Half an hour later, he locked the door behind Gloria and the other bar staff and trudged up the stairs to his apartment. He checked his phone, saw he’d missed a call from Laura and muttered an oath. Too late to ring her back now.
Once in bed, he tossed and turned, sliding into the dream zone, reaching for Laura and waking when he couldn’t find her. Damn, he had it bad.
A sudden burst of drunken shouts outside the pub woke him properly. The smashing of glass had him bounding from bed. He fumbled for his jeans, his T-shirt and switched on the bedside light to find where he’d kicked his shoes.
Seconds later, he was rushing downstairs. Another window smashed, closer this time and he cursed when he realized he should have grabbed his cell phone before tearing down to investigate. The whoops and hollers receded, telling him the bastards had gone. He keyed in the code to still the warning beeps coming from the alarm and scowled at the broken window.
Changing direction, he went for the landline and rang the cops. They promised him a car would arrive in the next ten minutes and to leave the culprits to them.
When he couldn’t hear any more noise outside, he switched on the main lights to survey the damage. The main front window was smashed, along with two of the smaller windows. A few minutes later, he saw the lights of a car, identified it as the cops and unlocked the front door to greet them.
That was when he saw the new art additions to the brickwork.The debt is due now.This time it was written in crimson paint and reminded him of blood.
“Did you recognize anyone?” one of the cops asked after they’d identified themselves.
“Didn’t really see them,” Dallas said. “We have a gang in the neighborhood, but I’ve never had any problems. This is the second night in a row I’ve had graffiti left on the exterior walls.”
“Did you report the last time?”
“No, I cleaned it off. I didn’t even think to take photos, but the message was similar to this one.”
“Do you know what debt they’re talking about?”
“No. I don’t owe anyone money.”
The two cops took details for their report and said they’d keep an eye out for other graffiti. Dallas snapped photos and spent the next hour clearing glass and boarding up the broken windows.
He managed to grab a couple hours of sleep before he dragged his butt from bed and made a quick call to Laura, which went to voicemail. Disappointed, he moved on to deal with insurance companies and replacing the windows. No one wanted to drink in the pub that looked like a prison. Sighing, he started to remove the latest layer of spray paint.
Patrick arrived when he was almost finished. “Damn, I missed the party.”
“Yeah. I called the cops this time. What are you doing here? Haven’t you got stuff to do at the new pub?”
“Nothing for me to do in Clare right now. The builder is doing the alterations, and I don’t have anything to do until tonight when I start interviews for staff. What debt are they talking about? Do you have a debt in your secret life?”
Dallas sent his brother a stink eye.
Patrick laughed. “Just askin’. What did Quinn say?”
“Haven’t told him. Until last night, it wasn’t anything to worry about. I received an email via the pub website too.”
“Do you think it would be worth shelling out for security guards? Until things settle.”
“Yeah. We don’t want to scare off customers. The broken windows and graffiti aren’t a good look.” He glanced at his watch. “The window people should be here any minute.”
That night in the pub, Dallas kept a close eye on the customers. A few guys from the local gang popped in for a beer, but they kept to themselves and didn’t cause any trouble before they left again. Dallas started to relax.
His mind drifted to Laura, and he worked on automatic pilot, counting the minutes until closing time. She’d already be at their house. The thought gave him pause, and he realized he was grinning.
“Dollar for your thoughts,” Patrick said, appearing a few minutes before closing time.
“Private,” Dallas said. “How did the interviews go? Any excitement in Clare?”
“Stop trying to change the subject. When are you going to introduce her to the family?”
“I’m thinking about it,” Dallas said, surprising himself.
“I thought I’d stay the night here,” Patrick said.
