am I bothering you, Jazz?”

“Woman like this don’t want no candy-ass butt boy,” Kinnison’s said over her shoulder to him. “Fine piece of ass like this, she needs some real companionship.” He was deliberately staying behind her, pressed close. His idea of courtship would be asking what kind of condom she’d like, flavored or ribbed. If he was even that considerate.

“Funny,” Jazz said, and downed the last glass of whiskey she’d ever drink in Sol’s. “I started out aladyand now I’m justa fine piece of ass,and you haven’t even bought me a drink yet.”

“Shut up, bitch, nobody’s talking to you,” AC/DC snarled, and put one hand the size of a canned ham on Borden’s chest and shoved. Borden, who must have been seduced by all that over-the-counter toughness he was wearing, shoved back.

Mistake.

“Stay out of it,” Jazz said, brisk and succinct, to Borden. She needn’t have bothered; Kinnison’s stepped around her and landed a fat punch to Borden’s jaw.

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