While she changed, Taryn peppered Dani with questions—the number of patrons, their locations, her sense of the temperature of the room.
Thankful she had on her shitkickers, Taryn pulled off her sweater and pulled on a thin armored undershirt. It covered her left side from shoulder to wrist. On the right, a capped sleeve covered her shoulder, but left the rest of her arm bare.
Her right arm didn’t need protection. Itwasprotection. The alloy could withstand heat and most projectiles. Plus, she hit like a badass motherfucker with that arm.
Taryn gathered her hair into a loose knot at the back of her head, then shrugged into a short leather jacket. Like the shirt, it was designed to leave her arm free.
While her arm was a weapon, it wasn’t her only one. She slipped a stunner into her pocket and slid a knife into the built-in sheath in her sleeve. Additional weapons were stowed behind the bar and all her people were trained to use them.
She stretched her neck left and right. “Ready.”
Taryn hurried down the hallway, Dani at her side. The situation could have escalated while she armed herself, but she trusted her people. They’d trained for this, for the day that someone tried to take her turf.
If things had gone to shit, her customers would be safe and the bad guys would be dead. She’d keep what was hers by fair means or foul.
Pausing in front of the bar area doors, Taryn took a deep breath and centered herself. She had to do this right and make an entrance. Maintaining the Jack’s reputation was two-thirds showmanship and one-third backing it up with as much force as necessary.
“Stay back here,” she instructed Dani.
Her second-in-command protested. Taryn cut her off with a look. “Good or bad, everyone’s attention will be on me. I don’t want you in the line of fire. Either stay back here or use one of the other entrances to get back behind the bar.”
She hated the thought of Dani in danger. Still, the other woman was a big girl, able to take care of herself.
“I’m going to the bar.” Dani practically dared Taryn to contradict her. Taryn wasn’t surprised; she would have made the same choice.
Waiting until Dani was clear, Taryn pushed open the doors. Violently.
Silence fell over the bar. Taryn bit back a smile. She loved it when that happened.
Aware that all eyes were on her, she zeroed in on the troublemaker. The pimp was leaning over the bar, harassing Jenna.Fuck that.
Tension rode the room. Keeping her anger under tight control, Taryn strode to the bar.
He straightened and turned toward her with a swagger that was probably supposed to look dangerous.
Yeah, no.
Her gaze swept the room, picking out his bodyguards a few feet away from him. Whether the pimp and his friends had realized it or not, they were surrounded by her people.
“Problem?” Taryn stepped forward, crowding him against the bar.
He looked her up and down.
Her skin crawled. Men like him sickened her.
“Hey, baby.” He squinted, stared a bit closer. “I know you?”
Taryn raised a brow. “You’re in my place. Why?”
“The Jack’s a chick? You’re shitting me.” He looked around the bar like he got the joke. No one else laughed. The other patrons held their drinks close, while they waited to see how the Jack responded.
Another step forward. “Heard you had a problem.” She didn’t raise her voice. Not yet.
He put his hands in the air, gave her a mocking smile. “No problem, baby.” He drawled out the word, leering at her. “I lost something, heard you’d found it.”
“This look like a lost and found to you?” Her tone clearly called him an idiot. Taryn gestured around the room.
A few people snickered. She knew it wasn’t her team, so it had to be her patrons. Good. She needed them on her side. If she lost face, she’d lose both their support and their money.
