She knew how Draegan felt about the detective. Now, everything made perfect sense.
“Can you call me Bane? It has a nicer ring to it.”
She hesitated, glanced at Draegan, and reluctantly agreed. “Sure. Bane it is.”
“Swell,” Draegan said, grabbing her hand and leading her away from the dimly lit area. “I guess you didn’t save our table.”
“It’s a private table so it’s reserved,” Bane informed him.
“Super.”
Serena shot Draegan a quick glance and squeezed his hand as they followed Bane back to the far end of the club. As promised, they had a private table. A too-private table, as far as Serena was concerned.
Bane held out his arm. “Watch your step.”
Draegan grimaced. “I’ve got her.”
Bane laughed. “I can see that, McCall. And by the looks of things, you don’t have any immediate plans of letting her go.”
Chapter Five
“How’s a cop afford digs like these?” Draegan asked, looking around at their accommodations and immediately focusing on the round sofa. Wrapping around a toffee-colored cocktail table, slightly lower than knee-level, the booth had plenty of room for ten or twelve, but Draegan suspected Bane hadn’t invited any other guests to join them.
“I’d love to impress Serena and tell her my budget allows trips around the world and….” He trailed his voice and gave her a quick appraisal before adding, “Other interesting places.” He motioned for them to have a seat. “Truth is, the new owner invited the entire department and reserved all twenty-one private ‘rooms’ for cops and detectives.”
“Gotta hand it to the new proprietor. He’s making the right friends straight out of the gate.”
“She,” Bane said, quickly correcting him. “The owner is Marcella McQueen, and she’s trying.”
“Never heard of her,” Draegan said, sliding around to the edge of the booth and pulling Serena with him. Now if Bane wanted to take a seat and sit next to his woman, he’d make a show of sliding all the way around the booth, too.
Apparently the man had little pride. As soon as he fetched their drinks from the corner bar behind them, he set them on the table and walked around to the far end of the booth and slid all the way around.
“I could’ve passed your drink down,” Draegan said smugly.
Serena nudged him with her elbow. “So are you the only one who took Ms. McQueen up on her offer?”
“A couple of the guys from the early shift stopped by to take a look around but so far, it looks like it’s just me. Most of the guys on the force are family guys.”
“But not you,” Draegan said tightly, remembering a recent picnic when Bane had been the very bane of Draegan’s existence. He and Draegan had acted like children. They’d tried to one-up the other one throughout the night, each working extremely hard to win Serena’s favor.
“So you were the McCall to finally do it, huh? You broke the McCall code of conduct?”
“I didn’t realize the McCalls had a code of conduct.” Draegan slipped his arm around Serena’s shoulder.
“Me either,” she said, smiling up at him.
“We don’t,” he informed her.
“But you do,” Bane said, twirling his forefinger in the air as if he’d had an ah-hah moment.
Dumb fucker.
“I’m all ears, buddy,” Draegan said, sipping his whiskey.
Bane winked at Serena and the little honey blushed. Draegan decided he would later spank her and explain precisely why he’d dished every last lick. He was half-hard thinking about it. Then again, he’d been fairly stout since he’d dipped his fingers down the back of her skirt and felt the thin strap at the top of her crack.
“Are you going to tell us about this code?” Serena asked, sipping her margarita and fluttering her eyelashes far more than Draegan found acceptable.