“Um, miss?” the woman behind the bar said, leaning over so she could touch Beatrix’s sleeve. “What’s wrong? Why did you say you needed help?”
The urgency in the woman's voice and the dog waiting in the alley for rescue helped Beatrix set aside the desire trying to overwhelm her.
She tore her gaze away from the alluring man to address the bartender. “I need a rope or pieces of twine and some kind of food item that might tempt a dog.” She pointed. “There’s a scared stray hiding in the alley, and I need to get it out.”
The bartender’s expression turned sympathetic. “That’s sweet of you! We actually have a few leashes and a bag of treats here.”
She moved down the bar and crouched out of sight. When she came back up, she had a slip lead in one hand and an unopened bag of training treats in the other.
Beatrix beamed at her. “Perfect!”
She accepted the items and turned to ask the guy for his number or something so they could maybe hook up some other night, but he was already taking the leash from her and moving away from the bar.
“I’ll help you retrieve the dog,” he said. “It’s too dangerous for you to be in a dark alley by yourself with a dog of unknown temperament.”
She almost snorted. This guy posed more danger than any dog in a dark alley, but something about him kept her from refusing his offer.
“You can trust Arthur. He’s a good guy,” the bartender said, then her voice went low with warning. “Although if he acts bad at all, I know someone who can put him in his place.”
Beatrix swung her gaze to the bartender and held out her hand. “I’m Beatrix, and I like women who protect other women.”
A smile exploded across the bartender's face. “I’m Rissa.” She pointed to the male bartender standing next to her. “This is my partner Zan.” Then she pointed to a man sitting at the end of the bar. “That’s Anatoly, our third.”
Anatoly lifted a wineglass. “Hello Beatrix. Don’t worry, Arthur knows he needs to behave.”
“I’m not that much younger than you, Anatoly,” Arthur growled. “I wouldn’t be so casual about issuing challenges.”
Anatoly was unbothered. He tipped his wineglass at Zan and Rissa. “Unlike you, I have them. That makes me much stronger.”
There was some weird subtext she wasn’t getting here, but honestly, she didn’t care because there was a dog waiting for her.
“Guys, enough!” Rissa said, slapping a hand on the counter. She gave Beatrix a smile. “Sorry about that.”
“Right, yeah, no worries,” Beatrix said, unsure what else to say.
Rissa pulled a phone out of her back pocket. “I’m going to call a friend. He runs a rescue. If you can’t catch the dog, don’t worry, Titan’s amazing with animals. He’ll be able to catch the dog, just don’t let it run out of the alley, okay?”
Relief and disappointment warred inside Beatrix. She knew she shouldn’t try to sneak another dog into her apartment, especially after the howling-Rottweiler incident. But still, she felt sad at missing out on doggo company for the night.
“Great, thanks,” she said to Rissa with a forced smile. She turned to leave the bar with Arthur right behind her. When she stepped outside, she noticed her car and winced. It was way further out in the road than she thought it was.
“Here,” she said, shoving the treat bag at Arthur and pointing at the mouth of the alley. “The dog’s down there, hiding in the stack of recycling. I have to move my car.”
“No,” he said, even as he accepted the bag of treats. “Give me your keys.”
She was already searching for them and realized with absolute horror that she hadn’t pulled the keys out of the ignition.
“Oh shit, I left them in the car,” she said with a shake of her head.
Arthur didn’t say anything, but he did look slightly relieved. “That makes it easy.”
“Wha—”
Before she could finish asking what he meant by that, he stepped back and stuck his head into the bar. “Zander, please move Beatrix’s car to your parking garage. The keys are in there.”
Zander grinned and jumped over the bar with an impressive level of athleticism.
“Sure,” he said cheerfully, brushing past them to head to her crooked Toyota. “I’m guessing it’s that one.”
