Play It Safe(64)

I sold a tremendous amount of booze. Lash told me that within a month of me taking over the floor, the bar’s turnover doubled.

This was why he paid me a shitload and kept me in amazing dresses, shoes and jewelry. This and the fact that the waitresses and bartenders worked his nerves, they were always screwing each other then getting in fights, breaking up and taking that shit to work. When I took that off his shoulders, he was beside himself.

This was also because he adored me.

So I was visible. You paid your money, there was a chance you’d still see Rue. She wouldn’t be dancing on the stage in high heels with fans but it was better. She would be working the crowd and she might come close, you might see those bedroom eyes, that hair and that smile right in front of you and, if you were lucky, she might touch you.

Men were pretty stupid on the whole, I thought. Dropping that kind of money to see women dance nearly na**d (that said, Lash’s girls were the shit, no one in Vegas was better than them and even I had to admit there was an immense sensual beauty to it) and getting wound up because some woman touched your thigh and bent over so you could look down her cle**age.

I mean, really?

Whatever. It kept Lash in the lap of luxury and Lash kept me in the lap of luxury so who was I to complain?

“Ivey, beautiful, got a sign from Patrick,” Brutus said in my ear, hand on the flesh at the small of my back exposed by the low dip of my dress. “May be trouble across the floor. Gonna give him backup. Be right back.”

I looked from the notes I was making on the schedule on the bar, a martini glass filled with straight up cranberry juice next to it, twisted my neck and smiled over my shoulder at him, giving a nod.

His hand pressed lightly into my back and then he moved through the tables across the floor.

My head bent and I went back to my schedule.

I liked it back here. The lighting was dim and it seemed far from the crowd. It was the farthest place in the room from the stage so no one wanted back here. With Brutus at his post, the darkness, the distance from the stage which was why everyone paid to be there in the first place, I had privacy.

Not that night.

I would learn this ten seconds after Brutus left when a voice came in my ear.

“Do not stick your nose in with Cody.”

My neck twisted and I stared in shock at Buddy Sharp standing next to me wearing a hard expression, his eyes glittering mean even in the dim light.

Yes, Buddy Sharp.

What the f**k?

“I’m sorry?” I asked.

“Small town. Word travels. Janie’s a stupid bitch. I know she’s called you. Do not stick your nose in that business with Grayson Cody.”

I felt something snake across my skin, it wasn’t good. In fact it was really, really bad.

He’d come to Vegas to warn me off personally. He lived in Colorado, not Italy but still, it wasn’t an hour’s drive.

And I did not think this boded well. I didn’t know what it boded but I had the distinct impression something was going on, something I didn’t know or get and it was something very, very bad.

Very, very bad for Gray.

I stared into his eyes.

Then I told him, “What I do or don’t do is none of your business.”

He got closer, threateningly closer and there was no mistaking it. His face was all I could see and the mean shown from his eyes, wetting the air all around with acid.

“You step in for Cody, you will wish you didn’t. Stay the f**k away from Cody and Mustang. You get me?”

Yes, something was happening and it was very, very bad.

For Gray.

I held his eyes, I held my space and I held my shit when I ordered, “Step back, now.”

He didn’t step back.

“Do not try me. Do not f**k with me. You do not exist for Cody and you do not exist in Mustang. You make even a single move to change that, you’ll regret it.”

“Step…” I hissed then leaned into him, “back.”

“Do not f**k with me,” he whispered and the way he did, the acid in the air saturating those four words, I felt true fear.

“Rue, we got a problem here?”

Thank God, Brutus.

I didn’t take my eyes from Buddy as I answered Brutus.

“Yes, this gentleman is no longer welcome in the club. Please escort him out, Freddie. Now.”

Freddie put his hands to the back of Buddy’s shirt, clenching in and Buddy tried to shake him off but no way in hell could Buddy shake off Freddie. Hell, the Incredible Hulk would have some issues shaking off Freddie.

My eyes moved from Buddy to Freddie, they locked with his and I said softly, “Eighty-six. Life. You see him, you take him down and I’ll deal with the police later.”

Brutus nodded, jerked Buddy around and I watched him frog march Buddy to the door.

Then I swallowed.

Then I breathed deep.

It was there, insidious, crawling through me, I felt it.

Worry.

And if I didn’t get a lock on it, I knew it would consume me.

I took a sip of cranberry juice and another deep breath.

Then I got a lock on it.

Then I went back to my schedule.

* * * * *

Seven twenty the next morning…

The phone rang. I opened my eyes and saw an ivory satin pillowcase and my body felt Lash’s curled into the back of it, his arm wrapped tight around me.