AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Street crime was up too, to no one’s surprise. Any strides the city had made towards safety had been damn near obliterated.
Maybe Cash and my family were right to worry about me when I went running alone in the morning. Or at least they would be if I were a human.
“Hey.” A drunk girl on too-high heels with a too-short skirt stopped abruptly in front of us and jabbed a fake nail into my chest.
To say I didn’t have patience for this was the understatement of the century.
“What?” I tried to keep my composure, but she was toeing a fine line. I didn’t want to start anything with three cops standing no more than twenty feet away. I just wanted to make it to our destination and get out of here.
“Is he yer boyfriend?” she asked, leering at Wilder like he was the prime rib at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Seriously? She was going to steal my date? This chick had balls. She took a big slurp from her fishbowl of alcohol and licked her lips suggestively.
Charming.
And people wondered why locals never came down here. Who would want to miss out on this glorious behavior? Even the grits at Clover Diner couldn’t make up for this.
“Sorry, doll. I’m spoken for,” Wilder replied, not missing a beat. He kept his arm around me, fingertips dangerously close to the underwire of my bra. It was a possessive, suggestive gesture, and I felt like a terrible feminist for liking the way he was displaying me as if I were his favorite prize.
Ugh, down girl.
“Yer loss. You are hoootttt. I’d blow you like ten times.”
My jaw went slack as Wilder guided me past her. “Did she seriously say that?”
“Don’t worry, Princess. I don’t ditch a lady for anything less than an offer of fifteen BJs and a public tug. A guy needs to have standards.” He winked.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cringe, so instead I opted for neither and grabbed him by the wrist. I dragged us away from Bourbon and onto Toulouse, where the crowds were thinner and the signs offered more than just bulk liquor.
Funny how there was this mystical force field around Bourbon Street that managed to keep most of the douchebaggery contained to one long block. Tourist traps were everywhere, but somehow these side streets managed to maintain a vibe of old-world charm and mystery.
“You know I wasn’t being serious when I suggested a public tug, right?” Wilder’s cheeky smirk had vanished, and he looked downright worried that I might have thought he was propositioning me.
“Oh, hon. If I was going to stick my hands down anyone’s pants tonight, it would be my boyfriend’s, okay?” I nodded sternly, hoping this wouldn’t seem like a made-up line to keep him from thinking I was coming on to him.
“Boyfriend, eh? You never mentioned a boyfriend before.”
I had, but clearly Wilder suffered from the too-common condition of being deaf to the word boyfriend. I pretended he was right, though. “Yeah, well, it wasn’t really relevant to our previous discussions about automobile repair and murder.”
That seemed to pick his spirits up. If he was disappointed to hear I was off the market, it didn’t show. What was I hoping for? A crestfallen pout or a sigh of longing? I should be happy he was dealing with it like an adult. It meant there were no feelings involved to complicate things.
And that was good, wasn’t it?
Oh, Genie, you are in so much trouble.
I shook off the nagging sense of foreboding and dropped Wilder’s wrist. We were free of the crowds now, so there was no risk of us losing each other, and I felt he was capable of following me without assistance.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s better if you just wait to see it for yourself,” I said.
It didn’t matter what warning I gave. When he saw our destination for the first time, he still wasn’t going to believe it. It had taken me at least a half dozen visits before I was able to stop gawking at the place.
I indicated for him to follow me down a narrow alley so well hidden it would have been easy to miss if I didn’t know it was there. He hesitated, angling himself to try and see past me into the dark corridor where I was leading us.
“Are you hoping for a good old-fashioned mugging tonight?” he asked.
“No.” It was my turn to smile. “We might lose some of our cash, but we’ll let it go willingly. Mostly willingly, anyway. Come on.” I didn’t wait to see if he’d take the bait. I knew he’d follow me.
