Page 4 of Beyond the Bright Lights

I frown at her calling me Prince Mylan like I’m some sort of spoiled royal brat.

Maybe I am.

Eloise hands another card to Bruno. “You’ll be in the connecting room next to Mylan.”

We follow her to the elevator. After ascending one floor, she takes us to the end of a long hallway and points at door 220.

“Your room, Mylan. I’m across the hall. Bruno, you’re one room down.”

Bruno walks past with his bags and tosses them in his room before coming back to help me.

I nod to Eloise. “Did you miss me?”

“Hell no.” She rolls her green eyes but still manages a grin.

“I know I’ve already said this, like, a million times but I really am sorry.”

She turns her head away fast but not before I caught that grin falter. She sighs. “Goodnight, asshole.”

By the time Eloise disappears into her room, and flips the bolt to lock the door, Bruno has already dumped my bags and is heading down the hallway to return the luggage cart downstairs.

I unpack then walk around the small space, inspecting the horribly cheap-looking paintings on the equally horrible wallpaper. The room is the size of a small studio apartment with a king bed, an awful brown and tan stripped couch, a chipped coffee table, and an outdated smart TV. There's even a tiny kitchen space with a refrigerator as tall as my chest, a stove top with two burners, and a microwave.

No minibar, though there’s an empty space for one. Of course, they removed it from the alcoholic’s room.

I collapse onto the hard, uncomfortable couch and check the time on my phone. Only eight? I wasted thirty minutes and now I'm bored as fuck. I’m too anxious to read. I pull up Google, typing in words I shouldn’t.

Jumping up, I knock on the door connecting my room with Bruno’s. He opens it within seconds, still wearing his bodyguard uniform of a black t-shirt and black jeans.

“Want to go out?”

By the scowl he gives me, his answer is ‘no,’ but I am his boss, so he has to do what I say.

Tony said no distractions. He also said to go out and meet the people of this town. I'm sure I can find someone who knew Tyler Taylor at the only bar in town.

Chapter 2 – Lana

“And I’m not coming back,” slurs a wasted woman. She crosses her arms over a heavy chest and wobbles where she stands. Her bleach blonde hair falls halfway out of her ponytail, her eyeliner and mascara smeared beyond repair.

“Tonight is wild,” my best friend, Ginger, says in her honey-sweet southern twang. She shakes her head of tight coiled curls and sets a tall glass in front of the drunk woman who stops pouting to take a big gulp . . . then spits it out, all over the bar.

“What the fuck? I didn’t ask for water!”

“You didn’t?” Ginger laughs, wiping away the mess. “How strange.”

“Let’s call that one a ride.” I nod my chin at the woman who is now resting her head on the bar.

“You got it, Boss.”

“Stop calling me that,” I say and fan myself. It feels like an oven in here tonight. How is Ginger not dying like me? Despite the heat, my bestie is flawless. Her dark brown skin glows with sweat, and I don’t miss the way the men here gawk at her beauty. She’s a big beautiful woman, like me, but she’s better at using her hips, tits, and rolls to charm people.

“But you are my boss, Lana Banana.”

I scrunch my nose at my nickname, turning my head to hide a smile after Ginger winks and blows me a kiss. Technically, I own Lilies Bar & Grill, but Ginger helps me run the place. She knows her job is just as important as mine. I’d be lost without her.

Ginger holds her cell phone between her ear and shoulder to call Frankie. We don’t have cabs in Silo Springs, but Frankie and her wife Helen are two recovering alcoholics who offer to pick up drunk patrons for me. I pay them with free food and a stipend I set aside from part of the profits from sales.

I scan the Friday night crowd. My bar has never been this packed before—not even during tourist season, which technically begins in a month. Something is going on, but I’ve been too busy the last few hours to pause and check text messages or listen in on conversations from the excited mouths rambling throughout the crowd.

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