“Thanks, Ains. I don’t mind. And I love Harlow.”
“I know you do. So do I… For some reason.”
We both laughed. “It’s impossible not to,” I replied. “She means well, so all her…bossiness…isn’t meant in a malicious way.”
“She’s so damn endearing,” Ainsley said with a sigh. It was mournful enough that it made me laugh again.
“How muchfunare we expecting tonight?” I asked with a worried look.
“Don’t worry, everyone there will likely be on their best behavior,” she said with a wink. “Hard to misbehave when the former sheriff is watching you do it.”
I smiled and waved goodbye as she followed Harlow out the door. Looking down, I folded the cover down. “What do you think, Beatrice?” I asked my friend. I knew she couldn’t respond, but talking to yourself was a hazard of this job. And talking to the bodies was a certainty. It was also another one of those things that made people think you were weird. “Maybe itwillbe fun?”
Continuing with my work, I chatted to my friend as I did her make-up and dreamed of the day when maybe I’d find my own prince charming. Except, he wouldn’tbeprince charming. The prince went after princesses. Iwasn’ta princess. I needed someone else. Someone like the head of the guards. The man who was strong and protective, but didn’t expect some gorgeous, perfectly made up woman who was the prize every man was trying to win.
I needed a man who could see the potential in the uncut diamond. Because Iwasa jewel, dammit. I was beautiful in my own right. I just needed someone to see it. Who knew? Maybe I’d find him. Or he’d find me. Even though I’d told myself to give up hope, there was always that little spark inside my chest.
I was missing love in my life. I wanted a man who adored me. Who wanted to marry me. Who would build a life with me that we both dreamed of. Someone who would make everything better and complete me. One day…
CHAPTER 2
Pyre
“Douche bags come into this bar,” Scythe said, looking around in disgust.
“Tonight is Ladies’ Night,” Demo told him.
“Okay, douche bags and women come into this bar,” he corrected.
“What’s your point?” Warrant asked.
“He’s wondering why we’re here,” I answered. “I have the same damn question.” This place wasn’t usually where we came to drink. In fact, we usually stayed at our clubhouse to do that. I definitely preferred that to this plan.
“Did you miss the part about the women?” Demo asked.
“Does he care?” Jury wondered out loud.
“I like women,” I muttered. “Just not usually enough to deal with all this shit.” I motioned at the people who weren’t a part of our club. I stepped back as a man stumbled past and slammed into a woman standing near the pool tables.
“Hey!” she screeched. Her boyfriend shoved the drunk away from his lady.
My head rolled on my shoulders—maybe a bit dramatically—as I turned it to look over at Warrant with a disdainful scowl.
Scythe was even worse. Our vice president was grumpy on a good day. Coming out into public didn’t qualify as a good day for him. Our president, Cypher, was smart enough to pull rank and had refused to venture out tonight. “I’m going to fucking kill you if some asshole gets too full of himself, War.”
“It’ll be fine,” Warrant promised Scythe, his eyes scanning the bar. A grin spread over his face. “There they are.”
“Who?” Jury asked, winking at a woman who walked past.
“His old lady,” Demo replied, holding four fingers up for the bartender to see.
“You’re one off,” Scythe told him. “Can’t fucking count or what?”
Demo scoffed. “None of those are for you. You guys get your own beers.”
We made our way to a table as Scythe muttered under his breath, grabbed Jury by the back of the cut, and dragged him to the bar. “She’s married, Bro,” he said as they went.
It was too loud to hear Jury’s response, but he didn’t look the least bit deterred by that piece of information. I grabbed one of the chairs that put my back to the wall. We were all ex-military and none of us wanted our backs to the room, but someone was going to have to take one for the team.
