Page 4 of Cinderella and Her Vampires (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 5)

I nodded and let out a sigh.

“All right, take it from the drawer,” I said with a smile. “I’ll forget if we wait until later.” And with how busy the night was, I would forget too.

“Our friend” was a term that was used extremely loosely. The man who Bobby had referred to was one I had hoped I would never see again. Especially after our first and latest interaction. But it appeared he was back for more. We had made a bet the first night we had an unpleasant interaction with the man on whether or not he would come back and how soon. Bobby bet less than a week and he’d be back. He was right. I hated losing bets. Granted, I wasn’t one to take a gamble unless I was absolutely sure I would win.

He was the same customer I had sent to the abandoned mansion surrounded by rumors and dark tales of monsters. To the one place even the locals won’t visit at night. I supposed he didn’t find what he was looking for and was growing rather angry about it while pacing outside the window of my bar.

“I’ll worry about it later,” Bobby said, referring to the bet. “Want me to take care of him?”

I laughed. “No. No murders necessary.”

“You know what I meant,” he said. “I could go scare him off for you.”

I passed along the expensive order of drinks to one of the waitresses and then turned around and faced him.

I probably should have let Bobby take care of the guy, scare him off for good. The man was bad news from the moment he stepped a toe in my bar. But there was something in me that hated the idea of a man down on his luck, crazy or not. The least I could do was make sure he didn’t get himself or anyone else hurt, call a cab for him, and wait until it arrives.

My thinking was he couldn’t do much trouble in fifteen to twenty minutes.

Famous last words.

“No,” I said. “Let him stay. If he starts to make a scene, I’ll handle it.”

“That’s my job, Cindy,” he said.

I patted him on his arm. “And you’re great at your job. But I want to demonstrate to him that I’m the one in charge here. Not him.”

He smiled. “Ok. Just let me know if you want help.”

“You know I will,” I said.

He walked off and I continued with my list of orders. It wasn’t long before I could hear that guy raising his voice over the music and crowd. I ignored him. For the most part. But then he said something I couldn’t ignore.

“Humans that turn into animals,” he said.

That drew my attention. I stopped what I was doing and started paying a little more attention to this nut job.

“Monsters that lurk in the shadows,” he added. “No one is safe as long as they are on this earth. We must irradicate them before they take over. Who’s with me?”

I narrowed my gaze on the man. The last thing I needed was him losing his mind in the middle of my bar. Never mind that he seemed about three sheets to the wind too many.

Bobby moved from the corner of my eye. I settled my gaze on him. He nodded in the direction of the man causing a scene. I shook my head. My silent gesture to wait it out. I had a few more drink orders to fill and then I could go and address the growing problem.

The second the last drink was passed off I walked around the bar and weaved my way through the crowd toward the man. He was still telling stories to some of the other patrons who would listen to him. I didn’t know what they were thinking. Perhaps they were entertained by the drunken stories of a mad man. Perhaps they believed him. But I couldn’t let anyone do something stupid in my bar regardless of the reasons.

I tapped the man on his shoulder. He turned around and settled his eyes on me. I watched as the light of recognition flashed through his eyes. He glared and turned his back to me. I shook my head. If he thought that would be enough for me to walk away, he had another thing coming.

“All right, we have all had enough stories out of you for one night,” I said, grabbing him around his bicep. “Let’s go. I’ll call you a cab.”

He jerked his arm free. “I’m not leaving.”

“Yes, you are,” I said firmly. “This is my bar. My rules. And I said it’s time for you to go.”

He moved toward a table, a couple of steps away from me, and climbed on to the top. “We need to do something about these monsters. They must be stopped and eradicated from the world before it’s too late. Before they outnumber us, and we become extinct.”

I rubbed my forehead as frustrations built inside me. Wherever this man came from, he needed to get back there, and with a quickness. Preferably before he landed my customers in a sticky situation, they couldn’t get themselves out of.

“Get down off my table before you break your neck,” I snapped, reaching for him.

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