Page 48 of The Biker and the Professor
Cookie snickers. “We’re all entertained.”
Why do I feel as if I’m on the inside when I shouldn’t be? Leyana is their entertainment now, but wasn’tItheir entertainment a while ago? Imagine what they used to say about me when I first came around.
The hostess finally arrives with my Corona. But beer will no longer do. After seeing Nero with his new boo, I needhardliquor. So I order a bottle of Tequila Patron.
Not surprisingly, the Patron is delivered much faster than the beer.
Sipping her Cîroc, Cookie watches me wordlessly as I down two shots back to back. Onyx takes a shot of his own.
Half an hour later and I’m beginning to feel much, much better. Alcohol is magic.
“We should dance,” I say to Onyx over the music.
He seems game, but then he slides a questioning glance to Cookie, and she shakes her head. Seriously, he was asking her permission? How old is this guy?
With a shrug, I grouse, “Fine. I’ll go dance by myself.” But when I try to leave the section, the bouncer blocks me.
Whipping around to Cookie, I throw my hands out in a “What the hell?” gesture.
Calmly, she covers her bottle of vodka and set it down on the low glass table, then she leans back and stretches her arms across the length of the leather booth. “We’re not doing that tonight.”
“Not doing what?”
“We’re not doing the scene where you take shots, get drunk, then go out on the dance floor to gyrate and have all kinds of men rub up on you, grabbing your ass and your tits, and the next thing you know, there’s a nasty brawl in my club.” She shakes her head emphatically. “Sorry, but we don’t do that here at Cookie’s Creme.”
“What?” I ask, bewildered. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“If you wanna dance, then dance in here,” she says. “Not out there.”
I balk. Because she’s got to be joking. There’s no way I’m being held hostage right now. “You're kidding me, right?”
Onyx answers instead. “Babe, if you go out there and let some man grind up on you and Grunt sees that, it’s not gonna end well. That’s what she’s saying.”
Now I’mreallyconfused. “Why would he care? He's here with his woman! He's moved on.”
Cookie rolls her eyes at me. She's making me feel like an idiot. Butshe’sthe one who told me he’s not hung up on me anymore. She'sthe one who told me he's moved on, that he’s happy.
Unless...
Unless, shelied.
Realizing I’ve been played, I pick up one of the shot glasses and throw it at her head. As if she’s expecting it, she ducks and the glass shatters against the wall.
“Whoa now!” Onyx cautions.
“Why the hell would you do that to me?” I scream at her, my voice drowning in the music.
Unphased, she takes a rolled joint from behind her ear and lights it up, puffing smoke in my direction. “‘Cause you two are dumb, stupid idiots, that’s why.”
Onyx chuckles at this.
Pointing her blunt downstairs, she says, “Grunt claims that Leyana’s his new Steady, but I’m ninety-nine point nine percent certain that little girl’s a virgin.”
“But if he claims her as his Steady,” Onyx adds, “the Club Cats won’t harass him too much.”
This is why I’m being treated like I'm on the inside.Because Iamon the inside. They've never let me go to begin with. None of them. As far as they're concerned, I'm still Grunt’s, and by extension, I'm still theirs.
“You’re screwed in the head, Cookie,” I spit.
