Claiming Felicity (Ace Security #4)(43)

The other man grabbed hold of her proffered hand, engulfing it with both of his huge hands. “You’re all the guys have been able to talk about,” he gushed. “And you’re as beautiful as Ace said you were. Welcome to The Pit. Anything you want to drink is on the house . . . unless you’re a lush, then I’ll have to cut you off at some point, but I doubt you are because Ace wouldn’t be with someone who would drink excessively. I—”

“You wanna give my girl her hand back, Dave?” Ryder interrupted.

The bartender looked confused for a moment, then dropped her hand he’d been shaking nonstop as he’d been talking. “Sorry, sorry.” He chuckled. “I have a tendency to ramble sometimes. Ignore me.”

Felicity grinned. Her earlier fears that Dave could be a hit man had disappeared from almost the moment he began speaking. He had a low, rumbly voice, and he was large, really large, but he acted more like a big kid than a rough-and-tough bartender. She nodded to his arms. “I like your ink.”

Dave beamed and held out an arm. “Thanks! Got my first one the day I turned eighteen and haven’t looked back since. Every time I get a new one, the artist tries to talk me into throwing some color on there, but I like the black. Don’t need no red, blue, or yellow messing up what it’s taken me years to accomplish.”

“The guys in the back?” Ryder asked as if he was used to Dave’s random comments. He put his arm back around Felicity.

“Yup. They’ve been waiting for you to get here.”

“Great.” He looked down at Felicity. “What do you want to drink, love?”

“Just water . . . if that’s okay.”

Ryder kissed her temple, then pulled back to look at her. “Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be?”

Felicity shrugged. “We’re in a bar. Water’s not exactly standard fare.”

“Fuck standard fare. You want to drink Kool-Aid, I’m sure Dave would find a way to make that happen.”

“Damn straight,” Dave piped up from behind the bar. “Don’t have any sugar powder right now, but I can make sure to have it next time if you want it.”

Felicity smiled at him. “Thanks, but just water is great.”

“You want it in a glass to make it look like it’s alcohol?”

Felicity tilted her head in question. “Why would I?”

The bartender shrugged. “Sometimes it keeps others from being nosy and asking why you aren’t drinking. There are a few recovering alcoholics who like to shoot pool that do that. It lets them blend in and play pool in peace.”

“I’m good. A regular glass is fine. Thanks.”

Dave shook his head. “Ladies in his bar don’t get water in a glass unless they specifically request it.” He reached under the bar and came up with a bottle of cold water, still dripping from the ice in whatever cooler he pulled it out of. “It’s much harder to slip something into a capped water bottle than an open glass.” He broke the seal on the plastic bottle, but kept the cap on, before handing it across the bar to Felicity.

“I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Ace?”

“Whatever’s on tap is fine.”

Within seconds, Dave set a pint on the scarred bar for Ryder.

“Later, Dave.”

“Later. It was great to meet you, Felicity. Don’t be a stranger,” Dave called as Ryder steered them toward the back room with all the pool tables.

She waved with her free hand, then looked up to Ryder as she heard him chuckle. “What?”

“He likes you.”

“Cool. I like him too.”

They entered the large room in the back, and Ryder immediately turned to the right. There were a few tables set up around the room around the pool tables. There were a few groups playing pool, but it was the table with six men sitting around it that immediately held Felicity’s attention.

She suddenly wasn’t sure she wanted to meet Ryder’s friends. She could tell with one glance the men at the table weren’t your average Joes. As she and Ryder walked toward the table, they all stood. Felicity gulped and stopped in her tracks.

“What’s wrong?” Ryder asked, looking all around them for whatever had alarmed her.

“I think I changed my mind,” she said softly. “Maybe I’ll go talk to Dave while you have your meeting. You can catch me up on the way back up to Castle Rock.”

Ryder looked from her to his friends, then back down at her. He smiled. “They’re harmless,” he soothed.

“Harmless my ass,” Felicity muttered under her breath.

But of course Ryder heard her. His smile grew wider. He moved until he was standing in front of her and blocking her view of his friends. He took her head in both his hands and tilted her face up to his own. “What happened to my badass, not-scared-of-anything Felicity?”

“I’d be stupid not to be scared of a group of men who look like your friends.”

Ryder moved and grabbed the hand that wasn’t holding her bottle of water. He held it up between them and fingered her pinkie. Then he looked into her eyes and said, “You’ll have them wrapped around your little finger even before you open your mouth.”

Felicity shook her head and bit her lip.