Chapter 5 Lia #2
Leo nods at the man, who nods back. Leo asks for a beer and holds up two fingers. He pays for the drinks and steers me away from the bar. I can feel the eyes of the people in the crowd burning into my back. We must look out of place, especially with me in my fringed white boho top and short shorts.
It suddenly occurs to me that we must stick out like sore thumbs. I can’t believe that I thought this would be a good idea. “We probably shouldn’t stay too long,” I say. “Do you see your brother?”
Leo shakes his head no. “Drink your beer. I’m going to hit the head.” He motions toward the back of the bar. “I wanna walk the place, act like I’m looking for the can, and see if there’s anyone in there, anything that I can connect to Tim. If not, let’s get the fuck out of here.”
I nod, not letting on to Leo that I’m nervous he’s going to leave me alone. I take a sip of my beer and avoid looking at anyone in particular. I play it cool and try to blend in with the crowd of people all dressed in drab and dark clothes.
Checkers does one thing right. The beer is ice-cold, and the bubbles hit my tongue just right.
I drink it down and try to act casual. I don’t look around and attempt to behave like I would any other time I was alone at a club.
I focus on my beer and make an effort not to make eye contact with anyone.
“Come here often?” A voice behind me causes me to twirl. When I meet the familiar gray-green eyes, I frown.
“No,” I say. “But why am I not surprised that I’m running into you here?”
Josh looks at me with something akin to shock on his face. “Hey,” he says. “I’m sorry about what’s going on. It’s not personal.”
Not personal? “Try telling that to someone who’s about to lose the roof over their head.” I’m pissed at the guy for what’s happening, but deep down, I can’t hate him.
It’s not his fault, any more than any of this is Leo’s fault. He’s doing his job. Tim’s the one we should all be mad at, and still…
“I shouldn’t be fraternizing with the enemy.” I turn to walk away, but Josh stops me with a hand.
“Enemy?” he echoes. He looks disappointed, but his face quickly hardens. “Look, I don’t know what Leo told you, but you shouldn’t be here.” He flicks a look toward the bar. “This whole place. Nothing but eyes and ears.”
“Really?” I demand. “But funny how none of those eyes and ears seem to know where Tim is.”
Josh glances over at me and, for a moment, looks like he wants to curse me out, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t speak at all.
“All right,” he says finally. “I get it, okay? You’re pissed and I get it, but you need to get your boyfriend and get out of here. This place isn’t safe.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I snap, without even thinking about it. I’m pissed off now. This guy is the one who holds our future—my future—in his hands. And he’s telling me to shut up and go home? “And apparently, home isn’t safe anymore either.”
I turn away, ready to go hunt down Leo, when I feel a hand on my arm.
A zing of heat travels along my skin, and I melt, just a little.
I’m not here for that, though. Josh may be sexy and dangerous, but he’s the reason Leo and I may lose our home.
I can’t afford to entertain even a little bit of lust for him, no matter how his touch makes me feel.
“Lia.” Josh’s voice is low, like he doesn’t want anyone else to hear him talking to me. “Dance with me.”
“What?” I squint at him. There are a few women tapping the necks of the beer bottles together, swaying to a country rock song, but no couples are dancing.
“Come on. Privacy.”
He holds out his hand, and I grudgingly set down my beer on a table already cluttered with empty glasses and take his hand. The next thing I know, he’s tugged me close.
I reluctantly slide my hands around his back and rest them on the freakishly toned muscles of his lower back.
He shakes his head and unlaces my hands.
He moves them to his shoulders and secures his arms behind my back.
Our hips bump together as we barely sway with the song.
My breasts rub against his chest, sending sparks flying through my middle.
Damn, why does the one man I hate have to be so hot?
Josh lowers his head and whispers against my hair.
“You shouldn’t be here. If Leo wanted to come looking for his brother, that’s on him. This is no place for you.”
“I didn’t give him a choice,” I snark back.
I try to focus on the anger I’m feeling at Josh because with him this close to me, with his enormous arms around me, my body is being a traitorous bitch.
My knees grow weak, and I want to close my eyes, rest my head against Josh’s chest. But I can’t. This is only physical. He’s a hot piece of ass, emphasis on the ass. I can’t want him. He’s not a good guy.
I tug my arms free and step away from him as Leo comes up beside me.
“You two having fun?” Leo asks. It’s clear he’s not amused.
He doesn’t greet Josh at all, and Josh responds in kind, maybe realizing it’s better that they don’t appear as if they know each other.
“You plannin’ on going home?” Josh asks, his voice icier now. He looks at a watch on his wrist. “It’s getting late.”
“We just got here, so we’re good.” Leo turns away abruptly and takes my elbow.
He leads me to a corner where the crowd is a little thinner. There are no open tables or chairs, so we stand together, my back to the crowd.
“I can’t believe that guy,” I say. “I don’t like the game he’s playing. Even though this is his business, this is our lives. Does he have any compassion? Any heart at all?”
Leo is quiet, scanning the crowd and sipping his beer. If he’s thinking anything about catching me in Josh’s arms, he sure as hell doesn’t say anything about it, which almost makes me feel worse.
“I wanna get you out of here,” he says. “I don’t know what the fuck we thought we were gonna accomplish. I don’t think this is safe.”
“What? Leave now?” I ask. “We just got here.”
I have an idea.
“I think a cover story makes a lot of sense.” I give him a light shove and shake my head. Then I raise my voice. “Can you fuck off? We’re roommates, okay? I’m not your girlfriend. I’m allowed to talk to whoever I want.”
I give him a look and turn away, heading back toward the bar. Sweet-talking my way into and out of anything is something I used to be able to do. It wasn’t something I’d had to do since I met Leo. But it’s time to see if I’ve still got it.
I head over to the bar. There’s not an open seat anywhere, so I rest a hand lightly on the shoulder of a burly dude in a black T-shirt. “Mind if I slip past?” I gesture toward the table where I set down my empty beer. “I could really use a refill.”
The guy looks behind him as if he’s checking to see if I’m alone or with anyone. “Yeah,” he mutters, not looking too interested in talking.
“Thank you.” I turn on the charm and give him a smile. The guy’s older, gotta be nearing fifty. But guys my dad’s age always seem to love chatting me up at bars, so I trust this bruiser’s no different.
I stand patiently between the big guy and the man next to him, waiting to catch the bartender’s eye.
But I’m not trying too hard. I scratch my nail against the top of the bar, staring at the taps, trying to decide what else might be good.
Basically doing everything I can to act cool, and finally, I think it works.
“You here alone?” the burly guy asks.
Bingo.
“Roommate’s back there somewhere.” I motion toward the crowded room without looking back.
“But we’re not here together, if that’s what you’re asking.
” I give him a guarded smile. The kind that’s friendly, polite, but not over the top.
I don’t want him to think I’m playing him for drinks or coming on too strong.
I stare down the bar and make safe, polite conversation.
“I’ve never been here on a weeknight before,” I admit.
That’s another thing I learned in the year I spent on the road. Before I found a place to stay with Leo, I spent a whole year living out of my van with my pups. I learned a lot about people—for better or worse. Men especially.
“I thought they had a decent dart game, but I might be thinking of the wrong place.”
The guy on the barstool sizes me up. “Darts are over there,” he says, using his beer bottle to point to the games. “But they’re pretty closed up. Not a lot of space for newcomers.”
“I get it,” I say. I shrug and toss my hair over my shoulders.
Getting it off my chest will give the guy an unobstructed view of my cleavage.
“Maybe I should roll. A girl could die of thirst trying to get a beer.” I move like I’m going to leave, like I’m getting impatient.
I don’t look at the man, but I stare off at the bartenders as if getting another drink or deciding to leave is my only focus.
The guy beside me nods. “Pat,” he calls out. “Another round—and one for the young lady.”
The bartender looks at us both and nods.
“Thank you,” I say to the man. I offer him my hand. “I’m Lia.”
“Nice to meet you, Lia,” he says. I notice right away he doesn’t give me his name, but at the same time, he gets up off his barstool and nods. “You wanna have a seat?”
Over the next hour, I talk to my bar buddy. I still don’t know his name, but that doesn’t matter.
He’s asking me a lot of questions, easy things I can answer. I can tell he’s feeling me out. He’s asking things like where I grew up, what I do.
I get the sense he’s either trying to figure out whether I’m interested in him or if I’m a cop or something—maybe both. And that’s interesting information. Whether it’s useful or not, I’ll find out eventually.
When he finally gets around to asking what I do, my answer seems to interest him. “I own a doggie day care,” I say. “Nothing fancy. I get to do what I love without feeling like I punch that nine to five.”
“You a dog lover?” he asks. But something in the way he asks makes me think he’s still digging for information.
“I am,” I say. This is no time to not be honest. I don’t know who this guy is or what, if anything, he may know about Juliette and Tim.
But the fact that he was able to get me a beer and that a bunch of people shifted seats to make room for him when he gave up his stool for me makes me think he’s at least part of the regular crowd here. “Animals are a good business,” I say.
Something in his demeanor changes. I’m not sure what I said or didn’t say, but it’s clear he’s done talking.
“Well, Lia.” He stands and gives me a pleasant nod. “Maybe I’ll see you around here again some time.”
“I’d like that,” I say. I can’t thank him by name because he never gave it to me. I am pretty sure that was intentional. “Thanks for the beer.”
I watch him walk away and notice he and the bartender trade a look as he goes.
Leo is behind me before anyone else can grab the empty seat. “You really know how to make friends,” he growls.
I shrug. “Depends on your idea of a friend.”
“Let’s go,” he says. He lowers his voice. “We’re getting the fuck out of here.”
I nod and leave my empty beer bottle on the bar.
I don’t see Josh anywhere until we’re near the door.
I see him, sitting at a crowded table. He’s got his back to the wall, and a woman in black jeans and a black denim jacket is sitting on his lap.
He doesn’t make eye contact with us. Whether it’s intentional or not, it’s probably for the best.
We walk through the crowd and head for Leo’s truck.
We don’t speak, and I’m too caught up in trying to think through my conversation with the man at the bar.
Nothing. I come up with absolutely nothing.
It’s not like I had any natural openings to ask if he knew a woman named Juliette.
And I’m guessing from the tightness in Leo’s face, he didn’t learn anything helpful either.
Once Leo pulls away from the parking lot, he seems to breathe a lot easier.
“That was fucking pointless. And I was worried sick the whole goddamn time you were talking to that guy.” He sniffs hard and looks over at me.
“I couldn’t even talk to anyone. All I did was stare at you two.
All I could picture was him slipping something into your drink and carrying your ass out of there. ”
That honestly had never occurred to me. That I could be in some sort of danger like that.
I was worried about finding Tim’s junkie wife, not about the guy who practically acted like he was forced to talk to me at the bar.
While it’s sweet that Leo cares, I’m a little surprised he watched me the whole time.
“Did you find out anything?” I ask. “Talk to anyone?”
He grunts, and I take that as a no. “What about you?”
I shake my head. “No. Nothing at all. The only thing I know is the guy I was talking to never told me his name. Most guys aren’t like that.
They want your number, and they come on strong.
Maybe it’s the place, maybe it’s me, but nothing really came of it.
I don’t even know what I was hoping for,” I say.
It all kind of starts to hit me now.
“I’m so sorry, Leo. This was a stupid idea. Playing undercover cop or whatever. I don’t know what I was thinking. It seemed like the only thing we could do.”
Leo doesn’t say anything, only stares straight ahead while he drives.
“Who was that woman wrapped around Josh?” I ask.
Leo looks at me, a slow stare that drags his attention away from the road.
“Not Juliette,” he says. “And not his girlfriend. Some barfly. I don’t know.
Somebody who’s sent him business in the past, no doubt.
” His voice changes as he tells me, “Arrow stared you down almost the whole time you were talking to that guy. He’s into you, Lia. ”
He says it like an accusation.
“Me?” I ask. “Weird.”
“Right.” Leo’s voice is hard now. “It’s so weird that a guy would be attracted to you, Lia. Into you. It’s not like I didn’t see the two of you dancing. You looked pretty damn into him too.”
“Wait a fucking minute.” I turn in my seat to face him.
“We went to that bar to try to find your deadbeat brother’s wife, so we could maybe find a way to save your house.
And you’re going to give me a hard time because I danced with your brother’s bail agent for like thirty seconds?
You realize all he said to me was that we should go home? ”
I refuse to talk to Leo the whole rest of the ride. I was right earlier. There’s nothing shittier than being hurt by the people you love and trust most in the world.