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This is a trial run. A test to see if I’ve got what it takes. Deep down, I know I do. I’ve just gotta prove it.
Some of the guys are at the bar counter having scrambled eggs and their morning beer. I walk out, scanning the area. All the club girls from last night have been cleared out. The unconscious guys who passed out anywhere, including on the bar floor, have been too.
Johnny Flanagan is the first to notice me coming down. He nudges Stein and Ozzie on his right and left.
Ozzie flashes a toothy grin, the rest of him from the neck down tatted up. He rises to meet me for a bro handshake and hug. “If it ain’t the new prez in the building. What’s up, man? Remember I knew you when.”
“Temporary prez,” Johnny cuts in from his stool. “Should be an interesting year.”
I ignore him, moving on to bump fists with Stein. As one of the older guys in the club, he gives me a nod before returning to his beer; he couldn’t give less of a fuck about who’s prez. He just wants another cold one.
“We were worried about you,” Ozzie says. “Heard you got real hammered last night.”
“You missed Sandie. She was down here bitching about you,” Johnny adds.
“I don’t give a fuck if she was telling everybody I’ve got the biggest dick in the world. That was a one-time thing. I only make mistakes once.”
Ozzie grabs his plate of eggs and holds it out. “You gonna be good for today?”
I wave off the offer. “I’m ready to ride out. You tell me when you’re ready.”
“You better have a plate, Mason Thomas Cutler! I didn’t slave away over a big ol’ pan of eggs for nothing! Made ’em scrambled with butter and cheese just like you like!”
Velma’s heard before she’s seen. Her voice, like nails on a chalkboard, makes everybody at the counter cringe.
It’s a good thing Velma’s well-liked and respected—and Tom’s old lady. Otherwise, she would’ve been tossed out years ago just for her voice.
She emerges in a low-cut top and with so much damn hairspray that her blonde hair forms a beehive. Ozzie’s nicknamed her the club MILF. A thought I block out considering she very well could be my stepmom if Tom ever put a ring on it.
She comes out from behind the counter and hugs me. Stroking the hair on the back of my neck, she gives me a once-over. “How’re you, Mace? Don’t you dare fuck Sandie again. The bitch has got crabs.”
The others laugh.
“Which reminds me,” Velma says. “I’m hiring for the new waitress today. Wanna meet the girls before I make a decision?”
“Nah. Do your thing. You know the conditions.”
I disentangle myself from Velma and address everybody at once.
“Breakfast time’s over. Make it quick. We’ve gotta head out.”
“I just started,” Johnny says, sticking a few scrambled pieces of eggs with his fork.
Meanwhile, Ozzie and Stein take my order seriously. Ozzie uses the excuse to hug on Velma and tell her goodbye. Stein chugs the last of his beer and belches so damn loud, his potbelly vibrates.
“The others are out back,” Ozzie says with a jerk of his thumb over his shoulder. “I’ll let ’em know.”
I nod, then turn my attention to Johnny.
The shaggy-haired fucker is still eating his eggs and taking swigs of his fucking Pine beer bottle.
I spend a moment watching and waiting. He’s got to sense the shift in the air. The tension that crackles to life as my glare narrows and my temper amps up.
He’s testing me. Pushing limits. Seeing how far he can go.
If he needs to be shown, I’ve got no problem doing that.
It happens in under a second.
