“Beer.” She nodded once to the man and left her rag on the table as she made her way to the tap. She filled a mug and moved to take it to him when the men at the other end of the bar started shouting. Here it came. She looked at the man in front of her as she held his beer, just short of handing it to him.
“Run.” He looked at her for all of a second before he turned and left the bar. She had no idea why that pissed her off. As soon as the door closed behind him, she turned back to the other end of the bar while her cat shifted over her skin to let her know that she was there if needed. Lifting the small part of the bar that allowed her to go into the bar proper, she stood near the men.
“Take it out of here, boys.” The bigger of the two men turned to cock a brow at her. She hated when men did that. It made her feel like they were saying, “are you kidding me?” But she nodded at him and pointed to the door. “Take whatever you’re doing out of my bar. I don’t need to mop up any blood tonight. I’ve got enough shit to do without that too.”
“We’re not going to hurt anybody. We just wanted to talk to some guy. We have no intentions of drawing blood.” She knew as well as they did that was a lie. The door behind her opened again, but she didn’t turn. “We just wanted to have a nice conversation. Then we’ll leave here. You just go on back to your job there and we’ll do ours.”
“I wasn’t talking about you drawing blood. I was telling you that I was going to do it. You keep fucking around and I’m going to hurt you bad. And I’m not going to tell you again to take that and yourselves out of here.” The guy closest to her nodded but didn’t move. Her cat, never really stable anyway, danced along her skin. The man must have seen something because he took a step back. But dumbass number two drew his gun. When she stepped back, it was to come up against a hard something, and it wasn’t a wall. Then hands as big as her head were wrapped around her upper arms.
“The lady asked you to take it outside.” She glanced around and up. Way up. The guy had to be at least six foot, ten inches. Kari felt his heat and her cat seemed to purr and stretch. “I’m suggesting that you do as she asked and no one has to get hurt.”
“You and the little woman there going to make us? Or do you have a back-up plan that has a bunch of others helping you out?” She heard a shift in the seats, chairs being scraped back, and the creak of the floor as something…or someone…heavy stood up. The two men in front of her took several steps back, and she wanted to laugh. “Okay. No harm, no foul. We’re leaving. But if this is the way she treats her customers, we won’t be coming back.”
“Good.” When she finally found her tongue, she felt stupid for opening her mouth. But she had to take control again. If these bastards came back again, she wasn’t going to have whatever backup she had now. “If you do come back, you’d better have all your ducks in a row because I won’t be so polite then.”
The two men ignored her, but not the man still holding her. When she tried to turn to watch the two leave, he held her tighter. Her cat purred along her skin again, and Kari felt slightly panicky. Pulling away from him, she took a few steps before turning around. There were enough men standing in her bar right now that she could have had a nice game of football. They were certainly big enough for it. And they didn’t look as if they needed any pads. Then, as if there was a signal that only they could hear, they moved back from her and the man that had spoken.
Kari watched as they all sat down at different tables before she looked at the man again. “I didn’t need your help. I had it well under control.”
“I’m sure you did.” He was laughing at her. She could hear it in his voice. “I was just wanting to make sure that they understood that you had it under control as well.”
Moving as far from him as she could, she stepped behind the bar again. Her cat didn’t care for the move, and she had to take several deep breaths to calm her. Kari wasn’t really happy right now either, and her stupid other self wasn’t helping. The man sat at the bar but made no move to speak to her. As she stood there watching him, she could see a hint of a smile on his face.
“Better now?” She nodded. For some reason she thought he knew what she was. “Good. I’m sorry to have stepped on your toes. But I could tell that you were going to get hurt and I just didn’t want that to happen. Not tonight.”
The door opened again, but she didn’t look. The man in front of her had her full attention. He was…something. Kari wasn’t sure what, but he wasn’t wholly human. When he ordered a beer, she poured him one and sat it in front of him as she picked up her rag again. This time instead of wiping down the spotless bar, she took it to the back room and held it to her mouth as she screamed into it.