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She didn’t disappoint.
“This place is a place where the criminals of society can go to be comfortable,” she said. “This is a place where they go, let loose, and know if shit goes down, it won’t be reported.”
My mouth fell slightly open. “You’re joking, right?”
She shook her head. “There’s a reason Faye never brought you here.”
I had… nothing to say to that.
“Because you’re inherently a light person. One who sees only the good in the world. Like Faye was. The dark doesn’t touch you,” she said. “Mrs. Virgin Sabrina.”
I had no clue what my virginity had to do with anything but…
“These people in this bar? They’re all criminals. Some of them not as bad as others, but those brothers? The ones you’re mooning over? They’re as bad as they get.” She emphasized with her fingers, widening them as wide as they could get. “And the girls here know what they’re getting when they come onto them. A one-night stand, at most, with one hell of a night. Men like that aren’t meant to be tied down unless the woman understands what she’s getting, and doesn’t care what her man does. You’re not that type of girl, Sabrina.”
I wasn’t?
“They can’t be that bad,” I said.
Banger shrugged. “Just sayin’. Don’t be surprised when you finally figure it out… if he lets you figure it out.”
With that, she knocked on the table twice with her knuckles, then got up and walked back to the bar, where she started serving drinks beside her dad.
I waited a few more minutes, wondering if what she said was true or not.
Then decided that it couldn’t be.
A bad man didn’t help a grieving woman.
They just didn’t.
But, by the time I was dragging my ass out of the bar five minutes later, I decided it didn’t matter. Because despite him noticing me, and I saw him looking twice, he never approached.
And that was telling in and of itself.
• • •
PRICE
“Dude,” Tide said. “You’re not even going to say anything to her?”
I shook my head, then told him what Cannel had said about Sabrina.
Which abruptly caused Tide to shut his mouth after saying, “Well fuck.”
I jerked my cheek away from the woman that kept fawning over Tide and me, telling us how she’d never fucked twins before.
Her bad luck, she wouldn’t be doing it with Tide and me.
Because we didn’t fuckin’ share well. Not even with each other.
“If you don’t mind,” I said to the girl. “We’d like to have a conversation without being choked by your perfume.”
The woman rolled her eyes but left nonetheless.
“You let her stay longer than I thought you would,” Tide pointed out the moment she left. “Was that because you wanted her to see?”
I looked out the bar’s windows to see Sabrina crossing the parking lot, heading into the shadows.
My gut clenched and I stood up. “Yeah.”
“Brutal,” Tide murmured.
Brutal but effective.
“Sure,” I agreed. “I’m going to make sure she gets to her car okay.”
Tide snorted. “Whatever you want to tell...”
I didn’t stay long enough to hear him finish his sentence.
Instead, I bailed out of the side door of Tiddies, Tide’s favorite bar, and headed in the direction I’d seen Sabrina’s car parked when I pulled into the parking lot.
The bad thing was, the only reason I’d gone was because I’d spotted her heaping pile of junk from the road, and had gestured to Tide that I’d wanted to go in.
Tiddies wasn’t my favorite place to go in the world.
Even worse, I didn’t like going anywhere on a Friday night, especially after I’d had a long ass week at work.
I’d had two guys quit on me, and I’d been running my ass off to do their work, and my own.
Needless to say, the last thing I wanted to do was sit in a bar.
Yet, I’d gone anyway because seeing Sabrina, even from a distance, was better than not seeing her at all.
I came out from the side of the building just as I spotted Sabrina rounding the same corner, heading toward her car.
She passed by me silently, never even realizing that I was there.
Which pissed me off.
If I wasn’t avoiding her, I just might say something about how inattentive she was.
But I wasn’t allowing myself to engage, meaning I allowed her to pass without a word.
She made it to her car just as a guy stepped out of the shadows and headed toward her.
I was just about to move toward the silent man when the man shouted at Sabrina.
“Sabrina!”
Sabrina turned and stilled, not looking alarmed at the man that was making his way toward her.
Obviously, she knew him.
Especially if the way anger rolled over her features was anything to say about it.
“Cole,” she said carefully. “What do you want?”
“Since when do you go to bars?” he ignored her question.
I could practically see the look of indecision on her face.
