Chapter 20
Before they went to the club, everyone dressed in fancier duds—the women wearing skirts or dresses, the guys wearing dress pants and nice shirts.
At the club, they got three tables and moved them together, then ordered drinks. Gregory hurried to take Sascha to the dance floor, having been separated from her long enough. Besides, he had missed out at the Worthingtons’ party, and he wanted to make up for it.
She was just as eager to dance with Gregory, and they were quickly inseparable on the dance floor. He was so glad he had decided to move his bachelor party to South Padre Island and to spend some time with her.
Coconut sunscreen baked into warm skin mingled with spilled rum and the salt that clung to everyone who’d come straight from the beach, which distinguished this from other pubs in Texas.
Strobes fractured the crowd into freeze-frames—a raised arm here, a thrown-back head there—while laser lines sliced through the dark.
The bar glowed aquamarine beneath the bottles, casting everyone who leaned against it in the same translucent color.
The bar ran the full length of one wall, backlit bottles casting amber and green shadows across the bartenders’ hands as they worked while the men and women didn’t look up from their task.
Colored lights swept the ceiling in slow arcs, turning the sweat on dancers’ shoulders from blue to green to red to nothing, the pulse of the music keeping the dancers moving.
Voices rose as people competed with music, fragments of laughter, and the sound of the ocean drumming against the beach each time the doors were opened and patrons entered or left.
Gregory cherished this moment with Sascha, inhaling her intoxicating scent, from fresh air to coconut sunscreen, making him feel as if they were in a tropical paradise.
Their bodies pressed close, heat radiating between them, making his skin prickle with anticipation. If only they could have a moment alone tonight, then he would make wild, passionate love with her.
She laughed, a soft exhalation into his neck, and he responded with a smile. He wondered if she had read his mind.
“Almost always,” she whispered against Gregory’s ear, and he chuckled and kissed her mouth.
His hands slid lower, anchoring her to him, and she leaned into his strength, loving the way he subtly guided her through the crowd, as if they were the only two people in the dimly lit pub.
She didn’t see anyone else—not her cousins or aunt or uncle, not his dad or sister or mother.
It was as if they had been swallowed up in the pleasure of dancing, though she did wonder if Lucy and Damon were dancing with each other at all.
The music shifted, growing slower and sultrier, and Gregory’s grip on her tightened, his breath warm against her ear. She arched her back just enough to increase the pressure between them, and he responded instantly, as though they’d rehearsed this choreography a hundred times.
“I love dancing with you, and I’m glad we didn’t wait,” she said.
“Me too. I know we said we would go out with Kat and Prescott, but I’m glad we were able to do this sooner. Back home, we can do it again.”
“Agreed.”
After they danced several times, Sascha said, “Go, dance with your sister. I saw your dad dancing with her earlier, but now she’s nursing a drink. I can dance with—”
“Anyone but Damon.”
Sascha laughed. “Yeah, I wouldn’t dare do that with my aunt and my uncle and Lucy here. Not to mention you either.”
“I’m okay with you dancing with him, but I’m sure the rest of your family would object.” Then Gregory escorted her to the table, and they were surprised to see that Rose wasn’t there by the time they reached the table.
Nick said, “Red is dancing with Rose, if you wondered where she is.”
“Oh, good,” Gregory said.
“We’ve all taken a turn,” Nick said. “She has gotten a kick out of it.”
“I’m so glad,” Sascha said, noticing that Lucy and Damon were sitting far apart at the table. Both were sipping their drinks. Neither was smiling.
Had they had a disagreement? Or was this just going to be the typical way that they would handle matters between them?
Then a fight broke out between a man and another, the one saying, “You can’t have my girl.”
They all turned to see what the matter was.
“She ditched you, bro. Give it up.” The guy was dressed in western clothes and looked more suited to riding the range than dancing at a beach bar.
But the other guy wore a T-shirt and jeans, looked bullish, and didn’t seem to have any intention of giving up his ex-girlfriend.
Henry asked, “Do you want me to break it up?”
Gregory took a drink of his tequila sunrise. “Nope. The pub's bouncers need to deal with it. If it involves us, then that’s another story.”
Since Rose was busy dancing with the bodyguards, Gregory asked Sascha, “Do you want to dance farther away from the rabble-rousers?”
“No. One of them is going to pull a gun and shoot at the other,” Sascha suddenly said. “Everyone down.” She pulled Gregory down, while Uncle Jimmy tackled Aunt Meg to the floor.
Gregory’s dad and mom got on the floor behind a table. Prescott hurried to take care of Katrina. Nick raced through the dancers and got hold of Rose, even though she was dancing with Red, and took her to the farthest corner of the pub where she couldn’t get hurt, while Red hurried after them.
Lucy and Damon dove for cover, but not together. Gregory was sure Nick was telling Red and Rose what Sascha had envisioned and why he had interrupted their dance.
Most everyone was still dancing, unaware of the imminent danger.
Then the shooting began seconds later. Gregory was still behind the table with Sascha, but he saw a man go down, and then a woman, and without really thinking, he lunged forward to stop the shooter.
He got there first, grabbed the man’s arm, and jerked it upward. Nick quickly joined him. Red helped them take the shooter down to the floor as the music stopped and people hurried to get out of the building. Gregory removed the gun from the shooter’s hand.
Then Nick began checking out the man the gunman had shot. A bouncer gave him a cloth napkin to hold against the man’s chest.
Red and Gregory kept the shooter pinned down until one of the bouncers got handcuffs on the gunman.
They could hear sirens in the background while Red helped the woman who had been shot in the leg, and a nurse who was just dancing with her friend quickly assisted him.
Nick and another man helped a man who had been shot in the arm.
Omar and Henry watched over the ladies and Gregory. Distractions could easily make Gregory and maybe Sascha, if the attempted murderer was truly after her, an easy target.
Police and EMTs were there in short order.
The EMTs quickly began working on the wounded.
Most everyone there dancing had quickly vacated the club.
This made Gregory wonder if any of them were in trouble with the cops!
But he and his party stayed to give witness statements while the police took the shooter into custody.
Gregory hated that their trip to the pub to dance had turned into a nightmare. Unless Sascha objected strenuously, he wanted to make sure they all had dinner together tonight after what had happened.
When they were done giving their witness statements, and everyone who had blood on them had washed off in the restroom, Gregory wrapped his arm around Sascha’s shoulders and said, “About dinner tonight—”
“You want us to have dinner with you guys.”
“Yeah. Did you read my mind?”
“Absolutely. And I’m fine with it. I know the ladies will be too. You’re going to grill for us, aren’t you?”
He chuckled. “This mind-reading stuff is unreal.” He had to admit it kind of spooked him.
She laughed. “Just be glad you can’t see ghosts.”
“Okay, grilling it is. We’ll make a list of what everyone wants to eat, go shopping at the local market, and then meet up at our rental house. It has lots of outdoor seating and indoor seating for a barbecue.”
They all decided on chicken thighs and legs, corn on the cob, and spinach. The ladies planned to bring a fruit-and-cheese platter and buy a cake.
When it was all decided, they went home to change into more casual clothes, and then they ended up at the same grocery store, to everyone’s amusement.
Prescott and Kat paired up while Gregory and Sascha were together as they picked out whatever they needed. The other couples had been married for so long that they didn’t seem to need to stick together with their partners.
Damon and Lucy stayed far away from each other. Gregory wondered if they had danced on the floor together.
“Nope,” Sascha said to him. “And the bodyguards were afraid to ask her to dance because she is supposed to be Damon’s fiancée.”
Gregory sighed. “I guess you can listen to my thoughts because things are kind of quiet.”
“Absolutely. I really try not to pry, but when you thought of my cousin and her forced mate-to-be, I had to listen in. But Lucy was happy to enjoy her drink and watch the ‘entertainment.’”
“And Damon?”
“He was on his phone playing a game.”
Gregory shook his head. He couldn’t imagine being forced into the marriage, though he knew other cultures did the same thing. Still, he wasn’t all right with it. Maybe, as he got to know Aunt Meg and Uncle Jimmy, he could help change their minds.
“I doubt it,” Sascha said.
“I could be your silent partner.” Since Gregory didn’t even have to say anything, and she knew what he was thinking.
“I wouldn’t know what you’re thinking all the time, so we would miss out on a lot of conversations.” She smiled.
Once everyone got what they needed at the grocery store, they all walked out to the vehicles and drove to the guys’ beachside rental home.
Sascha shook her head as she got out of the car Gregory was riding in. “You guys are practically next door to us.”
Sascha was surprised they hadn’t run into the guys more often as close as the two houses were.