She didn’t answer.
But I knew.
Heterochromia. I’d looked it up a couple of years ago in the prison library.
“What’s that tattoo on your shoulder say? I can’t read it all,” Sin continued as if she hadn’t ignored his last question.
That had me looking over to see the tattoo.
I’ve loved you at your darkest. Romans 5:8
I looked away, jaw clenching.
What the fuck was that supposed to mean?
I picked up a glass and started to polish it.
“Can you get me another beer?” I heard Swayze say.
And good goddamn.
Her voice was even huskier than it used to be.
A voice that sexy didn’t look like it should come out of a woman that appeared so youthful. So unaffected by life.
But Jesus, did the woman work it.
I looked over at her to see that she was staring down at her hands. She hadn’t even looked up yet to see who she was talking to.
I poured her another beer from the tap, guessing on what she’d ordered based on the color of what was left in her glass, and then set it down in front of her.
“Thanks,” she mumbled.
“Welcome.”
Her head snapped up so fast that it would’ve been comical had I not been so pissed off that she was in my goddamn bar.
The one where I now worked when I wasn’t needed with Lynn and the others.
She narrowed her eyes at me and took a defiant gulp of her beer.
“What are you doing here?” she barked.
Sin snorted loudly from beside me.
“He owns the bar now, darlin’,” Sin interrupted our stare off.
Her inhale was deep.
“What?” she asked.
“He. Owns. The. Bar,” Sin repeated it slower.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I fucking heard you the first time. When the hell did that happen? This is my favorite bar. I think I would’ve noticed a change in ownership.”
Would she have?
Obviously not.
“When was the last time you were here?” Sin asked the question I wanted to ask.
“Umm.” She hesitated. “About two months or so.”
“So obviously you probably didn’t notice the change in ownership seeing as he’s owned it now for about three weeks.” Sin shrugged.
I had.
Originally, I had been working at a strip club closer to Kilgore, but I had my eye on this bar. When Lynn had offered to allow me to buy it, I had.
Though, it’d wiped my savings out.
Luckily, it came with a loft over the bar that would give me a place to stay. And I still got income from Lynn as well. I wasn’t totally broke as I probably would have been had Lynn not helped.
“Shit,” she grumbled as she finished off her beer, not stopping until it was all the way gone. “Shit, shit, shit.”
She fished out a twenty-dollar bill from her front pocket and tossed it on the counter.
When she stood, she practically pushed Sin and snatched the blazer off the barstool that Sin had been sitting on.
“Asshole,” she mumbled as she started walking out.
“Can you watch the bar for a few minutes?” I asked.
Sin grinned. “Sure.”
I followed the stomping woman outside.
“You shouldn’t drive after downing two beers bigger than your head,” I said softly.
She whirled around, the darkness preventing me from seeing the ire in her eyes.
“I’m not driving, thank you very much,” she grumbled. “I’m going just across the road. I have a loft over my office.”
Office.
That was right. I’d heard from the rumor mill that she’d taken over her stepfather’s business and moved it.
I just hadn’t realized that she’d moved it to Souls Chapel.
What were the fuckin’ odds?
I turned woodenly to see where she was pointing and felt my stomach sink.
There would be no avoiding her now.
How the fuck…
“I didn’t know that you’d bought this bar. Or I wouldn’t have come over here,” she mumbled as she started to walk across the street.
I caught her before she could even take two steps.
My hand closed over her wrist, and my fingers curled around the fine bones there.
Just as she whirled around, anger in her eyes, a pickup truck sped past.
The force of his passing blew her hair into my face.
She smoothed it back down, and when I looked into her eyes, it was to see them wide and curious.
“Sorry,” she said softly. “I’ll look this time.”
The fact that she was so blasé about nearly getting run over by a fuckin’ truck pissed me way the hell off.
“You need to pay better attention,” I grumbled, letting her wrist go as if she’d burned me.
She rubbed her wrist, as if I’d harmed her, and I immediately felt bad.
She smiled and didn’t say another word, this time looking left and right three times before she hurried across the street.
When she disappeared around the side of the building, I told myself not to move.
But this part of town, downtown Souls Chapel, was pretty seedy. Only the low-income and shittier businesses frequented this side of town.
So, against my better judgment, I walked across the street and into the dark alley just as I saw her pushing through a metal door just past a large dumpster.
She looked over her shoulder as she was about to pass over the threshold and saw me standing there.
She froze, staring at me with trepidation.
“Thank you for taking care of my sister.”
“It was the least I could do.”
With that parting comment, she went inside and slammed the door. The lock clicked moments later, leaving me standing in the dark, looking at the closed door.
The real question wasn’t why the hell I was still standing there, but why the hell I wanted her to come back outside.
Son of a bitch.
I was so screwed.
The woman had already sent me to prison for twelve years.
I really should stay away from her.
But like the last time, all she needed to do was look at me with those eyes and I was a goner.
CHAPTER 7
What’s next? Santa can’t say ‘ho, ho, ho’ because it’ll hurt your mom’s feelings?
-Swayze to a prosecutor
SWAYZE
Pulling my hair up into a high ponytail, I walked outside, groaning when the wave of hot, humid heat hit me straight in the face.
Today was my ‘long run.’ I was running seven miles today, working my way up to thirteen and a half marathon that was set in October, and the very last thing I felt like doing was going out for a run.
However, this was something that I’d wanted to train to do since I was a young teen.
I would accomplish it, even if it killed me.
Even if I had to run on two hours of sleep just to make sure I got my mileage in that week.
Pulling out my phone, I searched for the podcast I wanted to listen to—a podcast about nutrition for runners and maximizing training plans—then walked farther out of the alley.
After stretching my calves on the brick building of my office, I walked to the edge of the alley and faced the opposite direction of town.
This way would take me to the lake, and not very many people traveled it this early in the morning.