AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lucas stared out his window into the darkness. Grant had a point. And it would only be a minor delay. Likely a prudent one.
His manic rule-following brother seemed willing to push the envelope on what was acceptable police protocol. That alone said something.
“Send me the address and give me five hours.” That would get him to Atlanta well after midnight. He had planned to drive all the way to Boston without stopping, anyway. It wasn’t like he could sleep.
Five hours later, he pulled up to a strip club and double-checked the address Grant had texted him. The building looked to need a coat of paint with an archaic neon sign that flickered, “Truth or Bare.”
A waitress wearing the off combination of pasties and biker shorts two sizes too small met him at the door, balancing a tray of beer on one shoulder.
“Seat yourself.”
Hospitality as well as an effective exercise program didn’t seem to be a concern of hers, despite her career choice.
The place was practically empty, except for table of post-Georgia-football-game stragglers and a skinny man with a full beard in dire need of a trim, and who looked like he had just been released from the drunk tank. Likely making a beeline to the “Club” to sit front and center stage.
As Lucas’s eyes adjusted to the low lights, he could hear the drunk professing his love to a stripper named Ginger. Who, incidentally, was rolling her eyes while mechanically undulating to “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails.
“Shut up, Tommy, or I’m cutting you off,” the waitress yelled as she marched by with an empty tray.
Scanning the room, he found Grant sitting in a corner booth in the far back of the expansive space.
Grant always sat in the most obscure table of a room, as if he were some sheriff in a town overrun with lawless bandits who’d shoot you in the back and spit chaw in your wound, if you weren’t hypervigilant.
As he got closer, he noticed the attractive waif of a woman by his side, who didn’t bother to pause as she chewed on a chicken wing.
Grant stood halfway. “Tatiana Northrop, this is my brother Lucas. Lucas, Tatiana Northrop.”
Thankfully, she wiped her hands on a napkin before shaking his hand, and said, “My friends call me Tati.”
Grant’s head jerked the woman’s direction as he regained his seat. “You never told me that.”
Tati ignored him, opting instead to devour a jalapeño popper.
Lucas sat next to Grant, at a table that looked to be the worse for wear and in need of degumming. With a paint scraper.
They all scooted over to make room. Tati moved a couple plates piled with half-eaten bar food closer to her side of the table.
Lucas started to clasp his hands together and stopped himself just in time. “Would someone like to tell me why we’re meeting at a strip club in need of a disinfecting?”
“The Korean restaurant was closed,” Grant said, as if that explained everything.
Lucas put his elbows on the table with his hands clenched, and upon feeling the gummy surface, removed them instantly.
Shit. He’d be lucky to make it out of here without contracting a communicable disease. “I don’t have a lot of time, so can we move past discussions about the weather and all of the visible health code violations and get to the heart of the matter?”
Allowing the woman to continue eating with the appetite of a truck driver during a long haul, Grant got Lucas up to speed.
He closed the end of his diatribe with, “…which explains why she’s got the appetite of a rabid honey badger—”
Tati narrowed her eyes at his brother, who avoided her gaze. “Was that necessary?”
“I don’t know,Tati, was it?”
“I gotta say,” Lucas said, scratching his temple as the woman finally sat back in the booth, holding her hand protectively over her food-laden belly. “That’s some otherworldly eating.”
“Yeah? Well, you go four months in a coma, fed through tubes, and let’s see how you react once your appetite is unleashed.” This from Grant, coming to her defense.
The whole situation was rather comical if he had a sense of humor.
