“Buck’s? Are you planning to work at the club tonight?”
“No.” She stared up at Buck’s huge neon sign. “I’m...doing something else. Look, I need you to shut up and listen for a second. Did you get my e-mail? I want every last detail you can put together on Tyler McGee. I’m sorry I don’t have specifics yet. But he’s an ex-cop for the Longdale PD. Around thirty. Probably lives in Cooper or Longdale.”
“Jordan, I’m telling you to be careful.”
“I’m always careful. Are you writing it down?”
“I don’t need to write it down, I already have wheels in motion on that information. Now you shut up and listen to me. I want you to stay out of Buck’s for the next week. Tell him you’re leaving town for the holiday. Tell him you’re sick. I don’t care, just fix it.”
“Yeah, yeah. Okay. I’ll figure something out.” She disconnected.
She studied the back door of the nightclub. Her back still ached from the Lewis incident. She could use it as an excuse, but she didn’t want to. She knew how quickly things could go wrong on an undercover, knew she was probably being stubborn, but she was only waiting tables.
She walked inside the bar with a throbbing headache. The jolt of caffeine from the energy drink had done nothing to wake her up, but had succeeded in giving her a nice case of the jitters. In all honesty, she probably should have stayed home. Working here wore at her patience when she was in good form. Tonight, she’d be lucky not to kill someone.
“Jordan, over here.”
Warren and Arlo Buck were sitting at a table near the bar. They motioned for her. Great. She mentally prepared herself as she walked toward them. Warren would pull her down in his lap, put his hands somewhere inappropriate, and make all sorts of suggestive comments. Obviously sexual harassment training hadn’t made its way to Titus.
Warren’s attraction to her had been anything but subtle. She tolerated it. Most of the time she even encouraged it and made an attempt to flirt back. Getting close to him was the next best thing to getting close to Buck. In fact, he’d probably be much easier to get past. His old man’s radar always seemed to be on alert. Warren was too self-absorbed to even have radar. But today had largely sucked in all directions already.
“You doing okay?” Buck asked.
Before she had a chance to answer, Warren picked up her hand and spun her around until she tumbled into his lap. She jolted as a sharp pain shot through her back.
“I’m sorry, honey,” Warren said. “Are you still hurting? Holy shit,” he said when he lifted the back of her shirt. “That’s some bruise.”
Buck even raised an eyebrow as he looked at the bright, colorful spot that had formed across the center of her spine. “You gonna be able to work?” he asked.
Decision time. She could play up the injury, take a few days, make Bahan happy. Instead she said, “Yeah, I’ll be okay.”
Warren stroked her back with the tips of his fingers, gentle circles round and round the bruise. “If Lewis ever shows his drunk, stupid self around here again, I’ll kick the shit out of him.”
“Aw,” Jordan cooed, “you’d be my knight in shining armor? You’re so sweet.” She shifted and put an arm around his neck, then kissed his cheek. “Such a good friend.”
Warren ate it up like a starving man, and his hands suddenly seemed to be on a mission to touch as much of her bare skin as possible.
“I better get to work,” she said.
“Wait.” He wrapped his arms around her and spoke softly in her ear. “I was wondering if you had plans for Thanksgiving?”
“Turkey pot pie and a bottle of wine.” She smiled. “I don’t really have any family.”
“Yeah, I thought that’s what you said. I wondered if you’d like to come to our house for Thanksgiving dinner?”
Maybe today was her lucky day after all. She knew Buck’s main office was in his home, and she was dying to poke around in there. She’d wondered how she’d ever score an invitation to their house.
“Warren, that’s so sweet, but are you sure it’s okay?” She looked at Buck. “Thanksgiving is for family.”
Buck had an ever-so-slight smile on his face. “It’s the least we can do after letting you get roughed up last night.”
“Well, I’d love to. You guys are just the best,” she said, hugging Warren again. “Should I make a dish?”
***
Ty was huddled in a corner of Buck’s, introducing himself to his crew of bouncers. He turned when he heard the back door open and slam shut.
Jordan walked in and slipped off her jacket. Everything inside him tightened. She wore a little black tank top and black denim shorts. Her hair was pulled back into one long, sleek, blond ponytail, with just enough left in front to cover her stitches.
Her hair was styled completely different, but the same ache that had surfaced the first time he caught sight of her flared again. Like a sucker punch, it caught him off guard. Recognizing how deeply she affected him from thirty feet away was not a good thing. He had an agenda, a reason for being here that shouldn’t have anything to do with a sexy cocktail waitress.
He was nervous about what she’d say when she finally saw him. After giving her so much grief, he’d taken a job at Buck’s himself. She probably wouldn’t see the wisdom in that logic. He smiled thinking about the verbal abuse she’d probably let loose on him. It was different for him, though; he knew what he was getting into. Anyway, she should be grateful to have someone here who actually cared if the girls were harassed.
Turning back to the guys, he said, “We’re done for now. I appreciate everyone coming in. If you’re not working tonight, I’ll see you in a day or so. Let me know if you have questions.”
Ty looked back at Jordan and caught sight of Warren pulling her onto his lap. Warren lifted her shirt and touched her back. What the hell right did he have to do that? Then Warren put his arms around her.
Instantly annoyed, Ty attempted to ignore the surge of anger and unfamiliar ache that bubbled in his chest. He wasn’t jealous, and she was a big girl. If she wanted to fall all over a pathetic excuse of a human like Warren, more power to her.
He couldn’t see the whole picture, so he shifted. Looked like Warren’s hand was positioned somewhere between her thighs. Killing Buck’s son on his first day of work would most certainly get him fired, but seriously, if the bastard didn’t stop touching her...
No, screw it. She’d made it clear last night she didn’t want any kind of relationship.
Then why was she cozying up to this jerk, of all people?
Damn, she put an arm around Warren’s neck and kissed his cheek. What the hell? This was just too much to sit back and watch.
Ty walked closer to where Buck’s son and Jordan were flirting and laughing. She seemed content to sit in asshole’s lap and let his filthy hands slither all over her skin.
“Hey, how’s your back and head?” Ty asked.
Jordan twisted and met his gaze. All the color drained from her face, leaving her damn near as pale as the night she fell off the picnic table.
That’s right, I busted you, sweetheart.
“Ty, what are you...? Why are you here?” she asked.
He was pretty sure she’d just spoken, but the visual of her wrapped around Warren temporarily seized up his brain. It was perfectly clear now. Last night had been one big, whopping mistake. Even after she’d thrown him out, he would’ve sworn there was something between them. Apparently he’d been wrong.
“What are you doing here?” she asked again.
“I work here. Running security for Buck.”
She eased to a stand but said nothing.
Buck called Warren into the office. When they were alone, Ty stood face to face with her for a few miserable seconds. She looked stunned, shocked into silence. That was a first. In fact, she opened her mouth to say something and then snapped it closed and turned to walk away.
Ty followed her. “What, no congratulations on my new job? I thought maybe you’d be happy to see me
here, but I didn’t know I’d be cutting in on your thing with Warren.”
“Really?” She spun around, came at him like a lion springing toward prey. “You thought I’d be happy to see you working for Buck, security no less? Well, think again.”
She pinned him with a hot look of anger. “You know, you basically accused me of having no pride.” She looked around at the other waitresses who were already there and lowered her voice. “Told me how stupid I was for working here, that this was a bad place nice women didn’t work in. Now here you are. A bit hypocritical, don’t you think?”
He leaned in until they were nose to nose. “Is it uncomfortable having two guys you’re messing around with in the same building?”
She shrank back as if he’d hit her. “What?”
Ty folded his arms across his chest and continued to glare.
“I am not messing around with anyone.”
“Really? You keep telling yourself that, sweetheart. Who knows what would have happened last night if we hadn’t been interrupted by a phone call. Now I find you in Warren’s lap, letting him run his hands all over you. My mistake. I thought you were different from the rest of the women who work here. I thought you didn’t get how much trouble there could be in a place like this. Stupid me, I thought maybe you’d be happy to have someone watching your back.”
“If that’s why you’re working here, I tried to be perfectly clear last night. I don’t need you or anyone else watching my back. This is precisely the reason I don’t want a man in my life. One stupid kiss and you think you have a right to bitch about what I do and who I do it with.”
“One stupid kiss? Really?” He looked around. The bartender and another cocktail waitress were looking in their direction. He leaned close and whispered in her ear. “I guess I really was the one who didn’t get it. You’re obviously exactly where you belong, doing exactly what you’re good at.”
***
The night dragged slowly and without mercy. Jordan had more body parts that hurt than didn’t. The loud, pounding music and flashing lights were doing a number on her head. Her feet hurt. Her back throbbed. Even her heart ached—Ty’s harsh words had stung more than she’d ever dare admit.
His physical presence alone seemed to stir something inside her, but every time the man opened his mouth, she ended up stumbling over some stupid emotion. If he had the power to trip her up every damn time he came near, she’d avoid him like the kryptonite he was.
They’d known each other about three minutes, and he expected what? Some sort of commitment? Her undying love because he was the first guy to bring her to a mind-numbing orgasm in... Well, it was none of his business how long it had been for her. That’s probably why it had felt so good. A long abstinence could make even the most mediocre encounter feel like bliss.
He hadn’t even given her a chance to explain. Not that she could explain. But the things he said, the way he had looked at her...
Probably similar to the way she’d looked at him. She was still reeling over him being Arlo Buck’s head security man. That couldn’t be good.
Even so, she couldn’t stop watching him. But not once this evening had he allowed his cool gray eyes to meet hers. Now she needed to figure out why that stung so badly.
Determined to ignore Ty, she loaded her tray and headed back to her section. It was slow in the club tonight, but she had a table of seriously drunk young men who were tipping extremely well. She was lost in thought, half debating whether her income was better as a cop or a waitress, when an uninvited hand touched her ass and snapped her back into reality.
Great. A drunk old man with fast fingers and warm beer breath, spouting obscene sexual innuendos. How could she resist? She was fully prepared to let it go, but the old coot grabbed her hips and gave a sharp tug.
She stumbled back and dropped into his lap. Her tray and five full beer bottles toppled to the floor. When she turned to glare at him, he was smiling, but he had no front teeth. None. At all. On the top or the bottom. He also sported the worst comb-over she’d ever seen, plus a scraggly, long beard.
Rubbing two ten-dollar bills together, he winked. “You. Me. A VIP room. Come on, sugar.”
Was that his idea of a big payoff for getting to grope a woman half his age in a dirty little room for a few minutes? The thought was absurd, but she decided to blow him off with a friendly smile. “I’m sorry, but I’m a waitress, not a dancer. The dancers are the only ones permitted in the private rooms.”
After the Lewis incident, she needed to avoid a scene. She had no desire to explain why she’d been fired from the nightclub before the mission technically started. The old man seemed fairly harmless, so tonight was his lucky night. She’d let him off with a warning glare. What the hell, he didn’t have any teeth to knock out anyway.
She’d save all her hostility for Tyler McGee.
***
Ty watched Jordan all night. Every time her back was turned, that is. Never when she’d look at him. He wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of that.
“Jesus, the woman is just a magnet for trouble,” he grumbled when he whipped around to see she’d been the one to drop another tray full of beers. His heart tripped when he saw her wrestling with a very drunk customer.
He stewed for a minute, wondering if he should let Jordan get a solid glimpse of how her life would be if she was dumb enough to continue to work at Buck’s. Every instinct in his body was screaming for him to snap the old, grimy hairball in half. But before he knew it, a crowd had formed around her.
“You want me to take care of that?” Big Tom asked, pointing in Jordan’s direction.
“No. I’m on it,” Ty growled, dashing in her direction.
He broke through the crowd, then stopped abruptly. She had apparently decked the old guy, taken him down, and was now kneeling on his back.
“What are you doing?” Ty pulled her off the old man.
“Your job, apparently.” She sneered and stalked off.
Five young guys, who were likely from the college in the next town over, were hollering, teasing, and in general, laughing their asses off as they marveled at the old man who’d been knocked down by a waitress.
Ty pushed the old man over to Tom to have him escorted out and then turned back to the table of young men still in awe of what they’d seen.
It was unlikely that a drunk who’d caused trouble would take legal action, but Buck had made it clear he wanted to be covered against anything that resembled a lawsuit. Ty grabbed an incident report and approached the table next to “Old Floyd’s”. That’s what the college guys were calling the loser who had manhandled Jordan.
A skinny, blond guy well on his way to being obnoxiously drunk spoke first.
“Dude, Old Floyd tried to snag himself a feel.” They all laughed hysterically, punching each other in the arm. “Looking for a freebie, I guess. I mean, he was all hands with her for a while. She was trying to blow it off, but we all saw it coming.”
Another guy blew beer out of his mouth trying to choke back his laugh.
“Yeah, Old Floyd went for the golden ticket, and she ninja’d him right to the floor.” He wiped his mouth on his arm. “It was awesome. She must be like a black belt or something. I’m going for the golden ticket when she comes back, ’cause I want her to hurt me.” He made an obnoxious thrusting motion with his hips. “Please baby, please. Hurt me.”
Ty scrubbed a hand down his face, holding back his temper. He remembered being pretty drunk and stupid in college, but these guys needed a serious ass-kicking. Of course, so did about fifty percent of the idiots who walked in the door of Buck’s. But Jordan liked the tips.
Fuck that.
If she wasn’t smart enough to walk away on her own, he was just going to have to give her grief until she quit.
“I’m going to write up the incident. It will say the customer inappropriately and repeatedly touched the waitress. I’ll be back, and I’d like to get your names. Oh, and I’m going to suggest you boys behave with
the waitress, or Old Floyd won’t be the only one dropped to the floor.”
Great. Now there was paperwork. Now he’d have to talk to her. Now he’d need to find the restraint not to shake some sense into her. And he was seriously annoyed at himself, because the only thing he could really think about was whether she was okay or not.
He found her in the parking lot, heading to her car. “Where are you going?”
“Home. I’ve got a headache, and we’re slow. Warren said I could leave.”
“Buck’s got new rules. I need a statement from you in case there’s trouble. You knocked a customer flat. His lip was bleeding.” He stepped between her and her car, folded his arms.
“That’s right. I already took down one jerk tonight; I got no problem doing it again. You don’t want to look like a fool in front of your buddies, do you?”
“Well, while I’m trembling in my boots, you’re gonna need to come back inside and sign off on the trouble you caused.”
“The trouble I caused?” She took a half step back and narrowed her eyes. “You want my statement? Fine. I had to deal with a customer who stuck his grimy fingers in my back pocket, because you were too pissed off and thickheaded to do your job. You took your sweet time coming to help me out. You’re a sorry-ass excuse of a bouncer and apparently a sorry-ass excuse of a cop since you’ve lowered your career ambitions to the likes of Buck’s. Put that in your report, and shove it up your—”
“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t blame me because you sit in strange men’s laps and then get all high and mighty when they expect something more than a beer. This is your dream job, remember? You like it here. ‘It’s good money. I make good tips,’ ” he mocked in an obnoxious, girly voice. “That’s what you told me.”
As soon as the last word left his mouth, he regretted saying them. Even as mad as he was, he could hear the petulant tone of a jealous five-year-old in his voice.
Fury rolled off Jordan in thick, hot waves. “Titus really does have its fair share of village idiots running around, but I got to tell you, cowboy, not one plays the part better than you. Let’s get it straight,” she growled, ramming a brightly colored fingernail into his chest. “Buck’s is not anyone’s dream job, is it? I didn’t willingly sit in anyone’s lap tonight. I was harassed by a drunk customer. I work here. It happens. I accept that. But it’s your job to keep things like this from happening. I know you could have come to help me faster than you did.”
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