Excerpt -
Jerry settled onto a
stool and nodded to the bartender. The woman came over to take his
order, handed him a beer, then disappeared back down to the other end of
the bar. He didn’t blame her. As big as he was, and as dour as he no
doubt looked right then, he’d probably have done the same.
He flipped the cap
from his bottle with a thumb, and took a long, slow drink. The alcohol
would have almost no effect on him, but the cold and the taste were all
he was interested in anyway.
The chat with Bobby
after Conway had left had been brief, but had garnered a few hints as to
the identity of the attackers. As well as the accent clue, Bobby
thought he might have heard a name as they were running away. Sharon. It
wasn’t much to go on, but it was a start.
The more interesting
clue was the most vague. Bobby, his voice low because he didn’t want to
mention it out loud, mentioned that he got a feeling from two of the
men. Their scents were covered by perfume, he’d said, but there was a
sense of something “different” about them. That generally meant
shifters, demonic blood, or some ability with magic, and since a shifter
could instinctively identify another, that left only two possibilities.
It at least narrowed the field a little.
As he turned back to
his beer, a shiver went up his spine, bringing his attention to the
doorway to his right. There was nobody there. He frowned and turned away
again, only to catch someone’s entrance in the corner of his eye. It
was Mica, the guy from the previous night, as well as the park that
morning.
If Mica had spotted
him, he didn’t show it. Instead he walked past to the far end of the
bar, where the bartender was polishing a glass.
“What can I get you, cutie?” she asked, a smile on her face.
“Whatever beer you have will be fine.” The man sat. “I need something to take away the taste of three hours in an art gallery.”
The bartender
chuckled and fetched him a bottle, then headed off to another patron, a
swing in her hips that hadn’t been present earlier. Suddenly Jerry’s own
feelings toward the man didn’t seem so rushed. It appeared Mica had
quite the effect on all kinds of people.
Alone, Mica’s smile shifted to a neutral expression, and he sipped his beer while he took in the bar.
There wasn’t much to
take in. Jerry had been going to the bar for years, and had never seen
it more than half-full, and at that time it wasn’t even near that. Other
than them, there were seven other patrons. All were male, and it was
clear that none of them interested Mica.
The same couldn’t be
said for the others, though. More than a couple of them had cast
glances Mica’s way, and it wouldn’t be long before at least one of them
approached. Jerry wasn’t a jealous man, and certainly not when he’d not
said so much as a single word to the object of his desire, so he sat
back and watched with interest.
Sure enough, after a couple of minutes a blond man Jerry knew to be a bit of a hit with the guys strolled over to Mica.
“Hey,” the man said. “You new here?”
Mica nodded, not paying much attention to his admirer. “Came in last night.”
“Well, if you want to see the sights, let me know.” Blondie thrust out a hand. “I’m—”
“Not interested. Thanks.”
Blondie’s expression
shifted at the interruption to one of mild anger, but as Mica smiled so
did Blondie, his irritation instantly dissolving. “Hey, no worries.
Have a nice evening.”
Jerry smiled, too, then spun back to face the bar as he realized. He hadn’t meant
to smile. If anything he’d found Mica’s control over Blondie to be a
little disconcerting. As soon as he’d seen Mica smile, though, he
couldn’t help himself.
There was clearly
something different about the man. Strangely, though—especially given
the spate of attacks—It didn’t worry Jerry. It just made him want to get
to know the guy a little better.
“Hi.”
Jerry jumped a little at the voice, which was closer than expected. He turned to find Mica sitting down on the stool beside him.
“I’m Mica,” he said.
“I figure a good way to avoid the attention of the local populace would
be to attach myself to a big guy like you.”
Oh, you can attach yourself to me, all right. Right on the end of my—
“Jerry.” He held out his hand and smiled. “I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before. And that’s not a pickup line.”
“The park, this morning. You were running, and I was at the fountain with a friend.”
“Ah.” He nodded. “That’ll be it.”
“And the night
before.” Mica raised an eyebrow. “We passed each other.” He leant
closer. “Honestly, I had a hard time getting you out of my head.”
Jerry felt a little knot of worry disappear. So he’d had the same reaction. That meant Jerry wasn’t
a creep. He was a little surprised by how upfront Mica was, though.
He’d seemed more…subdued, judging from what Jerry had overheard in the
park.
“So, you’re new in town or you don’t go out much,” he said. “I know most of the locals.”
“In a city this big?”
Jerry shrugged. “Been around a long time, and worked the door on more than a few clubs.”
“I see.” Mica
shifted on his stool, his knee grazing against Jerry’s. “I’m new. Came
in last night, in fact. Maybe you could show me the sights.”
“I’m sure your friend has that covered.”
He smiled. “Those weren’t the kind of sights I was thinking of.”
“Oh?” Jerry could feel the lust coming from the man. “And what sights were you thinking of?”
Mica slipped a hand from the bar and onto Jerry’s thigh. “Well for a start I was thinking of getting a look at your cock.”
