Page 20 of Loving Smoke

“Something I can’t quite figure out.”

“As long as she does her job, I don’t give a shit, so don’t borrow trouble.” Blood plugged a cig between his lips and lit up. “And stay the fuck away from her.”

“Yeah, yeah.” But I couldn’t shake the slight gnawing in my gut, like something about the beautiful Marisol Marquez didn’t add up.

8

Afew nights ago, I entered the office to get change for the register and Smoke was talking on his phone about a crawl space under the building along with a blueprint spread over his desk. When he realized I was in the room he quickly ended the call and shoved the papers in the desk drawer, then he exchanged the hundreds for smaller bills and I returned to the bar.

The next night I sat at the same desk doing my usual entries into the computer. Normally, Blood was in the office grilling me with his cold, brown eyes, making it impossible to do any spying, but tonight The Tropics was hosting two bachelor parties, and large groups of college kids were already flooding the club looking to get wild during spring break.

The extra crowd meant even Blood was on the floor leaving me alone and ready to snoop. I opened the top drawer where I saw Smoke shove the papers the other night, but nothing, so I checked the first of the three deeper drawers at the side of the desk. Again, nothing, so I opened all of them again, then bent over to check the undersides of the drawers.

“Looking for something?” The deep rasp made me jump hitting my head on the corner of the top drawer.

I yelped and rubbed at what would probably be a bump. I righted myself and stared into Smoke’s accusing glare. I quickly slammed the drawers shut and drew in a breath.

“So?” His one word question hung in the air as my heart thumped harder.

“Um, I was looking for a pen.” Weak reply, but I was so sure I would be alone I slipped up on the backup story.

Smoke reached down, retrieved a pen from the top of the desk and held it up.

“Huh, thanks for finding it.” I stared back at him refusing to look away.

He dropped the pen, rounded the desk, spun the swivel chair around and braced his hands on the arms pinning me in.

His glare turned into a smirk. “Do you know why I gave you this job?”

“Cause you hate using the computer.”

“That, and I told Blood we could trust you.” He huffed out a rough laugh. “He wasn’t cool with it, so I hope you’re not gonna let me down, cause it fuckin’ pisses me off when I have to tell my VP he was right and I was wrong.”

“You can trust me.” I widened my eyes, then lowered them, hoping for the intended innocence.

“I hope so.” He pushed away from the chair. “Get your ass behind the bar. We’re slammed tonight.”

He barely moved to let me pass and I could feel the heat radiating off his body as I shifted around him. I quickly left the office and made a beeline for the bar. Next time I needed to be way more careful and way more prepared.

Iwatched Marisol leave the office then I sunk into the chair and opened the drawers trying to figure out what the fuck she was looking for—because she was definitely looking for something other than a pen.

I didn’t keep much in the desk. Anything of value went into the safe. Who the fuck knew, maybe she was looking for cash. Either way she didn’t get anything, but I sure wasn’t sharing this with Blood. The last thing I needed was my VP up my ass with petty shit and paranoia.

I stayed in the office for the rest of the night and let Blood and Ricky handle the chaos. I was going through some emails and basic bullshit until the thud of the music cut off and the constant din of rowdy customers suddenly stilled. The eerie silence surrounded me. I pulled the gun away from the tape under my desk, checked the clip and shoved it into my waistband.

My every nerve triggered as I eased the office door open and slipped out into the hallway. I stayed plastered to the wall slowly making my way to the main room of the club.

A woman screamed, then the dead silence returned. From my position I saw four men in masks with guns drawn. Three of them had the crowd including the strippers, Blood, and Ricky corralled against the side wall while the other one stormed behind the bar. I made eye contact with Blood, and he shook his head slightly confirming my thoughts exactly.

We’d been in fucked up situations like this before and there was a thin line of what you could do and what you should do. If I charged into the room guns blazing it would turn into a bloodbath. People would be killed with a good chance the gunmen would get away. They were most likely druggies after quick cash which made them unpredictable and reckless. Not a good combination.

One of the gunmen stormed behind the bar and waved his gun at the other two girls who scurried away to the other side of the room. When he snatched Marisol’s arm my heart thudded hard against my ribs. I gripped the butt of my .38 and slipped it out of my waistband. With the crowd out of the way, I had a clear shot of the gunman behind the bar, but there were too many variables.

He pushed Marisol toward the register, then yelled at her in Spanish. She quickly entered the code and when the drawer sprang open, the gunman grabbed at the cash stuffing it into a canvas bag.

My insides raged with the need to take this fucker out until he turned and jostled Marisol in front of him. He easily contorted her body using her as a human shield while he made his way to the door. The other three fled the bar with the guy holding Marisol backing out last.

The room erupted with women crying and other customers talking and shouting at once. I ignored the chaos and stormed through the club. Outside, three of the gunmen jumped into a Honda parked at the curb while the one holding Marisol pushed her to the sidewalk. When he saw me draw my gun he leveled his, but I beat him to it firing twice hitting him in the gut and maybe the leg.

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