The VIP Room(37)

Sam held me tighter and whispered, “The plan is that you drink your beer. We’ve got the next open table, and I asked about Feliks.”

“When?” I stared up at him.

“When I got our beers.”

“Is he here?”

“The bartender didn’t say. We’ll hang out for a while and if he doesn’t show, we go home.”

I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t crazy about that plan. It seemed too passive. But I wasn’t going to leave Sam’s side to interrogate every man in the place, so I was stuck with it. I knew I was being a wimp, but most of these guys were creepy. There was a lot of long stringy hair, too many missing teeth, and way too many leering gazes for me to feel good about wandering around by myself. Not that Sam would let me. His arm around me gave no question as to whom I belonged.

Our beers were almost empty when a short, skinny man sidled up beside Sam and asked “you look for Feliks?” He had a low, accented voice that sounded too deep to belong to such a narrow body. Sam nodded once and waited. The man’s eyes moved to me and he said,

“So, here I am. Who is asking?”

“Do you know Nolan Henson?” I asked. Feliks’s eyes narrowed.

“Maybe. Who is asking?”

“I’m his sister. He’s missing and-”

“Yeah, I know he’s missing,” Feliks said, the words choking out on a laugh. “Missing or running is what they say.”

“Tell us what you know,” Sam said, cutting in.

“For what?”

“Some of this, if what you have is any good,” Sam said.

Feliks’s eyes fell to Sam’s hand and gleamed at the sight of folded bills. Sam was so much better at this getting-information-stuff than I was. It hadn’t even occurred to me that I’d need money. Again, I cursed my brother for putting me here in the first place.

“I’ll talk to you. For that.” Feliks shot his eyes to the money in Sam’s hand. “But only if she plays with me.”

Sam’s eyes went dangerously hard, and the man back peddled. “Pool. She plays a game of pool.”

A shot of icy adrenaline tinged fear went through me. He wanted to play me at pool? Here? I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to move from the safety of Sam’s arms and go out in the middle of the room with all these men watching and play pool against this creepy guy who might know where my brother was.

But I could do it. I was good at pool. Really good. I’d grown up playing all the time at home. It was one of the few things my father would do with us, so Nolan and I both played a lot in the hopes that he would join in and notice that we were there.

The worst thing that could happen was that I’d lose and we'd know what we knew now. Nothing. But if I won… Before Sam could open his mouth to answer, I said, “I’m in.”





Chapter 12





Sam





My heart stopped for a second when Chloe said yes. It took everything I had to stop myself from dragging her out of the place. But if I did she’d never forgive me. And the table that was opening up for us was close to the door. If the Russian guy had tried to lead us deeper into the pool hall, I might have dragged her out anyway. More than half the men in there were armed and most of them were looking at her like she was fresh meat and they were starving.

Chloe was the best looking women in that room by far. Probably the hottest woman who’s ever crossed the threshold. As I walked her to the table, I kissed her temple and said “be careful.”

I was assuming she knew how to play pool. Feliks was counting on her desperation to find her brother to goad her into playing, but I knew her. She’d answered with too much confidence for a woman who’d been scared shitless a few minutes ago. My Chloe was going to clean the floor with this guy. Then we could find out what he knew about Nolan, and we’d get the hell out of there.

I didn’t have any question in my mind why Feliks would want to kill some time playing pool with Chloe. For one thing, he probably thought it would be funny to mess with her, to take advantage of her clear concern over Nolan and watch her squirm in the hopes that he had useful information, which I doubted.

But that was only part of it. The real answer was that no man, unless he was gay, would pass on the chance to see Chloe bent over a pool table. Either way, I already knew the view would be a killer. Between those tight jeans and the scoop neck shirt, the whole place was about to get a show.

I gritted my teeth and reminded myself that she wanted to do this. She hadn’t missed the looks she was getting. She had to know she would draw attention, and I knew it wasn’t attention she wanted. Yet she’d jumped to say yes in the hopes she’d find out something useful about Nolan. I was going to back her up even if it killed me.

No one would get to touch her. I knew that. More importantly, she knew that. I didn’t have any definite plans to shoot anyone, but my gun was loaded, and if we got into trouble I’d have no problem using it. But I doubted it would come to that. Watching Chloe select a cue stick, her eyes assessing and knowledgeable, I didn’t think the game was going to last long.

I was right. Chloe shyly offered to let Felix break, then took over the table. It was almost worth enduring the greedy leers of the crowd to watch my sweet, beautiful girl destroy the weaselly little Russian.