Sweet Evil (29 page)

When Trevor saw me, I smiled at him and he bypassed the other customers.

“Finally back,” he said. “Ready to pound another beer, blondie?”

I shook my head. “Two tequila shots with lime.” He raised an impressed eyebrow and grabbed the bottle.

“Hey, we’ve been waiting over here longer,” a man yelled.

“Be right with you,” Trevor told him.

I glanced at my watch. Hour one was over. I could have three drinks. Trevor set two golden shots in front of us with a shaker of salt. But no limes. I looked up as he called the other bartender over and tossed him a lime wedge. The other guy grinned and nodded. What were they doing?

“If you girls want your limes, you gotta come and get ’em.” Trevor and the other bartender stood side by side in front of us, balancing lime wedges perpendicularly between their teeth.

Marna laughed, licked her wrist, and shook some salt on the damp skin. No problem. I could do this. I followed suit, salting my wrist, and we both picked up our shot glasses. When we looked at each other to toast, there was a moment of understanding. An apology. An acceptance. A kindred spirit.

We clinked glasses, licked the salt from our skin, threw back the shots, and leaned over the bar. The guys leaned in as well, and I barely registered the people around us whooping over the sound of my heart pounding. I tilted my face and bit the lime from between his teeth without even touching him. But as I took possession of the fruit, he dragged his warm tongue across my bottom lip. The scent of tequila with the sensation of his tongue and the flavor of lime had me pulling away, dizzy with thoughts of Kaidan.

“That was fun.”
I almost leaped from my skin at the demon’s sour voice.
“Now what?”

“Another shot,” I said to Trevor.

“Tequila?” he asked.

I paused, indecisive. I needed to up the stakes. I took in the faces of the people pressed to the bar around me. There were about ten of us, and many more at our backs. I had a purse full of money. I leaned to the girl next to Marna, who held an empty wine glass.

“Hey, wanna do a shot with us?” I asked her, upbeat.

“Me? Oh, no. I can’t handle liquor, only wine.”

“Aw, come on. It’s New Year’s!” I beamed at her. “I’m buying you one.”

I watched her colors turn from a misty reluctance to an eager orange.

“Okay, but just one!” she said.

“You’re doing a shot?” asked her friend on her other side.

“I want to get shots for everyone at the bar right now,” I told Trevor. His eyebrows flew up.

“Everybody? You know how much that’ll cost?”

“Yep. Don’t worry, I’m good for it.” I winked, my first ever wink at a guy. My skin throbbed with adrenaline.

I took a consensus vote from nearby girls as to what drink we should have. They came up with some shooter I didn’t know. Trevor got busy, lining up a row of at least twenty small tumblers.

The mix of ingredients gave Trevor the opportunity to show off his skills, tossing a bottle up and catching it upside down by the neck as it poured. He did that with several bottles and jugs. Then shake, shake, shake, and pink shooters came to life. I passed them out to the crowd, being met mostly with happy thanks, and having to talk a few people into accepting. It was out of my comfort zone to be a pushy temptress, but with that demon breathing evil air down my back, I pushed those people to take the shots. I’d deal with the guilt later.

Together, twenty shots were lifted in the air as we all
whoo
ed. Marna tapped my drink and we tipped them back. It tasted like candy with a bite. The heat of two shots in a row rocked through my system, and I could feel it down to my tingling feet. My whole body begged for another. Trevor ran a hand through his hair and waited for what I’d say next. As the alcohol coursed through me, I struggled to make out his colors and the colors of others around me.

“One more, for the four of us,” I said to Trevor, pointing down the row to the other two girls who we’d befriended in our sweet, evil way. “Surprise us.” He got to work without hesitation. I noted the time on my watch. This would have to be my last drink until almost midnight. I hoped it would be enough.

“Crikey,” I heard Marna mumble as he set the brownish drink in front of us. I hadn’t been paying attention. I expected another shot, because it was in a small tumbler glass, but this appeared to be straight liquor.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Four Horsemen.” Trevor explained: “Jack, Jim, Johnny, and Jose.”

Crikey
about covered it.

“Oh, hell, no,” said the girl next to Marna.

“What are you trying to do?” the other girl asked Trevor. “Kill us?”

The other bartender leaned in and interjected, “He’s trying to get you to dance on the bar.”

“This might do the trick,” I said, picking up the shot glass and raising it. “Come on, girls. To New Year’s and new friends.”

The girl next to Marna eyed her shot glass with major trepidation before picking it up. Marna lifted hers and crinkled her nose. The four of us
tink
ed our glasses together and shot them back. I almost gagged. It was no joke. I did my father proud, setting it down without a cough or a cringe, earning high fives from all the strangers standing around us, and lastly from Trevor, who was all grins. He pushed a small, square napkin at me that said,
Room 109
, underlined twice. I folded it up and tucked it into my purse, grabbing five hundred-dollar bills while I was in there. I’d come prepared.

I handed over the money to Trevor, feeling saucy. “No change.”

As the Four Horsemen hit my bloodstream, I had to wonder whether I’d just consumed more than three official drinks. Come to think of it, he’d definitely filled the glasses higher than my dad did. I felt myself listing sideways up against the boy next to me.

“Whoa, there, girl,” he said, helping me right myself. I giggled.

“This is more like it,”
the demon purred.

“Show’s not over yet,”
I told it. I wanted to be sure its report back to whoever left no doubt I was working.

“Time to dance,” I said to Marna. I patted the bar and she nodded, on board with the idea. She leaned down to pull off her heels, and I did the same. Then we climbed up on the stool and onto the bar, helped by the hands of strangers. The place went wild. Trevor and the other bartender rushed around removing empty glasses and bottles and drying the bar top.

“You’d better get up here, too!” I told the two other girls.

Marna and I grabbed their hands and helped pull them up, laughing at our own unsteadiness. We urged other girls to join the fun, pulling people up left and right. Soon there were eight of us dancing with our hands in the air, moving our hips to the beat of the music. With the strength of the alcohol in my system, it was a wonder I stayed upright on the bar.

I looked down at Trevor, who stood right behind me, half smiling up at us, enjoying the view. He’d helped me more than he knew tonight. A rush of affection overcame me, and I squatted down, putting my hands on his face and placing a light kiss on his lips. I started to pull away, but he hauled me to him and kissed me for real, invading my senses. When the kiss ended, he grinned and took my hands to help me stand back up and dance again. My legs were not cooperating one hundred percent. It must have shown, because Marna wrapped her hand around my hip.

By the end of the song, a hotel manager was signaling for us to climb down, and berating the bartenders, who put up their hands like they had no control over the crazy girls who’d taken over the bar top. As we rushed to get down, a short, thin guy held out his arms to me. I leaned down, holding his shoulders, and squealed as his hands grasped my hips and I fell into his arms. He was stronger than he looked. For a moment the room spun.

“Dance with me?” he said against my ear, and I managed to nod.

Walking proved to be difficult, as my brain seemed to have stopped sending messages to my legs that they should move forward in an orderly fashion. Luckily the guy was happy to help hold me up. He had the high-and-tight haircut and clean-shaven face of a military man.

When we got to the dance floor he lifted my arms around his neck and supported me around my waist. He held a mixed drink in one hand. It was a slow song, so I let my head flop onto his shoulder.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Anna,” I mumbled.

“I’m Ned. You thirsty? Captain and Coke?”

I lifted my heavy head to examine what he offered. I leaned down and took a long drink from the straw. When I looked back up at him, everything was fuzzy, and I got that warm feeling of affection again, thinking about this brave soldier willing to put his life on the line. I pulled him down and gave him a sloppy kiss, though he didn’t seem to mind. He chuckled, wrapping an arm around my waist.

“Girl, you’re even more wasted than I thought. You’d better take it easy.”

“Nah, I’m gooood.” I reached for the drink in his hand, but he lifted it way up high, and I jumped for it, wobbling. His free hand still held me around the waist. His laughter was playful, but I was serious about wanting to down the rest of his drink. The fact that he wouldn’t hand it over was ticking me off, and he seemed to think it was terribly cute.

I heard a familiar sound while we haggled over the drink. A whistle. It was the same intonation my dad used during training, but it wasn’t his pitch. I peered around the room in what felt like slow motion.

There went the whistle again!

My slow eyes found Kope standing against the wall, sleeves still rolled up to his elbows. When he knew I saw him, he held up a glass of water.

Ned was swaying us back and forth, trying to dance.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” I told him. Well, that was what I meant to say, but it was slurred, so I hoped he got the gist of it as I disengaged from his arms and stumbled in Kope’s direction, bumping into people along the way. I finally got to him, and he held out the water and inclined his head to a chair. I took the water, but didn’t sit. He spoke to me in that maddening calm, gentle way of his.

“Have a rest. The Legionnaire has gone.”

Hallelujah. Now all I needed was another drink. I’d have to be sneaky, since Kope was trying to sober me up. Hey, come to think of it...

“You whistled,” I said, pointing at him. He nodded but did not look at me, and I wondered whether he was ashamed of me. That thought made me clutch my stomach, saying, “I really need to go to the bathroom.”

I staggered to the side, and Kope took my arm to steady me. He lifted my chin without saying a single word. I watched his hazel eyes, feeling his thumb move back and forth across my jaw, his way of saying he thought no less of me. I gathered strength from his strong gaze, knowing I wouldn’t be getting another drink after all. I gave him a single nod.

When he dropped his hand from my chin, I walked away from him, dizzy, trailing a hand against the wall until I got to the nearest exit. I went to the hall with the bathroom but stopped in the entryway. Why was it so dark? Oh, wait. This wasn’t right. It was some utility hall, where two people were making out.

My body locked up with the shock of recognition. Looking away would have been the smart thing to do. But my feet were weighted down by some terrible charm as I took in the sight of Kai’s lean back and strong shoulders. Manicured fingernails roamed over the short hair on the back of his head as he kissed her hard. They were fully dressed, but might as well have been naked, the way his hips ground against hers. She lifted a knee, hiking her dress up to her hips and revealing red panties. She pulled his blue dress shirt out of his waistband and put her hands in, touching his back. I knew exactly how silky his skin would feel.

I finally got enough sense to back out of that hall. I rounded the corner and came nose-to-nose with Ginger, who grabbed my upper arm in a death grip. She peeked around the corner to confirm that I’d gotten an eyeful, then pulled me down the hall away from them.

“What the hell are you thinking?” she whispered through clenched teeth. “Leave him alone while he’s working!”

“I was looking for the bathroom.” I tried to pull my arm from her strong grasp.

“Likely,” she spit.

“You don’t have to talk to me like that! And freaking let me go!”

She flung my arm down, getting in my face again. I hoped Pharzuph wasn’t camped out somewhere nearby listening, because Ginger obviously wasn’t worried about throwing me under the bus.

“I watched you tonight, Anna. You enjoyed yourself, didn’t you? You loved the attention of that bartender and the eyes of the men on you while you danced for them. Admit it. You loved it.”

I wanted to deny it. All my life I’d been invisible. I’d been too good to be noteworthy. Tonight I felt accepted by the crowd, and in spite of the horrid spirit trailing me, I’d managed to have fun along the way.

“All of those guys giving you attention?” she continued. “Yeah, they wanted to get laid. That bartender? He’s engaged. I’d scouted him out before you even got here. And did you happen to notice all of the girls who were wildly envious as their boyfriends tried to get a glimpse up your dress while you danced on the bar? Because that’s what was happening while you were enjoying yourself.”

“Stop. That’s not fair.”

“Fair.” She snorted, scoffing at the notion. “You’re no better than the rest of us.”

“I never thought I was.”

As I stared into Ginger’s eyes the room began to spin again. Someone was coming up behind us, talking to us. I worked hard to focus. It was Blake. He stuck out his knuckles at me, and with great effort I finally bumped his with mine.

“You know it’s a good night when you lose your shoes.” He laughed. We looked down at my bare feet, toenails painted sparkly red. “Who knew you’d be the kissing bandit after a few drinks, huh?”

The Four Horsemen began galloping in my belly, turning into a rodeo. I slapped a hand over my mouth and pushed past them, dropping the glass of water that Kopano had given me. Ginger screamed as it splashed up on her. I ran for the bathroom, flinging open the door and falling into the last stall just in time.