“What’ll it be?” he shouted.
Calder reached into his pocket and pulled out a hundred dollar bill. “This is yours if you just answer a few questions for me about him.”
He pointed to Robby who was currently jumping up and down on the dance floor with the others as Chumbawumba blared overhead.
The bartender’s entire demeanor changed. “Listen, I get that you have a job to do but give the guy a break. You people are like fucking vultures.”
“You people?” Calder asked.
“You’re a reporter, right? Tabloids?”
“What? No.”
“Well, you’re definitely not a cop,” Caleb said, eyeing Calder’s clothes.
Calder reached into his back pocket, showing the man his PI license. “I work private security for Robby. He’s having a hard time piecing together what happened the night of the fourteenth. The night he was arrested.”
The bartender eyed Calder warily, like he was sizing him up. “Okay, look. The kid was bombed out of his mind. I’d stopped serving him, but he was flying on whatever it was he’d had before he got here. He made a big splash when he got here ‘cause he’d shown up with three drag queens, which tends to stand out in this place. Everything was fine until he got into a fight with some old guy.”
“Old guy?”
“Yeah. Big, overweight, sweaty, and out of breath. He came in not long after the kid and his queens. I only remember him because he ordered ice water. Nobody comes to a place this loud to drink water alone.”
So, the guy from the break-in had been there that night. Had been following Robby. “So, what started the fight?”
“I don’t know, man. I only know that the guy was pulling on the kid, like he was trying to get him alone, and the kid threw a drink in his face. Then all hell broke loose. Next thing I know, your boy is slapping the shit out of a cop with a fucking dildo the size of my arm.”
Calder slid the money across the bar to Caleb. He didn’t ask any further questions. It wasn’t worth it. He had what he needed. The dead man had clearly been following Robby, even if it was only from the street. Calder wasn’t sure what scenario worried him more. That this was a random encounter that had turned violent or that this man had an agenda when he followed Robby into the club that night. That he’d possibly been following him for days without the boy’s knowledge. Robby was always so certain the world didn’t see him that it would never occur to him he was in danger, that somebody stalked him.
He returned to the table and flopped into his seat. Shep nodded at Calder, who did the same before they all returned their gaze to the dance floor. The music had morphed into a song with a slow, throbbing rhythm. Charlie was dirty dancing with a girl dressed like Gwen Stefani, but it was the boys who had Calder’s undivided attention. Robby was somehow the meat in an Elijah and Wyatt sandwich.
It was all in good fun. They were laughing and constantly losing rhythm. Robby looked like he was having a blast. It was the first time in a long time that Robby’s infectious smile seemed on full display. Elijah had made him smile like that. Knowing that knifed at something inside Calder.
“You okay, hoss?” Linc asked.
Calder glanced at his boss. “Yeah, why?”
“You look like you’re two seconds away from flipping this table. You wouldn’t be jealous by any chance, would you?”
Yes.“What? No. He’s a client.” Christ. Even he didn’t buy that delivery.
“Precisely why I’m concerned,” Linc reminded him. “Please, tell me you’re not fucking this kid.”
Calder looked Linc in the eye. “I’m not fucking this kid.”Yet.
Linc studied him for a minute. “Good. That’s good.”
“Doesn’t it bother either of you that your husbands are all over another man?”
Shep and Linc exchanged a glance. “No,” they said in unison.
“Oh,” was all Calder could manage.
It bothered Calder. Robby faced Wyatt, his arms around his neck. Wyatt’s hands shared space on Robby’s hips with Elijah’s hands. He was crowded up on Robby, pelvis pressed to his ass. They moved in unison now, having found a rhythm. Calder would have found it hot if he wasn’t picturing ripping the boys’ arms off and beating them to death with them.
The muscle in Calder’s jaw ticked as he watched them, the rational part of his brain at war with the part of him that screamedmine.
“I should probably get him out of here. Jasmine and his attorney didn’t want him out in public. This is going to be all over the tabloids tomorrow, and his team’s going to be pissed.”
