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The door burst open, causing us all to take a big step back.
Two women in leather pants and black tank tops stumbled outside, clinging to each other as they swayed like they were on a ship. The one on the left had brilliant green hair and squinted at Eric.
“You a cop?” she slurred. “Fuck you!”
Eric glanced down at his suit. “No?”
“Are you sure?” the other one asked, a teeny blonde. She pointed accusingly at Eric.
“He isn’t the fuzz,” I said, biting back a smirk.
The women eyed Eric suspiciously, and all at once, I was glad I’d chosen to wear a black sweater and jeans. Tav nearly matched me, except his sweater was white.
“Hey, someone get that big fucker. He’s a cop!” the woman on the left with the green hair said. She stepped forward like she might take Eric out herself and slipped.
Tav rushed to catch her, lifting her into his arms.
“Hey, you’re a nice big guy,” she said, patting him on the chest. “Teddy bear.”
“Let’s get you safe, yes?” he said with a kind smile that was dying to transform into an entertained smirk. I could read him so well, and my heart panged as we shared a long look. I could guess the thoughts floating through his head. “You weren’t planning to drive in this condition?” he asked sternly.
She shook her head. “No, we’re waiting for someone.”
“How about inside, huh? Where it’s safer and warmer,” he said cheerfully, then strode in, leaving me to give a helping arm to the small blonde.
The hallway directly inside the door was dim and I couldn’t see very well, but beyond that was a barroom packed with people. As we entered the room, my ears rang from the volume of the music, and the loud crack of balls connecting on a pool table had me glancing to my left. A group of guys howled and laughed as the man holding a pool cue hung his head.
Tav took the woman over to one of the leather couches along the far wall and settled her on it, and I helped her friend flop down beside her. On our right was a bar so packed with people that I couldn’t really see it, except occasionally I caught a hint of gleaming wood as the crowd shifted.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” a deep voice asked from behind me.
I groaned as one of the muscled men who’d been at the farmers’ market stepped closer. He scowled as if he recognized me and didn’t remember me fondly. I swore the tattoo on his throat of a skull with fire for eyes was glaring at me, too.
“Uh, I have a meeting scheduled with Mr. Arthur,” I said, then winced when I realized my voice was higher than usual.
He glared at me before nodding and hooked his thumb toward a hallway. He took off ahead of us, leading the way.
“Are we sure this was a good choice?” Eric asked, bending close so he could shout-whisper into my ear.
I gestured for him to simmer down as we followed the man to a door, and he knocked. There were some loud words shouted from inside that I couldn’t really decipher, then something that sort of sounded like “What the fuck do you want?”
The big man opened the door. “People here looking for you, Prez. One is in a suit.”
“Let ’em in.”
There was laughter from someone else in the room, and the big guy pushed open the door and glared at us as we walked past him. Cigar smoke hung in the air, and I was a little startled as I stepped inside. There was a pale man packed with firm, wiry muscles in a black leather kilt and nothing else sitting on a desk. He cooed at a monster of a muscled guy on his knees in front of him who stared upward with big adoring eyes.
“We don’t beg,” the kilted man said and booped the other one on the nose. “Do we?”
The man on the floor kissed the knee of his object of affection, and the guy on the desk smirked lovingly.
“If you’re done ogling my treasurer, we can chat,” a man said coldly from the corner of the room, and I spun in that direction. He was shrouded in shadow, and I’d walked right past him. There was a fire burning behind the desk and the air was pleasantly warm after the storm brewing outside. The man leaned forward on a red leather couch, and light from the flames flickered on his face as he puffed on his cigar. A bottle of rum caught the firelight and gleamed in his lap.
“Uh, I’m sorry. I thought this was going to be a business thing. I’ve caught you while you’re in the middle of a party. We can come back on Monday,” I said, fighting the urge to rub my hands on my sweater. Shit, this was so unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Did people really do business this way?
The man snorted and leaned farther forward, flashing me a steely smile. The firelight caught the silver in his brown hair and his stormy blue eyes were alert. He didn’t look mean, exactly, but there was a hardness to the glare he gave me that had my stomach swooping. “I’ll be asleep Monday morning. We’re doing business now. Get over here.” He gestured at the leather chairs near him. “Timmy, grab these men some glasses.”
The man on the desk shot him a look and raised an eyebrow in his direction. I could read the “go fuck yourself” from here.
