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So instead, I slid behind the bar and started making drinks.
Chapter Fifteen
Whiskey
“You okay, man?” I asked, watching Nick warily. He didn’t look good. I was worried about my friend.
Nick was behind the bar, staring at a bottle of tequila. After what happened before the barbecue, I couldn’t help wondering if we were in for another bender. He was as boozy as most of the single guys, but I’d never seen him so close to being out of control before that night.
And I’d definitely never seen him mooning over a girl. Hell, he’d pretty much ignored most females since the day I met him, even if he used to regularly end up in bed with one or two at a time in the old days. Not lately, though. And that was with zero effort on his part.
All of that was way before he set eyes on the object of his affection, now all grown up and impossible to resist. Nick hadn’t stood a chance. I’d never seen the guy so damned happy, even if it was short-lived.
From what the guys said, he’d been working and drinking steadily every night since last weekend. Not shitfaced like that one time, but borderline blotto. And clearly upset about something.
Everyone in the inner circle knew that ‘something’ was named Melissa.
It was high time he found someone, I thought smugly. Becks and I were so blissed out and happy at home, it was hard to imagine being left out in the cold. I wanted the same for him. Not that every man could be as lucky as I was. But Melissa was a great girl. Even Becks liked her, and she could be picky about people.
“She cancelled.”
“Who cancelled what?”
“Melissa. We had a date. It was going to be a real date. I was gonna be alone with her.”
“Oh,” I said, scratching my chin. “Any idea why?”
“No. She just said she was sorry.”
“When was that?”
“A couple of days ago. I haven’t heard from her since.”
“Hmm,” I mused. “Becks said the girl called you ‘gorgeous’.” I batted my eyes at him coquettishly but he didn’t laugh at my joke.
He just stared at me, finally looking up from the bottle.
“She did?”
“Most definitely. And she thought you felt sorry for her because she never went out. She had no idea she was on a date.”
“That’s crazy. She’s fucking beautiful.”
“Well, the feeling is mutual, according to the girls.”
He perked up a bit at that. And then he deflated just as fast.
“Maybe I went too fast. She’s new to all this. Fuck, so am I.” He ran his hand through his hair, obviously confused about what to do. He finally looked at me and I saw the pure misery in his eyes. Nick was tormenting himself. This girl had really gotten to him, and good. “I’ve never taken a girl out for breakfast, let alone planned a real date.”
“Maybe it has nothing to do with you,” I offered. “Did you write back?”
He nodded, looking like even more of a sad sack.
“No answer,” he said.
“No answer yet,” I corrected him. “Do you want to go over there? Or we could call the Untouchables. Get them to place her phone.”
“Place it?”
“Figure out where she is, see if anything is going on.”
He nodded, coming out of his haze of misery slightly.
“Cain’s agency?”
“Yeah, or just call Trace.”
“Which makes me look more like a stalker? Showing up or tracing her phone?”
I laughed and pulled the tequila bottle out of his hand.
“Both. But if she’s your woman, all bets are off. Stalk at will.”
He nodded slowly.
“Yeah. She’s mine.”
“So, fucking act like it.”
“That’s a good call. I’ll reach out to them.”
“I’ll wait with you,” I offered, sliding onto a bar stool. Without a word, Drake slid me a ginger ale. Like Jack, I was partial to them these days.
It only took about fifteen minutes for Nick to hear back from our brothers up north. The clubs weren’t the same, but we had a close kinship. We would lay down our lives for their inner crew, and they would do the same for us.
Nick gestured me to follow him into the back. I watched as he put Trace on speakerphone. Nick looked more upset and somehow relieved at the same time.
“It’s her mom, Meg,” he said to me, looking grim. “She’s in the hospital. Trace, Whiskey is on the line.”
“Hey, man. Cain is here too.”
Nobody actually expected the head of the Untouchables MC to say hi. He was a man of few words, to say the least. I thought I heard the faint sound of a grunt.
Hey, it was better than nothing.
“Thanks for doing this,” Nick said quietly.
“No problem. Sorry about your lady,” Trace answered.
Nick nodded. It was clear that he was taking this seriously. Melissa was his, even if their relationship had just started. It was a done deal. We all knew it.
