Folk Around and Find Out (Good Folk: Modern Folktales #2)(53)

“Huh.”

Before I could marvel too much at this anomaly in my behavior, I heard the sound of someone at the front, unlocking the door. Only one person had keys to my house.

“Beau?” Leaving the cell on my side table to charge, I walked out of my bedroom just as he opened the door.

“What the hell, Hank?” Beau shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his eyes round. “I get a call from Charlotte that the club’s AC is broken, your new bartender is waiting, she can’t reach you, and you’re two hours late for work. And you’re not answering your phone.”

“Sorry,” I winced, pushing a hand through my still-wet hair. “My phone was dead and I just woke up.”

He straightened, taking full measure of me. “You slept fourteen hours?”

“I suppose so.” Glancing behind him out the open door, I turned back to my bedroom. “I have to go. The club should’ve opened twenty minutes ago, and I—”

“Charlotte took care of that,” Beau said, following me down the hall to my room and hovering at the door.

I spun around. “I’m sorry, what? Charlotte took care of what?”

He gave me a patient, slightly aggrieved look. “Don’t be mad at her. She called me when she couldn’t reach you. Dave and Hector called in sick and customers started showing up. She—”

“There’s no bouncers?” My voice pitched high. “What the—”

“Just listen for a sec. The AC is broke. No one can enter the club, it’s not safe.”

The AC broke?

Great. Just fucking great. How much was that going to cost? We’d had problems with the unit earlier in the summer, but it had been working fine for over a month. Instead of The Pink Pony, it should’ve been named The Debt Horse.

I sighed. It’s not that I didn’t have the money to buy a new AC; I could use funds from one of my real-estate accounts without making a debt on the principal. It’s that I hated investments where I put in more than I got out.

Working to keep my frustration buried, I said, “We’ve been through this before. Open all the doors and it’ll be a wet T-shirt contest kind of day. That’s what we did back in June when the AC broke last time. The dancers and the customers didn’t mind the heat so much as long as everyone stayed wet.”

“Come on, Hank. That was just four hours in June, not all damn day in August. And water on the ground is a slipping hazard, a lawsuit waiting to happen. It’s too hot inside to serve alcohol—someone would pass out from dehydration—and your license doesn’t cover outside. Plus, the bartender is brand new. He shouldn’t be serving by himself on his first day.”

“Is that so?” I drew myself up to my full height and set my hands on my hips, indignation hardening my words. Beau’s statements didn’t sound like they originated from Beau’s brain, and I only needed one guess to figure out who’d made these proclamations. “What did Charlotte do, huh? No bouncers, no alcohol, nobody allowed inside. How did she ‘open’ The Pony?”

“Oh, you’ll see.” Beau sought to hide his grin by glancing at his shoes, but the movement was too late. I saw it and heard it clear as a bell as he said, “I know you don’t like surprises, but try to go with the flow just this once.”





CHAPTER 14





HANK





“When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everyone will respect you.”

LAO TZU, TAO TE CHING





“Un-fucking-believable,” I muttered to no one, absorbing the scene in the parking lot of The Pony as I slowed my Jaguar.

A car wash.

That’s what she did. By the looks of it, she’d called in every available dancer, and every single one of them were wearing string bikinis while washing patrons’ cars. And trucks. And—

Is that a tractor?

Yep. That was a tractor. A bright green John Deere tractor, looking shiny and new.

I sighed, frustration swelling in my chest. A car wash? What did the dancers think? Were they okay with this? Giving free shows to anyone driving by? How were they getting paid? Were they getting paid? Or did Charlotte expect them to give their labor away for free?

What a fucking travesty. It’s not like my team could give lap dances outside in the parking lot; we’d have the whole town after us for public indecency, and that’s all I needed. This fucking place. I should just sell it and be done with it. If it weren’t for the people who relied on me, I probably would’ve, and didn’t that make me the dummy? Keeping a bad investment because I cared about the people.

I bit back a growl.

Movement beyond the passenger window caught my attention and I did a double take. Kilby and Piper were strolling over, big ol’ grins on their faces, sunglasses hiding their eyes. As they approached, Kilby made a roll down your window motion with her hand.

Despite their smiles, I braced myself for an earful. “Kilby, Piper. I hope—”

“Hey, boss,” Piper chirped, bending to lean into the car. “Do you want a wash?”

I stiffened. “Uh—”

“Come on, pull up.” Kilby also leaned down, lowering her sunglasses so she could give me a wink. “This thing is filthy. When’s the last time it saw some water?”