Cheat (Karma Inc. Book 1) (6 page)

M
y shift was easy tonight
. The bar was crowded but I had gotten the hang of where everything was. I still stumbled when I got fancy drink orders, but I was enjoying myself.

I watched as Bishop palmed a few more of his tips, and even failed to go to the register a few times. Every time the customer told him to keep the change, he kept the entire thing. Into his pocket it went. A six dollar beer with a four dollar tip was a nice push, but with Bishop pocketing the whole ten, it was even better for him.

The owner must not log his stock. The drink prices were simple- domestic beers were priced at four dollars, imports at six, well drinks at five and premium liquors at seven. There was a limited amount of wine, only house, all priced at four a glass. You could do the math in your head easily if you were quick on your feet. The cash register was a cheap thing you could pick up at an office supply store, not the new touch screens that most of the bars were using. You rang up the order and were done with it. Monitoring the stock must not be a priority.

It was ripe for theft and Bishop was taking full advantage of it. He didn’t have anyone flirting with him, or jockeying for his attention so he kept wandering to my side of the bar and making flirtatious comments along with the jokes. I had met his pregnant girlfriend the previous night and he thought I would be receptive to his attentions? I didn’t get men like him.

I had a job to do though, so I played along. And I continued to play along. Not getting any closer to figuring out how I can dish out a bit of karma to him, without pushing him over the edge.

I noticed there were cameras installed in the corner of the bar and on the dance floor.

“Do those work?” I asked Bishop and he shook his head.

“Something happened,” he said with a smirk. “An electrical short, or something like that.” His smirk told me he had been behind the equipment failure.

“What if we get robbed or something?” I said nervously, pretending I didn’t catch on to his knowing smile.

“Marshall is looking into getting them repaired,” he shrugged and went back to his side of the bar.

“Ms. Hail,” a deep voice said, jolting me out of my study of the surveillance cameras.

“D-drake, uh Mr. Greco,” I said, turning to find Drake Greco sitting at my bar, his hands folded in front of him. The women around him were eyeing him like he was a sizzling steak that they wanted to cut into. I saw a tiger ready to pounce and from his glare I knew I was the prey.

What had Brandon gotten me into?

“Can I get you something? I didn’t think this was your scene,” I joked.

“Kensington’s on the rocks,” he ordered tightly.

“Uh, yeah, I got Bombay and that’s pushing it,” I laughed nervously. Who comes to a neighborhood dive and orders a forty dollar gin?

“Fine, I’ll take that. We need to talk, Ms. Hail,” he said as I made his high ball.

“So, I’m assuming you didn’t just happen in here to wet your whistle.” The old phrase popped out of my mouth and I frowned around it.

“
C
’mon Cassandra
, I need to wet my whistle.” The girl pulled on my hand. I was tired and still in uniform. I had to change.

“Wet your whistle?” I stalled, digging in my heels.

“Yeah, my grandfather’s been saying that, I guess I picked up on it.” I looked at my friend, things had been strained lately since we had graduated college. Our paths were diverging. She had shown up at my door unexpected. All I wanted to do was go to bed. I had worked my normal shift and then had picked up extra detail work. I was bone tired. I didn’t want to go to a bar.

“I’m tired, Lauren. Can’t we do this tomorrow? I don’t have work tomorrow.”

“Even better, you can sleep in. Come on, Cassandra, it’s been weeks since we’ve hung out.”

“You want me to call Pete?” Giving in, but wanting our other friend Pete for a buffer. Lauren tended to get wild if Pete wasn’t there. Her face had gone cold though.

“No. Just you and me.”

* * *

F
ingers snapped
in front of my face. Drake. I jerked and his eyes narrowed. The memory had been intense.

“I said I need to talk to you,” he said under his breath.

“Sure.” I took a deep breath and walked over to Bishop.

“Going on break,” I said and he looked over my shoulder at Drake.

“Who’s the thug?” he asked.

“A friend. I’ll be back in a bit,” I cut him off and exited the bar. Drake followed me into the back hallway where the manager’s office was located. I didn’t want to be in tight quarters with him, but it was either this or go outside.

“How’d you know I worked here?” I asked the moment we were alone.

“On the face book that you don’t know how to use. I think you posted, ‘lurve my new job! Come see me at The Spotted Calf, bitches, ex, oh, ex, oh, Cee.’” I grimaced, even though I should be laughing at his use of the word lurve. I hadn’t posted that, seems someone was maintaining my cover. That fucked up my other cover with Drake though. When had my death become so complicated?

“Okay, fine, why did you come here, then?” I knew I wasn’t winning this battle. I had to find another way to find out about my life. Getting Drake involved in this had been a mistake.

“I came to find out what the hell is really going on with you?”

“Look, nothing. I made a mistake. Keep the deposit. I don’t want you to look into it anymore, Drake. Pretend like I never walked into your office. Forget I even exist.”

“Now that would be quite impossible, Ms. Hail. I couldn't forget that you exist. You have me intrigued. You’re quite a mystery. And I like a good mystery.” He grabbed for my arm when I tried to walk away. I needed to get away from Drake Greco and fast. I wasn’t supposed to be a mystery. I was supposed to be a bartender who was looking for her missing friend.

“I’m not a mystery. I’m just a stupid bartender.” I tried to wrench out of his grip but he was too strong. He was so close and my silly body was equal parts scared and intrigued. I liked a mystery too, and Drake Greco was as mysterious as they came.

He leaned in and I thought he was going to kiss me.

I wanted him to. No, I didn’t. He couldn’t kiss me. I froze, my body going ramrod straight.

He didn’t kiss me. He drew in a deep breath, as if he was inhaling me. He was sniffing me. The brute was sniffing me like a dog.

“You’re scared to death, but a little turned on.” He drew back and looked at me with the first hints of a smile I’d seen on his face.

“Fuck you. I don’t know what you want with me, just go away, Drake. I shouldn’t have hired you. I just didn’t know where else to turn, but you’re nothing but a big bully. You probably see bad guys all the time and you’re making me out to be some criminal. I’m not, I’m only a girl, looking for her friend.” The tears that dripped from my eyes were real. I thought he would be able to figure things out for me. But it looks like this door was slamming in my face.

It was impossible for me to discover anything about my own life. And now the guy I had hired was being too inquisitive. I wondered if I could get someone else to look into it. Like, just some regular person. Maybe Bishop? But then I would have to explain to him why I couldn’t do it myself.

Drake was staring at me with a confused look on his face. The tears were now pouring down my face in earnest. I was frustrated and a little bit scared. When I was frustrated or scared, I cried. It was something I had battled with my entire life. I knew that.

“
W
hy are you crying
, recruit?” the sergeant yelled in my face. I wasn’t sobbing, I just couldn’t hold the big fat tears back. The tears that came when I was stressed over a test. The tears that came when my daddy had hidden us in the closet when my mother had drank too much. The tears that came when I had been forced to drop out of college because the money ran out.

“Little college girl can’t hack it?”

But I could. I could hack it. Yes, I cried. That didn’t make me weak. I dropped to my hands and managed to pump out another fifty push-ups. With each one I pictured my hands wrapped around the sergeant’s throat. The tears dried up.

* * *

“
C
assidy
, is this man bothering you?” Marshall’s head poked out of his office and I hurriedly wiped away the tears when Drake let go of my arm.

“We’re not done here,” Drake warned but turned and walked away, leaving me alone in the hallway with Marshall.

“Yes, we are!” I called after him, but he acted like he hadn't heard me.

“Cassidy?” Marshall asked, concern in his voice.

“It’s okay, Marshall, he just had a little bad news for me.” I ran my fingertips across my face to hide the tears.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, Cassidy. I hope it’s nothing major,” he said with sincerity.

“No, nothing major, thanks Marshall.” The little man nodded and was about to shut the door when I called and stopped him.

“Wait, can I ask you something?” He held the door open for me. I hadn’t known he had been back here. He must have showed up before my shift and had been working quietly.

“The security system.” I nodded to the blank screens that took up a desk in the corner. “That’s weird that it doesn’t work. What’s wrong with it?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been putting off calling the security company to fix it. Honestly, Cassidy, it’s been a tough couple of months. We’ve been down for a while now. I don’t know what the issue is, and I can’t afford to get these people back here to mess around with it. The initial installation cost me a fortune.”

“You mind if I take a look at it? I’m good with electronics.” I moved toward the screens.

“I don’t know? Are you sure, that’s expensive equipment?”

“My daddy installs audio visual equipment. I used to help him during the summer. What can it hurt?” I said with a sweet smile and he caved.

“Sure, sure, Cassidy. Let me go help Bishop at the bar then, while you try to fix it.” He looked at me skeptically. I didn’t know how he was taking me. He could be suspicious, but he nodded and went to leave. Before he closed the door, I had to give it a shot.

“Thanks, Marshall. I’ll fix it, should be easy. But, can I give you some advice, just for the future?” He looked at me quizzically. “Don’t tell Bishop I’m fixing the cameras.” His eyes narrowed and he nodded again. The point was made. The man didn’t know me from Adam. He had to decide if he trusted me, a new employee, or his long time bartender. It would either backfire or work in my favor. I had my fingers crossed that it would work in my favor.

When the door shut behind him, leaving me alone in his office, I went to the bank of terminals. I knew almost immediately what was wrong with the system. Not because of what I was now, but I had spoken the truth about my father. I had installed these systems a hundred times with my dad. A quick look at the computer the system was hooked to revealed that Marshall had saved all his passwords to a note called passwords and Bishop had easily accessed the system. Bishop had sabotaged the wireless system the cameras were hooked on. He had simply signed into the wireless system the cameras were running on and changed the key stroke for the login. The cameras weren’t finding the secure wireless router.

With a quick overhaul I had them hooked back up and running. I put the new password in a secure folder and wrote down a quick set of instructions for Marshall to find them and placed the notebook on his desk with a sticky note that read in bold letters “Lock this up!”

I checked the monitors, everything showed on the monitors. They were working perfectly. I walked out to the front of the bar where Marshall was looking flustered and Bishop was looking perplexed and gave Marshall a thumbs up.

“Everything okay with your aunt, Cassidy?” Marshall asked with an exaggerated wink that Bishop missed.

“Yup, false alarm. Thanks for letting me use your computer, Marshall.” I took my spot behind the bar and got back to work.

Bishop was suspicious, eager to find out what I was doing in Marshall’s office. He tried buttering me up to figure it out, at least that is what I assumed he was doing. The moment the crowd thinned, he was right there by my side.

“Cassidy, you look spectacular today,” he cooed as I filled the order of two young college frat boys.

“Thank you, Bishop,” I beamed at him as was expected. I thought I did look spectacular today. I was wearing a blue skater dress that reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, with a cute pair of Mary Janes, my hair braided in two plaits on either side of my head. I knew I looked girlish, but Bishop seemed to like it, the perv. I was getting used to being a blonde, or at least figuring out how I could use it in my favor. I knew Bishop had a thing for Alice. He supposedly had the Cheshire cat tattooed on his thigh, according to my intel.

“Every time you bend over to grab a beer out of the cooler, the entire bar cranes their heads to get a peek,” he leered.

“Bunch of pervs, the lot of you.” I rolled my eyes. It was getting close to the end of our shift. Marshall had left in a hurry about an hour earlier, claiming he had some errands to run and would see us tomorrow. I was disappointed that he hadn’t noticed Bishop. The negative energy had swirled around him on countless occasions during the night.

A slap on the bar had me looking up quickly at a gentleman standing at the bar. He was out of place. In his late thirties, slick on the side of cheesy. His dark hair was slicked back and he wore a too tight tee over a not so tight physique.

“Bishop,” he said as a declaration to listen up and not in greeting.

“Sergei,” Bishop said with no warmth.

“You thought over that little business proposition we discussed?” the man named Sergei asked. His careful wording making it more obvious than if he would have said exactly what they were referring to. Was this Bishop’s drug contact? He looked the part. And negative energy clung to him like an oil slick. I didn’t want him to touch anything, he might leave a residue.

“Yeah, still thinking about it, Sergei,” Bishop said through a tight-lipped glance at me.

“Don’t take too long, boy. My offer won’t be around for too much longer.” He slapped his hand on the bar again and turned without a farewell.

“What was that about?” I asked, looking from Bishop to the retreating back of his visitor.

“Nothing, I was thinking about taking a second job,” he shrugged.

“With that guy? I wouldn’t want to work for someone like that,” I said with a shiver that wasn’t exaggerated. “End up at the bottom of the lake with cement shoes.”

“Yeah, Sergei, he’s not that bad when you get to know him.” Bishop looked over at me and shrugged again like he didn’t believe his own words.

“That guy put the shhh in shady,” I said as I moved away from him and tended my side of the bar. My timeline was getting a little tight. Bishop was on the verge of caving and taking his first “income supplement” from Sergei. If I didn’t move fast, Bishop wouldn't just be pushing drinks from behind the bar.

We had hardly any time to talk for the rest of the night. The place exploded right before closing and I didn’t have any time to stop and chat. Endless orders of low carb beer and pinot noir took over my world. When the DJ packed up, the crowd at the bar thinned a bit and I had time to take a breath.

Bishop obviously had a bit of downtime on his side too, because he was chatting up a cute blonde who was nothing but smiles for him.

“Cassidy!” he called me over.

I walked over to the two with a questioning look on my face. He hadn’t introduced me to any of his conquests before, besides his girlfriend.

“This is my little sister, Bev. Bev, this is Cassidy.” The blonde stuck her hand out with another huge grin and I took it, my face slipping into a grin reflexively.

“Bev goes to Loyola, she’s going to be a lawyer,” Bishop said with obvious pride in his voice.

“Wow, Loyola, that’s a great college,” I said nodding my head as Bishop launched into how Bev could argue her way out of anything and would make a wonderful lawyer.

“I’m not there yet,” she blushed. “I still have to make it through these finals, and then get into law school.”

“It was nice to meet you, Bev,” I said as I noticed the pile-up had started back at my side of the bar again.

“Nice to meet you too, Cassidy,” she said and turned back to her brother. “About that application. It’s going to cost sixty, just for the application, can I…” Their voices faded as I got further away. I did see Bishop reach in his pocket and pull out a wad of cash and hand it to her. She leaned over the bar and hugged her brother in a tight embrace.
I had found Bishop’s weakness.