Page 126 of Anchor

So, I tried again, this time screaming at the top of my lungs, “Radock Tivoux! I’m looking for Radock Tivoux!”

Something flashed in his eyes when he heard the name, but it was gone too soon, and it could have also been a trick of the lights.So many lights…

“Nope.” The bartender shook his head. “Don’t know who that is.”

I read the words on his lips because I couldn’t hear his voice at all.

Even so, my instincts said that he was lying, so I tried again.

“Can you just tell someone that Rosabel is here?!” I shouted. “Rosabel—that’s me!”

He’d know. I was sure Radock would know even if I didn’t say my last name for fear someone might recognize it—I was the fucking winner of the Iris Roe.

But again, the guy shook his head and shrugged, and turned his back to me.

“Hey!”I shouted, but he simply pushed one of the other bartenders that was in the middle of the long counter toward me and began to take orders from people on the other side.

Cursing under my breath, I debated going over there again and making him tell me why he was running from me. All I wanted was to talk to Radock—why was that such a big deal?

But I knew that I couldn’t cause a scene, not here. If they kicked me out right now, how the hell would I find the Tivoux brothers?

“Can I get you anything?”

Again, those same words, except these were said from very close to me—the waiter with a big tray in his hands, full of empty glasses.

“Do you know Radock Tivoux?”

“What?” He brought his ear closer.

“Radock Tivoux? Or Seth, or Kaid—do you know them?” I said in his ear.

But he shook his head. “No clue who that is. Are you gonna get a drink? You can’t stay here without a drink.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.He didn’t look like he was lying at all—or like he planned to ask for my ID. “Get me a beer and a bottle of water—that okay?”

He nodded, gave me a thumbs up, and walked away.

Closing my eyes, I tried to get my thoughts in order, but it was impossible. The beat of the music was in my head and I couldn’t fucking think straight.

The waiter came back soon, at least. I drank a quarter of the cold beer he brought me before I almost threw up. Thank goddess for that bottle of water to keep me company.

The bartender with the brow piercings was still there, throwing me looks any time he thought I wasn’t watching, and that’s why I decided to wait for him to finish his shift. I’d wait outside, and then we could talk, he and I. Because I knew it in my bones that he knew Radock, and if he knew Radock, he’d know where I could find him.

What else was there left for me to do, anyway?

I leaned there against the counter, and I watched the people having a good time, dancing like I’d never danced before, so close together that the concept of personal space didn’t apply to this place at all. Then I watched the women dancing in the cages, wearing gorgeous lingerie full of glitter and feathers and rhinestones and sequins. The two in the glass boxes half filledwith water had red wigs and purple bras that looked like shells, just like Ariel.

The moving lights in blue and green and pink and yellow gave everything such an intense vibe, and I couldn’t look away from the women dancing on the stages for the next ten minutes or so without even noticing what the hell I was doing. They werethatgood.

So when I remembered myself and turned to make sure the bartender was still there, my breath caught in my throat and every muscle in my body froze in place.

The bartender was there, all right, but there was somebody else sitting across from him on the other side of the bar, too.

Seth Tivoux was watching me with an arched brow and a glass of whiskey in his hand as he rested his elbows on the bar top, completely at ease.

The next moment, a bunch of people stopped between us and took him out of my sight—drunk men and women trying to get a drink, and I was thankful for them. They gave me a much needed moment to breathe in, close my eyes, get my shit together as fast as possible.

Then I stepped away from the bar until Seth was in my line of vision again.

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