Page 7 of Small Town Beast

“You see any Green Trees here?” the man asked.

“W-we don’t want trouble here, Mister Bailey,” the kid replied nervously, eyes darting back towards the kitchens. “Eugene told me to tell you that. He said he saw you in the parking lot with those other McCalls, and he said if y’all was to come in here tryin’ to poke the hornets’ nest that I was to do everything in my power to s-stop you.”

“And how would you stop me?” Came the amused reply.

The boy gulped.

“Hurry up with the whiskey, son.”

The boy stepped to it, and “Mister Bailey” turned to Tanya.

Damn, what’s wrong with his face?

“You sick?” He asked her.

“What?”

He nudged her whiskey-lemon-clove mixture with a finger. The steam moved with it.

“It’s just what I like.”

The other side is fine. I wonder what happened. He smells nice.

“It’s a good night for hot whiskey, I suppose.”

“A good night for a lot of things,” said Tanya.

Saverin didn’t knowwhat to think.

The girl was fresh as a violet, her skin dark as stained mahogany wood, and her eyes spellbindingly enormous. No matter his own prejudice, the girl was gorgeous, not to mention she was shaped like a damned coke bottle...

The Turnkey used to be strictly for whites. But these days folks were loosening up across the mountain. Not Saverin, though. The McCalls might be running wild with these women, but Saverin held to the old ways.

Right?

I’d be better off with a blonde.

“Go back to your side, chocolate.” His attraction to her was disturbing. What was happening here?

“I’m not your chocolate, redneck.”

“You shouldn’t be here.”

“Fuck you.” Her husky voice sent a tremor up his neck. A tattoo on her right breast readAmariin cursive letters.She looked ready to throw the drink in his face.

“You know this place don’t cater to your kind.”

“They let me in,” she argued.

“I guess they did.” Saverin leaned on the bar, turning his whiskey glass around.Why not…What is there to lose?

“You got a boyfriend?”

“What’s it to you?”

“I might have had to whup his ass, that’s what.”

Her lips pursed with anger.

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