“You ain't lying. We had a few complaints, but I think they just wanted free beer.” She took off her apron and grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler. “I still can’t believe Otis quit. He’s been here damned near ten years.”
“The old fart did his time for sure, and I can’t really blame him for leaving. Atleast he said he has the perfect replacement, so instead of running an ad I’m going to see if the guy works out. He’s coming in tomorrow to meet me and Lu, but he sounded okay over the phone.”
Penny gave me a nudge. “Might be nice if he’s something to look at too. We could use a hot man around here for a change.”
“Come on, you mean to tell me Otis didn’t do it for you?” I couldn’t help but laugh at her reaction. She’d scrunched up her face and let out a howling sound.
“No thanks, girl. That man is a hot mess in too many ways.”
When he was first hired on, she had a crush on him that lasted about a week. Otis was a little out there, and whatever she’d learned about him, she’d kept to herself. I glanced back at the men who were finally getting to their feet. Lu was standing a good arm’s length away as she herded them out the door like cattle.
“Thank God,” Penny mumbled as she grabbed the bar mop and bussed the table. She had it done and was on her way back to the bar before Lu left the front door.
Lu watched the men leave and then came to hover over my shoulder. “I set enough cash aside to get this damned AC fixed. I can’t tell if it’s summer or if I’m having a hot flash.” She reached into the pile of money and grabbed out four crisp hundreds. “This should cover it. And sweetie, be here at nine in the morning. We’re interviewing that man, and if he works out, I want you to give him the test to see if he knows his way around his drinks. Otis is going to be hard to replace, but at least he didn’t leave us hanging without any options.”
“We’ll see. With any luck, this one can mix a drink and bounce too. We could use a little muscle around here again. God knows Scott’s useless. He’s not even here to know what’s happening. And, please don’t make excuses for him, Lu. You know it better than I do that he’s got something fishy going on.”
Lu glanced around at Penny who was going through her handbag looking for her nightly smoke. She’s had the same ritual every night for as long as I’d known her and sure enough, she pulled it out, placed it between her lips, and fired it up. She turned and waved as she headed out. Lu watched her until she got in her car.
When it was just the two of us, Lu came back to the bar. “You don’t have to let God and everybody know that Scott’s up to something. The last thing we need is talk like that, especially if he really is.” Her brow creased with worry and she bit her thumbnail, which she had a habit of doing when she was nervous.
“I’m just saying, it’s getting so bad that he’s never here anymore and when he does show up he’s got those thugs with him. They aren’t his type of friends. Then to make things worse, they stay here all hours of the night.” I shook my head. “They’re up to something. It’s eating at Scott too, I can tell. I know him better than anyone, even you.”
“Let’s just focus on what we can control.” It was what she always said when it came to Scott. I could see the worry on her face was just as deep as mine, however. We were losing my brother, and while I knew the thought of it was more than she could stomach, ignoring that there was a problem wasn’t going to make it any better.
Scott had never been in trouble before, but he was impressionable and easily led, especially if something he cared about was on the line. I had a feeling those men were using him, and not just because they weren’t his normal type of friends. I could tell that he was terrified of them, that the stress of having them around was eating him alive. And every time I’d ask him about them, he’d give me the same answer. ‘They’re just friends, don’t worry about it and stay out of it’. The fear in his eyes when he’d said it was a warning and so far I had taken heed.
I’d also done a little digging around myself. I’d seen a few things, heard them too, and though I felt as though they were using the bar for something, I hadn’t figured out what. I knew as much to guess that it was either drugs or dirty money; probably both. All I knew was that they’d wait for the bar to clear out and then pull around back. Whatever they were loading and unloading had to be illegal or else it wouldn’t be a big damned secret.
I’d learned to play dumb, even when it came to Scott, but I feared that the longer it went on, the closer I got to losing my brother.
Lu placed her hand on my arm. “Stop worrying, Starla. It won’t do either of us any good, and we’ve got enough on our plate. I’m hoping we don’t have to train this new guy for long, and if he shows up looking like one of Otis’ drunken fishing buddies, then he’s out. I’ll run the damned bar myself before I’d let that happen.”
I wondered if Lu’s concerns were warranted, and cringed at the thought of running the bar without the proper help. Only time could tell what tomorrow’s interview had in store. I just hoped this guy knew how to work under pressure.
CHAPTER TWO - CASH LANGSTON
“I’ve always wanted to get handcuffed by a hot cop”, said Serenity as I led her down the hotel lobby toward our room.
Room number sixty-nine.
How fitting.
“Hey, are you sure you couldn’t fix that ticket for me?” she asked.
Her big blue eyes, loaded with heavy eye shadow were full of concern, but not for the reason they should be. She was more concerned about the ticket she’d gotten days earlier than what I was about to do.
My shift wouldn’t start until later in the afternoon and I texted her yesterday about meeting up for a few hours; we both knew what that really meant.
“Sorry, but there’s nothing I can do. You should have listened to me and gotten the damned headlight fixed.” I’d pulled her over for the light last week, and in the process of exchanging information, she’d slipped me her number. I decided to be kind, and let her go with a warning, but I guess I wasn’t letting her off so easily. She was a sexy blonde in her mid-thirties, with a nice rack and she seemed to know how to charm her way out of a ticket. Trouble was, she had a hard time obeying orders.
Maybe after a good hard fucking, she’d learn her lesson.
We got to the room moments later and as soon as I opened the door, she rubbed her long slender fingers against my pants, right over my cock. “Are you sure?”
I stepped away and closed the door behind us. “Maybe you should show me how badly you want to get out of this one.”
She stepped to the middle of the room, looking around to take it all in. It wasn’t much, nothing glamorous, but it was clean and the bed was sturdy.