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I grinned. “Cash and I have been writing a few songs lately. Maybe I’ll sing one for you tomorrow night.”
“I’m game,” Lucy assured me as she took a drink of the fresh ginger ale a short-haired brunette placed in front of her. “Want to come with me, Kin?”
She blew out a frustrated breath and shot me an icy glare, but she nodded her head. “Sure. Not like I have anything better to do anyway.”
“Great,” I said with a grin as I turned to Lucy and gave her my cell number. She entered it after only a small hesitation. “I’ll let Harris know you’ll be joining us. We can hang out after.”
Kin gritted her teeth but didn’t say anything. Lucy, however, gave me a smile that was full of all the evil thoughts I was sure she normally kept hidden. “Sure, Jace. That sounds like fun.” She rubbed her index finger around the rim of her tall glass of ginger ale, her dark eyes never leaving mine. “But there’s something you should remember if you want to hang with me and Kin.”
My brows lifted, curious as to what threat she was going to drop on me. “What’s that, Lucy?”
“My father loves me more than any other person on this planet,” she murmured as she traced the condensation on the tall glass of ginger ale. “And he’s taken a liking to Kin in the last few weeks as well. Fuck with me or her and it will only take one little whisper in his ear and no one will ever find your body.”
Before I could even decide if she was screwing with me or telling the truth, Lucy stood and offered Kin her hand. With her guitar case in hand, Kin stood and took Lucy’s hand. There was a smirk on her beautiful face as she wiggled her fingers goodbye at me and followed Lucy and the guard out of the club.
It was only after the two were gone and I was still sitting there—wondering if I should actually worry about a Demon coming for my head—that I realized Lucy must have been teasing. I didn’t think she was the tattletale kind of chick.
No. Not Lucy Thornton.
I would have bet money on her taking care of something like hiding my body in the desert on her own. She was a badass like that and if I hadn’t been so lost where Kin was concerned I would have been tempted to find out just how feisty Lucy Thornton really was under all that sweet beauty. Between Kin and Harris, however, I knew that would have never been an option.
Still, it was going to be fun having that chick as a friend.
Kin
For the third time in less than a week I was back at First Bass.
The first time we had come, on Saturday, it had been a new experience for me. I wasn’t used to clubs that needed waiting lists to get on the final list. I knew that Caleb and Angie went to some of them when they went up to New York for the occasional weekend, but they’d never taken me to those. My fake ID probably wouldn’t have worked in a place like that.
Wednesday night had been a new experience for me as well. Open mike nights weren’t something I’d ever witnessed or been a part of until then. Sure I’d gone to karaoke bars at least once a month with my stepsiblings, but nothing like what Wednesday night had been like. Karaoke was just for fun; open mike nights were for people who were trying to get themselves noticed.
Thursday night was just as much a new experience for me as the other three nights had been in First Bass. Getting into the club was a little more difficult than it had been the other three times because there was a different man standing outside keeping people out and only letting those on the lists—or with nice enough tits—into the club. Lucy had to call Harris to tell them his guy wouldn’t let us in and he’d come out so pissed there had actually been steam coming out of his ears.
“You see this girl?” he snarled at the big guy with an ear piece in one ear and a clipboard with names on it. The big man’s eyes strayed to Lucy, but only for a second before Harris was back in his face. “Take one good look at her, asshole, and then you keep your beady little eyes to yourself. Lucy Thornton has top priority in my club. Give her trouble again and I’ll make sure you’re flipping burgers at the Burger King two blocks over. Understand?”
“Harris…” Lucy grabbed his hand and entwined their fingers and I watched, speechless, as all the anger just evaporated from him.
Harris Cutter, six foot six of all lean muscle, went from raging monster to a mewling little kitten with one touch from Lucy. Aquamarine eyes softened and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders as he guided her into the club. “I’m glad you came tonight, Lu. Jesse give you trouble about it?”
“Daddy actually likes that I’m spending more time with you,” Lucy told him with a roll of her eyes. “I think he and Mr. Cutter are going golfing tomorrow.”
“Good for them. I’ll have to give Nat a call and see how that goes.” Opening the door to the club, he stepped back and waited for Lucy and then me and Marcus to enter First Bass before following us in.
Inside, Harris nodded at the head of security. Tiny, the dark and delicious man who Lucy and I had met on Saturday, gave him a firm nod but remained silent as we headed into the lower level of the club. The noise level inside was almost deafening. The place was packed to capacity, but with Harris and Marcus helping to clear the way, Lucy and I were quickly standing right in front of the stage set up for Tainted Knights and their Thursday night shows.
I tried to take it all in while some tech guy did a sound check on stage. The front row was a mixture of men and women, all of them wearing Tainted Knight shirts. Oddly enough I wondered how I could get one. Sure I hated Jace, but Tainted Knights made some great music and I would always be a fan. Besides, Cash Graves, who was a bassist in the band, was an old friend of Caleb’s.
They were the kind of friends who didn’t have to keep in constant contact to know that if one of them needed the other, they were only a phone call away. I kind of envied that friendship between my stepbrother and Cash, yet at the same time I was kind of sad for Cash. The guy didn’t have many friends he could rely on other than Caleb. His family was full of snotty bitches who had turned their backs on him when he’d told them that he wanted more out of life than spending the old money his family had inherited. He wanted to make his own way in the world, and when they had told him that he could do that without their support, he’d just shrugged his shoulders and moved to Bristol at eighteen.
That was where he’d met the guys of Tainted Knights and that was how I’d come to know them too.
“The show is about to start in a few minutes,” Harris told Lucy as he kept his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, as if he was trying to protect her from the crowd. Since the crowd was anything but rowdy I didn’t think that excuse was worth beans but I wasn’t going to question him. “Do you two want something to drink?”
“Water would be good,” I told him.
“Yeah. Water is fine with me,” Lucy assured him, pulling back so she could smile up at him. “Do you have work to do tonight, Harris? Or can you hang with us?”
“I’m all yours tonight, Lu.” He waved over a waitress and took two bottles of water off her full tray. Handing them over, he pulled Lucy back against him. “The show lasts about an hour and then we can go upstairs and relax.”
