Better When He's Brave (Welcome to the Point #3)(29)
Chuck was a giant black man. He was one of the few people I had ever encountered that I actually had to tilt my head back to look in his eyes. He flashed a blindingly white smile at me, which had the gold incisor he sported sparkling at me. I squeezed Reeve when I felt her stiffen next to me.
“What’s up, Chuck?”
“Twice in one week, cop. That’s not good for business.”
“I thought of another question I wanted to ask your boss.”
His dark eyes skimmed over me and landed on Reeve. He let his gaze sweep over her and then bounce back to me.
“You traveling with your own talent now?”
I forced a laugh and saw Reeve roll her eyes out of corner of my eye. “Something like that.” I hugged her closer and inwardly applauded her when she reached up to put a hand in the center of my chest. She batted her eyelashes at Chuck and gave him that grin of hers that was designed to stop anyone with the Y chromosome from thinking with the head that was located above their belts.
“It was supposed to be date night. He’s lucky I’m willing to let him make it up to me later.” She played the temptress so well it was no wonder it was all I could do not to touch.
She giggled when I let my hand slip to her ass. She turned the appropriate shade of red as Chuck waved us through into the heart of the club. I wasn’t an openly affectionate guy but something about touching her, putting my hands on all of her curves, felt natural. Playacting with this girl felt more right than being with any other girl that I had actually been involved with. That didn’t bode well for me or my sanity in the long run.
“Let’s go up to the bar. There’s less chance of any of the girls getting in your face if you aren’t down on the floor taking attention away from them.”
She didn’t say anything. Her eyes were big in her face as she was taking everything in. There was a lot to see. The naked girls onstage. The lights changing colors as they skipped over bare, glittery skin and drooling customers. The burly security guards that were wandering around keeping an eye on things. The scantily clad cocktail servers that scuttled by on dangerously high heels with trays full of drinks. It was loud and flashy but underneath it was sadness and hopelessness that seemed to permeate every single corner of the club.
I sat Reeve down at one of the black leather bar stools and waited until the bare-chested bartender that looked like he should be on a billboard selling something unnecessary to rich people handed her a drink. I saw the door to Nassir’s office swing open, so I bent forward and pressed my lips to the back of her head.
“Sit tight. I’ll be back in a second.” I stiffened for a second before remembering we had an audience when she swiveled around and touched her lips lightly to mine. It wasn’t really a kiss; just a touching of mouths, but it was still enough to have my pulse thundering and my cock tightening.
“Hurry back.” Her voice was singsongy and full of amusement. I grunted and made my way over to where the dark-haired club owner was lurking in his office doorway.
Nassir was several inches shorter than me and his build hovered on the slender side but none of that tricked me into thinking he wasn’t a threat. His eyes burned a strange bronze color that seemed almost unnatural and there was an otherworldly chill that always seemed to surround him. He was equal parts deadly and sophisticated and I never knew what was going on in his head. He was an ice-cold operator and not someone I would ever trust or be fooled into thinking was on my side. Nassir cared about one thing and that thing was Nassir. He was his own agenda and that made him pitiless and merciless when it came to the way he handled his business.
“How does Bax feel about you cozying up to her?”
He didn’t beat around the bush. “I haven’t given him the chance to tell me how he feels yet.”
“She sold Dovie out. She was in Novak’s pocket. How does that work for you, cop?”
“I don’t have to like her to f*ck her.” The words left a bitter taste in my mouth because they were too close to the truth I was struggling with.
Nassir laughed a little and it scraped across my skin like razors. “Yes, you do. There’s a reason you’re with her and a reason you brought her here. I bet there’s also a reason that one of my girls got cut up and tossed on the dock like trash. If I was a betting man, which we both know I am, I would wager it has something to do with the fact she looked a lot like your new piece of ass.”
I felt my shoulders stiffen as I glowered down at him. “Why was your girl on the docks that night? You send her out there to meet a client? No one goes into that part of town without a reason.”
His glinting eyes shifted up to me and I had to force myself not to look away. He really could be one scary motherf*cker.
“I already told you she wasn’t working that side of things. She was just a kid. She danced and that was it. Chuck walked her out the night before she was found and he said she got in her car—alone. Just like she always did. You can keep asking and you’ll keep getting the same answers. What about you, cop? Why do I think you and this girl mean more than you’re sharing?”
“It’s not my job to share with the criminal underground, Nassir.”
“It is if you don’t want to be in the way when I do your job for you. If you can’t find the guy, I bet if I got your new girl involved, I could draw him out.”
“No one is doing anything.” I bit the words out and gave him a hard look to let him know I didn’t like him even thinking about messing with Reeve.