Page 4 of Claws and Feathers

“What can I get you?” he asked, his fingers tapping away at the keys.

She placed her hands against the counter and leaned forward, enjoying the satisfying buzz that had settled in. “An apology,” she said boldly.

Cooper hesitated. Abby could have sworn she saw a smile pull at his lips, but he replaced it with a look of indifference.

“No,” he replied.

Abby balked at him. “Why not?”

“You called my sister a bitch.” Cooper handed a receipt to a customer with a nod and continued to busy himself around the bar.

“Well, she was.”

“Well, I’m not sorry.”

A standoff. Abby gnawed at her bottom lip, contemplating her next move. The gin was making her frisky. Cooper’s resistance was making her angry.

The look in his eyes was making her curious.

“Fine,” she relented. “A Gin and Tonic.”

The ghost of a smile reappeared on his mouth. “You got it.”

Abby tapped her unpainted fingernails against the countertop. She watched him make the drink, her gaze shifting from his hands to his face. His chiseled jawline was shadowed in dark stubble. He looked jaded – like he’d seen one too many horrors.

A jaded cop. A jaded city girl.

It could never work.

Cooper set the drink down in front of her. Abby reached for her purse to fetch her wallet, but he stopped her. “It’s on the house.”

An apology drink. She couldn’t help but grin at her small victory. “Thanks,” she said. Abby was about to walk away and rejoin Daphne in their uninspiring game of darts when Cooper interrupted her swift exit.

“Hey.”

His gaze traveled over her, igniting an odd sensation in the pit of her stomach.It’s just the gin. It’s just the gin,her mind proposed.He wasn’t leering. No, there was nothing salacious or offensive in his scrutiny.

There was something else.

“Welcome to The Crow.”

Abby faltered, her fingers tightening around the strap of her baguette purse. Her other hand clutched the cold glass of her tonic, squeezing it like a security blanket. She nodded. She had planned on replying, responding, sayingsomething, but Cooper had already disappeared to the opposite end of the bar.

“Abby!”

Abby jolted in place, turning to the sound of Daphne’s shrill voice. Her friend was waving her arms at her, beckoning her back to the group. She sighed, sipping on the tiny, plastic straw as she made her way to the far corner of the room.

Welcome to The Crow, indeed.

Cooper ambled through the station the next day, yawning as he nodded a greeting to his office clerk, Faye. It was a little after four P.M. and Cooper had slept most of the afternoon. He didn’t work the bar often, but when he did, he was always off his game the following day. The noise, the drunken patrons, the cigarette smoke he could still smell on his skin despite a long, hot shower – it got to him.

“McAllister.”

Cooper discovered his partner, James Walker, leaning against the front of his desk. “Hey.” Cooper made a quick stop at the Keurig before getting to work. “Anything on the Fisher case?” he wondered, perusing the coffee flavors with his back turned.

“No. There’s something else, though.”

Cooper selected a breakfast blend. “Hit me.”

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