Safe With Him (17 page)

Bree stood behind the bar, her eyes scanning across her customers, making sure each had a good amount of whatever they were drinking still in front of them. She loved working week nights, even more so than the weekends. Yeah, weekends got crazy and most often it was all crazy fun, and with double and sometimes triple the amount of customers, there were a lot more tips. Not to mention, she stayed busy and the nights usually flew by. But there was something to be said about fewer customers and the chance to breathe and just take it all in. One day she would have a place like this. Okay, not the strippers, but the bar, the regulars, that feeling she always got when she made someone smile, or just the chance to take a little bit of the bad out of their really bad day. “Yeah, one day,” she told herself.

After she had ‘got her ass in gear,’ which included a new pair of undies seeing as the ones Draco had decided to remove, in his own unique way, were now in pieces, she finished getting ready for work, only to have Draco argue about who was driving which vehicle. She didn’t care until they got back to Draco’s house and she discovered he wanted to take his truck. Ha! Like she could climb, oh yes
climb
as in climbing the side of a mountain, the thing was so far off the ground, in five inch heels and a skirt she would have to hike up to her waist just to lift one leg…so, not happening. When he turned to his motorcycle, she happily hiked up her skirt for that and jumped on until his “not in this fuckin’ lifetime” comment and he turned to her car—the driver’s side of her car, she might add. Again, she didn’t care if he drove her car but the fact that he just assumed he would drive her car was starting to piss her off.
Big badass cop or not, the man needs to learn how to ask first
. After they argued, okay, she argued and he just stood there grinning at her, he leaned in with a kiss and a soft, “baby, you gonna let me drive your car?” they were on their way…him driving.
Yeah, whatever
. Most of the driving time Draco spent on the phone, with, she was guessing, another cop, because he used a lot of police terms or codes so she would only catch a word here and there that was in English or not in cop language.
Who knew cops had their own language
?

When they got to the club and she showed him where to park around the back, he asked about her breaks, and if she came back outside at any time during her breaks or for any reason other than when she left for the night. She informed him that no, she didn’t, and T-Rex didn’t allow it. In fact, she had to ‘call in’ to have one of the bouncers come out and meet her because the back entrance was locked like a fire door and had to be opened from the inside. She explained that even though T-Rex owned a strip club he watched out for all of his employees’ safety. As soon as they were let in, Draco left her side, needing to talk to T-Rex, and she went on about her business of preparing for her night. About an hour later Draco stood at the end of the bar and motioned for her. When she got to him he told her he had to ‘take care of some shit’ and would be back later and reminded her not to leave, even though she had told him she wouldn’t…
Sheesh! Men!

It was well after midnight before Draco reappeared at the end of the bar. She had been pretty busy and the club was rather crowded for a Tuesday night, so she really didn’t know how long he had been back in the club before he came over to the bar.

“Need a drink?” she asked when she made her way to him. She checked on customers as she went, so by the time she got to him she might be able to spend a few minutes just hanging out.

He leaned over the bar on his forearms closer to her, so she leaned into him. “I’m good, baby,” he whispered softly in her ear, then he sat back looking at her and licked his lips.

She narrowed her eyes at him, while trying to ignore the tingles that were
not
in her belly. “That’s just mean.” She smiled at him, then turned toward a customer who had a drink getting low and heard his laughter follow her.

Draco sat at the end of the bar and watched Bree as she interacted with each and every customer. She never really stayed close to any one person longer than it took her to get their drink order or to give them the drink they wanted, but at the same time she wasn’t standoff-ish either. He wasn’t sure how she did it—especially dressed like she was, and that gorgeous smile that seemed to be a permanent fixture the entire time she spent behind the bar—but she had every single one of them in the ‘friend’ zone, and they knew it. Although the way a lot of the males, and a few of the females, looked at her, he knew they were wracking their brains trying to figure out a way to get out of that zone and into an altogether different zone with her. “That sure as shit was not happenin’,” he mumbled to himself.

All of a sudden he heard a sharp, piercing whistle, then, “This ain’t Detroit, but we’ll rock it like it is,” Bree screamed at the same time he heard Kiss’
Detroit Rock City
blasting louder and louder from the hidden speakers. He watched Bree as she started dancing around as she was mixing a drink, then she jumped up on the bar and threw back a shot, and just as quickly jumped back down off the bar. She finished the drink she was mixing, passed it to whoever ordered it, and every time the customers shouted “get up,” she jumped back on the bar just to jump back off again, dance around some more, then as the song was ending she threw back another shot. She slammed her shot glass on the bar with the last note of the song, threw her arms up, her head back and yelled, “Woooo!”

She nodded to someone and a few seconds later T-Rex was behind the bar, and she was moving toward him. “Take a break.” She gave him a smile and rubbed her hand across his as she walked past him and through the same door he had seen her go through the first time he was here.

“Thought you didn’t drink,” he snapped when he walked into the same room as before and saw her sitting calmly on the sofa, with a bottle of water in her hand.

“What?” she questioned as he moved to sit in the same chair that he had before instead of on the sofa beside her.

“You told me you didn’t drink…
ever
.” He wasn’t so much pissed that she took a couple of shots, after all he was the one driving, but she was the one who told him that first night they met that she didn’t drink. She had lied to him for no reason and that was what was pissing him off.

“I don’t.” She stared at his face with a confused look.

“You don’t?” he snapped out. “Mighty damn funny, I just watched you throw back two fuckin’ shots that I saw you pour from the fuckin’ bottle.” He glared at her.

She smiled. She fuckin’ smiled at him. He caught her in a flat out lie, then she continued to lie to his damn face and what the hell did she do? She fuckin’ smiled at him, and damn it, it was a gorgeous smile with all that gorgeous hair falling around her face. “Fuck,” he hissed.

“Dra, seriously, you need to chill a bit.” She took a sip of water.

“Chill a bit? You fuckin’ lied to me, and you’re sittin’ right there still lyin’ to my face, and all you can say is chill a bit?” He paused and took a breath. “Sweetheart,” he snarled, “didn’t take you for one of those lyin’ bitches that say fucked up shit just for the fuckin’ fun of it.” He felt like his head was gonna explode.

He watched her as she reached over and sat her water bottle on the table next to the sofa. She stood up, took the couple of steps to stand right in front of him, then leaned into him, placed her hands on each arm of the chair and got right in his face. “Don’t ever call me a liar.” Her voice was low, but harsh. “I can’t stand dishonesty from anyone, so I don’t lie. And I have no reason to lie.” She paused, running her eyes from the top of his head to his lap, then back up. When her eyes met his again, she added, “Especially to you.” She stood back up, turned back to the sofa, then stopped and looked back at him. “And think twice before you decide to label me a bitch, cuz…
sweetheart…
I can show you a bitch.” Her voice had gotten so sweet he would have sworn it was laced with arsenic. Then just as calmly, she stepped back over to the sofa and sat back down, reached over, and picked her water back up.

“Bree—” he started.

“You know, you have a bad habit of jumping to conclusions. I got to ask…is that just with me or is that something you tend to do a lot of?” She took a sip of water, never taking her eyes off of him.

“You really goin’ to sit there and tell me I didn’t see you take two shots of liquor, just a few fuckin’ minutes ago,
sweetheart
?” He snarled the last word.

She leaned over toward him and looked him in the eyes. “You didn’t. What you saw, but didn’t bother to ask before you decided in that cocky head of yours that I was a lying bitch, was me taking two shots of tea. As in, sweet tea.” She then sat back, shrugging her shoulders. “Don’t care for unsweetened tea.”

“Tea?”

“Yes, Colombo. T-E-A tea. T-Rex, as well as the other bartenders, know I don’t drink. But since most all bartenders partake in a drink or two with their customers from time to time, it’s just easier to substitute tea for whiskey. Being that they are both brown liquid, nobody is the wiser, nor do I think most would care, but hey, that was T-Rex’s idea. Not mine,” she informed him.

“Fuckin’ hell,” he groaned as he scrubbed his face in his hands, feeling like an ass.

“Yeah. Now you wanna tell me, is it just with me or do you always jump to conclusions? Cuz gotta tell you, not the smartest of moves for a cop.”

“Bree, fuck, I’m sorry.” He raised his head back up, looking at her. What the hell was he thinking? He had been a complete and total ass to her. Yeah, he had jumped to conclusions with her and that was not like him. So why was he constantly doing it with her?

“Yeah, you should be. And except for the calling me a bitch part, I get it. The whole switching what’s in the bottle is supposed to look like I’m drinking, hence the putting the tea in the whiskey bottle because like I told you, I do not drink…ever,” she stated matter-of-factly and what socked the hell out of him was she didn’t seem mad. She seemed calm and…understanding. Should he be worried?

“Bree—” he started again, trying to figure out how to navigate through her calm.

“Answer me. Do you always jump to conclusions or is it just with me?” She interrupted him.

“No. I don’t normally jump to conclusions. I’m usually pretty good about—”

“So it’s just me then?”

“Bree.” He sighed loudly.

“Yeah. Okay then. We are not getting into a long drawn out conversation right now, mostly because this is really not the best place, and two, I have to get back to work. So…”

“So after work? On the way home, or after we get home?” he asked hopefully.

“You still planning on driving me home?”

“Yeah.”

“Then maybe we can start then and see how it goes,” she said, then added, “but right now I’m going to finish my break…alone.” She got up and walked out of the room.

He didn’t follow her, or try to stop her; he waited a few minutes, then walked back out and took his seat at the end of the bar and waited. About ten minutes later Bree came back to the bar but this time when she walked past him she didn’t touch him or smile at him.

“Fuck.”

Bree sat in the passenger’s seat of her car, staring unseeing out the window as Draco drove them back toward Mt. Eve. She had somehow managed to make it through the rest of the night at work, though she just didn’t have that ‘extra’ she usually gave. No one seemed to notice the fake smile or the slower pace she moved, or if they did, no one said anything.
Thank goodness for that small favor
, she thought. She even took her time washing her face and changing her clothes, half hoping that Draco would just leave her keys and find another way home. But when she walked back into the hall that led to the back door, he was standing by the door talking to T-Rex. She sighed to herself and walked out the door. She just wanted this night to be over so she could crawl into bed and forget. “Yeah, like thata happen,” she mumbled to herself.

She was lost in her own thoughts. Her feelings were so conflicted. Yes, Draco was mostly a good guy and okay maybe, just
maybe
, a decent cop. But, for some reason, it felt like he was trying to find the worst in her. Could that be it? Did he think, just like everyone else who knew, she was just like her mother? How much did he know about her, about her past?
He is a cop
. “Background check,” she mumbled a bit louder than she meant to.

“What?” Draco asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.

Turning her head to look at him, she had to know. “Background check. You did one on me, didn’t you?”

“No, Bree, I didn’t.” He didn’t take his eyes off the road.

“You didn’t?” Even to her, her voice sounded shocked, and she wasn’t sure she believed him right now.

“No.”

“Why?”

He finally glanced over at her, then looked back at the road. “The day I met you, spent time with you, hell, I don’t know. I was tempted quite a few times, especially those two weeks I couldn’t find you, but Storm had already said you didn’t like cops. Figured if I ran a check it would piss you off and besides, I wanted to get to know you from you, not from what some report would say, but,” he glanced back at her, looking a little sheepish, and caught her eyes, “from you.” He returned his attention back to the road.

“So, if you only know what I’ve told you, then why do you think so little of me?” She felt more confused than ever.

“What? Bree. What the fuck?” he barked.

“First you see me in my work clothes and automatically you assume stripper. Not bartender or waitress. Nope. You jump straight to stripper even though the strippers don’t wear what the rest of us do. Then you see me take two shots, and don’t get me wrong, I get that you would think that I was drinking liquor, and had lied to you, but a lying bitch? That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?” Yeah, that was what had hurt, but she wouldn’t tell him that.

“No.” He was dividing his attention between her and the road. “Not a little, a lot harsh. You’ve been nothin’ but honest with me, and you didn’t deserve that. Not then and not tonight,” he said, then added a “hang on a sec,” while he pulled his phone out of his pocket.

She hadn’t even noticed that they had made it back and he was pulling into the parking lot of her apartment building until she heard him say, “Hey…yeah, pullin’ in now,” into his phone, and she looked back out her window as he pulled up next to the building.

She turned to look at Draco. “What are you doing? You can’t park here. My spot is over there.” She pointed out her parking spot.

“Not parkin’ yet. Storm wants to talk to you.” Draco did a chin lift toward the breezeway. When she turned back to look out her window, she saw Storm walking toward them.

“Okay, but I can walk across the parking lot. You really don’t have to drop me off at the door.”

“I’m not stayin’, but I will be back to get you.”

“Get me? Why?” She was already confused but wasn’t sure if she should be pissed that he wasn’t explaining what was going on.

Draco leaned over to her, wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her to him, his lips almost touching hers. “Baby, go talk with Storm, then I’ll be back and we’ll talk.” He slid his tongue across her bottom lip right before he sucked it into his mouth.

When he pulled his head back and caught her eyes, he whispered, “Sweet.” He moved his hand from behind her neck and rubbed the backs of his fingers across her cheek. “You’re so fuckin’ sweet.”

She heard the tap on the window and turned to see Storm standing by her door. She felt Draco move, then heard the unlocking of the doors a fraction of a second before Storm was opening her door as Draco unfastened her seatbelt.

“Hey, Ree.” Storm moved his eyes from her to Draco. “You wanna not be kissin’ my sister right in front of me?” he stated it like a question, but Bree really didn’t think it was a question at all.

“You really want an answer to that shit?” She heard Draco say as she turned back to look at him. When his eyes met hers he winked. “Go on, baby, before I kiss you in front of your brother again.” Draco grinned, and she forgot for a second that she was upset with him and smiled back. “Bree,” he growled low.

“Okay, okay, sheesh!” she said and turned to get out of the car, but Draco grabbed her arm and pulled her over to him, slammed his mouth down on hers and kissed her hard but quick, then gave her a little push out the door. That was when she heard Storm growl low, and he didn’t look happy with Draco.

“C’mon,” Storm said as he took hold of her arm and started walking back toward their apartments. Storm stopped at his door. “In here,” he demanded as he walked into his apartment.

“What about breakfast?” Even though they lived right across the hall from each other, unless she needed something specific from him, they always spent their time together in her apartment, never in his.

“Draco’s bringin’ somethin’,” he answered vaguely as she followed him through the door. “I wanted to show you somethin’. Ask you ‘bout it.” He walked over to the small kitchen table and started picking up papers and shoving them into a file folder.

She took a minute to look around. “You really are keeping this place clean, aren’t you?” She was still a little shocked that he had cleaned at all.

“Told you I was,” he answered absently while thumbing through the file, then he pulled out a picture and thrust it in her general direction. “Look at this and tell me if you recognize this guy.”

She took the picture from him and glanced at it, dropped it on the table and slid it back to him. “Oh, yep, that’s the same guy who attacked me in the parking lot. The same one who showed up at my apartment the night I called you.”

“You sure? Look again and be absolutely sure that’s the same guy.” He pushed the picture back to her.

“Yes, I’m positive, that’s the guy. But why do you have a picture…wait.” She reached back for it and looked at it more closely. “This is a police picture thingy, a…mug shot.” Bree looked back at Storm. “How did you get a mug shot of this guy?”

“That doesn’t matter, what—” Storm started to say before she interrupted him.

“It does matter. I know you’ve been hanging around with cops, and maybe, just maybe, they are not all bad, but they aren’t going to just give you police records. Is that what’s in that folder?” She pointed to the folder that he had clutched in his hand. “Do you have this guy’s police record?” She waved the picture back and forth.

“Ree, I just need to know if you can make a 100 percent positive ID,” Storm said firmly, and she noted, avoiding her questions completely.

“Who is he?” She dropped the picture on the table and crossed her arms over her chest. She was starting to get tired of Storm and Draco only giving her bits and pieces, here and there. Storm narrowed his eyes at her, but didn’t say anything. She waited a beat, then two. When he continued to just silently stare at her, she cocked her hip, tapped her foot and stared him down.

Their stare-down lasted for a while until Storm finally gave in with a, “Fine, sit,” through gritted teeth. She pulled out a chair from the table, sat and waited for him to follow. She watched him blow out a breath as he yanked out a chair and sat across from her. “His name’s Marcus Warwick, and Ree, he’s very dangerous. He works for Hugo Serafino, who’s even more dangerous than Warwick. For whatever fucked up reasons, one or both of them now have you in their sights and they are not the type of people to just give up. I’m askin’ you, right now to stay at Draco’s, or at least for a little while,” Storm informed her.

“You knew, that night I called you when he,” she pointed to the picture of Marcus Warwick that was still lying on the table in between them, “was in my apartment. You knew. That’s why you freaked and wanted me to stay locked behind closed doors until you came home.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “You. Knew!” she yelled, then slammed her hand down on the table as she pushed herself up and started pacing. “I cannot believe this. Storm, why? Why didn’t you tell me I had some crazy lunatic walking right on in my apartment?” She stopped pacing and turned back to look at him. “Why?”

“Why the hell did you think I made you promise me that you would stay locked behind closed doors?” Storm yelled back at her.

“You should have told me! We don’t keep secrets.” She continued to yell just as Draco walked in, and she turned to him. “Did you give him that file?” She pointed at the file still in Storm’s hand, never taking her eyes off Draco. “And don’t you lie to me too.”

“No,” Draco answered shortly. “Food.” He held up two bags, one in each hand, and walked into the kitchen and dropped them on the bar. “Plates?” he asked, looking at Storm. She watched as Storm walked into the kitchen and started pulling out plates, cups, silverware, and even a bottle of Mountain Dew for her. While Draco started pulling containers out of the bags and placing them on the bar, like a buffet.

“Are either one of y’all going to tell me what the hell is going on?” she asked forcefully.

“No,” Draco answered while he continued to remove the tops from each container without pausing to look at her.

“Fine!” She huffed and started pacing the floor between the living room and kitchen, or at least she made it look like that was what she was doing in the small space. When she “paced” back into the kitchen for the second time, she grabbed the file off the table and ran down the hall and into the bathroom, slamming and locking the door before either Storm or Draco knew what had happened.

Taking a quick look around, she noticed that the bathroom had also been cleaned. She looked down at the floor, shrugging her shoulders. “Good enough,” she mumbled as she sat down on the floor with her back against the door. She opened the file and began to read, or at least tried to. As she suspected, it was a police file so all the papers were records and most had codes. But she could make out enough to know that Storm didn’t lie about this guy being dangerous.

BAM! She heard and felt it when one of the guys hit the bathroom door.
Hard
. “Ree, open the damn door,” Storm yelled. BAM! Another hit to the door “Ree!”

“Bree, obtaining police records without authorization is illegal and can result in fines and or a jail sentence,” Draco informed her loudly through the door. When she didn’t respond to either Storm or Draco there was another BAM to the door, this time hard enough to shake the door. “Did you fuckin’ hear me?” Draco bellowed.

“I’m pretty sure the whole complex heard you,” she answered, not nearly as loudly as either of them, knowing they could hear her.

“Bree, open this fuckin’ door now!” Draco demanded again loudly, followed by another BAM that again shook the door against her back.

“Can y’all stop beating on the door? My back is against it and it kinda hurts when the door shakes,” she asked calmly. She knew she was going to catch hell when she opened the door, but she also knew neither of them would hurt her, so she was willing to take the hell they dished out in order to find out what they wouldn’t tell her.

“Bree, so help me, if you don’t open this fuckin’ door right now, I will bust it open,” Draco hissed…loudly.

“If you do, you’ll bust it into me seeing as it opens inward and my back is against it. So I really hope you don’t, cuz it would probably hurt somewhat. Don’t you think?” she inquired calmly.

“Fuck!” She heard Storm and Draco say in unison, then nothing but silence for a few seconds.

“Ree, open the door, please. We’ll talk to you,” Storm said but this time it wasn’t loud or angry, even though she knew he was still pissed. She also knew that he knew just how long she could stay pissed. She figured it might be immature to lock yourself in a bathroom, but she was just about fed up with not knowing what was going on in her own damn life. And even though she could maybe make out a little of the reports, most of it she couldn’t.

“You’re going to answer
all
my questions?” she asked his sweetly.

“No.” Draco jumped in before Storm could say anything. “Damn it, woman, I’m not playin’ no games with you, open this fuckin’ door now or I will arrest your ass, and keep you locked up until I fuckin’ know you’re safe!” Draco barked savagely, sounding a bit out of control.

“Storm?” she called calmly.

“Yeah?”

“The answer to your question about me staying with
that cop
, for the time being…uh, the answer is no. Oh wait, I mean,
Hell. No
!” she stated loudly with just a hint of sarcasm.