She was collecting glasses when she saw the guys close around Jada. Taking the glasses to the bar, she slid them onto the surface, and went straight over to extricate her employee.
Pasting on a smile, Nya wasn’t going to make a scene if she could avoid it. “Evening, guys, are you having a good time?” she asked.
“Great time!” one of them announced, punching his buddy in the arm.
“We want a private waitress—this private waitress,” one of them said, crowding in behind Jada as another sidled up in front.
“Well, you pay for the VIP level and we’ll talk,” Nya said, managing to insinuate herself between Jada and the guy in front of her. Pulling Jada out, she gave her a shove to put some distance between the youngster and the thug. Nya nodded to the collection of glasses she’d put at the other end of the bar. “Go and wash up those glasses.”
Jada hesitated, but scurried. Nya was capable if nothing else, and she’d been dealing with rowdy, handsy customers in her various jobs for years. “Right, guys, you’ve got to treat a girl with respect,” Nya said, realizing that the four were now closing around her.
“Guess you want us to respect you,” one guy said. Some of the innocent glee was gone from his expression. “You stole our other fun.”
One thing she’d noticed since Hexam had taken over was that the men who frequented the club were harder than before. She tried not to let experience cloud her decision-making. These thugs would bully her unless she stood up to them. As manager, she couldn’t afford to get a reputation for being weak.
“You don’t get that kinda fun here,” she said. “You can go a couple of blocks over and find yourself company if you’re willing to pay for it.”
Nya tried to walk away, but one of them took her shoulder from behind and drew her back into the circle. “I think you should keep us company.”
A hand snaked around, beneath her arm, and cupped the underside of her breast. The guy to her right, who sneered, groped the other. “You don’t want security kicking your ass out,” she said.
The tallest one moved in front of her and she swallowed, keeping her bravado up while her heart embraced the anxiety. Security had been stripped back since Hexam took over. Most of the systems she’d put in place were dormant. Tag had been hesitant to implement cameras and Hexam didn’t like the idea either.
“You dress all slutty to get our attention and you’ve got it,” the tall one said, grabbing her to spin her around.
The one who’d grabbed her breast from behind shifted aside to let his friend thrust her down over the bar, then there was a hand on her ass under her skirt. She kicked back, and whoever she hit, swore at her.
“You crazy, fucking, whore!” he called out.
Something flew past them and lodged in the bar by her head, a knife… and it was one she recognized. Pulling the blade from the wood, she was ready to fight.
Standing up to spin around, Nya found that she didn’t have to defend herself because one of the bastards was already on the floor. “Archer,” she said, unable to believe he’d come to her aid when she hadn’t even known he was here yet.
He smacked the second in the jaw, elbowed the third who came at him from behind and knocked the fourth out with a head-butt. Security came rushing over. “Get these fuckers out of here,” Archer said, snatching his knife from her to re-sheath it on his belt before grabbing her arm to pull her along the bar.
Nya needed two or three steps to keep up with his strides. But he was intent on getting her into the office. As soon as he did, he threw her forward and slammed the door. “How come wherever there’s trouble you’re always right in the middle of it?” he demanded, touching his upper lip and that’s when she realized his nose was bleeding.
“Archer,” she cried out, grabbing hold of him to haul him over into the manager’s chair. “Oh, God, they hurt you.”
Touching the blood under his nose, she pulled a tissue from the box behind her and pressed it against the stain. “Leave me the fuck alone, woman, stop fussing,” he said, trying to bat her hands away when she began to search his hairline and jaw for other wounds. “Who let those fuckers in?”
She propped herself on the edge of the desk. “I don’t think we’re choosy when the club is this quiet.” Taking the tissue from him, she folded it and wiped the remaining smears of blood to check if the flow had stopped; it appeared that it had.
“Hex didn’t want a lot of people in tonight,” Archer said.
So the order to limit entry had come from the top, at least it wasn’t a sign of Sizzle’s future. “You shouldn’t be hitting people,” she said, balling the tissue in her hand. “You don’t work here. There are guys who are paid to do that… insured to do that.”
He scoffed. “Oh, really? You do know that?” he asked, showing how unamused he was with his loose expression. “Those are the guys you should’ve called when you saw Jada was in trouble.”
Trust him to be snide and condescending. “There wasn’t trouble. I just didn’t like how close they were to her.”
“She told me,” Archer said. “I wasn’t in the fucking door three seconds and your latest project comes running up telling me some guy has his hands all over my girlfriend’s tits.”
“Your girlfriend?”
“Her words, not mine,” he said as if he knew she might get ideas. “Consensual or not, you’re lucky I didn’t cut him open. Don’t do that shit when I’m around, you knew I’d be in tonight. Don’t play games with me.”
But she was oblivious to why he was so keyed up. “What shit?” she asked. “I didn’t do anything except my job. I’ve been dealing with drunk perverts all my life, since long before I ever met you. I told them to pay a hooker if they wanted action tonight.”
“But they chose to take it from you instead,” he said, rolling his eyes and standing up. “You can’t sass drunk fuckers, Nya. Not Hex’s men.”
Oh, really? “I can sass whoever the fuck I want.”
He loomed above her. “Oh, so you wanted those fucks to get hold of you, did you? You wanted their hands on your cans and up your skirt. Maybe you wanted him to fuck you over the bar, did I interrupt? Strip off, sweetheart, and I’ll call ‘em back here for you. Have a private party.”
“Now who’s sassy?” she asked.
Leaning over her, he forced her to angle back as he set two heavy fists in the middle of the table behind her. “I can sass you any goddamn time I want and you’ll shut those fucking sweet lips of yours and listen.”
Parting her legs, she raised her knees to his hips. She wasn’t intimidated, she was aroused, her body was awakening to his. “Maybe. But you know I’ll give back whatever you give me. Those dirty little fucks couldn’t handle a woman like me. It took four of them to try and measure up to what I need. They wouldn’t make the cut though. They’re nothing. Not worth my attention.”
“What guy is worth your attention?” he asked.
Because he was so close to her, she breathed in his exhale and arched. “I like neat freaks with OCD about sharpening their blades. I need a man who’s handy with a knife and will completely take over my life. And my man better have a nice big cock for me to ride when I’m wet. One that’ll fuck me any time he wants, without asking permission.”
“Is that what you want, Ny?” he asked. When his fingertips brushed her inner thigh, her breath hitched in her throat. “My cock?”
“I want all of you.” Shifting her hips, she forced his fingers against her underwear. “But your cock’s a good start.”
She liked that his breathing was speeding up and liked that the temperature in the room was rising. She wanted to feel like this, like her skin was too tight for her body, and that the meaning of her life was to take his cock any way he chose to give it.
Archer had never hesitated to screw her in the past, but they’d never been broken up before. Unzipping his fly, Nya maintained eye contact and loosened his belt. “Come closer,” she whispered.
When she inched her hips to th
e edge of the table, he began to rub the cotton between her thighs. Maybe it was just his instinct to pleasure her or any pussy at the end of his fingertips, or maybe he wanted this too. Rocking in time with his rhythm, she let her own hand slide into his jeans where she found him just as immense and solid as she remembered.
“Oh, Arch, you’re hard for me,” she exhaled because there was a relief that came with knowing she could still excite him.
While she pumped her fist up and down around him, he grumbled something she didn’t understand and shoved up her skirt before hooking one forearm around her hips to yank her off the edge until just her spine was pressed into the sharp angle of the tabletop.
In time with that abrupt move, she tugged his erection to her core. “Nya,” he warned, but there was an overwhelming want radiating from him; she wasn’t the only one who needed this union.
“We’re so close,” she said, pleading bled into her tone. She wasn’t sure if the desperation was for herself or for him.
Hooking her underwear aside, his actions weren’t backing up his reservations. When one of his fingers slid into her, she came all over it, yelping out his name. Waiting over three weeks for release, she had started to think it would never happen.
As she recovered, she laughed and lay down to unbutton her shirt. After undoing the third button, his hand left her core and landed on hers to stop her from going any further.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, sitting up again. “I’m yours. We need each other. It’s been too long.”
“We’re not doing this.”
As he was buckling his jeans, Nya saw his resolve return, but she was just plain confused. “Archer, I don’t get it. You want me or you don’t.”
“It’s not as simple as that.”
“It is,” she said, hopping off the desk to crowd him. “You have to tell me, do you love me?”
He probably hadn’t expected such a curt question. But she wasn’t going to fill the silence, she was going to wait, and make him answer. Except that was when the office door opened and while she was trying to see who’d come in, his fingers moved to button her shirt.
“Arch,” came the bass of Hexam’s voice. “Leave us alone.”
Archer passed her and went out of the room and it was weird to see him leave her alone with a dangerous person without looking back. Hexam came over and hugged her, he actually hugged her, and she was so thrown by the gesture that she put a hand to his chest and stumbled back.
“What are you doing?”
“Those who kill together have a special bond,” he said, brushing a knuckle on her jaw. “What did you want to see me about?”
“I want to know what you’re going to do with this place,” she said, sitting down in the manager’s chair although it was probably his rightful place now.
Hexam began to examine the office. Now that it was his, she guessed he was more interested than he’d been before. “For now it stays as it is. You’ll have seen we’ve had some staff issues, and we’re fixing that. You’re gonna have the same customers, but there is a ‘no-fly list’ for people who we don’t want near here. Archer has a face-book for you, so you know who to look out for and who to have tossed out on their ass if they slip through.”
“Everything stays the same?”
He’d sauntered around enough of the office that he was happy to drop into the guest chair and he slapped his hands on the arms of it. “We’ll have a revamp probably in a month or two. We’ll shut the place down, maybe do some structural stuff. Spruce the place up.”
“But you’re not gonna change what we do?”
“Are you worried I’ll turn the place into a strip joint?” He shook his head. “Not on the cards yet, but with me you never know what I’ll think of when I wake up in the morning.”
That wasn’t reassuring. He took a card from the pocket of his jeans and slid it across the desk. “You don’t need to go through Archer if you want to speak to me, boo. You’re one of the few who’ll get direct access.”
“Why?” she asked, picking up the card.
He shrugged. “Because your best friend’s dating my sister,” he said. “You’re the manager of my club, and ‘cause, like I said, we’ve killed together.”
No mention of Archer at all. She didn’t know if Hexam knew they were no longer an item, or if he cared either way. “I have a couple of other clubs downtown,” he said. “Gimme a call and we’ll check them out together. You’ll see what our brand is all about.”
Nya didn’t have any intention of dating this man. But if it was a professional meeting, she would love to see what his other clubs were like. Going with him would give her a chance to see behind the scenes, something she wouldn’t get if she went alone. Archer would probably be able to get in anywhere and see any part of the building. But she’d already asked him for one favor this week and she wasn’t sure what quota people got. Plus, she didn’t have anything she could offer as payment.
“I can’t believe that you’re ok with Tag and Farrah,” she said, trying to judge whether or not he had sinister motives for letting them see each other.
She didn’t expect him to be honest. “I’m not ok with it,” Hexam said. “But your buddy Tag has tied himself in knots and it’s funny to watch what I can make him do.”
Nya didn’t like her friend being a source of amusement, but Tag was happy to go along with it. She’d tie herself in knots for Archer and he could be accused of doing the same too. It was difficult to stop herself comparing all love to what she felt for Archer, but she couldn’t figure him out. He’d been cold and cruel, except sometimes he was himself and she couldn’t forget that he’d kissed her.
Tonight. She didn’t know what had happened. She would have to confront him to find out what was going on. Was he just playing with her? Was it just a sexual attraction he wasn’t finished slaking? Or did he actually still care about her and could he maybe want her back?
“I don’t want you to panic, Nya. We’re part of the same team now. I’m not going to turn the place into a drugs den or a sex pit. I like live music. We could have more of that. If you have ideas, let’s hear ‘em.”
She spoke to Hexam for an hour about the history of Sizzle and the kind of people who came here. To his credit, he listened to her vision of what Sizzle could be, but he didn’t write anything down, so he could just be paying lip service to her ideas. Although, she couldn’t figure out why he’d waste his time with her.
After he left with his men, business didn’t pick up for the rest of the night. Archer had gone before she and Hexam even came out of the office, so she packed everything away and went home.
twenty-one
No sooner had Nya closed her apartment door and taken off her shoes than there was a knock at the door. Unbuttoning the cuffs of her shirt, she sloped across to peek through the hole in her door assuming one of her neighbors had heard her come in and wanted to talk.
Georgie-Boy was desperate for conversation and Ella didn’t have any friends that Nya had seen coming or going.
But neither of those people were standing on the other side of her door tonight. She opened it wearing a curious frown. “Archer, it’s four o’clock in the morning,” she said. “Is this a booty call?”
Nya didn’t mind if that’s what it was although she was exhausted and might not be at her best. She went back into the apartment and left the door open. If he wanted to come in, he could. If he wanted to fuck off, that was fine too. Unbuttoning her shirt, she pulled it out of her skirt.
The door closed.
Taking off her shirt, she tossed it into the middle of the table, then unzipped her skirt and shimmied out of that to add it to the shirt. “I’m here for my payment,” he said. For a second, all she could recall was offering him sex on demand. He waved once. “Can you stop taking your clothes off?”
Her thumbs were hooked beneath the clasp of her bra at her back. “Why?”
He arched a brow, he knew her game and he wasn’t playing. “Do you strip off
when the pizza guy comes?”
“I don’t eat pizza,” she said.
“Yes, you fucking do. You just don’t order it yourself. Do you strip off in front of other visitors?”
Shrugging, she feigned innocence. “Nobody visits me. Except Georgie-Boy next door, he comes over a lot. He seems to want to borrow things,” she said, and wondered again whether he really didn’t own anything, or if his requests were an excuse to see her. Nya smiled. “Ester won’t be happy if he’s making a play for me. She’s got her sights on that big boy.”
Deadpan, Archer didn’t react. “Do you really expect me to laugh?”
She sighed. “Why are you here?” she asked and then remembered what he’d said. “Payment, yes, come here.”
Going into the bedroom, she opened the closet and crouched to search in the bag she’d put the weapons in. Except she’d buried them in clothes and couldn’t find them. Groaning, she tried to lift the bag.
“What are you doing?” he asked. Leaning over her crouched form, Archer grabbed the bag to haul it over her head. Turning around, he dropped it onto the end of the bed. “What’s that?”
Nya had just stood up and the room was dark, so her eyes were still adjusting. But he nodded toward the picture that was propped against the wall by the window. “It’s a picture,” she said. “I know you don’t like clutter, but some people do like to make their places look pretty.”
“Yeah, makes the place look gorgeous on the floor over there, hiding behind the bed.”
Pulling open the bag, she began hauling out the clothes. Most of the items on top were negligees that she hadn’t wanted crushed, but he didn’t notice. “I can’t put it up,” she said, sitting on the bed, she crossed her legs and kept looking.
“Why not?” Archer must have seen the gun first, because he reached in and pulled it out before she could touch it. He checked the clip then stuck it in the back of his jeans.
“I don’t have a hammer.”
He stopped. “You don’t have a hammer?” She shook her head. “Who the fuck doesn’t have a hammer?”
Scarred (Branded Book 2) Page 24
