I pushed past him. “I need to ask a favor.”
The door closed, and he turned, looking more stylish than usual in a dark blazer over a grey shirt.
“Why don’t you let your employees dress casual?” I asked, looking down at his black dress shoes.
He leaned on the door and propped his foot against it. “This isn’t a five-star restaurant.”
“I realize that, but bartenders aren’t part of the show. You could at least let us wear cut-off T-shirts or something more comfortable.”
His hazel eyes settled on me. “You have plenty of options. Have you considered the fishnet tops? I hear they’re quite comfortable.”
I folded my arms to keep from strangling him. “Simone showed me the dress code. You aren’t allowed to wear those with a bra.”
A smile touched his broad mouth. “Of all the things you could complain about, it’s attire. Is that the favor you wish to ask? If I grant it, you’ll stand out.”
“No. I need to take an extended break. I’m on a break now, and I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. Probably less than an hour. Obviously I can work to make up the hours, but that’s not the issue.”
“Then what is?”
“You have rules, and the employees around here follow them to a tee. In fact, you’ve got a few snitches on the floor. People are going to start wondering why I’m getting special treatment, and the manager might fire me.”
“Don’t worry about Karen. She does whatever I ask.”
I flicked a glance at all the monitors on the wall behind me.
“Are you feeling better today?”
When I turned back around, Houdini gave me a start as he was only inches in front of me.
“What do you mean?”
He caressed my cheek with his hand. “I told you not to break my rules.”
It took me a minute to register what he had just admitted.
“Drinking on the job not only makes you unpredictable, but it puts my customers at risk.”
I leaned away from his touch. “Did you spike my drink last night?”
He stared at me as if I’d asked an inane question.
Anger swirled in me like a cyclone, and I shoved his chest. “You asshole! What gives you the right to mess with me like that? Do you realize the danger you put me in?”
He straightened his coat. “A belligerent woman. Is that what Keystone has reduced you to? One of the qualities I most liked about you when we first met was how dispassionate you were. There was little I could do or say that would make you emotional.”
“This is different. You sabotaged me. And when it comes to my body, all bets are off.”
He wandered over to the row of cabinets against the wall. “I cautioned you not to drink while on duty, and here you are, blamingmefor somethingyouhad complete control over. Had you not violated my trust, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
I snorted. “What trust? You left me for dead on day one.”
He sighed and unlocked a cabinet. “I won’t revisit that conversation anymore. You already know what my intentions were, and your disappearance wasn’t something I anticipated.” When the cabinet door opened, he pulled out a bottle. “These are my personal collection.”
I stared at a row of bottles. The only thing that distinguished one from the next was the color of the screw cap. “Are those bottles spiked? You know that’s illegal.”
He unscrewed the cap to one and sniffed it. “I’m not a man who likes rules, but we need them to make this place run efficiently. This club is rife with customers who are looking for excitement. That said, I do enjoy a little chaos now and then.”
“Your chaos almost got me—”
