Page 2 of Poisoned Pawn

She snatches up the discarded bottle opener and the other two beers before following me upstairs. “So, what’s dick faceMr Grahamdone this week?”

“Grumpy fucker has been riding my arse all week. If anyone needs to ride the pony, it’s that tosspot.”

“He’s gay?”

“Is he fuck. But a dick up his arse would be preferable to the stick he’s currently hugging like a cock in a virgin pussy.”

I sense her stop behind me, and I look over my shoulder at her.

She laughs. “Diiiirty,” she drawls and raises her bottle to me.

“What? Don’t act like you ain’t heard it before. The man just…” I visibly shudder. “He makes my skin crawl.”

She nods her agreement. Having met him, she knows exactly what a sleaze he is.

We polish off the beers and talk crap while I finish getting ready. Toni and I met when I took a part time job at a local restaurant. She’d been waitressing there for a little under a year and draw the short straw on showing me the ropes.

I was lucky not to lose the job two hours after starting when I poured a glass of red wine over a customer after he propositioned me.

Toni took the fall for me, even stood there and apologised to the arsehole. He knew it wasn’t her, but he got a kick out of her standing there in the middle of the restaurant and kissing his arse while wearing a smug smile.

We’ve been close since. Of course, she had to endure an interrogation from Aidan who miraculously felt then was a good time for a visit. I brushed it off to Toni as an extremely overprotective brother, but when she heard his Irish accent, she wasn’t buying it.

Toni didn’t question me on it, but slowly over the last few years, I’ve opened up a little more. She knows Aidan isn’t really my brother but that I have a sister, who she’s also met. Toni almost keeled over when I introduced her to Roxy and her two guys, Maddox and Zak. She peppered me with a dozen questions about that.

About two weeks later, she was hammering my door down at the crack of dawn. When I finally crawled from my warm bed and let her in, she talked non-stop like she’d dropped a wrap of speed about how she’d just had her first threesome.

I let her talk, nodding at all the appropriate points like I had any clue what she was talking about. The truth is at that point I’d only been with one guy, and it wasn’t anything to rave about.

“Earth to Star.”

“Huh! Sorry, I zoned out,” I say, looking at her beside me in the back of the taxi.

“We’re here. Come on. Let’s party.” She tugs on the sleeve of my jacket as she opens the car door and climbs out.

I shake off all thoughts of sex and men and climb from the car, speed walking to catch Toni up just as the bouncer eyes her up and down, then he promptly unclips the rope permitting her access to the club with a wink. I slip past the bouncer a second before he closes the rope across, his fingertips brushing across the back of my legs as I do. I look over my shoulder pinning him with a glare, but he just chuckles before turning away.

Toni links arms with me as we enter through the double doors and are hit with the sounds of heavy base and the over-riding smell of sweat, alcohol and pheromones.

Neon Flux is one of the most popular clubs in Manchester. With it’s strictly over 25s door policy it’s perfect for avoiding horny teens looking for a good time. Doesn’t mean you can’t pull if that’s what you’re looking for, but it does mean you can mostly avoid having some overzealous and drunken eighteen-year-old pawing at you like you’re back in high school getting fingered behind the bike sheds. Not that I’d know anything about that. My school years weren’t exactly normal.

Toni releases my arm and takes my hand instead as she squeezes her way to the bar, receiving several dirty looks. She catches the eye of one of the bar staff, giving him one of her best sultry smiles that has him making a beeline to her as soon as he’s finished with his current customer.

“Hey, beautiful, what can I get ya?” he asks, leaning over the bar and offering her his ear.

I just make out her asking for two cosmos over the music and chatter around me. A couple of minutes later, a cosmo and a shot of tequila is shoved into my hands, and we weave a path out of the throng of people crowded round the bar area.

We find a small space beside a tall table that has just been cleared, and I place my drinks down.

“No, no, missy. Get that down you,” Toni says, waving a hand at my shot glass.

I roll my eyes and pick up the glass as she counts down from three to one then downs it. I do the same, shaking my head and grimacing as the sour taste hits my tongue.

That sets the pace for the night. Shots and cocktails in between dancing and flirting. Toni has a line of men making fuck-me eyes at her and some buoyed by alcohol even risk getting up close and personal. She shuts them down quick enough if they aren’t her type.

I’m just on my way back from the toilet, edging my way between sweaty bodies, when I’m slammed into from the side. The blonde who crashed into me stumbles on her skyscraper heels and pins with a glare.

“Watch it, bitch!” she slurs, giving me another shove and almost falling over as her intoxicated brain struggles to control her arms.

---