Page 16 of All Your Pain

I don’t recognise the dancer coming towards us and when I ignore her she turns her attention to Bones.

“Nice to see you too.There’s a lot I don’t tell you. We’re hardly the sort of friends that braids each other's hair whilst confessing our deepest, darkest secrets,” I scoff and pick up the drink he got in for me before I arrived, taking a long swig of the cheap whisky.

“I’d genuinely love it if you braided my hair!” he laughs. He really would as well.

According to him his hair is his best feature and he often likes to tell me what new product he’s found for it, even though I don’t care I’m a good friend and I listen.Mostly. Now that I'm looking at it, the shade and length of Bones' hair actually kind of reminds me of Willow's. Except hers is longer and wilder, thank fuck. I don't need the image of my best friend ever popping up in my head as I'm fucking my girl.

That gives me an idea.

Willow has been using my products for the few days she’s been with me so far and they’re nothing special, even I have to admit her hair is losing some of its shine. If I got her some little giftsmaybe I could make her work for them? That idea alone should be enough to excite me but it’s actually the thought of her happy face that gets me going.

“There’s definitely something different about you. No one’s seen you in weeks. I heard about your gang kill the other night and then nothing. You’ve not picked up any more jobs since then. So what’s up? I’ve never known you to not be working.”

“What do you use on it?” I ask, ignoring his probing. His jaw goes slack and his eyes snap away from the dancer's ass waving right in front of his face to me.

“You’re gonna have to repeat that.”

As I roll my eyes at him I say, “I need to know what you use to get your hair so shiny.” One eyebrow creeps slowly up his forehead as he smirks at me, then the other follows suit before he bursts out laughing.

“I thought I was going crazy there for a second but I could have sworn you said my hair wasshiny.”He flashes me his teeth as he smiles, just baiting me to throw some more compliments his way. If he never got into this life he could have easily become a model. From his hair, to the slight makeup, expensive clothes and chains he decks himself out in he’s a photographers wet dream and he fucking knows it.

“Speaking of hair, did you get your crabs sorted?” I smirk.

The dancer jumps off his lap but he grabs her wrist and forces her back down. Lucky for Bones, the security here doesn’t give a shit if you touch the girls as long as you’re nottoorough.

“Did I say I was done with you?” he hisses at her, his tone suddenly darker. There was me thinking I didn’t have any patience. He switches back to his lighthearted self and says sweetly to her, “he’s only fucking with me, darling. My cock’s so clean you could eat your dinner off it.” The dancer smiles tightly, trying to hide her grimace but she doesn't move away again.

“Consider that payback for the time you spread the rumour that I only fuck corpses.”

Bones barks out a huge laugh and says, “oh man, I forgot about that. Wonder if anyone still believes it?”

There’s a click of heels on the sticky tiles as another dancer comes up to me and puts her hands on my chest. “Guess not everyone,” Bones laughs.

"Hey, handsome, you want—" I grab her wrists, twisting them until she gasps and fear sparks in her eyes. To my surprise it does nothing for me.Huh, that’s new.

After staring at her for a long second I let her go and she stumbles away, mumbling “asshole,” under her breath. Again, that stirs nothing in me. Yet everytime Willow calls me an asshole or a jerk it’s like she’s igniting a fire in me that’s desperate to spread to her and consume us both.

I’ve not turned down lap dances here before, especially since the girls have always been fun to rile up and if you pay them enough they’ll do practically anything but tonight my cock doesn’t even twitch.

The only person I want calling me an asshole is waiting for me at home. I hope my little kittens sharpening her claws on the bedpost right now.

My attention’s drawn to a figure approaching our table. I don’t remember his name but I know he’s one of the guys from the back room that settles a lot of the accounts. I’ve dealt with him once or twice before but I’m pretty sure Bones uses him regularly.

“Bones, Carver,”he says, greeting us with a wide smile that makes his gold teeth flash under the neon lights.

“Jax!" Bones grins lazily back at him. "What are you doing out of your den?”

“Heard you two were in and since you’re occupied,” he stares at the dancer's tits for a few dragged out seconds beforecontinuing, “thought I’d come to you. I’ve got a couple new jobs in. One pays real big. Thought you two would be interested.”

“Depends how big,” Bones says, with a tease to his voice as he stares at Jax’s bulge whilst his hands are squeezing the dancer's ass.

Jax smirks right back at him then pulls something up on his phone and shows it to Bones without letting the dancer see. “Oh shit, that’s a lot of zeros. Yeah, we’ll take it.”

I would ask for the details but there are too many ears out here and I trust Bones with his intuition. Whoever it is we’re killing must have pissed someone big off to warrant both of us on the job.

Jax puts his phone away, a smug grin on his face and dollar signs in his eyes as he calculates the hefty cut he'll take.

“Sweet. I’ll send you the files I have. The rest is on you.” A tall blonde saunters past, catching his eye and he shoots us a wink before following her and slapping her ass.

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