Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Corvus…
“Well, that’s new.” I looked up at the monitor in the corner behind the bar, its screen split six ways. Revenant had made the dry comment, but he didn’t mean anything by it. He was just bringing the presence of what, to the rest of the club, amounted to an outsider and thus an unknown quantity.
“She’s mine,” I said with conviction, and Rev turned from the monitor to look at me, curiously.
“The real estate lady from last week?” he asked.
“Word sure does get around,” I said, and though I probably sounded disgruntled, I wasn’t. I didn’t care how much the boys talked about business, like clean up on aisle thirteen. What I worried about was whether their faith or trust in me was shaken.
“Just the facts, man. A few got a little nervous, but I ain’t one of ‘em,” he said and took a drink from his bottle of microbrew. I threw him some chin in acknowledgment for having my back.
“Appreciate it,” I said.
“You going to go down and get her?” he asked, his attention back on the monitor as she took some halting steps across the cracked asphalt of our parking area out front for visitors and cages.
“Nope,” I said and took another drink of my beer. “Let’s see how she does finding her way up here on her own.”
“Specter’s down there,” he said dryly.
I grinned.
“Even better,” I muttered.
“Bets on if he’ll give her hell?” he asked.
“Pfft, that’s a given,” I said. “The real bet is if she’ll fold like cheap origami or if she’ll give him hell back.”
Rev turned back to me with a slow grin and said, “So, that’s why.”
I raised an eyebrow and said, “So, that’s why, what?”
“You lose interest entirely too quick if they aren’t a challenge,” he said.
I rolled my eyes.
“It’s not like that,” I said.
“Isn’t it?” he asked.
I frowned. “Okay, maybe it’s exactly like that—” I said, but then I stopped myself and leaned forward, swatting his arm and pointing up. She’d made it through the open garage door and was looking up and around. Specter was already heading down the stairs to intercept her.
“Yo!” We heard him through the door, and the cadence of his heavy boots descending the metal scaffolding-style steps to the landing before they turned to finish their way down to the garage.
We couldn’t hear what she said in return, but we saw her lips move on the monitor.
The burst of laughter out of Specter didn’t surprise us. The guy could be a real asshole – but none of us minded too much. He tended to keep the tourists and lookie-loos out of the club, which suited us just fine.
“She’s gonna fold,” Rev said.
I chuckled and said, “Five bucks she doesn’t.”
She said something back to Specter, and Rev pulled a hundred out of his pocket and put it on the bar.
I matched him, and Specter got in her face.
She stood her ground, and when he reached out to grab her face, she batted his hand away and called out with a voice raised and clear, somewhere between iron and steel, “Corbett, come get this mongrel out of my face, please?”
I slapped my hand on the bar and slid the two hundreds my way as Rev chuckled and shook his head.
“She’s got a brass pair of ovaries. Surprise, surprise,” he said, and I winked at him, went out onto the catwalk, and leaned on the railing.
“Let her up, Specter. She’s with me.”
He muttered something at Savannah, catching her by her arm as she made to pass him.
She stared up at him with stubborn pride and jerked her arm out of his grasp as she ascended the stairs past him.
He winked at me behind her back, and I raised an eyebrow and shot him an amused look when she took her eyes off me to hold on to the stair rail and watch her step coming up the metal grating in her heels.
I met her at the top of the stairs and took her hand lightly, glimpsing the necklace I’d bought her and she’d inquired about by text.
I buried my hand in the back of her hair and pulled her to me, covering her mouth with mine, and she responded beautifully, practically melting into me.
Her tongue touched mine, and it was a burst of sensation, like sweet sunshine filling my mouth and surging through the rest of me, setting me aglow with all the colors of the sunset.
We kissed on the steps in front of my brother, and I felt wholly possessive of her.
It was intoxicating as it was dangerous.
I wasn’t exactly known for catching feelings, and to be honest, I would rather keep it that way.
Feelings complicated things, made them messy and unpredictable.
I didn’t like that feeling. That feeling of falling and of being out of control.
I preferred my heart tame and, in my breast, rather than flying wild and fancy free.
I’d done that once, and I’d paid a steep price when I’d found I’d just been… well… when I hadn’t mattered at all, really.
Savannah drew back, and I let her, her blue eyes wild with excitement and her smile an echo of the one I kept firmly off my face.
“Well, hello to you, too,” she purred, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
My eyes wandered back to the pendant I had gifted her, and I couldn’t decide if the blue of the stone made her eyes that much brighter, or if it was her eyes that made the stone glow. I touched the hollow of her throat where it rested and let a pleased smile slip.
It was stunning against her sun-kissed skin.
“I don’t know what to say,” she murmured.
“How about ‘thank you?’” I suggested.
She smiled wryly and said, “Thank you, but I’d like to know why.”
“Come with me.” I changed the subject and guided her toward the bar and caught Specter looking up at us with a strange sort of intensity. Well, not me, but Savannah.
“Revenant, this is Savannah. Savannah, this is Rev.” I made a short introduction and said, “You met Specter on the stairs.”
“Pleasure to meet you,” Savannah said to Revenant, and held out her hand to shake his. He grasped hers and brought it to his lips, brushing her knuckles lightly with his lips.
“Pleasure’s all mine, for sure,” he said, and she giggled.
Rev was the brother who looked a lot like that actor, Daniel Craig.
We loved his James Bond flicks the best, but he really was great in all he did – even that flop, Cowboys vs.
Aliens. Still, the more folks likened Rev to Bond, the more he just sort of adopted that air of mystery.
His greeting with Savannah was just one more thing that came off as cheesy as fuck to me because it was so a thing that Bond would do.
Rev may be drowning in pussy galore – but this pussy was mine. I let him know it by gathering Savannah into my side.
Savannah remarked about Rev being a lot nicer than Specter, and he and I shared a laugh.
“Specter has a chip on his shoulder,” Rev said. “Don’t mind him.”
“Agreed,” I said.
“Good to know,” she murmured.
I asked her, “What’s your poison?”
She turned to look at the bar and laughed, saying, “I prefer fruity and girly. Afraid I’m just apt to be made fun of if I ordered what I usually do when it comes to cocktails.”
I chuckled at that and said, “We’ve got wine, beer, cider, some hard seltzers…”
She heaved a sigh and said, “With the day I’ve had, a cocktail is where it’s at, honestly.”
“Prospect!” Rev bellowed, and Savannah jumped in the circle of my arms at the unexpected noise.
Spooky appeared from one of the bathrooms he’d been cleaning and stripped off the blue gloves he had on.
“Yes, sir?” He looked expectantly to Rev.
“Make the lady a drink. Whatever she wants,” he said.
Spook went behind the bar, tossed the gloves, and reached for a glass. Both Rev and I shouted at him at the same time, “Wash your hands!”
He immediately diverted to the bar sink without touching anything, hit the soap dispenser to load a hand with soap, then flicked on the sink with the other hand.
“What’ll it be?” he called back over his shoulder at Savannah, who looked amused, but did her best to hide her smile behind her hand.
“A Georgia Peach, please,” she called just as he cut the water and shook out his hands. He picked up a bar towel to dry them off.
“Uhhhh…” He didn’t know what it was.
Before he could ask, Rev was already there, snapping at him, “Look it up! There’s a whole ass cocktail book right next to you!”
He picked up the bar’s copy of The Ultimate Bar Book and at least had the brains to go to the index to look for it.
“Uh, the only thing in here is a Georgia Julep. Is that the same thing?”
She laughed and said, “No, juleps have mint, and I’m not a fan of mint in my drinks. A Georgia Peach is simple – one ounce Peach Schnapps, one ounce White Rum, stir in orange juice, and give it a float of cranberry.”
“Oh, shit, I can do that,” he said. “Tor would probably make it better, but I can give it a go.”
“Tor?” she asked, looking up at me curiously.
“Torment. He’s an executive chef. Anything he touches when it comes to food or drink winds up magic, so Spooky here isn’t wrong,” I explained.
“Ah,” she nodded. I guided her to a seat at the bar and helped her up. I took the one next to her, keeping myself between her and Rev while Spooky busied himself making her drink behind the bar.
“So, why here?” she asked me as Spook set her drink in front of her and set a fresh beer in front of me.
“Fuck off,” I told him when he looked at me expectantly.
“Rude!” Savannah protested on his behalf.
“It’s part of it,” Spooky said with a half-assed laugh and a shrug of his shoulder as he did what I told him and fucked off back to cleaning the shitter.
Savannah gave me a reproachful look, and she wore the disapproval well on her lovely face. So much so, it almost moved me, but not this time.
“So, what was so important you just had to have me here?” she asked, taking a sip of her drink.
“You didn’t do what I told you to do this morning,” I said casually, and her eyes lit up with a darker, almost salacious light when she caught on.
“Oh? And remind me, what was it I was supposed to do?”