Page 126 of Ewan

The interior is small and dim, with no natural lighting. The only glow comes through a window from outside and the lights coming from the stage.

A man is sprawled in what appears to be a comfortable chair.

“Get in,” he says, and his unmistakable voice flows through me slowly like thick blood, annulling my resolve and shattering me to smithereens.

27

EWAN

The hardest partwas to walk into this place and not kill someone. That sentiment pretty much set the mood for the evening.

Luckily, the woman at the bar was nice when I walked to her––she had no idea who she was talking to––and directed me to the jerk in the back without questions.

Usually, the people in the front give you a hard time. They don’t call them gatekeepers for nothing.

They give you the runaround and threaten to toss you out––it wouldn’t work in my case––and block you from reaching their bosses in any way they can.

Her training had taught her better than that, so when I followed her in the back and walked into the office of the man in charge, things couldn’t go smoother.

I didn’t give her my name, so she didn’t have one for him. She only told her boss someone was there to talk to him and quickly pulled away.

The man got a hint of what my presence there was all about when he raised his eyes to me.

He wasn’t a stranger to my world.

I didn’t know a thing about his past, nor did I care to know, but I knew we were speaking the same language, so I was fairly direct with him.

I said they had a girl I wanted to get acquainted with this evening.

When he said nothing, probably reviewing his options, I said I’d pay handsomely for his trouble and leave his place untouched.

The other option was to put him out of work, and maybe worse. He knew what ‘worse’ meant, so he didn’t bother me with any questions.

When his silence prolonged, I pulled out the cash.

His eyes glinted with greed, and I saw the wheels turning in his head.

He didn’t say no to me. He just pushed this chair back, rose to his feet, and walked around his desk.

He wanted to take his money when I yanked my hand back.

‘What girl?’he asked.

‘The one in red shorts,’I said, and his face fell.

‘Tell me she’s given you a hard time,’I muttered. I wanted to know that Scarlett was stillmyScarlett.

His eyes got dull with disappointment.

She did.

‘I don’t think I can make her do anything. If you want any other girl, she’ll be more than happy to satisfy your needs. Not this one, though. I barely convinced her to wear the shit she’s wearing now. She has a mouth on her and always talks back.’

He stopped when he saw my eyebrow moving up in disappointment.

He stopped short of saying that’s not how he liked his women.With a mouth on them.

There was plenty of evidence of that, so I didn’t need his words. But somehow, I realized that that’s how I liked mine. Scarlett, in particular. I hadn’t been so caught in someone’s net ever.

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