by Alison Bliss
He winced, and his hold on her immediately loosened. “You’re going to pay for this, you bitch.”
Her heart beat faster as dread trickled down her spine. If he managed to get away from her before Brett showed up, she would be in deep shit. He was much bigger than her and a hell of a lot meaner. So she shifted her right leg between his and was prepared to lift it into his balls if that happened.
But then she heard a door swing open and a male growl filled the air. She nearly cried out in relief. Brett! Thank God. She released her hold on Paul immediately, happy to remove her hand from any part of this disgusting man’s anatomy.
The moment she freed him, Paul pushed away from her so fast and forcefully that she spun sideways with dizzying speed and had to grasp on to the wall to keep from sliding to the floor. But when she turned and opened her mouth to stop her brother from murdering the drunken bastard who’d been holding her captive in the hallway, she realized it wasn’t Brett who had come to her rescue after all.
* * *
Logan had never been so pissed in his life.
The moment he’d walked in on Paul and Valerie, a red haze had fogged his vision and molten lava had bubbled in his veins. Just seeing their bodies pressed so tightly together up against the wall with her hand down below had sent Logan into a blind fury.
Paul quickly moved away from Valerie, who let out a long, slow breath and braced her hand against the wall, as if to steady her weak knees. Christ.
He glared at Paul. “What the hell is going on in here?”
“Nothing,” the bartender answered gruffly.
Yeah, it looks like nothing all right. Asshole.
Logan threw his hands in the air. “Goddamn it. We’ve got a packed bar, and we’re already shorthanded as it is. We don’t have time for my head bartender to be…trying to score in the back room.”
“Trying to score?” Valerie repeated, surprise registering in her voice. “I would hardly call that—”
“Stay out of it,” Logan sneered, his lip curling in disgust. “I’ll deal with you in a minute.”
She blinked at him. “Deal with me?”
Good God. Is she deaf or something? Why the hell does she keep repeating everything I say? “Yeah, that’s right. You heard me the first time, princess.”
The pet name once again had her narrowing her eyes, but she shook her head. “Logan, I don’t think you understand—”
“Damn it, Valerie! I don’t need this crap right now. The POS system just went down, two kegs are empty, and one of the blenders isn’t working. So excuse me if I’m a little upset that my employee is hooking up with some random girl in the back room while he should be working.”
Her eyes widened. “Some random girl?”
Jesus. Not again. “Well, I’m assuming the two of you don’t know each other. Or maybe I’m wrong about that. Either way, I don’t really give two shits.”
She crossed her arms. “Yeah, that’s always been your problem.”
Logan wasn’t sure what the hell that meant, but he wasn’t going to worry about it right now. Valerie had always done what she could to gain his attention, and this time, he wasn’t falling into the trap. He turned his attention back to Paul. “I don’t pay you to fuck around with women on the clock, nor do I appreciate you doing so in my bar. Do that shit on your own time and at your own place, or you’ll be looking for a new goddamn job.”
“I don’t have to put up with this,” Paul spat out. “This job isn’t fucking worth it. And neither is she,” he said with a smirk, tossing Valerie a look.
Anger exploded through Logan, and he clenched his fists at his sides. “Say what you want about the job, but you watch how you’re talking about her.”
“Fuck both of you,” Paul said, throwing the storeroom keys on the floor. “I quit.” Then he stormed out, banging the swinging door against the wall as he left.
Logan ran his hands through his hair. “Well, great. That’s just fucking great.”
“What’s great?” The deep voice echoed down the hallway.
Logan snapped his head up to see Brett exiting the storeroom. He was wearing a new bar T-shirt and had his soiled one draped over his right shoulder. “My head bartender just quit on me.”
“Why?”
“Good question.” Logan glared at Valerie before looking back at his buddy and sighing heavily. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Do you know anything about bartending?”
Brett shook his head. “I can make a beer, but that’s about it.”
“The fact that you referred to it as ‘making a beer’ just told me all I need to know about your bartending abilities. Shit. Okay, do you think you could cover the floor for me while I jump behind the bar and pitch in?”
His buddy shrugged. “Yeah, sure. What do I need to do?”
“Just walk around the room and keep an eye on things. Check the bathrooms to make sure no one’s in there vomiting, having sex, or trashing the place. Look around on the tables and floors for spills or broken glass, and then let the waitresses know if you spot any. And if you see anyone getting too rowdy, show them the door. Got it?”
“No problem. Anything for you, man.” Brett squeezed Logan’s shoulder then headed out the door, letting it swing back and forth on its hinges behind him.
Valerie stood there with a strange, unreadable expression on her face. It was as if she was contemplating something heavy, but then she finally said, “I can help too.”
“I don’t want or need your kind of help,” Logan said, bending to swipe the storeroom keys from the floor and dangling them from his fingertips in front of her face. “I believe you’ve done enough already.”
His harsh words made her visibly wince, and his stomach twisted in response. Damn it. He shouldn’t feel guilty for snapping at her like that. Not when she deserved it.
Back in the day, Valerie had pulled all kinds of crazy stunts to draw attention to herself, and she’d always gotten away with it. It was about damn time someone finally taught her a lesson. So Logan did the only thing he could think of. He moved in the direction of the door to get the hell out of there before he did something idiotic…like apologize to her.
“Logan?” she whispered.
God. He didn’t want to stop walking, but he couldn’t help himself. It was as if the hallway were a black hole and Valerie was the gravitational pull inside it that held him firmly in place.
Fine. He just wouldn’t look at her then. “What?” he muttered, not bothering to turn around.
“W-we need to talk about what just happened with Paul.”
That comment not only had him glancing at her over his shoulder but shooting her a dirty look for even suggesting something so ludicrous. “Why? Like I need to hear all the sordid details?” He shook his head. “No, thanks. You keep ’em.”
“God, you’re such a stubborn asshole.” She shook her head with disgust. “It wasn’t what it looked like. I wasn’t—”
“I don’t care.”
She scowled. “Yes, you’ve made that perfectly clear.”
“What do you want from me, Valerie? I already told you I don’t have time for this,” he said, gritting his teeth. “If you want to play games, do it elsewhere. I’ve got a bar to run.”
“Games?”
Jesus. There she goes repeating what I say again. Like she’s clueless to what I’m talking about. This time, Logan turned to face her with his whole body. If she wanted him to spell it out for her, then so be it. “Yeah, games. Like the one you play where you throw yourself into a guy’s path and see how long he can hold out. You’ve been doing that shit for years. When the hell are you going to grow up?”
Not saying a word, Valerie stood there blinking at him while wearing the strangest expression on her reddening face. He’d never seen her get embarrassed by much so he didn’t think that was it. Was she pissed? And if so, what the hell did she have to be pissed about? If it wasn’t for her, he wouldn’t have just lost his best bartender on the one night he needed him
the most.
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t all her fault. Logan had overreacted after finding the two of them together. But damn it, seeing someone else touch something of his had blown a fuse in his brain and…Wait. His? What the fuck? Since when had Valerie ever been his? It wasn’t like he had dibs on her or something. Christ.
As a young teenage girl, Valerie had always short-circuited his system, but the curvy blond goddess standing in front of him was apparently warping his feeble, testosterone-charged mind. It was as if she made him want to claim her luscious body and brand his name all over her every time he got near her. Something he needed to rectify immediately. In fact, starting right now.
Logan didn’t wait to see if she would respond. Instead, he threw open the door and marched toward the main bar to give James a hand behind the bar. Lord knows he would need it with this unruly crowd, which was only growing louder and more demanding by the second.
Unfortunately, Logan had known from the beginning that opening Bottoms Up early was a bad idea, but it wasn’t like he’d had much of a choice. If his mother would’ve told him about the foreclosure notice on her home before he’d signed all of the papers on the bar, he wouldn’t have used all of his savings to buy the damn place to begin with. But since he had, his only way to help her now was to make Bottoms Up as profitable as he could, as fast as he could.
Or sit back and watch his mother lose everything.
Chapter Three
Valerie couldn’t believe it.
Not only had Logan refused to listen to a word she said, but then he had the nerve to accuse her of playing games and thought it was her fault that his head bartender quit.
Maybe she should have made Logan hear her out from the beginning. But the accusatory things spewing out of his mouth in anger had hurt her. More than she cared to admit. And even when she pushed the hurt deep down inside of her and offered her assistance in his time of need, he’d once again cast her aside as if she were a child.
Valerie shook her head in disgust. Whatever.
Her heels clicked on the tile floor as she made her way over to the swinging doors and shoved her way through them. She hadn’t noticed it while in the hallway, but the entire bar had grown considerably louder. She could still hear the bass of the rock music pumping out of the mounted speakers, but the singer’s faint words were drowned out by the noise level of the crowd.
People yelled out drink orders and waved their money into the air, though it didn’t seem to do any good. Other fed-up groups complained openly about the lousy service, which only seemed to rile up the calmer customers. Even the ones who already had their drinks were griping about how long it took to get them. Then Valerie noticed several people vacating their tables and heading for the exit.
If Logan doesn’t do something soon, he’s going to lose a lot more business.
Glancing around, Valerie found him behind the bar hitting buttons on the screen of the POS system. He must’ve finally got it running again because he fistpumped the air and spun toward the counter. Logan began rolling his sleeves farther up his well-toned forearms, which only punctuated the size of his large manly hands. Ones he immediately put to good use.
Logan began pitching in, slinging beers at a fast-paced rate and pouring shots like a champ. He obviously knew his way around a bar and had done this many times before. But when it came time to make a strawberry daiquiri, his efficiency went down the drain. Logan and the other bartender were apparently sharing the only working blender, which had them invading each other’s workspace and slowing one another down.
Someone stepped up beside her. “Damn, it’s a madhouse in here tonight.”
Valerie glanced up into her brother’s eyes and nodded. “Yeah, it is. And it’s probably going to stay that way unless Logan gets it under control. I told him I could help, but he doesn’t want me to.”
“You know he’s not the type to ask for help, Val.”
“He asked you.”
Brett shrugged. “Yeah, but that’s different.”
She narrowed her eyes at the negative undertone. “Why? And if you say it’s because I’m a female, I’m going to kick you in the shin.”
He chuckled. “That’s exactly what a girl would do. Guys don’t kick each other in the shins…unless they’re playing soccer.”
“Don’t make me call Mom and tell her what a chauvinistic pig you are.”
“Retract the claws,” he said with a chuckle. “You know I’m just playing around. I believe in women’s rights and all that shit.”
All that shit? Really? She sighed. “I’m being serious, Brett. I know how to make cocktails. Logan’s shorthanded and could use me behind the bar. At least until he finds another bartender.”
Brett shook his head. “You don’t want to work here. Besides, you already have a job at the bakery.”
“What about the bakery?” Leah asked, approaching them from behind.
Valerie spun around. “There you are! I was looking for you earlier and couldn’t find you. I thought you left without telling me.”
“Nah, I was just on the dance floor with Sam. I got tired of stepping on his feet though so I told him to go play pool with Max for a while. Now what is this about the bakery? Did something happen?”
Valerie waved her hand through the air. “Oh, it’s nothing. The bakery is fine. Logan’s head bartender quit on him, and he’s already understaffed so I told him I could help out. At least temporarily.”
Leah shrugged. “Sure, it’s not a problem. I can change up our schedule so that you don’t work any morning shifts on the nights you work here. No biggie.”
Brett grimaced. “Valerie doesn’t want to work here.”
Funny how he keeps saying that. Valerie scoffed. “You mean you don’t want me to work here,” she corrected him, poking her finger into his chest.
He rubbed at the spot. “Well, yeah. That too. But you also can’t inconvenience Leah with a last-minute schedule change. It’s rude.”
Yeah, like Brett has ever been concerned about being rude.
Leah shook her head. “It’s actually not an inconvenience at all. Changing up the schedule would work better for me too. Sam and I have so many wedding details to finish up over the next few weeks, and his construction site is really hectic in the morning. Makes it harder for him to get away. Having him take off early in the afternoon to work on this stuff with me would be better. Perfect, really.”
Valerie smiled. “See, Brett? It works for everyone.”
“Yeah, I see that,” he said, sounding almost disgruntled. Then his face broke into a wide grin. “Except for the guy who said he doesn’t want your help. Remember him?”
Shit.
She chewed on her lip as she glanced over at Logan. He was making change for a customer while simultaneously wiping up a spill on the counter. Sweat beaded along his brow, and he looked every bit as frustrated as she felt. “We’ll see about that,” she told Brett and then stalked toward the bar.
Spouting apologies and excuse me’s, Valerie quickly squeezed her way to the front of the counter, where Logan had lined up six beer bottles and was popping the metal caps off each of them. He glanced up, but the moment he locked eyes with her, he looked down and returned to his task. As if he planned to ignore her.
Valerie sighed inwardly. “Logan, I need to talk to you for a moment.”
“I’m busy,” he said, leaning away to pass out the beers he’d opened.
She waited until he righted himself so she wouldn’t have to scream over the noisy crowd. “I know you are. But that’s what I need to talk to you about. I can help you—”
“No.” Logan put both hands on the counter and firmed his stance. “I’ve already told you I don’t want your help.”
She smirked. “You may not want it, but you need it.”
“No, I don’t.” He turned away from her to hand the other bartender the money he’d received for the beers.
Though his stubbornness pissed her off, she wasn’t going to take n
o for an answer. Valerie had always had a bit of a rebellious streak in her. The more someone told her she couldn’t do something, the more she wanted to do it.
“I’ve already made arrangements with my other job. I can work here temporarily until you find someone to replace me.”
“I said no.”
Valerie blew out a hard breath. “Would you stop being unreasonable for just one second? I have some bar skills that could be put to good use. If nothing else, I could at least distract everyone and keep them from focusing on how long it’s taking to get their drinks while you guys catch up on the orders.”
Logan stopped what he was doing and leveled a sardonic gaze at her. “What are you going to do—dance on the bar?”
“Damn it, Logan. Just give me a chance to show you—”
“I said no. Now leave it alone. I’ve got work to do.” A scuffle behind her had Logan leaping over the bar in order to break up two guys who were shoving each other.
Right there. That was the reason he needed her help. He might not like the solution she’d offered him, but it wasn’t possible for him to manage Bottoms Up effectively while being stuck behind the bar serving drinks. On a slow night perhaps. But not with this many people vying for a bartender’s attention. If only he’d listen to reason.
Valerie released a frustrated sound from deep within her throat. God. Why did he have to be so darn pigheaded?
A soft hand touched Valerie’s shoulder, and she turned to see Leah frowning at her. “Sorry he’s acting like that.”
“You heard?”
“Yeah. But I’m sure it’s nothing personal. I’m guessing Logan knows that Brett wouldn’t want you working here and doesn’t want to step on your brother’s toes. Otherwise I don’t see why he’s so adamant to turn down the extra help. He obviously needs it.”
As sad as it was, Leah was probably right. Brett had always hated Valerie hanging out in bars, even though she only did so with her friends. “God, this sucks. Brett ruins everything for me.”