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Did his hands tighten on the wheel, she could have sworn they had. But then it might have been her own confusion that made her see things weirdly.
Blasted man. No way was she falling for his charm. Instead, she pulled her head out of the clouds, put things in perspective, and figuratively, her feet firmly on the ground. “Do you know the direction to the bar?”
“On our way.” His smirk let her know he’d seen through her ploy. “So… did you get the other girl’s name and address so we could go and talk with her about what she knows of Jessica?”
“You bet.”
Chapter Thirteen
Lori watched the folks settle as she walked up to the stool in front of the mic and took her seat. It had become her custom to begin with a sweet, slow song to calm the crowd and then ramp up the beat once the band joined her, and then close the show with foot-thumping music.
She didn’t have a particular style she stuck with, instead she let her mood make the choice. Some were older ballads she’d sung for years, others rock or western, and even the more modern hip hop music caught her interest from time to time.
The customers seemed to like this about her, and they settled in to listen as she took up her guitar and began to strum. “I have a particular favorite I wanted to sing for you tonight, a song called “Bird on a Wire”. It’s been a while since I played it so stick with me.”
Then she started and her voice soared, the tones pure magic. Beau felt himself being drawn in and sat nursing his beer and losing himself in her enchantment. At the end of the song, he took a moment to glance around and saw the majority of the customers were as entranced as he was.
Then a commotion broke out in the far corner. One of the waitresses had dropped her tray and it looked to him like the man at the table she’d been serving had grabbed at her… in fact, was still grabbing at her. Before he could go to her rescue, he heard Lori’s voice in the mic. “Hey buddy, you there. No messing with the servers. Hands to yourself.”
It might have worked if at that moment, the man’s table companion hadn’t stumbled into sight and tried to pull the angry girl onto his lap. “Com’ere darlin’. Be nice and I’ll buy you a drink.”
Struggling to break his hold, the panicked girl fought to be loose, her anger rising at his nonsense. “Let me go, you bastard. Take your hands off me.”
Beau arrived at the exact moment as the security fellow who bluntly spoke… his verdict reasonable. “Looks like you two need to leave… now.”
“We just got here. Dun-n want to leave. Jush buying this pretty girl a drink.” The drunk fell back into his chair, grinned stupidly, and held out both hands as if he was harmless. “No problem. She wanted some pershuading.”
The pissed-off waitress picked up her tray and before anyone could stop her, she slammed it against the back of the miscreant’s head, her bizarre reaction proving she’d had enough of being pawed for that night.
Before the other drunk could react, the beefed-up doorman plucked the struggling girl away from the drunken idiot, wrenched him to his feet, and began to push him toward the exit. Thinking the guard could handle the jackass, Beau didn’t see the customer’s buddy lose it.
Later Lori explained what she’d seen clearly. At the table, the drunk had whipped out his sidearm and started after the guard, with serious intentions, expecting to help his friend. He went to push Beau out of the way.
Except, Lori had seen his intention and had flown off the high stage to land on the nearest table. Yelling for folks to make room, she leapt to another and then another until she got close enough to boot the attacker in the side of his head, giving Beau warning to defend himself.
Beau turned, a grin lighting up his face. Lori could see he was enjoying himself, the silly bastard. Lori’s kick had stopped the man, but not for long. He’d held onto his weapon. “I’d put that gun away, mister. You’d be in a lot of trouble, attacking an FBI agent.”
“Says you. Don’t see no badge.” The simpleton swayed with both hands holding the pistol, as if he’d watched too many ridiculous cop shows.
Beau moved his jacket to show the badge on his hip. “See. FBI.”
“You attacked me first. I’m just defending myself.”
“Okay, time to shut this down.” He didn’t see Beau’s move to strip the gun from his hands and throw a punch… the one that landed in his stomach... which made breathing near impossible for some seconds.
In no time, the two idiots were rounded up for the police to collect them, and the bartender came forward to straighten the table. When he sensed uneasiness in his patrons, he had the perfect solution. “Hey, beers are on the house. You drinking fancy stuff, you buy your own.”
Everyone laughed and the place calmed down enough for Lori to return to the stage and eventually continue her show.
After the ruckus, she opted to play a popular rock song, and everyone either sang along with the lyrics or opted to get out on the dance floor.
From then on, both her shows went smooth, and once again, back in Beau’s car, heading to her place, exhaustion rolled in. Her head felt like it weighed a ton, and the cool window gave it the place to rest.
Chapter Fourteen
“Come on, songbird, let’s get you into bed.”
Lori forced herself awake. In a humorous, slightly inebriated tone, she questioned, “Alone, right? That what you saying?”
