May Contain Wine (SWAT Generation 2.0 5)

Dax’s eye came to me, as if he was trusting me to keep her there, and then he nodded.

“He doesn’t trust me.” Rowen laughed. “Like I would do anything to endanger this baby.”

I rolled my eyes. “You know, I don’t really know you all that well. I mean, we know each other now, but even I can tell you that you’re exactly how you used to be when you were younger the few times that I can remember seeing you. If you thought Dax was in trouble, you’d have your ass in the middle of that.”

Rowen sighed. “You’re right. But at this point, it would just be dangerous for me. I’m so top heavy.”

Before I could reply to that, there was a loud crack as Booth was yanked off the stool he was occupying. The stool went flying and banged against the nearest table.

Booth, however, allowed it to happen.

Mostly because at the same time that the man was distracted by holding onto Booth, Bourne swung around with a right hook and took the man out in one swift punch. The man holding onto Booth fell down to the ground hard, and seconds later he was out cold lying in the middle of a dirty bar floor.

That’s when all hell broke loose.

The bar exploded in activity.

People came out of the shadows, all headed to the front to either enter the fight or see the fight more clearly.

That’s when I saw the problem.

After seeing enough of the fights go down at the school, I knew that the fight wasn’t going to just stay in the front of the bar. It was inevitably going to come farther back into the bar, eventually taking up the entire bar.

“We should go,” I said as I got off my stool. “I saw a spot in the back that we could leave through.”

“We can just go into the ladies’ room,” Ashe suggested. “And we can lock the door.”

“Let’s go,” Avery said as she placed her glass down, then thought better of it and picked it back up again. “I think Derek will feel better if I’m not in here with him. He keeps looking up to check on me and gets a punch somewhere to his body.”

I could understand that. Louis kept looking back here, too. As if he was multitasking. Taking care of the man that was trying to hit him with a bar stool and keep an eye on me.

We all moved as one toward the back hall.

Luckily, we only ran into one problem on our way. A bitchy looking woman was on her way out of the bathroom, and I suggested to her to come back in. She refused and left, but only after she flipped me off for good measure.

I rolled my eyes and filed inside, second to last.

When I got all the way in and turned, it was to see Ares get yanked back by her hair by the same bitchy woman that was leaving as we were going inside.

Ares moved quickly, turning around and shoving her fist straight into the woman’s throat.

The woman went down hard, just to have another woman follow through with her friend’s act.

Only, I was there before she could grab for Ares’ hair, throwing a punch that had the woman staggering back.

When they were both stunned, I backed up quickly, leaving them in the hall, and slowly closed the door in their faces.

Which was about the time that I realized you had to have a key to lock the door.

“Shit!” I cried out, pulling my purse open.

“Oh, no,” Ares said. “You have the kit, right?”

I gave her a roll of my eyes. “Of course I do.”

“What do you have?” Ashe asked curiously.

“My lock picking kit,” I said, shrugging.

“You know how to pick locks?” Ashe asked. “You know that’s illegal to just carry around, right?”

I did.

Which was why I didn’t exactly advertise that I had it.

“Yeah,” I said as I pulled it out of my purse and went to work on the lock.

Seconds later, I had the thing locked, and I was shoving the picks back into my purse.

When I turned around, it was to see everyone staring at me.

“Umm,” I hesitated. “What?”

Ashe grinned. “How did you learn how to pick locks?”

I gestured vaguely over my shoulder. “Them. The boys dared me to learn. And I ordered a kit over the internet using my dad’s card. I think my dad thought it was funny, so he let me keep it. Until I started to unlock all his locks. Then he didn’t find it nearly as amusing.” I sat back with a grin.

“Since we’re in here and all…” Ashe said just before going into one of the stalls.

“Sometimes I feel like I missed so much not growing up with y’all,” Avery said as she hopped up into place onto the bathroom counter. “It’s like a secret handshake, or an inside joke, only it’s all the time.”