10. Locked
TEN
Locked
CARTER
The music from the Sapphire Saloon reached half a block out, announcing a band playing tonight before we saw the signs.
The place wasn’t too impressive from the outside: an older building, neon in the windows doing their best against the dark.
But inside it was probably what locals would call Montana chic: wooden tables, blue leather stools, a stocked bar, and at least a dozen beer pulls.
The walls had a mix of framed old black and white photos of locals on the lower half and stuffed heads of hunting trophies up high. The various dead animals stared and practically laughed at all the people here.
Couples packed the dance floor, twirling around in a circle, while a few ladies danced in the middle in some synchronized way.
The band was too loud, already going at it hard with a fiddle tune.
I wouldn’t say they were worthy of a Magnus Music contract, but for riling up this country crowd on a Friday night, they did just fine.
I’d been in bars on most continents. None had ever made me feel like the wrongest version of myself in thirty seconds.
The Sapphire managed it.
Trig found people he knew before his coat was off.
Jake did a slow pass, with me trailing behind him—deliberate, covering exits and corners before he steered us toward the bar.
I’d observed similar behavior from Dad’s security guards in the past, the ones with military backgrounds who had faced real danger before.
I wondered what action Jake had seen as a SEAL.
We landed at the very long bar, taking up two stools. Three bartenders were trying to keep up with the demand. A bartender named Smitty served us, according to the greeting Jake gave him, like they were old pals.
“Two drafts.” Jake ordered. To me, he added, “I’m buying this round. Celebrating your first week on the ranch.”
“Thanks, I guess.” A month ago, I was the one footing the bill for my friends at a club halfway around the world where drinks cost a premium.
Thankfully, the diner we had stopped at first had a Friday night burger special for five bucks.
One beer was probably my limit if I wanted any hope of paying Sage back.
Which was only possible because some guys in the bunkhouse had given me their extras of a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and deodorant.
All the basics I took for granted before…
if this experience taught me anything, it was not to take anything for granted anymore.
By this time tomorrow, I could leave and never come back. Return to my penthouse suite and be back at square one to figure out what the fuck to do to earn my inheritance.
God, a long night’s sleep in my own bed would feel so good.
Right now, I needed to find Sage.
When Smitty placed the beers in front of us, I took a chance and caught his eye and yelled above the noise. “Hey, have you seen a woman named Sage Wylde around?”
He thumbed behind him, where a woman came out from a set of doors carrying a case of bottled beer.
Sage…
Not dancing or talking with friends. Working. White apron tied at her waist, hair in a sleek ponytail. Was there ever a day this woman didn’t work?
I couldn’t look away. The way she moved behind the bar, confident and efficient, that low-cut white shirt doing dangerous things to my concentration—she made every other woman in the place disappear.
Jake elbowed me then, interrupting me. He pointed to a cluster of younger women nearby. I didn’t comment. Didn’t care. I flipped back to find the only woman who had captured my attention.
Sage made her way down the bar, serving others until she finally noticed me. Must have startled her to see me as she dribbled a little club soda outside of a glass, and had to clean it up.
“Hey. I didn’t know you worked here,” I shouted.
“Now and then. Smitty called around four. His regular got sick.” She moved back to the left to serve anyone but me, probably on purpose. Couldn’t blame her, which reminded me what I’d come here to do, if she’d stop long enough so I could hand her the cash.
The next thing I knew, Jake and Trig were pulling me away from the bar to a nearby table.
The women were local; they knew Trig, and within three minutes the one closest to me—Candy—had her hand on my shoulder, asking me too many questions about myself.
Hard enough to keep my lies straight around Sage.
I definitely did not need to add another woman into the mix.
Jake was doing the polite thing, being pleasant to Tessa on his left, but not leading anywhere, eyes on his glass more than the conversation. Huh? Shy when it came to women? She looked like a woman who could handle taking the lead, though.
The best I hoped for tonight was to be his wingman and help him out a little. So I took part in a conversation between Tessa and Candy, trying to draw poor Jake in at any chance I could.
Every time I glanced up, Sage was behind the bar, glaring at me like I was a cheating, no-good boyfriend.
Like she had a claim on me in the first place.
Not that I wanted to be in the middle of these women intentionally.
And for the record, I’d never cheated on a girlfriend in my life.
I might have been a playboy, with a long string of short-term relationships, but never, ever a cheater.
With her eyes on me when Candy laughed too loud at a remark I made about the drummer being off-count, Sage poured a beer for a man and then accidentally knocked it over into his lap when she placed it in front of him.
“Fucking bitch! What are you, dense? Jesus, it’s dribbled on my boots, too,” the guy stood abruptly, causing a scene, shouting even more obscenities at her.
I was ready to jump up and tell him to shut it and not to treat her that way, when Smitty reached her first and offered the guy a towel and free drinks for the rest of the night to calm him down.
With cheeks ruby red, she wiped the counter quickly and then disappeared behind the double doors again.
“Excuse me, ladies, you’ll have to entertain my buddy Jake for a moment.” I left the group and sneaked behind the bar and through the double doors without Smitty’s notice. I entered a kitchen where a couple of people were frying up bar food.
“Did Sage pass through here?” I asked.
One of them pointed to the back, through another set of double doors. On the other side of those was a stockroom and an open door to another room. It had “staff only” in faded paint on it.
I peeked in and found her there, leaning her shoulder against a pile of boxes, her back to me.
Despite the single dim bulb overhead, I could make out that the dark room held stacked chairs and folding tables along the wall.
“Sage, can we talk?” I asked and shut the door behind me to drown out the band. As it creaked closed, she gasped and turned, eyes wide.
“No! Don’t let it shut!” She ran to stop it, but too late. The door clicked into place. “Oh no. Hey, Smitty? Anyone? Let us out!”
“What’s the matter?” I asked, as she pounded on it and screamed Smitty’s name over and over, but he didn’t hear, the bar noise drowning her out.
“This door gets jammed when closed. We’re stuck here until someone gets us out.” She kicked the door with her boot for good measure.
“Shit. I didn’t know.”
She tried for another minute, yelling for help. I joined in, pounding and jiggling the handle, but it was no use.
She turned on me, eyes blazing. “What the hell are you doing back here, anyway? Following me?”
“You looked a little flustered out there.”
“So?”
“So I wanted to make sure you were okay. That guy at the bar was a dickhead.”
“I’m fine,” she clipped, and pressed her back against the door.
“Sure about that? I thought maybe you took issue with those women talking to me.”
“Flirt with whoever you want,” she scoffed, avoiding looking anywhere near me.
“I was trying to help Jake loosen up, not flirting.” I stepped closer.
Finally, her eyes locked with mine, and she tilted her head. “Seemed like it to me.”
“Why would you care, anyway?”
“I-I don’t,” she stepped around me further into the room.
That’s when I realized nothing but furniture surrounded us. Curious.
“Why did you come back here in the first place?”
“Huh? Just to check on something.”
I didn’t buy it, and maneuvered back into her line of sight. “Weren’t you frustrated because I wasn’t giving you all my attention?”
“I—we’re not—I don’t need your attention.” She pressed her lips together.
“That’s right, we’re not anything. But of anyone in this building tonight, you’re the only woman I’d want to spend time with. If I could.”
Her breath caught. Her lovely chest rising and falling. I gave her no reason for her cheeks to stop being red yet.
I sighed, tracing a hand through my hair. I’d worn the clothes I bought from her sister’s shop, but opted not to wear the cowboy hat, and turned out to be the only man in the bar without one.
“Sage, if only my life were different. If I knew I’d be here longer, I’d like nothing more than to…
to…” Damn, her eyes mesmerized me, cooled off now, lashes fluttering in the low light.
My gaze flicked down to her lips parting, soft and full.
I’d bet her mouth would feel damn good wrapped around my cock.
It didn’t help that her signature floral scent filled the space between us either.
“You were right. I came back here to remind myself that you aren’t mine. Because yes, it upset me to see you talking with other women,” she admitted and stepped closer. “I know you said you’re leaving. But you’re here now, and you just stated you’d like to spend time with me.”
“Yeah, so?” I had a feeling she was about to make this very difficult for me to even walk out of the bar tonight without her.
“So…” She stepped right into my space. “I’m a big girl, Carter. I can handle myself and keep my emotions in check. So why don’t we just, I don’t know, have fun together for however long you’re here?”