Jay Crownover - Better When He's Bad

I sighed and gave my head a little shake of resignation. “I didn’t forget anything. I just need to know what Race is into.”

She pouted for a minute more and kept up her glare contest with Dovie. Neither was going to win since it was like an apple glaring at an orange, so I waited until the dancer looked back up at me. She switched tactics and broke out in a gigantic fake grin. She batted those plastic eyelashes at me and ran her long nails over the zipper of my hoodie. I lifted a black eyebrow and caught her wrist in my fingers.

“Why don’t you ditch the deadweight and come back after my shift? We can chat, and you know . . . get reacquainted.”

“I’m running on limited time and even more limited patience, Honor. You don’t want either to run out.”

She made a face and flipped her long, reddish-brown hair over her shoulder so I could see the pointed tips of each naked breast where they were rubbing against me.

“All I know is everyone, and I mean everyone, is looking for him. He stopped in when he very first got back to town looking for Ernie. I asked him if he wanted to take a trip down memory lane and he wasn’t interested. He was quiet for a while, we all knew he was back and living in the Point, and then overnight he was rattling Novak’s cage and then he was a ghost. I like Race, we all like Race.” That was said pointedly to Dovie and I heard her suck in a sharp breath. “If I knew anything else, I would let you know, Bax. You know I wouldn’t leave you hanging.”

I considered her for a minute, trying to determine how much was truth and how much was just what she thought I wanted to hear.

“What did he want to talk to Ernie about?”

She shrugged a naked shoulder and ran her hand up and down my arm. Any prolonged contact with a female who was missing her clothes was bound to have an effect on my starved sex drive, but for some reason, I found the twitch in my pants annoying and ill-timed rather than exciting and blood heating.

“I dunno. He didn’t say. He did ask if I saw some guy hanging around, though.”

I went stiff and grabbed her by her upper arms. She gave a little shriek as I pulled her up to the very tips of her cheap heels.

“What guy?” This was important. I could feel it. I was a good thief, a successful criminal, because my instincts very rarely failed me, and whoever Race was asking after was key to his disappearance. I just knew it.

“Bax?”

It wasn’t Honor’s overly sexed-up voice that made me realize not only was I squeezing her hard enough to leave marks, but I was also shaking her like a rag doll; it was Dovie’s much quieter, much more modulated one. I set the dancer down and took a step back.

“What guy, Honor?”

She was scowling at me and starting to walk away, her gunmetal-gray eyes flashing sparks at me.

“You’re still an asshole, Bax. I don’t know how I managed to forget it. It must be because you’ve got that whole dark and dangerous thing going on. I forgot that the dangerous part isn’t any fun. Some rich guy. He was asking about some really rich guy, that’s all I know. If you come back, leave Pollyanna at home, and try to remember I don’t like it rough.”

She flounced away with as much attitude as anyone in ridiculous heels and not much else could muster, and I turned to look down at Dovie. A storm was brewing under her pale skin. I could see it in the hot flush high on her cheeks and the way her green eyes darkened to almost black.

Her fingers curled into fists on the table and she snapped, “No way. There is no way Race was messing around with a piece of trash like that.” I noticed she didn’t have the same illusions about me. I put my own hands on the edge of the table and leaned down so we were almost eye-to-eye. She pulled back a little and I saw her gulp.

“What you think you know and what you actually know are two very different things, Copper-Top.”

“I know my brother.” She was stubborn and I liked the way her pretty mouth set in a firm line. Finding someone with that kind of loyalty in a place like this was rare, even if it was misguided.

I pushed off the table. “You know your brother now; you have no idea who he was then. It’ll make for less disappointment if you keep that in mind. I gotta go find Ernie. Stay put and try not to piss off any more of the dancers.”

She screwed up her face, which I had to admit was cute. Those freckles were starting to grow on me.

“I want to come with you.”

“Too bad. Ernie and Novak do business together, so he’ll see me. You try and stick your nose in there, and you’re gonna find your happy ass stripped and onstage whether you like it or not. Ernie isn’t the most enlightened strip-club owner, if you can imagine that. You just keep your ass in the seat.”

I didn’t really care if she was going to listen to me or not. Chuck would keep an eye on her, and if she wanted to tangle with a bunch of half-naked chicks just trying to make their way in the world, that was her choice. Being a babysitter had never been on my occupational goals list and I didn’t have the time to try and convince her that Race was a person with a past, just like everyone else in the Point. Sure, he came from a shiny and more well-to-do place than the rest of us, but that didn’t mean the undercarriage wasn’t just as rusted out and full of holes, just like the rest of ours. The sooner she saw that, the softer the letdown would be when whatever Race had mucked into got dragged out into the light.

I made my way to the back room, nodding in Chuck’s direction and hooking a finger over my shoulder to indicate I had left Dovie on her own. He tilted his chin in acknowledgment and I went to the office and rapped on the door with a knuckle. I didn’t bother to wait for an invite in.

Ernie was a big, fat slob of a man. He was balding and greasy, had beady little eyes, and was as greedy as he was crafty. My theory was that all guys like him started strip clubs because there was no other way they could see hot chicks naked. Novak loved him because he was malleable and a coward. He paid the big boss whatever he asked and let him use the joint for whatever he wanted. In turn, Novak made sure Ernie was insulated, had a steady line of new girls, rich customers, and an endless supply of blow. It was a relationship that benefited both of them. Not to mention, they were both slimeballs and only operated on the other side of the law. In Novak’s case it was the far, far other side of the law.

Ernie was sitting behind his desk talking on his cell. His bushy brows went up high when he saw me. I offered up what passed as a smile but really was more a baring of teeth and leaned back against the closed door with my arms crossed over my chest. My intent was clear. Unless I got the answers I wanted, no one was going in or coming out of the office without going through me first.

“Ernie.”

“Well, if it isn’t Novak’s golden boy back from the joint. I heard you might be poking around. Trying to hit up on your old girls. Five years is a long time; most of them moved on by now.”

Which really meant most were strung out, got smacked around one too many times, or got too old to bring in the revenue. This guy was a class act all the way.

“I’m looking for Race.”

“You and every other SOB in the Point. Don’t know why he had to show back up and stick his neck out. He had a good thing going with you locked up. Out of sight, out of mind. Now his dumb ass is on everyone’s mind and nobody is happy about it.”

“Honor said he was asking after some moneybags. Who was it?”

“Why should I tell you shit? You went away, kid. You don’t have any pull around here anymore. The way things went down with you and Novak . . . shit, you’re lucky to be breathing.”