Tipsy (9 page)

Something passed behind his eyes,
something that was there and gone in the flash of a single
second.

I thought he might say something; his
mouth moved like he might. My heart leapt a little at the thought
of an apology coming out. Yes, his apology would be dumb and too
late, but I still wanted to hear it. He must have decided against
it, as his lips smashed into a fine, straight line and he said
nothing at all.

My heart cracked a little and I brushed
past him, with Dee at my side and Craig leading the way. He
followed behind us, stepping out into the parking lot, watching as
we walked away.

I didn’t look back. I wanted to, but I
wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction.

8

Blue

I stood in the shadows beside the club
and watched as the black Hummer pulled out of the lot. The muscles
in my back loosened, but the muscles in my chest seemed to
seize.

God, I was acting like a damn
woman.

I wanted to run after the car, beat on
the window, and tell her how freaking sorry I was, how nothing was
the way it seemed. I wanted to kiss away the moisture I saw gather
behind her eyes.

I hurt her tonight.

And that pissed me off.

It pissed me off almost more than
watching that asshole Dom put his hands on her. I thought I was
going to pop a vein in my head when I saw her struggling as he
towed her off the dance floor.

My hands clenched at my sides. What the
hell was she even doing here tonight? This was the last place I
would ever expect a girl like her to be.

Drinking away the memory of
being stood up.
Her words haunted me. A
vile curse fell out of my mouth, and I stared off at the empty
road.

Not only had I stood her up, but I was
the reason she was in this hellhole being hit on by one of
Jacksonville’s biggest drug dealers. My skin crawled at the thought
of what he would have done to her when they were alone.

I was glad she was gone. I wanted her
safe, and being around me would clearly not be safe.

But part of me missed her. Missed what
might have been.

I missed the stormy color of her eyes.
I missed the way her hair fell over her forehead. I missed her
smile. I wanted to know what it would be like to suck her lip into
my mouth and nip at it with my teeth. I wanted to hear her moan my
name in the middle of the night…

Yep. I was acting like a damn woman. A
damn, horny woman.

I shoved away from the wall and walked
back into the club. I wasn’t sure how much damage I had done to my
cover in the last few minutes, but I needed to find out.

Hell, part of me hoped my cover was
blown, that I totally ruined all chances of being trusted, being
pulled into whatever operation they had going on. It was impossible
to have a life when you couldn’t be yourself.

But this case was bigger than me. It
was bigger than my life.

It sucked to have to give up
something that I really wanted, but I didn’t have a choice. This
was my job. The safety of others was important to me. I thought
about the kids that lost their life due to drugs… I thought
about
everyone
who
lost their life to drugs. Senseless deaths. All of them.

Cracking this case would mean helping
to lower the number of senseless deaths. I wasn’t naive enough to
think I would stop all drug-related deaths, that I would wipe drugs
off the streets for good. But I could help. I could do something.
Wasn’t something better than nothing?

Wasn’t one life better than
none?

Of course me doing my job did have its
price. The price was just personal. It was costing me Julie. Yeah,
we only had one date. Yeah, maybe we would go out three more times
and she would hate my guts. Maybe she was the kind of girl who
would nag me to death about everything and wear ugly ass granny
panties beneath her sexy little clothes.

I guess I would never know.

And
that
is what sucked the
most.

My option for finding out what was
between us was gone.

Slater was sitting at the booth, which
was surprisingly vacant… He barely looked up when I slid across the
cheap vinyl seat. I picked up a beer, not knowing whose it was, and
took a long pull. Then I took another.

If I hadn’t known beforehand that
Slater was undercover, I never would’ve guessed he was a cop. He
had closely cropped dark hair, dark eyes, and a square jaw. A
brooding and arrogant air surrounded him at all times. He fit in
well with this crowd. He looked like he belonged on the streets
with them. Slater barely spoke and gave the impression he barely
paid attention to anything but beer and women, but I knew
better.

He hid a sharp and cunning mind beneath
his streetwise exterior.

I drained the rest of the beer and set
it down on the table, slouching back against the booth. Slater
glanced at me.

“
What the hell was that?” he
said.

I did a quick scan of the area around
us to make sure none of the crew was listening.

“
They’re in the bathroom,
cleaning up Dom’s face.”

I smirked. He was a pansy ass. I still
wasn’t sure how he became the quote-unquote “leader” of the
organization here, but somehow he pulled it off.

“
I can’t believe you went at
him like that,” Slater said, picking up a beer and taking a sip to
cover the fact he actually spoke a long sentence.

“
She’s off limits,” I said,
no room for debate in my words.

Slater studied me. “Gets messy when you
work on your own turf.”

I didn’t say anything. But he was
right. Working undercover in the same town I lived in posed a whole
new set of challenges to go with the others I already
faced.

“
That display of temper
actually bought you some points,” Slater said around another large
gulp of beer.

I tipped my chin as I spoke.
“How?”

“
You went right after the
boss. No fear. Most guys—especially new ones—try to prove
themselves.”

“
I ain’t got nothing to
prove.”

Slater’s lip curled up on the side.
“Not now you don’t. Word of advice?”

I spread my palms wide, inviting the
advice.

“
Don’t do it again. He’s the
kind who wants strong people around him, but if he thinks you’re
going to try and take over, you’re out.”

I let those words sink in. A couple of
the crew members came back to the table, giving me apprising
stares. I kept my body relaxed, but inside, adrenaline pumped
through me, putting me on high alert.

One of these lackey’s might decide they
wanted to “prove” to the boss that they got his back by coming
after me.

The ring in my lower lip stung and
irritated me. I didn’t know how people with fifty piercings did it.
I suppressed a sigh. This was just one more thing to suck up for
the job.

Dom came out of the crowd and stopped
to talk to a few people at a nearby booth. He picked up one of the
beers and saluted the table, then turned his eyes toward
me.

He sauntered over, his lip looking nice
and swollen. He was going to have a black eye too. Good. He
deserved that and more.

He slid into the booth next to Slater,
who barely even glanced at him, and slung his elbows on the
table.

“
Give me one reason I
shouldn’t beat you down for what you pulled.”

I tried to look bored. “Last time I
checked, I wasn’t on your payroll.”

“
You’re at my
table.”

“
I’ll stay out of your way.
You stay out of mine,” I said and slid out of the booth to
stand.

“
Sit down,” Dom
ordered.

I suppressed a smile. He was a
predictable tool. As much as I hated it, having Julie here tonight
had actually helped me.

I glanced his way but didn’t sit
down.

“
Why are you here?” he
asked.

I gestured to the room around us. “This
is a club. I came to party. Saw my man Slater”—I motioned to him
and he grunted—“and decided to come say hello. I see I’ve worn out
my welcome.”

I glanced at Slater. “Later,
man.”

He drank some beer.

“
You used to roll in Myrtle
Beach?”

“
Yep.”

“
You knew Pike?”

“
Yep.”

“
You part of Pike’s
crew?”

“
Nope.”

Dom’s eyes narrowed. My one-word
responses weren’t really to his liking. I had to admit, I liked
pissing him off. “No?”

I half shrugged. “I was. Now I’m
not.”

“
I told ya,” Slater said to
Dom. “Gray moved.”

Dom narrowed his eyes suspiciously at
me. I felt the muscles in my neck bunch. This is where I had to
pass the test. “You were part of Pike’s crew. He runs more towns
than anyone I know. Why would you walk away from that much
power?”

“
Power wasn’t mine. It’s
his.”

“
So you want your own power?
Your own turf?”

“
Power is too much work,” I
said arrogantly.

He stared at me, weighing my words. I
let him look, refusing to buckle against his doubt. I knew he
didn’t believe me. Hell, who would? Who wouldn’t want power? Power
was worth almost more than money in a world like this.

Slater cleared his throat. “Gray had
other things to focus on.”

Dom turned his gaze away from me toward
Slater, and I finally took a breath. Slater grinned a cocky grin.
“Some men are more apt to be led around by their dumb
handles.”

Dom threw back his head and laughed. He
glanced at me. “That bitch really worth all that?”

My gut tightened and anger rose up
inside me at the mention of Julie. I didn’t want her brought into
this. Not at all. I glanced at Slater. I wanted to punch him in the
face. He gave me a look, a split second of warning in his
eye.

About fifty cuss words floated through
my head. If I didn’t say the reason I moved here was because of
Julie, I was screwed.

“
What can I say? I like her
eyes.”

Dom laughed. “Yeah, I just bet it was
her eyes that had you following her up here.”

I grinned suggestively.

Dom gestured to the booth so I slid in.
“Man like you must be pretty bored around this Podunk town when
you’re used to so much action.”

“
I wouldn’t turn down a
little work.”

“
Lucky for you, I have an
opening.”

Slater stiffened slightly and reached
for his beer. After he took a sip, he grabbed the blonde who was
sitting beside him and started making out.

“
An opening?” I asked,
looking away from Slater and not so much as glancing
back.

“
One of my crew had to take
a leave of absence.”

“
Why?” Slater was still
kissing the blonde, but I knew damn well he was
listening.

“
He got a little too
ambitious.”

I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I
knew not to press the issue even though I really wanted to. Instead
of asking straight out, I said, “So what happens when he comes back
and I took his job?”

“
He ain’t coming
back.”

That didn’t sound very good. I forced
myself to smile slowly. “Well, it looks like it’s my lucky
day.”

“
I’ll be in touch,” he said
and then slid out of the booth and turned to walk away. Then he
glanced back. “One thing,” he said.

I flicked my gaze up to his.

“
You ever touch me again,
I’ll kill you.”

I felt Slater’s adrenaline rush, his
sudden hawk-like attention. I didn’t dare look his way. I thought
it would be a dead giveaway something was up. I stayed lounged in
my seat. His threat didn’t scare me. I realized maybe it should,
but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

I think my lack of reaction got under
his skin because he added, “And don’t keep that little piece
hidden. She’d look good at my table.”

My teeth ground together. I
wanted to plow my fist into his face so bad that my insides quaked
with it.
Stay cool,
I reminded myself. If I showed Julie was any kind of weakness
for me, it could be dangerous for her.

Luckily, he didn’t seem to want a
response because he finally left. Thank God too, because the more I
looked at him, the more I wanted to beat his ass.

Most everyone at the table followed
him. I watched as he slid into another of “his” booths and then I
looked away.

A waitress came by with a tray full of
drinks. I grabbed one. “Hey!” she said, annoyed.

I pulled a couple bills out of my pants
and slid them in the front pocket of her apron. “Thanks, sweet
cheeks.”