“Tell him he has one day, one more fucking day, then I don’t care what his issues are. If he isn’t here, he can sign his part of the business over to me. I’m sick of him always fucking being gone.”
Darby has every right to be mad, I get it. He does more than us and takes on some of the heavier stuff. We all do our part lately, but the last few years, Echo’s been—well, he’s been distracted. Walking out, I text Echo, telling him what D just told me. His response is to send me a ‘fuck you’ emoji. Smart.
“Don’t sit at the bar all fucking night either, the girls are starting to notice.” It’s my turn to flip him off as I make my way down. When I do, I see Falcon already there leaning over the bar making Elicea laugh, and it makes me pause in my pursuit of her. Falcon though, he notices straight away, looks up to me, winks then turns back to her, which in turn makes her eyes come my way. I don’t stare for long. Instead, I walk over to Bethany. She’s watching me.
Maybe D was right? The girls are starting to watch.
Bethany’s first words to me are, “Sabrina’s not showing up.”
Sabrina’s someone I hired not even a year ago. She was my last recruit.
“How long for, Bethany?”
She looks down then back up to me. Bethany protects the girls. Apart from me she’s in charge of them. What they don’t come to me for, they go to her.
“This week.”
I groan loudly, she’s been covering for her all this week.
“Why didn’t you tell me after the second time?”
Bethany shrugs but I know she has a soft spot for her. I found Sabrina through one of the girls. She had just left her abusive boyfriend and needed work, she was the perfect fit for what I needed. She’s good, until recently. The contracts for the girls are different to the contracts the clients sign, we are more flexible with the girls.
“I was afraid for her.” Bethany says, and I shake my head. “I think she’s gone back to him.”
“Fuck.” She promised me when we hired her that she wouldn’t go back, it was part of the reason I hired her. Controlling men are what we don’t want, especially around our women.
“The minute she comes back in, you call me.”
Bethany nods then looks over my shoulder then back to me. “What’s with the bartender?”
I look to where she’s watching Elicea, still standing in the same spot speaking with Falcon.
Answering her, I don’t look back to Bethany. My eyes are solely trained on them both. “What about her?”
Her sharp words make me turn back to her. “Well, she needs to go.” Her eyes are hard, her hands crossed over her chest.
“You tell me why you think she needs to go, since you seem to believe you have the power over who I hire?”
Bethany’s hands drop from her chest at the tone of my voice. Her eyes snap to mine and she quickly averts her gaze downward. “She doesn’t fit.”
I laugh at her words and walk off.
Just before I pass them, Falcon’s voice stops me. “You don’t care, do you, Creed? If I take Elicea here out and show her a good time?”
Elicea’s eyes flick back to me then to Falcon like she doesn’t believe what he’s just said. You give a dog a bone, he’ll bite. That’s Falcon. Ignoring him, I walk straight past them, listening to Falcon laugh as I head back to my office.12EliceaI’m staring, I know I am. I can’t help it. But I know how those lips feel on me, I know how they make me feel. They are my new craving, one I didn’t even want or ask for. Yet, somehow, it’s all I seem to want.
I’m closing up the bar and it’s been two days since that day he picked me up, two days of seeing him every day but no words have been spoken. Falcon does more speaking than Creed, and even if Falcon is handsome as all fuck to stare at, I always find my eyes wandering to Creed. And right now, he’s sitting at the end of the bar, his cell in hand as he does some paperwork. He hasn’t caught me looking yet. Johnny though, he has. He nudges me again as the music turns off and the lights come on while everyone’s leaving.
“You need a lift?” Johnny asks.
I look to Creed who still hasn’t looked up to me. Then back to Johnny, nodding my head.
I want those lips.
But I don’t.
The struggle is real.
Do I want to keep this job, or do I want to taste him? I know damn well what he tastes like and I want to dip my tongue in every chance I fucking get.