AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Nothing new," Mikayla promised him before turning to Nik. "Nik, this is Kevin Mackey. He does some sewing for me sometimes."
"Precise, delicate stitches can make or break the creation," he told Nik seriously.
"Of course." Nik shot Mikayla a speaking look.
"Kevin, is Sam working tonight?" she asked, referring to the bartender Jarvis swore could alibi him.
167
"She should be in anytime." Kevin waved toward the bar area. "She called in late. Her girlfriend had a little meltdown. You know how it goes." Kevin rolled his eyes as he stroked the small patch of his short goatee before glancing down the bar. "Excuse me, dears. Customer."
Nik felt like rolling his eyes himself. He didn't think he could name a single mission quite like this one. He knew he'd never met another woman quite like Mikayla.
"Here you go." Kevin returned with an amused smile and a whisky, which he set in front of Nik.
Nik looked at the glass, then the bartender.
As Kevin lifted his brows, his petite face reflected amusement and he glanced down the bar.
An older man sat watching, lifted his own glass with a smile as he mouthed, Enjoy.
Nik turned to Mikayla.
She was watching the exchange with a smile and as Nik turned to her gave the other man a dainty four-fingered wave before she picked up the glass herself and shot the whisky back.
She didn't even grimace.
The facets of this woman were beginning to amaze him, and that wasn't a good thing.
"Mikayla, sweetheart, does your daddy know you're here?" The man from the end of the bar appeared at Nik's side.
"Ryan, if you tell Daddy I was here, then you're going to have to tell him you were here, and you know he's going to have that talk to you about picking up strange men again." She wagged a finger at him playfully as Nik stared back at her with narrowed eyes.
Ryan laughed. "Speaking of strange men, you going to introduce me?" Mikayla's amethyst eyes gleamed with laughter. "Ryan Bhats, meet a very good friend of mine, Nik Steele," she introduced them. "Nik, Ryan Bhats, my third cousin and a general troublemaker."
"Mr. Bhats." Nik nodded.
"So you're the guy trying to find Eddie Foreman's killer," Ryan commented.
"Bastard. Killing Foreman would have been okay if he hadn't drawn our Mikayla into it." The fact that Eddie Foreman wasn't well liked wasn't the issue.
"Maybe you could help us, Ryan." Mikayla smiled. "Were you here the evening Eddie was killed?"
"I was. Got here when the doors opened with some friends." He nodded.
"Would you mind answering a few questions for us?" she asked. Ryan turned to Nik, his gaze going over him slowly. Nik understood how a woman felt now when she complained of being looked at as though she were a piece of meat.
"Maybe," Ryan drawled. "Do you think tall, dark, and dangerous here would grace me with a dance?"
Nik turned, stared back at the other man, and it didn't take Ryan Bhats more than a second to figure out that wasn't going to happen.
Bhats grinned again. "What do you need, darlin'?"
168
"Jarvis Dalton," Nik answered for her. "He says he was here that night." Ryan nodded slowly. "Yeah, he was. Showed up 'bout the same time I did, just at opening. About five thirty, I'd say."
"You're certain it was Jarvis?" Nik asked.
