Page 28 of The Bait

“I don’t like this,” Harry murmured. He nodded to the windows up on the third or fourth floors above them. “Too many vantage points and easy escapes.”

That was true. But he didn’t feel threatened here. It was seedy, yes. But the most dangerous person in the neighbourhood was walking beside him.

“You look like my bodyguard,” Asher said.

Harry shrugged. “Kinda am.”

“Bodyguard with benefits,” Asher mused.

“Not really feeling the funnies right now.”

Asher gave up trying to lighten the mood. “It’s the place with the pink sign and the doorman.”

“See it.”

He really was in pro-mode.

And maybe it was justified. Asher wasn’t sure how to feel. He’d been so angry and scared, and Harry hadwarned him to get his head right. But they were being proactive now, getting somewhere, he hoped, anyway. And he felt better for it.

He also felt better for the absolute dicking he got last night. The fight and fuck that Harry did so well.

Asher hadn’t been on the ground for far too long, and if he was honest with himself, he’d not missed it one bit.

He loved his life back in Australia. The quiet life, being happy in his little town, with Mala to spoil rotten...

Mala.

He wondered how Mala was. How Jacob and August were treating her...

He wondered if he’d ever see her again.

They approached the door and the security guard blocked the entrance and crossed his arms. He was early twenties at best, wore all black, had a shaved head, and a confidence Asher doubted was worth a pinch when shit got real. He eyed Harry first, the bigger threat, and Harry said nothing.

Waiting for Asher, obviously.

Jesus. Focus, Asher.

“Bar or girls?” the man said.

“Neither. I need to see Ivan Cosic. It’s a business matter,” Asher said in Bosnian.

The security guard looked Asher up and down with a smug smile that made Harry growl. Asher met the guy’s gaze and held it in the way that usually made lesser men look away.

It took about four seconds.

“It’s a very lucrative business deal,” Asher said. “I just need two minutes. You don’t want to be the reason your boss loses this deal.”

The man studied him for a second, and Asher could seehe’d won. The security guard gave them a pathetic pat down and an annoyed nod. “This way. Wait at the bar.”

They followed him into the dingy nightclub. It smelled of stale alcohol. The neon lights illuminated stained lounges that Asher wouldn’t sit on for any money in the world. They stood at a tall table by the bar and waited.

Asher smiled at the pretty girl behind the bar. She had a severe haircut, big blue eyes, cheek piercings, and tattoos up her neck.

Asher didn’t need to look around too much because Harry stood with his back to the wall, watching everything else. There were some people playing pool and an older man with a younger woman in one corner.

And they waited, Harry getting more impatient with each passing minute.

“I don’t like this,” Harry said again, murmuring so only Asher could hear.

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