Puffing out a sigh, she made a show of digging in her purse, taking her time like she thought he’d be called away or something. Jason widened his stance, folded his hands in front of himself, and waited. At last she produced her ID, which passed the split test. Guess Daddy paid for one of those expensive foreign ones because I knew for a fact that girl wasn’t twenty-one. She was only a sophomore.
He flipped it over, and a sly smile spread over his dark features. “This is one of the best ones I’ve seen. No wonder I missed this in the low light of the front door. But the watermark here is off. On a real US ID, the watermark sits exactly in this spot.” He pointed to a place on the back of the card. “The watermark here is a couple millimeters off.”
Tory let out a screech when he pocketed her ID. “You can’t take that! It’s private property. Give that back!” She stood up so fast the table wobbled, sloshing beer from her friends’ glasses. They screamed too, knocking over their chairs in their haste to avoid beer dripping off the table and onto their short skirts.
Our bouncer buddy remained unperturbed. “It’s illegal, as is your presence here. Time to go, ladies.”
“But we ordered pizza. You can’t make us leave before we get it,” Tory insisted.
“I’ll have the staff box it up for takeout. You can pick it up at the front door. Or we can deliver it. Which one is your dorm?” Jason stepped aside and gestured for the girls to fall into line in front of him.
“Don’t worry about it.” Tory sniffed. “We didn’t want pizza anyway, did we?” Her gaze swept over her entourage.
Two of the girls hopped right in line and shook their heads in the negative. “I wasn’t really hungry,” one of them piped up
“Me neither,” said the Tweedle Dee to her Tweedle Dum.
The girl who’d poured the expert heads on their glasses looked unhappy. “I wanted pizza,” she mumbled.
Tory glared at her.
“Suit yourselves, ladies. Pizza or no pizza, you have to leave.” When he crossed his arms over his chest, his biceps threatened to Hulk out the short sleeves of his uniform T-shirt. His stance made it clear his patience had a limit.
Tory tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder, gave her hips an extra shake, and flounced out of the bar. Her little posse dutifully fell into step behind her. Then Tory stopped midway through the bar, her group smacking into her like dominoes. It was damn funny to watch from my vantage point in the back booth.
A screech erupted from Tory’s lips as she pointed at someone seated in a booth about four up from ours. “You! You ratted to the bouncer! This is your fault! This is a breach of the agreement!” Her caterwauling shut down all conversation in the place as people stopped drinking and eating to stare.
A beautifully modulated voice spoke calmly. In the quiet of the room, the woman’s response was easy to hear. “I have no idea what you’re on about, Tory, but you’re making a scene.”
“I know it was you who got us”—she gestured to her friends—“kicked out of here tonight.”
“I don’t have the first clue what you’re talking about. But for the record, I’m not the one who gave birth to you. Seems like she’s the one at fault here for not bringing you into the world a year sooner than she did.”
Johnson leaned around the side of the booth while Finn sat up straighter to see past him. Fitz and I probably looked like a pair of gophers as we poked our heads above the booth to watch the impending catfight.
“Besides, this isn’t the first time a bouncer has had to escort you from here. Maybe you should stop trying to sneak in,” the pretty voice said.
“It was her!” Tory pointed between Jason and the booth. “Admit it. She said something to you.” Her voice verged on a screech, and I could have sworn I saw steam puffing from her ears.
When she took a step toward the booth, Jason swooped in to stand between her and the owner of the even-tempered voice. “Not a good idea, Miss,” he said as he held his ground between Tory and her target.
Tory let out another screech, and her little buddies must have decided they needed space because the three of them scuttled off in the direction of the front door. Tory attempted to step around Jason to go for the person in the booth, but he moved with her. While he was careful not to touch her, he made sure she could do nothing but screech and growl and stomp her feet in a tantrum better suited to a daycare than a bar.
It was then I heard the slow clap start. In seconds, it was circulating the bar. Tory bared her teeth at another target in the booth. Then the person stood up, her purple and chestnut hair distinctive even in the low light. My heart hammered at the sight of Piper. I spun my hat around for a better view, and her brow lifted when our eyes locked.
The sound of sarcastic applause must have finally penetrated Tory’s little mind because at last she glanced around, taking in the grinning faces and thinly disguised snickers at her expense. Squaring her shoulders, she stuck her nose in the air and said, “You’ll pay for this, Chessly Clarke. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Chessly?” Finn asked.
Something in his tone tore my attention from Piper and the scene Tory was causing in the middle of the bar. If I didn’t know better, I’d think some chick had gobsmacked my roommate with the way his eyes zeroed in on that booth and he stood up to snag a better view.
My momentary interest in my friend’s reaction meant I lost contact with Piper who sat back down out of sight in their booth once Tory started walking in the direction of the door. But I heard the snickers coming from that same booth when one of the servers raced up to intercept her with a boxed pizza in hand.
“That’ll be fourteen ninety-nine, please, Miss.”
Tory shot a death glare in the direction of the booth where Piper sat and jerked the box from the server’s hand. With a nod to one of her peeps, she stuck her nose in the air and sailed out the door with the pizza. The unhappy expression on the girl’s face told its own story as she pulled her wallet from her purse and handed the server her card, then she trailed after Tory after she’d paid the bill.
“That, my friend, is why you stay the hell and gone away from Tory Miller.” Fitz’s deep voice rumbled in Finn’s direction. “That girl is nothin’ but trouble.”
