I growled under my breath. My handbag was locked in a safe behind the bar.
“Joy, do you want to go to breakfast with Vince and me?”
Vince was going with Amber. That meant he wasn’t accompanying Duke. Maybe D-Day wasn’t happening after all. Maybe I assumed wrong.
I unlocked the small safe beneath the stainless counter. “You never invite me anywhere.”
Amber and I had built a better relationship since I was hustling more in making drinks, and she thought Duke and I fit well together.
“Well, I am now,” she said. “I think we need to stick together. You know. Vince and me, you and Duke. We could double date and all.”
She must be wanting to live her teenage years over again. Who the hell double dated anymore?
I collected my handbag. “Is Duke going to breakfast?”
“No, he has something to do,” she said.
Bingo.
But why wouldn’t Vince accompany Duke? Unless Duke wanted to go alone. Or he’d decided to work with Detective Ted Hughes after all. At the gala, Maggie told Dillon that Hughes offered Duke his help, but Duke had declined.
I frowned at her. “I hate to break the bad news, but Duke fired me.”
She gripped the edge of the bar. “Why?”
“I guess as you said, he has that two-sleep rule.” I had only slept with him once, though.
“That’s not right.” Her lips thinned. “I’ll talk to Vince. I see how Duke looks at you. I saw you guys on the dance floor too. It appeared to me Duke is in love with you.”
A shudder rocked its way down my spine. “If he is, he has a funny way of showing it.” I swallowed my emotions. “Thanks for the invite, but I’ll pass. It was nice working with you, once we got over our differences.” I circled the bar.
“Wait, Joy.” She blocked me from leaving. “Duke is overly worried about Grace. Once he brings her home, he’ll change his mind about firing you.”
“Do you know anything about where Grace is?” I probed, praying she knew something that would at least give me a clue.
“All I know is by this time tomorrow, Grace should be safely home,” she whispered.
“He’s going to get her now?” I held my breath.Come on, Amber. Give me more.
“Maybe. Vince isn’t going. Duke needs him to take care of the club and other matters.” She glanced up at the second floor.
“Do you know where Grace is?”
She pressed her lips into a thin line. “It’s not like you can do anything.”
I had to ease up on my interrogation. “You’re right. I’m just really concerned about her.”
“I am too. Because if Duke was to bring the cops with him, Mateo would crush Grace and the other woman to death.”
My eyebrows felt like they rose to my hairline. “Crush? That’s awful. What do you mean?”
“Amber?” Vince called. “Are you down there?”
She blanched. “It doesn’t matter if you know now that you’re fired,” she whispered. She raised her voice, calling to Vince, “I’m counting my tips, Vince.”
“I need to do a few things,” he said. “Come up when you’re done.”
Amber addressed me again, still in a low voice. “Vince doesn’t open up much about the other business he and Duke run. But between the sheets, he will on occasion if something is truly weighing on him. He’s worried that he’ll lose Duke and Grace. She’s being held at a junkyard. I don’t know where, though. I just pray Mateo doesn’t crush her with that equipment they use on cars.”
