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“Okay, fine.” The man, who must be Mr. Arthur, snorted out a low laugh as he stood up and handed me the bottle of rum he’d had in his lap. “Hold on to that.” He wandered toward an ebony bar in the corner of the room behind his desk and came back with glasses for everyone, minus the cigar. It was smoldering in an ashtray on the bar.
Eric’s face was covered in sweat and he looked like he was going to pass out, but Tav seemed fine, and his confidence let me take a deep breath.
“Thank you,” I said as Mr. Arthur walked around and poured rum into our glasses.
No ice.
No mixer.
Just rum.
Nerves bit at me as I introduced everyone, and Mr. Arthur grunted but didn’t bother giving me a rundown of the other occupants in the room. He did cruise his gaze over Tav, though, which had my jaw hardening, but it seemed more like he was sizing him up than anything.
“Sheep says nothing but good things.” He nodded at Tav. “As you might’ve heard, I’m looking for a good business or two to invest in,” he said, and if I’d thought the fact that this man had a party raging outside his office meant he wouldn’t be able to talk business, I could tell by his tone that I was mistaken. He sat down and slung his leg over the arm of the couch. “Wow me.”
Eric and I looked at each other, and my heart hammered. I felt so out of my element, but I nodded at Eric.
Mr. Arthur drummed his fingers impatiently on his knee.
Eric cleared his throat and smiled. “We’re looking for serious investors,” he said, then winced his way through sipping the rum in his glass. “Uh, you see, we’re in the tire business. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the tire expos, but most of our people used to work at Dailey Tires, a very well-established local company.”
“What kind of tires?” the man on the desk asked, letting me know that even if his eyes were locked on the boy toy at his feet, he was definitely paying attention.
It was time for me to take the plunge. “Well, ice tires, to be exact. I was the president of Dailey Tires and that was our big project while I was there. Due to several contracts, I can’t work on the same exact thing we were doing at my old company, but I was thinking about doing ice tires for motorcycles, which was part of why I thought we might be a good fit for each other. Of course, they can’t completely stop a motorcycle from sliding on the ice, but they grip much better than what is currently on the market and would let people ride longer into the winter. Be good for things like ice races for dirt bikes. Stuff like that.”
The man in the kilt walked over and stared down at me with his arms crossed. His nipple piercings glinted as he twisted to share a long look with Mr. Arthur, but then his intense blue gaze fixed on me. “Would those tires also grip on sand?” he asked, tone slightly warmer.
I glanced at Eric.
He nodded.
“We could test for it,” I said.
“Yeah, I’m in.” He went back over to the desk to pace around the man on the floor. “I’ll try those.”
“Oh, we just needed someone to invest,” I said with a grin. “You don’t need to be involved at all if you don’t have the time.”
Mr. Arthur grunted. “You’re not getting my money for a product we can’t see, but if you’ll let Timmy test out the tires, I’m all in. I need something that makes sense for me to be involved in, and as soon as Sheep told me what you were up to, it seemed too good to be true.” He slammed back a glass of rum. “So, I wanna make sure it isn’t. And if you’re on the level, I’m good. I’m in.”
“Just like that?” I asked, delight skittering down my spine. “I mean, great!”
Tav rested a hand on my thigh, almost like he was trying to tell me something, but I was excited. This was the final pot of cash we needed to really start focusing on the work.
“Well, I’ll shoot you if you’re fucking lying about the product or anything else, so I feel pretty confident in investing.” Mr. Arthur tipped his head back and rested it against the couch while he took a healthy swallow from his rum bottle. His empty glass teetered precariously on his knee but didn’t fall.
My heart rate tripled, and Tav laughed like that wasn’t the scariest fucking thing in the world. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, and he patted my leg.
“I’ve been in a car usin’ similar technology while it was on ice. It drove more or less like it was on solid ground. Judah only supports products that are good.” Tav’s Scottish accent was prominent, and I wondered what had caused that. If he was nervous, I couldn’t tell.
“I heard you got fired from your last job,” Mr. Arthur said, then stood and hissed as he stretched out his lower back, and the empty glass shattered on the floor. He barely glanced in the direction of the mess. “Come on.”
My stomach dropped. Fuck, why was he offering to invest, then? He had said that like it didn’t matter too much, more like a casual observation. Clearly, he’d researched us and wasn’t diving into this with his eyes closed.
Me, Eric, and Tav stared at each other, but then we followed Mr. Arthur out through the party. He didn’t stop to look around or even seem to register the chaos in progress. His movements were loose as he set the bottle of rum on the bar on his way past. The crowd parted like water for him. We dodged dancing drunk people who had darted out of his way but seemed determined to get into ours. Sloppy kissing and grinding and obnoxious laughter bombarded me from all sides.
By the time we escaped the noise, Mr. Arthur was standing outside next to a motorcycle. The wind lifted his hair and in his black leather jacket with his arms crossed, he seemed almost melancholy. And what a motorcycle. Unfortunately, I didn’t know much about them. I let out a whistle as he gestured at the custom steampunk pipework. Everything was shiny, clean, and extraordinarily complicated to look at.
“Timmy takes his shit seriously,” Mr. Arthur said, and there was a bit of a slur to his words, but he stood rock solid. “If you put something on his bike that’s going to kill him, or anyone in this club, he’ll be pissed, but more importantly, I’ll make you eat a bullet if it hurts him. I’ll drown your whole family in blood if it’s worse than that.”
