“Well, then that makes McCook lucky since the Dew Drop got you,” he replied.
“And that’s sweet too.” She shifted in her seat and tilted her head. “Sorry, but I probably need to get back. You stayin’?”
“Got my kids, Greta. Might catch some of the next set but should get home to them.”
“Of course,” she murmured then reached out and touched his wrist fleetingly before she whispered, “I’m real glad you came, Hixon.”
“Me too, Greta.”
She gave him another blinding smile before she slid off her stool and glided away with much the same skill as Gemini had done, but with a far more attention-grabbing sway of her ass.
He decided to take in a couple of songs to make things even more clear to the folks who were no doubt watching and then he’d get home to his kids.
And maybe, he might come again next Saturday.
It hadn’t been easy, at first.
Then Greta made it not hard.
So maybe they could be friends.
These were his thoughts when his eyes left her ass and went to the back of her head as she abruptly stopped moving to the curtained door.
What he saw instantly made his entire body grow tense.
She was talking to a man in a way that she held her expressive frame in a posture of detachment. Her head turned to the side and he saw her profile was guarded.
He then saw Gemini swoop in and put a hand on the small of her back, saying something to the man even as he guided Greta to the curtains.
She disappeared through.
The man stared at the curtains even after they’d closed behind her.
Gemini positioned himself to the side of them, providing presence and making a point.
The man moved back to a table.
Hix watched him and he watched how his gaze fixed on a stage that didn’t have a soul on it.
At that point, Hix ordered another beer.
And settled in.
This time Hix’s attention being on the man at the table at the edge of it, he found when Greta returned to the stage that his instincts, as usual, weren’t wrong.
He’d been so caught up in Greta, he hadn’t noticed.
Now, he noticed.
So he did not leave a couple of songs into her set.
He didn’t leave at all.
Ten-Four
Hixon
AFTER GRETA’S FINAL set (which had been the second one he saw), Hix waited outside in the big graveled area around the Dew, his back to his Bronco, shoulders leaning against it, arms crossed on his chest, while the patrons drove away.
He was not alone.
One of Gemini’s men stood outside the front door, eyes to the lot, manner alert.
Hix still didn’t move.
The cars thinned until Hix figured the ones left were staff, Gemini’s . . .
And Greta’s.
Except a Mercedes sedan that Hix could see the head of the man in the driver’s seat, the back of the car to him, undoubtedly his eyes on Hix through the rearview mirror.
So yeah.
Hix didn’t move.
What he did was see Gemini come out and stand in the front door next to his man. Gemini’s eyes went from Hix to the Mercedes back to Hix. It then seemed he took his time coming to a decision.
When he came to it, he strolled to Hix at the back of his Bronco.
“Hix,” he greeted when he stopped a couple of feet away.
“Gemini,” Hix replied.
“With respect to you, just to say, we take care of things like this ourselves at the Dew.”
He took the respect but he still didn’t feel real great about the rest of what Gemini had to say.
“Things like this happen frequently?” Hix asked.
“No. But it’s a club. And since she came to us, I’m thinkin’ you get more than most that Greta is Greta.”
Oh, he got that.
“We haven’t had problems,” Gemini continued. “But we’ve had to make things clear on an occasion or two.”
Right.
“I’ll see her home,” he announced.
“Hix, my man, she’ll be good and he won’t be back.”
“I’ll see her home.”
They locked eyes.
They did this awhile.
Hix broke it, jerking his head toward the car. “He been here before?”
Gemini turned to the side to swing his gaze also toward the car.
Asshole knew he had company and was still goddamned sitting there.
Gemini swung his attention back to Hix.
“He was a regular even before Greta. She showed, got the vibe immediately, though it was contained.” He paused before he gave Hix what was needed. “Vibe changed last Saturday. You didn’t know it was fizzling, caught up in other things you didn’t catch it when the change came. But I did. So he’s showed tonight, made his approach, it tweaked Greta, he won’t be back.”
“Man’s got some balls, you out here, your man right there, me out here, sittin’ in his car makin’ plain his intentions. You know who he is?”
“I know he won’t be back and I know Greta will be good.”
“I know that last part too.”
They did battle with their eyes again, and it was Hix who broke it again.
“You take him. I’ll take her. I’ll also take a phone call on Monday, you lettin’ me know all’s good.”
With a sigh, Gemini said, “And I’ll take that deal.”
“Either I go back in or I want one of your men walkin’ her out here. Sayin’ that, I’d rather stay right where I am and have one of your men walk her out here. He’s makin’ it clear he’s ignoring our message, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t keep coming.”
“I see that play,” Gemini murmured. “She’ll be escorted to you. I gotta make arrangements to get her car back to her again?”
So Gemini took care of Greta’s car last Sunday.
“I’ll follow her home.”
Gemini nodded and apparently that was that.
He said not another word before he moved back to the front door of the club.
Staffers hit their cars and took off.
No one approached the man in his car.
This communicated to Hix that whatever Gemini did to “take care of shit like this” he didn’t want the sheriff watching.
That didn’t make him all that comfortable, but he couldn’t focus on that then.
This was due to the fact that a big, black man came out, his hand on Greta’s arm.
She still had on her dress, her heels, and he reckoned her car was not the Navigator left in the lot, or the Camaro, the Charger or the Lexus.
It was the blue Jeep Cherokee.
The man didn’t lead her to the Cherokee.
He led her to Hix.
And she made it plain from top to toe this didn’t make her happy.
So not happy, she only shot a glare at the man who dropped his hand from her arm when he stopped her at Hix. She didn’t express gratitude or say good-bye as he turned without a word himself and walked back to the club.
“Another smoke signal I missed?” she asked irritably.
“Man in the car over there is an admirer. So I’m walkin’ you to yours then I’m followin’ you home then I’m makin’ sure you’re locked in safe and sound.”
Dread chased the annoyance from her face as she looked toward the car.
Yeah, she’d read the guy and what she’d read had tweaked her.
“God, totally knew that guy was a creep.”
“You get a lot of creeps?” he asked, but he suspected he knew.