She lifted one eyebrow, and her fingers lightly brushed just above the waistband of his jeans. “We’ll talk about this later, but if you leave your station for a break without permission from me or Natalie again, you’re fired. You’re hot as hell, but business comes first.”
She stalked down the hallway without a backward glance, as if she was the one who held all the cards, leaving him off-balance and uncertain. A Maud Ward ballad, the perfect slow dance song, emerged from the generic transition music, and Matt flashed back to the Rusty Nickel on that warm April night two years earlier. Rain had sheeted from a low, sullen sky, soaking him and his partner as they waded through the runoff streaming into the sewers and into the flash mob threatening to crush several women against the bar’s closed front door. A little shouting, some backup arriving, and the crowd dispersed. He’d hung around as long as possible, listening to muffled guitar through the wood door before they caught another call.
He didn’t remember seeing Eve. Maybe she was already inside. She knew every bouncer and bar owner in town, so she might have slipped in through the back door. Men did favors for women like Eve just to be near her. See her smile.
After her last interaction with him, she wasn’t smiling. He took a deep breath and rolled his neck and shoulders to loosen up. Then he did the only thing he could to keep her safe. He went back to work.
CHAPTER FIVE
Just as the DJ cut the sound, Eve closed the front door behind the gum-smacking blonde with the spectacularly creative hairdo. The uncanny two a.m. quiet settled over the bar after closing, but rather than being soothing or seductive, tonight it jangled every one of Eve’s nerves.
Her family accused her of acting on impulse. What they didn’t realize was that the impulses came from a lifetime of family values. They just showed up bigger, brighter, flashier than getting married and having kids, like opening Eye Candy or going to the cops with Lyle’s offer of much needed cash in exchange for fronting his illegal business. Ten years ago Lyle had treated her like his little sister, affectionate but without any of the teasing or bossing she endured from Caleb. What happened tonight was her first clue that Lyle Murphy would play rough.
Cesar was putting away his stool in the storeroom when she cornered him.
“What happened?” she asked, keeping her voice low and reassuring.
“He just kept coming,” Cesar said. “I didn’t think you’d want me to level him, so I let them in.”
He had a point. He also had a ninth-grade education, no job skills, no legal work experience, and no future but the streets if she couldn’t keep him employed while he worked on his GED. “It’s okay,” she said. “I can deal with Lyle. Let him in but anyone who doesn’t meet our dress code has to wait outside. Keep them away from the queue.” Baggy pants and hip hop shirts were one thing, but no woman should have to listen to what she’d heard from Lyle’s bodyguards—“C’mon, drop it like it’s hot”—in the thirty seconds it took to get them upstairs.
“I got it,” he confirmed. As he stood up he slipped a battered paperback copy of Moby Dick into his shorts pocket.
“Good,” she said, then looked down at the book. “What’s this I hear about you skipping GED classes?”
“It’s the math,” he said, awkwardly shifting his shoulders. “History and English I got, but we started Algebra a couple weeks ago. X’s and Y’s. Balancing equations. It don’t make sense to me.”
She heaved a mental sigh of relief. He wasn’t quitting, just having trouble with the work. Keeping her expression even, she said, “I’m pretty good at math, if you want some help.”
“I dunno,” he said, hitching up his jeans. “I got a lot of late work.”
“Come by before your next class. We’ll get you caught up. Walk Natalie to her car, then you’re done.” She handed him his share of the take for the night.
Tom winked and nudged her shoulder. She knew he’d like to add benefits to their friendship, but his shoulder nudge didn’t register after Chad’s out-of-the-blue dominant move in the hallway. “Hey, Hot Stuff, a couple of us are heading over to Mario’s for drinks. You have plans?”
One hand on her hip, Eve lifted one eyebrow at Tom. He grinned at her, unrepentant, but didn’t say anything else. She glanced at Chad. His eyes never left her face, but his personality had disappeared behind a brick wall. He looked distant, a little hard. Untouchable. Unapproachable. Maybe the reminder that she was his boss had put him off. So be it.
“Thanks, but I’m going to call it a night,” she said.
Chad left with the rest of the guys without a backward glance. Let off their leash, the door slammed on a raucous discussion over the night’s best … best tits, best ass, best legs, and best in show.