Page 8 of Ride Hard
Sloane
Jack and Coke.Three shots of Fireball Whisky. Two beers. Five shots of Jägermeister. Keystone Light. A Manhattan for Georgia the poledancer.
Glancing at the clock on the wall, I narrowed my eyes. Yvette was late.Again.
More Jack and some Johnny. Fireball, Fireball, Fireball. Strawberry vodka lemonade for Candy thestripper.
“Hey, Slo,” Yvette said as she appeared from out back. “Busynight?”
“Yeah,” I shot at her. “I can hardly keepup.”
“Sorry,” she said with a pout. “Brittany had a meltdown right before I was leaving. Brown stuff waseverywhere.” She made a pukingmotion.
I suppressed an eye roll and flung a dishcloth at her. She caught it against her chest and laughed, looking like a Victoria’s Secret model flaunting her goods at the end of a runway.Bitch. I said it in the nicest possibleway.
“Thanks,Slo.”
“I let you take advantage of me more often than Ishould.”
“Aw, don’t be like that.” Yvette wrapped her arms around my neck, giving me a face full of her favorite Brittany Spears perfume. It was a not-so-subtle hint at who she named her kid after. “I’ll give you some of my tips for the cover. You know I’m good forit.”
“And you know I will say keep it because you need the extradiapers.”
“Hey, I spotted the hottie on my way in.” She leaned against the counter and wiggled hereyebrows.
“Huh?” I screwed up my face, not hearing her over the poundingmusic.
“That guy is here,” she repeated. “The hot one whose dick you gave a beer showerto.”
A group of men at the bar sniggered, and I suppressed the urge to give them a piece of my mind. Those creeps were nothing compared to the things a man like Chaser was capable of. Too bad I wasn’t allowed to bring a gun to work, though it was sitting pretty in my bag out back. One thing they didn’t do here at Teasers was a security check on theirstaff.
“You’re kidding me,” I said, my gaze flickering around the club, where on stage, Candy was waving some of her sugar to the crowd, much to the riotous gratification of the front row. I made a face as one man stood and slipped a rolled-up bank note right upher—
“If I didn’t know any better, I would think he has a thing for you,” Yvette said, nodding across the club. “Be careful, Slo. You know what happened the last time someone here got themselves astalker.”
Did I ever. Harriet was one of the good ones. She had been sweet, innocent, and was just trying to get by in the world like the rest of us. Problem was, she had a bleeding heart and gave more than she ought to. Harriet wasn’t with us anymore in the most permanent waypossible.
“Can you hold down the bar for ten?” I asked, wiping my hands on myjeans.
“You’re not going to talk to him again are you?” she asked, looking alarmed. “I know Isaid—”
“I know what you said,” I shot back. “Don’t worry about it. I would never get involved with anyone who comes here, and you knowthat.”
“Good…”
“Hot people can be malicious, too, youknow.”
She glanced over at Chaser again and shrugged, signaling she either didn’t know what to say or didn’t want to get involved. Couldn’t say I blamed her, what with her little girl at home andall.
“I’m still going to talk to him, though.” Chaser had to get it through his thick skull his mission was doomed to fail. Whatever happened to him when he went back without me was hisproblem.
“Slo!” Yvette calledout.
“It’ll be fine.” I waved her off and rounded the end of thebar.
Wandering through the press of people—which was an oddity for an out-of-the-way sleaze-fest that was Teasers—I searched for Chaser. Knowing he would be in the darkest corner possible with the best vantage point, I made for the row of booths he’d been sitting in the othernight.
Sure enough, he was in the same one, lounging like he owned the place with his arm slung over the back of the paddedseat.
