AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Well, hell. He always did have a sweet tooth.
“When are you going to ask her out?” Tanner’s voice broke through Dallas’s thoughts.
He turned to find his friend leaning back on the wall. The crowd had grown thick. The dance floor was full of people gyrating to the latest popular song. Bodies writhed against each other.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he muttered. His gaze cut to Tanner who smirked at him.
“Sure. Like you don’t have the hots for her.” Tanner chuckled. “She’s attractive, but none of us is willing to cross you to make a play for her.”
Dallas released a curse. He had thought he’d been able to hide his interest. He focused his attention back on the crowd. The atmosphere in the bar was electric. For once, everyone was behaving and just having a good time.
Hell yeah, he was interested in Candi. What red-blooded man wouldn’t be?
There was something in her eyes. Something he wanted to discover. Something made him want to erase the pain that he recognized in her large brown pools. Something was haunting her.
How did he know?
His past was plagued with darkness.
But her smile, those dimples appearing on her cheeks, brought him out of the darkness.
“I have no claim on her,” Dallas replied. His gaze roamed the establishment and settled on Candi passing out drinks at a table full of women. She laughed at something one of them said, and his gut clenched.
She was absolutely beautiful.
“So, you wouldn’t care if I asked her for her phone number?”
Dallas’s gaze swiveled to Tanner who cocked an eyebrow at him. His friend would be considered handsome by women. Hell, he always had a female hanging off him when they worked the bar. Red clouded his vision at the thought of Tanner making moves on Candi. A vision of his fist plowing into Tanner’s face appeared in his mind, but that wouldn’t satisfy Dallas. “You do, and I’ll shoot you in the face.”
He meant it, too.
Dallas and Tanner were both police officers for the same precinct. They had met a few years ago, and Tanner had become one of the few men he’d call a friend. It had been Tanner who had helped Dallas get in to work security at The Commoner. It wasn’t that he was so strapped for cash he needed the second job. Dallas needed to stay busy.
Half of his life, he’d served his country before joining the police force. He had been a bright-eyed boy of seventeen when he’d enrolled into the Marines. Now at the age of thirty-six, he was left cold and hollow. He’d seen so much death in his years in the service. Things most people shouldn’t even know about. It had been his job to ensure that most Americans didn’t realize certain things were going on in the world. Things that haunted him and caught up to him in his sleep.
So taking a second job helped him escape the nightmares.
He couldn’t offer Candi much.
He was too riddled with scars from his former life that any woman with half a brain would run far from him.
It didn’t keep the desire for her away.
Tanner barked a laugh and shook his head. “Roger that, old man. I’m going to circulate for a few minutes. I’ll be back.”
Dallas scowled, watching his friend disappear into the thick crowd.
A burst of deep laughter and heckles grabbed his attention. Dallas caught sight of a group of men laughing and slapping each other on the backs while they were seated in Candi’s section. He instantly went on alert. By the looks of them, they were already heavy in their cups. He scanned the club and found Candi standing at the bar. She had yet to go over to the new table. He’d have to keep a close eye on the bunch. Men like that were unpredictable. Drunk, potentially high on something, and out to party.
Dallas met the gaze of Liam, another bouncer in the bar. They shared a nod. Liam must have picked up on the guys, too. They would keep an eye on them, and if they got out of hand, Dallas and the bouncers would handle them swiftly.
Dallas tensed. Candi walked over to the table of men. She smiled, but it wasn’t her usual killer-watt smile. Dallas was able to read her body language clear across the room. She was uncomfortable with the men at the table, and her guard was up.
Good.
The music in the bar seemed to grow louder. Dallas grimaced. It wasn’t his type of music, but then again, he wasn’t getting paid to critique the song choices of the DJ.
“You see table forty-five?” Van, the fourth bouncer in the bar came to stand by him. He was a big, burly man with a full beard and crazy hair that stood up in every direction.
