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A young woman strutted up to the bar. She stumbled a bit before catching herself. At first, I thought she was drunk, but then I took in more of her appearance. “Can I get another one of these?” she asked, handing an empty seltzer can over to Shi. I discreetly positioned myself at the end of the bar to get a better look. She looked at me, batted her fake eyelashes—and wobbled. She didn’t know how to walk in her shoes.
Shi, however, didn’t seem to notice anything odd about the situation. “Sure thing.”
“Hold on,” I said, making Shi freeze in their tracks. I turned to the girl. The too-high heels, the heavy layer of makeup and… aha: the ring on her finger. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-four,” she said without missing a beat.
I wasn’t buying it. “What year were you born?”
“1999.”
I’d been doing this way too long. I knew a rehearsed answer when I heard one. “Name one song by the Killers.”
“Who?”
I grinned. “That’s what I thought. Go home.”
She walked away, defeated.
“Jesus, Shiloh,” I sighed, grabbing the seltzer can from the counter. “You need to be more careful.”
“How did you know she was underage?”
“She had a high school class ring on her finger. One of the oldest tricks in the book: she swiped the can off an empty table. I’ve seen it a thousand times. Seriously, if we get caught serving minors that could be the end of it. You need to pay closer attention.”
“Um, yeah, you’re right…”
I winced. Maybe I’d been a little too harsh. I was feeling on edge, and I didn’t know how to fix it. The night had barely started, but I was ready for it to be over—and that wasn’t like me. I was typically the first one to show up for a shift and the last to leave, but tonight? Last call couldn’t come fast enough.
Shi was looking at me with a strange expression.
I couldn’t ignore it. “What’s that look for?”
“You’re really good at this, aren’t you?”
I bit off a smile. “Not sure I love that you sound so surprised.”
Before they could respond, a commotion in the back corner of the bar caught our attention: a fight was breaking out. Shi looked at me with panic in their eyes, and their look had me pausing to take a deep breath before I stormed over to separate the fighters. If this was how the night was going to be, I was in for a shitshow.
Turns out, that was only the beginning.
Chapter 14
That wasthe shift fromhell.
Closing time couldn’t come fast enough, and I all but shoved the last few patrons out of the bar. I may have been too aggressive closing and locking the front door… maybe. But the door deserved it. At least, that’s what I told myself when the glass rattled in its frame.
Red flooded my vision, and I thundered back across the floor to begin cleaning. James picked that precise moment to step into my path. I was in no mood to play any games and I wasn’t even sure how he tolerated being around me. I stepped to the side, and he matched it. And again when I tried ducking around the other way.
The asshole I’d tossed out at the start of the night had set the tone. People drank like fishes and by the end of it, I’d put one person in a taxi and broken uptwofights. I was no stranger to babysitting drunkards, but that didn’t mean Ilikeddoing it. It probably didn’t help that theextremelystressful conversation with Kian was still playing on a loop in my head. Worse, James had sent Shiloh home early after I’d lost my temper with them again.I owed them one hell of an apology. My lip had started to throb, making me irritable. But Shiloh deserved none of the hostility I threw their way.
“I don’t want to talk right now,” I snapped at James. I snatched a bar rag and wiped down the sticky, disgusting counter. James snatched the towel out of my hand, and I whirled on him, ready for a fight.
Even if that fight was with a vampire.
James stood there, holding the cloth out of reach, daring me to challenge him. “Did I say anything about talking?”
I fought the urge to look away from his intense stare. “I guess not,” I admitted.
