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“No problem. Thanks for paying in cash. My ex gave up rights to our son. But you can believe it? Thinks she’s entitled to alimony.” He snorted his own disbelief and I nodded, distracted by Bonnie and her green-haired friend.
“Whatever works. Thanks for the quick turnaround.” The guy with the green hair leaned in closer to Bonnie, his smile went from friendly to menacing in zero to 60, and I was on my feet as fear flashed in her eyes. Genuine fear, which could be my own projections. This wasn’t the same Bonnie with her nose up in the air I thought I knew. This was a shell of a version of the girl I met, eager to graduate college and take on the world. That girl had a fire that burned deep inside of her.
But as the guy leaned in closer, I got all the confirmation I needed to know she was afraid of him. I made my way over to the bar. “Everything all right, Bonnie?”
She blinked and looked up at me, confused at first. Then relieved. “Calvin. Yes, I’m all right,” she said, trying hard to find the prim and proper girl who was just a little bit disgusted by me.
I turned and got a good look at the guy who was just a teenager, once you got past his long, dirty hair and green streaks. He was maybe seventeen but already had the Crusader crest tattooed across his throat. Another lost cause. He was, but Bonnie wasn’t. Not yet anyway, but she was close if she was already doing business with The Crusaders. “You sure?”
“She said she was fine,” the kid snapped, drawing himself up to his full height and puffing out his chest. It would have been laughable if not for the outline of the Glock at his waist. “Why don’t you mind your business, pretty boy?”
“Why don’t you make me, tweaker?” I wasn’t really a fighting kind of guy. That was more Virgil’s thing, but he and Jasper guaranteed I knew how to defend myself. After our short stint as Catholics, we all made sure we were never in a vulnerable position again.
He got in my face. “Who the fuck you callin’ a tweaker, you ginger fuck?”
I laughed. “That all you got?” I cocked my head and looked at him, waiting for him to decide if he wanted to make a scene or if he wanted to live.
I was game for either.
In the end, he chose life, sliding Bonnie a threatening look. “Bonnie knows what she needs to do,” he said. “I’ll be seeing her soon. Real soon.” He flashed a phony smile and walked away, whistling as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
As soon as he was outside the bar, I turned to Bonnie. “Wanna tell me what that was all about?”
I knew she’d lie to me before opening her mouth, but I was still surprised. “Just another creep who can’t take no for an answer.”
“Try again, sweetheart. I know a threat when I hear one.”
She glared at me and let out an irritated sigh. “I’m not your sweetheart,” she shot back.
I couldn’t help but laugh at her unexpected feistiness. “Not all that sweet anymore.”
She sighed again, but this time it was heavier, like the burden of her fucked up life was weighing heavy on her. “I tried sweet and it didn’t work out too well for me, so fuck it, I figured I’d give bitch a try. Is it working?” Her eyes looked up at me, pleading.
“Not in the way you think.” The hint of fire had returned, which meant so had my unfortunate attraction to the prickly redhead, but she didn’t pull off bitchy all that well. “You okay?”
“Peachy,” she said quickly, her tone full of sarcasm.
So, not good. “Whatcha drinking?”
She glared at me then, leaning in suspiciously. “You have something to say to me, Calvin?”
And she was spoiling for a fight.
“Nope.” I folded my arms and grinned. “Just asking. It looks delicious.” It was a colorful girly concoction that would probably get her drunk before she realized what had happened.
“It is,” she said in that familiar snooty tone and took a drink.
“Good.”
“Great,” she shot back, a slight twitch of a smile at one corner of her lush pink mouth.
“You’re okay? Really?”
Her disdain dissolved and was replaced by a softer look. “I’m fine, Calvin. Thanks for asking. And thanks for checking.”
Chris waved to me from the table I’d vacated, and I nodded. “You sure? I have a contact waiting.”
“A contact?” She cocked her brow and let out a surprising giggle. “How very Bond of you.” Bonnie stood, wobbly on her feet. My hands shot out automatically to catch her.
“Super Bond of you,” she said with a hint of a slur and straightened, backing out of my grasp like she felt that zip of electricity too.
