“You know what’s weird though?” Eve continued. “Sean just had me cover for her yesterday because she was sick. I know that Sabrina doesn’t miss her shifts often, so I wonder what’s going on with her.”
Sick?I didn’t like the sound of that. Sabrina was dedicated to the soup kitchen. I had seen that firsthand while we were planning the poker run. If she was missing shifts there, it must be for a damn good reason.
I wanted to call her, but I reminded myself that it wasn’t my place to do so, not anymore. I had ended things between us. Now if she was going through something, I couldn’t be there for her.
I was a dumbass.
* * *
Working as a bouncer could be downright dull, but sometimes, an asshole presented me with an opportunity to work out some aggression. Tonight was one of those nights.
Snake had ordered us some pizzas for dinner after we got all of his stuff moved into the apartment. I tried to engage in the conversation, but my mind was stuck on Sabrina. I was worried about her.
After polishing off a whole medium pizza by myself, I’d come straight to work and walked into a mess. There was a drunken fool at the bar, and he’d clearly done something to get kicked out of the strip club. But he wasn’t going easy. Jax, the bouncer that had been on duty since Black Satin opened at five, was trying to get the man out without too much of a struggle, but he was belligerent. He pulled against Jax and was purposefully using his free hand to swipe glass and bottles off of the tables that they passed. As I made my way toward them to help, the man kicked out wildly and almost connected with one of the strippers that was walking by. She jumped out of the way just in time.
“You can’t do this to me, you bastards. I just want a drink!”
“You attacked another customer. You’re out of here,” Jax said, shooting me an appreciative look as I came and grabbed the man’s other arm. Between the two of us, we were able to easily get him to the door.
“He looked at me the wrong way, you dumb shit,” the man snarled. We ignored him. His words were slurring and his eyes unfocused. He was too drunk to be taken seriously. But then, he said something that got my attention. “My jacket! I need my jacket on the back of my chair. I need my patch.”
I stopped and looked back in the direction we’d come. There it was, on the back of a chair at a small table littered with empty shot glasses: a Las Balas leather jacket.
I sighed. Of course he was a part of Outlaw Souls’ rival motorcycle club. Those guys were all assholes.
Sighing, I let go of the guy and trudged back to grab his jacket. I might not like Las Balas, and this guy was proving to be a jerk, but I respected an MC patch. There were certain rules that all clubs followed. One of those wasrespect the patch.It meant something to earn the privilege of wearing one. Leaving it behind in a strip club was a big no-no.
Returning to the man’s side, I shoved the jacket into his hands and went back to ushering him out of the place. He stopped fighting against us so much, but his mouth kept going.
“This is bullshit. I’m a paying customer. Why should I have to leave?”
“Sorry, buddy,” Jax said. “Try again another night.”
We unceremoniously shoved him out the door, drawing the attention of Tag, the bouncer that was working the door.
“Don’t let him back in,” I told Tag and he gave me a tight nod.
“Hey, fuck you!” the drunk Las Balas member yelled at me.
I didn’t even look at him as I turned to go back inside. He wasn’t worth any more of my time.
“Have you heard the good news?” Abby asked when I walked into the back office to clock in for my shift.
“Nope,” I replied. Nothing good had come my way lately.
“The petition is dead in the water. La Playa city council met yesterday and it wasn’t even on the agenda. I guess that whoever organized the movement against us changed their mind.”
She gave me a broad smile, and I was sure that she had guessed that Outlaw Souls were involved. Abby knew better than to ask, though. She’d been involved with us long enough to know that there were some things we needed to keep to ourselves.
“That is good news. I knew things would work out for you ladies.”
“Thanks for looking out for us, Butch.”
“Anytime.”
I relieved Tag at the door five minutes later. It was our busy night, so it took a while to get through the line, but there was no trouble at first. It wasn’t until I had cleared out the line that I got the feeling of being watched.
Pinpricks of awareness spread over my skin, making me look around. The club was located on a corner, with the entrance facing an old, abandoned warehouse. There weren’t many other businesses around that were open at this time of night, so the area surrounding the club was dark, aside from the yellowish glow of streetlights. There was an overpass down the block, so in between songs coming from inside, the noise of traffic was almost constant.
