Page 56 of Bourbon and Lies

A barrage of swears pour out of his mouth as I grab a small metal pick and stab the brandy-soaked cherry to rest it across the top of the glass. One of the bouncers, whose eye I caught when this all started, along with Grant and Lincoln, drag the asshole out of the bar.

Damn, that felt good.A few laughs and hoots follow as the commotion moves away from the bar, and a round of applause rings out from the close spectators who got the full show.

Hadley is behind the bar just a few minutes later, looking like she just stepped out of a pin-up girl calendar. Her dark hair is pinned and curled, bright red lips matching mine with an exaggerated cat-eye. The corseted black one-piece is no more revealing than a one-piece bathing suit, but somehow, with the garter belt and thigh-high nylons, it makes every single person stare as she walks by. “You okay?”

“I’m good now. I hope I didn’t just make a bad situation worse, but he was out of line.”

“It looked like it was being handled. Lincoln and Grant were ready to work out some bottled-up energy with Waz as tribute.”

Shit.

“There’s plenty of bad blood there. You didn’t start anything.” She smiles at me and lifts her shoulder. “Maybe just added a little fuel, that’s all.”

“You good, Laney?” Ace asks as he comes up to the bar.

I give him a nod. “Thank you.”

He looks back at the door, where his brothers just left. “That was all them. I’m going to make sure they don’t end up getting arrested.”

“She’s good,” Hadley says, coming back to the bar from the kitchen.

“The fuck is that?” he barks at her.

“The fuck is what?”

When he looks down at her body, I can’t hide my smirk.

She follows his line of sight and looks down at herself. With her hands on her hips, she pouts as she says, “Awe, what’s wrong, Daddy? Don’t like my outfit?”

He drags his hand through his hair, mumbling something that sounds like: “Fucking nightmare,” as he walks away from the bar and up the stairs to the front door.

When I see her smiling, I ask, “What the hell is that about?”

“Just Ace being a tight-ass. And it’s part of my molecular design to piss him off every chance I get. It’s like a hobby.”

I snort a laugh. “You’re a troublemaker.”

She winks as she grabs a bottle of tequila from in front of me. “From what I saw tonight, looks like we both are.”

Chapter 25

Grant

Midnight Proof is crowded tonight.I should have known since it’s July 4th week and the tourists are here for Fiasco’s massive weekend celebration. I’m only here because I knew Laney would be behind the bar pouring drinks and dishing out that smile of hers. And honestly, I wanted one.

“I like her,” Lincoln says as we both watch her move behind the bar.

Laney looks like she’s been back there for years. Her bartending experience definitely wasn’t a lie. Just like I wouldn’t be lying if I said seeing her like this, with her hair swept behind her shoulders and that tight black tank top cut low enough to tease her full chest, is doing all sorts of things to me. She bites at her lower lip and fills up the cocktail shaker with vodka and olive juice, shaking it vigorously, up high enough that she has to put her whole body into it. I want to drag my hands up those hips again and capture her lips between my own teeth. Get lost for a while in the way she tastes and smells. I’m practically feral forher. Even more so now, after she opened up to me. Fuck, I want to do anything to make her feel safe, never mind wanted.

I want to understand how he means that. My brother is a flirt with everyone, but since the day at the river, I haven’t seen him do too much of it with Laney. If he told me he wanted to pursue her, I don’t know that I’d back off now. I’ve kissed her—that was better than dibs.

“Me too,” I tell him as I watch Waz, that fucker, lean over the bar and say something to her.

“Thought so,” he says. “You don’t have to play it off like you’re not obsessed with her.”

“Obsessed is a little strong, don’t you think?”

But I don’t hear what else he says, because I’m observing the way her body language changes with whatever Waz just said.

---