Page 21 of Amber Gambler

How was that rumor circulating? Who had seen? Who hadtold? And what did this mean for my siblings?

“Frankie.” Bash gathered my hands in his, ignoring my ironclad grip on the half-eaten chicken wing. “You don’t have to tell me, but you deserve to know in case you want to get in front of it.” His lips hitched to one side. “Anyone who knows you knows you wouldn’t swat a bee unless it threatened to sting you.”

Aside from the morning after Armie died, when I taped aclosed until further noticesign on the front door, I hadn’t given his restaurant much thought. It hurt too much. But the longer it sat there, the more curious folks would get about why it wasn’t open and where he had gone. Even when he traveled, he didn’t shut his doors. Which meant his employees must be getting nervous about their job status.

“Armie is gone,” I confessed on a wheeze, “and he’s not coming back.”

“All right.” He accepted my word without hesitation. Maybe he could read my earnestness in my emotions. “Should I extend an offer of employment to his people?”

Snapping my eyes up to his, I ignored the prickle of tears threatening to fall. “Yes.”

“I’ll get Shannon on it.” He leaned back, releasing me, and passed me a napkin. “He’s always harping he wants more responsibilities.” Shannon was his little brother, desperate to live up to Bash’s expectations. “The clan might petition for ownership of the bar, given this new information. We could use the income, and we could keep Armie’s people in a more genteel environment than what I can offer them here.”

“That would mean a lot…” I couldn’t risk the true explanation, “…to Josie.”

“She must be heartbroken.” He scanned the crowd then cracked a smile. “Or not.”

Carter spun Josie in the center of the dance floor in some mix of Charleston and Flapper Rag, both with a definite ’20s flairthat left their brows glinting with sweat and their eyes bright from exertion.

“She doesn’t know what to feel.” I bit into a wing. “Armie was her friend, and sometimes he was more.”

And he had betrayed her. All of us. For reasons we might never discover.

“Hmm.”

Curious what had distracted him, I glanced over to find his focus fixed on the man cutting a path through the crowd to where we sat. His faded-denim eyes slid past the half-dressed women caressing his arms to land on me. His brown hair was damp from the shower—or too much time outside in this heat—and the way he scooped it off his forehead with his fingers left furrows and exposed the flex of his muscular arm.

“Well, well, well.” Bash cleaned his hands. “Your lust is perfume in my nose.”

“I’m not lusting.”

“Incubus,” he reminded me wryly. “I could stoke that kernel of want into a bonfire that consumed you.”

“He’s an old flame. I’m not interested in striking any matches in his vicinity.”

People wanted things that were bad for them all the time. Cigarettes. Drugs. Ex-boyfriends.

“Does he know that?” Bash filled his lungs when Harrow reached us then tapped the side of his nose in a clear indication the desire was reciprocal, which I knew thanks to Matty trespassing into Harrow’s dream and scarring himself forever with that glimpse into Harrow’s psyche. “Should I leave you two alone?”

“Yes,” Harrow answered for me. “We have business to discuss.”

“That so, Frankie?” Bash continued lounging. “Do you two have unfinished business?”

Flames erupted in my cheeks, stinging a hot line down my nape.“Bash.”

“I’ll be at the bar if you need anything, sweet girl.” He leaned over to kiss my cheek. “Anything at all.”

Only after he sauntered away did Harrow slide into the space he had vacated. “Incubus?”

Any sting I might have felt over the insinuation that his species was why Bash lavished me with attention I blamed on my tendency to overthink. Especially when it came to men. And doubly so with Harrow.

“I think of him as my chicken wing dealer first and incubus second, but yes. Why areyouhere?”

“I drove out to visit Carter, to clear the air before our first shift tomorrow, but she climbed in her truck looking…” he rolled choice words around in his mouth, “…very un-Carter-like.”

“You followed her out here.”

“I did.” He appeared to examine his surroundings for the first time. “I was surprised to see the wagon.”

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