“Grizz!”
At the sound of his name, the old man at the end of the bar snapped out of his half-drunken stupor. He stood up and saluted Carter, crookedly.
“Get everyone that’s still here a round of whatever they’re drinking,” sighed Carter.
A cheer went up, and a few plastic swords were waved in the air. Everyone worked quickly after that, putting things back to some semblance of normal. Last but not least the jukebox — or what was left of it, rather — was tilted upright and pushed into its spot.
I crossed the room, away from where Grizz was busy pouring straight pints of foam. A frat boy dressed as a pirate slipped behind the bar and tried giving him some pointers, but the old man was having none of it.
“Fuck,” swore Sawyer, absently thumbing a hole near the dartboard. “I think the seven ball went straight through the plaster! It’s lodged in the wall.”
For some reason my friend was covered head to toe in a combination of buffalo sauce and blue cheese. But it was his right eye that drew my attention.
“Bro, go find a mirror. I think your eye is coming out of its socket.”
Sawyer touched his swollen shiner briefly, then waved me off. “Oh, please,” he sniffed. “I’ll be fine.”
“As long as you don’t think you’re getting out of tomorrow,” I warned.
“Are you kidding?” he scoffed. He pointed at one of the pirates. “I don’t care if I have to borrow his eye patch. This weekend is still happening, no matterwhat.”
Carter came over, trailing the devil behind him. It would’ve been a bad omen, if she weren’t so drop-dead gorgeous. Beneath her horns she had long acres of cinnamon hair, flat-ironed smooth, for a night out. The fact that her hair had bits of blue cheese in it didn’t detract from her beauty one bit.
“I’m so, so sorry,” she began. “I had no idea—”
Carter raised a finger, shushing her quietly. He leaned over the bar, plucked the nearest bottle, and began pouring out shots. The four of us drank grimly, not bothering to toast.The second we were finished, the devil grabbed the bottle and poured herself another.
I chuckled inwardly at her boldness, watching her throw it back. She had a long, slender throat that ended in a pair of the most magnificent breasts I’d ever seen. My eyes lingered there, probably a little too long. But hey, it was Halloween, and she was a devil in a corset and knee-high boots. If that didn’t extend the hang time, I don’t know what did.
“Alright,” said Carter, when everything had finally calmed down. “Let’s start at the beginning. That asshole was your boyfriend?”
“No,” the devil shook her head, pushing her shot glass away. “Well… yes. I’m sort of seeing him again, but not really—”
“Cole. You called him Cole.”
“Yes.” Her gaze dropped a little. “Cole Kane.”
The name caused me to squint a little. I wasn’t sure why, until Sawyer stepped up.
“Wait a second…” he challenged. “TheCole Kane?”
At first the woman said nothing. She only looked away, the horns on her head seeming even more crooked.
“Cole ‘The Hammer’ Kane?” Sawyer pressed, incredulously. “The MMA fighter?”
She nodded again, this time very slowly, almost guiltily. “Yes.”
Several awkward seconds of silence followed. The devil began staring at her shot glass again, like she regretted pushing it away.
“And you brought himhere,” Sawyer speculated. “To our bar? To remodel the place for no apparent fucking reason?”
The devil’s chin dropped again, and Carter shot him a warning glance. Begrudgingly, Sawyer stopped.
“He mentioned something as he stormed out of here,” I pointed out. “He said youdidsomething to him.”
The devil muttered a few words under her breath. She reached for the bottle again with one slender arm, but Carter stopped her.
“Hayden…” he breathed, delicately placing his hand over hers. “That’s your name, right?”
