She laughed, flashing her teeth. Sitting on King’s right, around the corner of the bar with his back to us, was a man I didn’t know. The longer I looked, however, the more I thought he might be familiar.
From the way the guy was dressed, he was biker through and through. Tattoos blackened the bulging muscles on both of his arms in a weave so dense that I couldn’t really tell what the images should be from where I stood. The artwork disappeared under the cut-off sleeves of a Jim Beam T-shirt. On the top of his head he’d plunked a cowboy hat. When I got to the bar and stopped there, I caught sight of a profile that didn’t have much going for it interrupted by a big beard. His brows were thick and he had copper eyes, which were maybe the only interesting thing about him. He didn’t so much as nod in my direction when his gaze connected with mine.
Fuck, I did know this guy. I tried not to flinch. I’d seen him around at parties once or twice, and he always fucking creeped me out. He was one of those people who didn’t blink enough, and he didn’t have a problem staring right at someone he wanted to fuck.
Jayce dragged out a stool a few spaces down from the man, who must be Pierre Burgess, and patted it. I knew he wanted me to sit, and I considered ignoring him, but I did what I thought would please him while refusing to look into his face.
My body glowed with humiliated heat. King was doing a lot of staring of his own at everyone, like maybe he wasn’t happy about something. Slowly he lifted a bottle in front of him, and to my surprise it wasn’t alcohol, but rather a mineral water.What the hell? Did he actually do the whole rehab thing?
“Pierre. You know River, I think,” King said.
I opened my mouth to ask about the fizzy water, but King must have seen where I was looking and narrowed his eyes on me in a way that had me snapping it shut again.Well, then. Fine.We were all going to do totally weird shit and not talk about it.
“Yes, I’ve seen him around.” Pierre flicked the tip of his hat at me by way of greeting.
“Pierre, you know me and Sapphira. That’s Paxton there. The brother of one of our members.”
It didn’t slip my—or Jayce’s—notice that King was a little cagey with the introductions. Jayce gave me a quick, questioning look. I only shrugged. Whatever King thought was best had to be what happened. Sapphira gave me a knowing lift of her eyebrows, so at least she wasn’t going to be mad later. I guessed King had told her about Jayce.
“Little dead in here?” I said, glancing around at the oddly empty room.
“Boys’re on an errand.” King’s tone told me to drop it.
“You said that they have questions?” Pierre didn’t sound in a rush. His voice was so low it set the hairs on the back of my arms on end.
“Yep.” King gave Jayce a pointed look, and Sapphira smirked as she took a long swig of her beer.
Jayce cleared his throat and studied Pierre for a moment. Pierre looked completely at ease, for his part, and I wanted to do something to ruffle him, but I had no idea what might get that reaction—or if it would end with me punched in the face.
“You know a man named Xander, who also goes by Jason Bolton. Can you tell us a bit about him? Where you met?” Jayce put on hisdon’t fuck with meface he must wear at work, and I hid a smile behind my hand.
Pierre shrugged and slurped from a bottle of Labatt. “Yep. We worked in the slaughterhouse.”
Wrinkling my nose, I found myself leaning away from him. “I didn’t know there was one around here.”
“Way out there toward the grape fields. Buffalo way. It’s about forty minutes outside the city. Take the Bayfront Highway west. Lots of people go out there to work.” He shrugged.
“That’s disgusting,” I said, and Jayce sent me a firm cease-and-desist look. Fuck him, though. He didn’t get to control my mouth when he wasn’t fucking it.
“I don’t know about this Xander business, but he was going by Jason then, and he thought the same as you,” Pierre said to me and straightened on his seat. “Didn’t like gettin’ his hair messed up or blood under his fingernails.” He grinned, and I could see some appeal. He had a sweet, wholesome smile to go along with his overall mass. He had a chipped front tooth, too, but it was just enough to add character and not be a mess.
“You didn’t have the same issues?” Jayce asked and seemed genuinely interested.
“Job’s a job when you need money. These two know I’ll take just about any job.” He nodded toward King.
Sapphira raised her eyebrows like she might have something to say but didn’t interrupt. She wasn’t one to tell her own secrets, and I knew that. I hadn’t heard her ever spill anything. She wasn’t like King, wouldn’t drink until she let something slip.
“Fair enough,” Jayce said when it became clear Sapphira wasn’t going to speak. “So what happened to him after that? Surely that wasn’t the last you knew of him, because somehow you ended up as his reference at Triple X.” Jayce didn’t beat around the bush, and I thought maybe he did that on purpose—went directly for the kill. It was a risky move and had my heart hammering. If this was a courtroom, that would have been a lunge directly for the jugular.
Pierre let out a hiss like a leaky tire. “Oh, well, I didn’t realize this was why you wanted to talk to me. Vic—”
“Knows you’re fucking here. Getting this shit figured out is in everyone’s best interests,” King growled. He knocked on the bar. “Just fucking tell them what they want to know.” King dragged a gun out from where he’d had it stashed in the back of his pants, in a way I’d heard Dallas tell him at least ten different times was dangerous—not that King cared—and slapped it on the counter, giving Pierre a steely look.
The big man nodded slowly. “No need for that. My memory’s fine.”
“Go on, then,” Sapphira said, playing the good guy. She smiled sweetly.
Pierre took a cigarette from behind his ear, and King stared at him a little too hard. It took me a second to realize he wasn’t smoking himself, and he almost had a longing look on his face as Pierre produced a lighter from his pocket, lit up, and took his first drag. I tried to catch King’s eye, but when I did, he only shook his head at me.
