16. Deacon
DEACON
Want to know who came into the bar?
No one.
“Jesus fuck,” I said as I looked over at the clock on the wall behind the bar, “where the hell is everyone?”
Dallas patted my shoulder. “It’s still only dinner time around here, and this place isn’t known for its food.”
“I heard that,” Chef called from the kitchen.
“Still,” I said as I ran my hands along the shaved sides of my head, “the signs are illuminated. The sun is setting. The bar is stocked. Kitchen’s churning. And no one is walking through that fucking door.”
Not a single goddamn soul.
“Hey,” Dallas said as he slapped the back of his hand against my chest, “we got a shadow moving under the door. Customer!”
“Everyone, look alive!” I exclaimed.
The bell dinged over the door and excitement flushed its way through my veins.
This was the part I loved. The part where I got to show these bar-working idiots how it was done.
Hospitality was my crew’s bread and butter, and we got paid a lot of fucking money to make our clients comfortable during transactions.
But, when Plug’s dumbass face came bounding through the door, I groaned.
“Seriously?” I asked.
Dallas howled with delight as Plug beamed with pride. “I brought all of the stuff. Where do you want it?”
I thumbed over my shoulder. “Utility closet is this way. Gauge’s been hauling shit out of it to make way for the sound system.”
Plug looked around as he hoisted a duffle bag up his shoulder. “First night’s poppin’, huh?”
Dallas barked with laughter, but I simply glared at him. “Install the fucking thing already so we can at least have some music to keep us company.”
As Plug brushed past me with that cheeky little grin that I wanted to rip off his face, I shook my head.
I didn’t get it. We had scouted this place for weeks before heading inside.
We went over the books. We pulled schematics of the place.
Anything that we could get our hands on via public record, we had in our possession back at the clubhouse.
We had calculated and stipulated. Ran every single fucking scenario known to man before stepping in this place to have a drink.
And sure, the place wasn’t always full. In fact, we’d never once seen it full.
But, there were dedicated patrons that came in just about every night for a beer or two.
So, where the hell were they?
“Anyone hungry?” Chef asked behind me. “The food I’ve prepped is about to go bad.”
“No wasting food,” I said without even looking at him over my shoulder, “so find a way to preserve it.”
Chef didn’t miss a beat. “No can do after it’s prepped.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek and slowly turned. “And why not?”
He tilted his head. “You ever tried a burger that’s been frozen, thawed out, and heated up in a microwave?”
I didn’t feel like doing his fucking job, so I simply cupped my hands over my mouth and bellowed across the bar.
“Whoever’s hungry, come and get it!”
Everyone’s heads turned as if I had just announced the second coming of Christ. They stampeded toward the kitchen, damn near shoving me out of the way in order to get to the smells that had been pouring from that window for the past two or three hours.
I had to admit, Chef had a way with spices.
Some of the food he had turned out smelled great.
Maybe I’d hire him to cook at the clubhouse if shit went south with the bar.
“Need a drink?” Char asked.
I ripped myself out of my thoughts and realized that I had gravitated toward the bar. Toward Char, as she busied herself with things that didn’t need wiping down for a fourth fucking time.
“Sure,” I said as I rested my forearm against the sticky, nasty bar top.
Maybe that thing could use a fourth wipe-down.
“The usual?” she asked.
I nodded without another word and, like magic, a glass bottle of beer with a popped top appeared next to my elbow.
“Thanks,” I said as I scooped it up.
“And before you even think it, no one is sabotaging you.”
My lips paused just shy of the bottle’s mouth. “Well, I wasn’t thinking it before.”
She snickered. “Figures.”
I whipped around to face her. “The hell does that mean?”
She didn’t even bother looking at me while she spoke, and that pissed me off even more. “You can’t piss off the town’s Mama Bear and not expect consequences.”
“Mama Bear? Seriously?”
“Seriously. Miss Lilly is prominent in this town. Everyone you’re expecting to walk through those doors? They didn’t come for the drinks, or for the food. They came for her. To support her, and be there for her, and hang out with her.”
I tipped my beer to my lips and took a long pull. “Fantastic.”
“She’s right, you know.”
I drained the beer before I turned toward the girl with the wild curly hair and smattering of freckles against her face.
“And you are?” I asked.
“Mary Jane,” she and Char said together. That is, before Char took the reins. “She’s the one that handles the talent and restocking. Things like that.”
I peered over my shoulder at her. “You know, I fired someone for talking when not asked.”
Char locked her stare with mine. “Then, fire me.”
My back straightened as my grip tightened around my beer bottle. “Don’t challenge me, girl. You won’t like how it ends.”
“Spoken like a true toxic man,” Mary Jane said.
“Did you need something?” Char asked as she moved her attention away from me.
“Toxic?” I asked.
Mary Jane didn’t answer me, though. “I’m taking suggestions for music for the bar once the sound system is set up. Any suggestions?”
“We’ll take care of that,” I said.
“Literally anything having to do with the 90s. Alanis Morissette.”
“Oh, that’s a good one.”
I shook my head. “I said, we’ll take care of it. Just get back to?—”
“Oh! Oh! And Matchbox Twenty. You remember them?” Char asked.
Mary Jane leaned against the bar. “Like hell, I remember them. How do you feel about Three Doors Down?”
Char gasped. “God, I’d completely forgotten about them. We should put that very first album they did on that playlist. You know, just for nostalgia purposes when it’s just us in the bar.”
“Hey!” I barked.
And when Char held up a finger to me, I damn near blew through the roof.
“Wait your turn,” she said nonchalantly.
“All right,” Plug said as he interjected himself into the conversation, “the two of you girls look like you’ve got this place on lockdown.”
“Finally, someone with some sense,” Char said with a smile.
Plug smiled right back, and my blood boiled. “Who’s responsible for this prior sound system?”
Mary Jane raised her hand. “Me.”
Plug paused before he slid his stare down her body. “It’s shit.”
“Eyes up,” Char and I both said curtly.
Plug chuckled as he brought his eyes back to Mary Jane’s face. “Got an extra extension cord lying around somewhere? I’m gonna need it.”
“Hey!” Dallas exclaimed as he came out from the hallway. “What gives? It’s empty in here!”
“No shit, Sherlock,” I muttered beneath my breath.
“You got the open sign on?” Dallas asked as he walked over to the bar.
I nodded toward Char. “She thinks the town’s pissed because we bought the bar.”
And there Char went, wagging that head side to side, because anything I said she had to contradict like the woman she was.
“The town isn’t pissed because you bought the place, they’re pissed because they know you’re not here to do good. And now that you’ve got Miss Lilly caught up in the middle of it, I doubt anyone will touch this place. At least, for a while.”
My nostrils flared. My jaw clenched. My toes curled in my fucking steel-toed boots as I listened to her drone on and on.
I wouldn’t let a no-good, desert-dwelling bunch of motherfucks ruin this for me.
We had worked too hard as a crew and come too far to let a few idiots stand in our way between triumph and failure.
So, I drew in a sobering breath through my nose. “Then, I guess we’ll just have to convince them that we can make this place better.”
Char snickered. “Good luck.”
Mary Jane leaned over the bar. “I’m gonna go find that extension cord so we can get a playlist up and running. Maybe then, it won’t be so quiet.”
Plug, who had been staring Mary Jane down like a sack of cooked and buttered potatoes, grinned. “I’ll show you where I’m setting things up.”
She didn’t fall for it, though. “If you come within twenty feet of me, I’ll dig your eyes out with my fingers.”
Plug simply winked, though. “Promise?”
“Ugh,” Mary Jane groaned. “Leave me alone.”
She moved off to the side, walking around Plug as he turned on the balls of his feet.
I knew how ravenous he was whenever he found something he enjoyed.
I saw that look in his eye. A look of triumph.
The look of a predator awaiting his next meal.
But, as he went to follow that spindly girl who seemed to be all arms and legs, Char moved like lightning.
Stepping out from behind the bar and right in front of Plug.
“The woman said no,” Char said plainly. “Are you telling me that you’re the kind of man who doesn’t know what that word means?”
Plug snickered as he peered over his shoulder at me, but I was intrigued.
She had spunk. Attitude. And she sure as fuck wasn’t afraid to showcase it.
She was the first person I’d ever come across that wasn’t outright sick or shaking in their boots in our presence.
Which meant she was either ignorant, or stupid.
Either way, I wanted to see Plug devour her whole for that little attitude she copped earlier.
Plug leaned toward Char. “I’m the kind of man that knows the difference between an actual ‘no’ and a playful one.”
Char smiled as she leaned back, locking her stare with his. “And you think she’s being playful?”
“I know she is.”
“So, if you follow her back into that utility closet, you’re absolutely certain she’s going to fall into your arms and kiss you instead of chopping your dick off with the knife I just saw her pull from the kitchen?”
Plug loomed over her as his snarling voice appeared. “Why you stupid little c?—”
“Stand down,” I said.
Plug whipped toward me. “The fuck? I didn’t do a damned thing. I’m just here trying t?—”
“Stand. Down,” I said frankly.
But Char just had to get the last word in. “Don’t convince yourself for one fucking second that you guys can fool the people around here. We know you’re the bad guys, and we won’t let you take this bar from us without a fight.”
Gauge came out from the back room and chuckled. “Looking forward to it. Deac?”
“What?” I asked as I watched Char shake her head.
“Char!” Chef exclaimed. “Can I see you over here for a second!?”
She started moving toward the kitchen, but I cleared my throat. “You can’t be gone from the bar long.”
Char whipped around and walked backwards as she held her arms out to each side. “Why? I might miss out on serving the throng of customers filling this place?”
My God, I’d snap her fucking neck before this was all said and done.
Or maybe I’d just plug her throat with my cock.
Anything to get her to shut the fuck up.
It didn’t matter, though. Not really. As time moved on, people would need a place to go drink.
A place that felt familiar. That felt like home.
And I knew they’d be back. Once Miss Lilly got out of town and made her life somewhere else, she’d fade into the background.
But as I watched Char disappear into the kitchen, Chef rolled the kitchen window down.
And thanks to Char’s big fucking mouth, we knew why.
They were trying to team up against us. Kick us out. As if they had any semblance of control over the situation.
How cute.