Sebastian slid off the side of the Harley, his boots pounding heavily onto the smooth concrete of the parking lot that was whirring and bustling with activity.
Elaina’s Lounge was always a busy hub, especially after the sun went down, and it was a place he’d been known to stop in from time to time, mostly to follow a lead.
Many of the regular patrons of Elaina’s were the classy, high-rolling criminals who could afford to keep people quiet, and most were smart enough to fly beneath the radar. A man doesn’t run a successful, highly profitable, underground business on luck. It takes brains and muscle.
These were two things Sebastian Stone had in spades, but he had chosen a different side of the law to play in. Maybe it was a bit of a gray area on most accounts, but flying under the radar was beneficial, if not crucial, to his line of work as well.
He lifted a chin to the bouncer, a surly guy with a goatee, as he passed him walking in the door. He scanned the room to survey his surroundings, a practiced and automatic action, getting a feel of the crowd. Then his eyes went in search of her.
He’d seen the feisty little blond trying to outbid him, how she had looked at him with a venomous, warning glare. He’d known exactly who she was the moment he’d laid eyes on her. Hell, everyone on this side of Houston knew who Elaina Evans was, and Sebastian, like every other hot-blooded man with a pulse, wouldn’t have minded getting to know her a little better.
She was a classy woman, but a tough one. She had no problem running a place like hers, keeping the staff and the burly customers in line alike. She was used to giving orders and people following them.
Being a successful business owner made a woman enticing and intimidating all in the same pass. Most men didn’t know what to do with a head-strong, take-charge woman, though there probably wasn’t a man around who would admit to that. Men liked to feel needed, and a woman like that didn’t need anyone. It could emasculate even the most macho of men, and those were the type of men who especially didn’t like to feel emasculated.
One thing men did like, though – a challenge. She was a challenge, all right, and for Sebastian that could be said in more ways than one. He’d been working on a case that had led right here to her front door recently, and he wasn’t sure if she was an innocent bystander or an accomplice.
When his eyes made a full circle around the room from a table against the wall he had occupied, and still no sign of her, he decided to wander over and pull up a stool at the bar. He didn’t like sitting at the bar with his back to the room, but he could wait it out and keep his ears open, listening for any conversations going on around him that might indicate where the little spit-fire might be.
“Roy Rogers, tall,” he ordered once he took a seat.
The bartender acknowledged him, but before she could turn to pour his mocktail, he noticed her eyes dart up and over him toward the front door. He recognized the look of fear, then disgust, flash across her face before she looked back at him and plastered on a smile as she hurriedly moved to make his order.
As she poured the grenadine, Sebastian discreetly turned to see what had caught her eye, and he saw three men coming in the entrance. They looked like trouble if he’d ever seen it, so he took his drink, tipped his head to Mindy the red-headed bartender, and vacated the stool at the bar to find a table in a dark corner he could sit and watch from.
Just as he suspected, it didn’t take long for the three men to start trouble. A second bouncer from the one at the door approached them and it looked like they were asked to leave, which wasn’t going over too well, by the looks of it.
“Fuck you, Leo. Where is she?” said one of the men, raising his voice loud enough for Sebastian to hear from all the way across the room. It got the attention of the crowd, and the chatter slowed nearly to a stop as all eyes went to them.
“Dallas, you don’t want to do this here, man. Take it outside,” Leo warned, flexing and tensing the muscles in his arms and chest.
“I’ll leave when I damn well please. Now, get the hell out of my face and tell me where Elaina is, or I’ll find her myself,” Dallas replied, bowing up to Leo.
That got Sebastian’s hackles up, but for the moment, he stayed back in the shadows, unseen. He recognized that name, Dallas Evans, and that wasn’t a good sign. Then again, maybe it was.
The muscles ticked in Leo’s jaw, but he stood his ground, waiting for Dallas to make a move. The second bouncer strolled cautiously up behind him.
One of the two men that had come in with Dallas cupped a hand to Dallas’s shoulder in an effort to get him to back down, but it only managed to rile him up even more. Dallas hit his buddy’s hand off him, sending the guy falling into a table and knocking over several drinks that went crashing to the floor.
“Don’t fuck with me, McDowell,” he shouted, and McDowell looked thoroughly pissed off by that point.
“Fuck you, Evans,” he roared, bull-rushing him, and a flurry of action began happening at once.
Leo and the other bouncer charged in to break up the fight, but Dallas Evans couldn’t decide who he wanted to pound more, McDowell or his more worthy opponents, Leo and his backup with the goatee. Chairs were knocked over, glasses and beer bottles shattered to the ground, and the din of the crowd went wild as people circled around to get a good view of the whole debacle.
That’s when the tiny, spit-fire blonde appeared from a back hallway, approaching as calm as the eye of a storm.
“Enough,” she called out, and the room went still.
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Boss Unavowed: A Love On the Rocks Romance (The Boss Series Book 2) Page 11