I watched as he moved closer to the bar. The douchebag from earlier sat at the bar, talking as loudly as he had been when he passed our table. My heartbeat sped up and I hoped that Luke wasn’t about to do anything stupid.
Luke
I ignored Syd’s attempt at redirecting me to the bathroom. Instead, I kept my attention on the cocksucker who’d talked shit earlier. With the amount of red I’d seen when he looked at Syd with that fucking glint in his eyes and laughed, it amazed me that I hadn’t lashed out right then. I had too much on the line, though and I knew it.
But that fucker was still going to pay for disrespecting the woman I was with.
“Hey, buddy,” I said, slipping my arm around one of the other dudes at the bar. He was big and burly as hell. He’d be perfect for what I had in mind.
He turned and frowned at me. “Do I know… oh shit, are you Luke McConnell?” His eyes grew wide.
I smirked. “Oh shit. I thought you were someone I knew,” I said while slipping my arm down and to the wallet that hung out of his back pocket. Deftly, I moved his wallet behind me, putting it in my left hand. “But yeah, that’s me. McConnell.”
“Hell, I knew it,” he said, his expression turning friendly. “Fuck what are you doing out here? Aren’t you in training for that Rodriguez fight?”
Briefly, I glanced over my left shoulder and was satisfied to see the shit talker from earlier sitting directly next to me. His back was turned toward me, and he loudly talked in the face of some broad. I placed the wallet in my hand into his back pocket, making sure to be as discreet as possible. He didn’t seem to notice what I’d done.
“I am. Been down here training for a few weeks,” I said in my friendliest tone to the burly dude on my right.
“Pssh, man. That’s going to be one hell of a fight,” burly dude said. “I think you can take ‘em.”
“You think so?” I asked, almost convincing myself that I gave a shit about this conversation.
“Yeah. Here, what are you drinking?”
“Nah, I couldn’t,” I said.
“No, please. You’re a legend.”
I gave him a mock frown. “I’m not certain about that, Tiny, but if you say so.” I chuckled. “How about whatever’s on tap.”
“Sure thing, I’m about to close out my tab anyway.” He waved the bartender over and ordered a beer for me before he reached back to grab his wallet. He frowned.
“Something the matter?” I asked as the bartender slid the beer in front of me.
“My wallet.” He patted both of his back pockets and then his chest although his T-shirt didn’t have any pockets.
I stepped back and peered down at the floor, around the stools as if trying to look for the wallet.
“Oh shit, excuse me,” I said, bumping into the cocksucker behind me, none too gently. “We’re looking for my friend’s wallet.”
Cocksucker turned and started to stand as if going to help look too, and as soon as he did, Tiny’s wallet fell out of his back pocket and onto the floor.
“Is that my wallet?” Tiny asked, his voice booming as he moved to pick it up. As soon as he flipped it open, his face turned beet red. “You tried to steal my wallet.”
I was barely able to jump out of the way fast enough before Tiny swung and punched the stuffing out of cocksucker. I stifled my laughter as I stood back and watched as cocksucker’s friends from earlier tried to intervene. Tiny began swinging on them too. He was pretty decent at fighting. But when another side fight broke out, I discreetly made my exit.
“It’s time to go,” I said and pulled Syd up from the booth by her arm, before taking out my own wallet and tossing enough cash to cover the bill and tip on the table.
Chapter 22
Tommicus
Syd
“What happened in there?” I asked when Luke practically pushed me outside the door, and we started for his car.
“Shit’s about to get real in there.”
