Chapter 21 Juliet
JULIET
Lex’s eyes are fixed on me as I cart one round of drinks to a table before marching to the next.
Ma-Ri’s offer of my job back is because of them, so I don’t complain, but I’m annoyed that it seems as if he thinks he needs to be here to watch after me.
So, I steadfastly ignore his heated gaze on my ass as I make my way back up to the bar, meeting up with Mads as I do.
“I’m so glad that you’re back,” she says, grinning at me. Her blonde hair has been pulled up into a long ponytail that sways with her bouncing movements as she collects the drinks at the end of the bar onto her tray.
“Glad to be back,” I reply, moving my eyes from her to the front doors as they swing inward.
My buoyed mood plummets when I see who it is.
Detective Lann. “Fuck.” I grimace and glance away from him to Lex, hoping he hasn’t noticed the man yet, but, of course, luck isn’t on my side.
He’s already clocked the guy and is watching him with narrowed eyes.
“I’m taking my break,” I call out to the bartender before turning to Mads. “Will you cover my tables until I get back?”
She frowns at me, following my attention to the man at the door. “Sure.” Her tone suggests concern and confusion, but I don’t have time to assure her or tell her why I don’t want the detective currently in charge of searching for Morpheus’ killer in here.
I cut across the club, heading in his direction, grateful that he, at least, hasn’t made it any farther into the space before I reach him. “What are you doing here?” I ask the heavy-set man in an ill-fitted, cheap suit.
Detective Lann casts a disdainful look around the club before removing a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbing at the sweat on his brow before answering. “I received an anonymous tip that you were working here. I came to see if it was true.”
How the fuck could he have found out where I work when I just started up again?
“Why does where I work matter?” I cross my arms over my chest. “I’m eighteen. It’s not a crime.”
Lann arches one bushy brow. “A little defensive there, aren’t ya, girl?”
The condescension with this man—ugh. I roll my eyes. “You aren’t supposed to talk to me directly,” I remind him. “If you want to ask me any more questions, you’ll have to do so through my lawyer.”
Before the detective can reply, there’s a big, hulking body right next to me, a shadow passing between the older man and me.
“Is there a problem?” Lex asks, voice deep.
It’s lucky that tone can’t be considered enough of a threat to arrest someone because if it were, I suspect Detective Lann would already have Lex slapped into a pair of cuffs with the way he nearly stumbles as he jerks back a step.
“No,” I say, turning to press my hands against his chest. Lex moves back a step, but I know it’s not because I’m actually forcing him. If he didn’t want to be moved, he wouldn’t. End of story. “Please go sit down.”
“He’s not supposed to be near you,” Lex says.
Lann dabs at his forehead again, eyes looking over Lex warily. “I merely came to confirm whether or not the information I received was accurate,” he states.
“You still haven’t told me why it matters where I work,” I snap. “Besides, aren’t you supposed to be investigating a murder?”
Detective Lann carefully slips his handkerchief back into his wrinkled suit pants. “I’m investigating suspects and their circumstances,” he replies.
I stiffen. “I didn’t kill him.” The words hiss from my lips before I can stop them. They’re true, but the words ‘murder’ and ‘kill’ are definitely beginning to draw attention from the other hosts and their guests. I shake my head. “This is unprofessional. If you want to talk, we can do it outside.”
My hands drop from Lex’s chest and I head for the doors. Lann eyes Lex for a moment longer before turning and coming after me. The relief that floods my body makes my steps far less jerky as I pop open the front doors to The Dionysus Lounge and lead the detective outside.
Twilight burns across the sky, bleeding red, orange, and pink as day shifts to night. I take several steps away from the doors, stop, and turn back to face the man. Lex, of course, has followed both of us, but hangs back, hovering with a dark look by the club doors.
“I don’t know who told you about my job—” And I doubt he’d tell me since he claimed it was an ‘anonymous’ tip, so I won’t even bother asking. “—but you can’t just come in here. This is harassment.”
“It’s not,” Lann says.
My gaze narrows on him. “Harassment is defined as aggressive pressure or intimidation,” I state.
“Are you going to tell me that you’re not trying to intimidate me by coming to my place of work?
” I don’t wait for him to respond, as I’m sure I wouldn’t like his answer anyway.
“Besides, this is my first shift in months,” I tell him. “Since before Morpheus was killed.”
“That so?” Lann asks, intrigued. I grimace as he pulls out a small notepad and pen. “Mind if I put that on the record?”
A groan works its way up my throat. Abel is going to kill me, but answering a few more of his questions can’t do me any more harm, especially if I’m truly not the one who killed Morpheus. “Fine,” I snap with a wave of my hand. “But I will tell my lawyer about this.”
“Of course,” Lann agrees. “I’d expect nothing less. Now, if you’re available, a few more questions since I’m already here…”
“I’m on a break,” I say. “I don’t have much longer.” How long has it been already? Fifteen minutes? I doubt Mads will be mad, but I’ll still feel bad for making her do double the work.
“How long have you worked here?” Lann asks.
I answer him, glossing over the period where I’d been fired due to Darrio Vargas and instead giving him some bullshit about taking time off to focus on school for midterms. He asks a few more questions, most of them regarding my income and what I’d been previously using it for when I wasn’t living with Morpheus.
He inquires about when I moved back in with him and why—that, though… I have to lie about.
“I wasn’t sure how good of an idea it was for me to be staying at my friend’s place after my apartment burned down,” I say. “Morpheus offered…”
“But you left pretty soon after he died,” Lann deadpans.
“I was gone for that night, but I still had things at his house,” I say. Things he’d bought me that I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole, but the detective doesn’t have to know that. “If you’ve searched his home for clues, you’d know that.”
“Why haven’t you been back to pick those things up?”
“Because I didn’t know I was allowed to now that Morpheus is gone,” I say, exasperated.
Taking a step back from him, I cut off his next question before he can verbalize it.
“Maybe if you spend more time actually looking for the killer instead of chasing me, you’d have caught them by now.
I have to get back to work. I suggest you do the same. ”
Detective Lann’s sagging jaw gapes as I stomp away from him and back towards The Dionysus Lounge. Lex reaches for the handle of the door as I approach and holds it wide for me. “Do I need to talk to him?” he asks as I pass by and into the dark interior.
“No.” My arms close around myself as I realize several eyes are on me as I head towards the bar where Mads is standing guard, filling up another tray with drinks.
“Thanks.” I offer her as much of a smile as I can muster as I take the tray from her hand. “Which table is this for? I’ll take care of it now. You can take your break.”
Without answering my initial question, Mads cups my shoulder gently. I stiffen under her gentle touch. “Are you okay?”
Closing my eyes, I force myself to inhale quickly and exhale slowly. When I reopen them, I paste on a smile that is far more false but at least it stretches wider. “I’m fine,” I lie. “Go on—I know I took a longer break than I was supposed to. I’ll cover things here.”
With that, I turn away and move down into the center of the club.
I guess which table she’d been able to deliver these drinks to based on who has the emptiest first rounds and am grateful when I appear to be right.
I pass out the drinks onto the low-top table and men mutter to each other as the host glares at me and reaches for her own drink—a mocktail meant to make it look like she’s drinking with them.
Ignoring her, I straighten and move away.
The rest of my shift is uneventful with both Gio and Nolan popping in about an hour after the detective to take up residence alongside Lex.
I deliver a few beers to them—grateful Lann didn’t even think to call out Lex’s potential drinking when he was here.
But by the end of my shift, the guys have switched to soda.
When the lights go up and the last of the regulars have left, Nolan’s and Gio’s expressions are as dark and frustrated as I feel.
Mads and I finish cleaning the club faster than we ever have before and are out well before our usual time. We walk together into the back parking lot, a car already waiting for Mads with its lights on.
“Do you want us to walk you over?” Nolan asks, even as he comes up next to me and throws an arm around my shoulders.
“No, that’s all right.” Mads practically beams at him. “Thank you, though.” She waves to me. “See you at school!”
“See ya…” I watch her walk away, her steps fast and sure and her ponytail swishing against her back.
“Come on, Princess.” Nolan nudges me around to where the SUV and Gio’s Firebird are parked. “Let’s get back.”
“I need to call Abel,” I confess.
“Already taken care of,” Gio says, stepping up to my other side. I glance over my shoulder to find Lex behind the three of us, his gaze scanning the otherwise deserted lot.
Mads’ ride is already pulling out by the time we reach our vehicles. I’m already shivering from the temperature drop, puffing out breaths that fog in front of my face. I stop when I get to the passenger side of the SUV. Nolan reaches past and opens the door for me and I turn, facing him.
“Why the hell does it feel like no matter how much I try to move forward the past just won’t let go?”
He’s quiet for a long moment, Gio and Lex shadows at his back. There are no answers in the dark of the night. Only questions.
Why did all of this shit have to happen to me? Why not someone else? When will it be over?
Rough hands cup my cheeks and Nolan’s brown eyes, ringed in a fiery tinge of cinnamon red, bore into mine.
“People fear what they don’t understand, Jules.
None of them can understand you. You’re too strong.
Too vibrant. Too much. They wouldn’t be able to handle what you’ve been through. They can’t understand how you can.”
His breath is warm against my cheeks, smelling of spearmint gum and the citrus of his orange soda from earlier. I bite down on my lower lip to stop it from trembling. My eyes burn with the need to cry, but I won’t. I won’t let them have more tears from me. I’m tired of crying.
“I want this to be over,” I say, my words a whisper between us, but I know he’s not the only one who hears me.
The others, Gio and Lex, hear me as well.
They step up closer, boxing me in—three bodies surrounding me.
Not a threat, but a promise of protection.
Nolan stays close but lets his hands and arms drop from my face.
“It will be, baby,” Lex swears as he, too, reaches out and brushes his thumb over my lower lip, forcing me to release it from my teeth. The pad of his digit runs over the indentions I’ve made as if he’s not happy with the marring. “We’ll make sure of it.”
Last, but never fucking least, Gio reaches for me. His hand slips into one of mine—wide, big, calloused. It makes me shiver as I remember what those hands felt like roving over my naked skin.
“We just need to make it through this year,” Gio reminds me. “Then we’re gone. We’ll be out of Silverwood for good.”
Locking eyes with him in the shadowy darkness of the parking lot, I nod and repeat his words back to him, letting him see that I’m just as ready for that truth as they are. “For good.”