She tipped her head back. Clear gray-green eyes stared up at him with an unwavering gaze that seemed to make its way down to his soul. He felt tension coiling deep within his body. He knew he’d never felt this way around a woman before, and he didn’t like that he was feeling it now about this woman.
“If it turns out I was wrong, I’d prefer no butter on my crow,” she replied as she opened the door. “Thank you, Mr. Dante.”
Luc watched her leave the restaurant. He had a feeling that the lovely detective was going to be trouble with a capital T.
Chapter 2
A fter moving clothing and personal items into an apartment owned by the police department, Celeste had just enough time to shower and change before making it to the restaurant.
She pulled into a small lot behind Dante’s where Gina, the hostess, had told her to park. She noticed it was well lit and easily seen from the kitchen door.
The kitchen was hot and noisy when she stepped in. She garnered a few curious glances, but no one spoke until a beefy-looking man with a colorful tattoo on his bulging biceps showing under the sleeve of his stained white T-shirt approached her.
“You’re the new bartender, Celeste, right? I’m Jimmy.” He spoke briskly in the raspy voice of a longtime smoker. He didn’t bother offering his hand. “Luc said you’d be showing up around now. Someone will cover you around nine for a meal break. Room off to the side where you can eat.” He gestured with a thumb cocked backward. He continued speaking as he returned to a large pot, dipped a spoon in and examined the contents while keeping an eye on her. “Luc will show you how the bar’s set up. Anyone in the bar ask about eats, tell them dining room only except for the peanuts and pretzels served in there. We’re not some sports bar. What were you in for?”
Celeste feigned embarrassment. “I still had checks in my checkbook even though my checking account had been closed.”
“Women and their checks.” He shook his head. “Keep your nose clean here and we’ll all get along. Hailey!” His roar was loud enough to make Celeste wince.
“Guess what, Jimmy, no one’s deaf.” A woman wearing a white shirt and black pants moved through the swinging doors that led to the dining room. She spied Celeste immediately. “Celeste, right? Luc told us you’re taking Sheri’s place. I’m Hailey, as you probably heard.” She shot Jimmy a look filled with censure. “Actually, you would have heard it even if you’d been on the other side of the world. The man cooks like a dream but has no social skills.” She led Celeste out of the kitchen, showed her a room set aside for the employees including lockers for their personal items, then walked swiftly through the dining room.
Celeste noted the black linen squares set kitty-corner over snowy white tablecloths and red linen napkins folded to look like swans set in the middle of white china plates. Everything about the place bespoke a quiet elegance. What caught her attention were the crystal vases on the tables. Each vase displayed a deep red rose that showed a hint of black along the petal’s edges. Even at a glance, she hazarded a guess they were identical to the roses Prince Charming left with each victim. She quickened her pace to keep up with Hailey as they walked under an open archway that led into the bar.
Celeste looked around, saw a room made cozy with leafy plants set in corners, round, polished wood tables and comfortable-looking captains chairs with cushions on the seats. A small stage was set up in one corner.
“It all looks so comfortable here, I’m amazed anyone would want to leave,” she commented as she inspected the many bottles behind the bar. She noticed nothing was skimped on; even the assortment of fine liquors was impressive.
“Luc wanted a bar where anyone, even a woman alone, could come in and relax without the fear of being harassed,” Hailey explained with pride in her voice. She glanced at Celeste. “You’ll find it a good place to work.”
“I’m just glad to have a job. Some people aren’t too enthusiastic about hiring someone with less than impeccable credentials,” she said.
“Don’t worry, they’re great here as long as you’re honest with them. I’ve worked here since the restaurant opened.” Hailey cast a critical eye around the room. “There’s a carpet sweeper and cleaning rags in a cabinet behind the bar. I’ll leave you to get acquainted with everything.”
“Thanks.” Celeste smiled.
“Thanks, Hailey.” Luc walked into the room.
Both women turned. Hailey flashed a bright smile.
“No problem, boss.” She left the room.
Luc greeted Celeste. “I’m glad to see you’re on time.”
“Bosses tend to be more impressed by punctuality,” Celeste said. “Is there anything else I need to know before I take my position behind the bar?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Why were you questioning Hailey? I thought you already had dossiers on all the employees.”
“I do, and I’m sure you know they don’t include everything. And I wasn’t questioning her, I was making casual conversation,” she added. “When will I meet the last third of the triumvirate?”
“Since you’re an employee, you don’t need to worry about that. But since I’m sure you expect an answer, I will tell you that Paulie will be in later this evening. As for the bar, it’s pretty easy. Most of the clientele are wine drinkers. Mixed drink orders tend to come more often on weekends and at lunch hours. No stinting on mixed drinks, but no overdoing it either. Keep peanut bowls filled. If you’re given a mixed drink order you don’t recognize, don’t fake it. There’s a PDA back there that lists pretty much all the mixed drinks. Be polite even if you don’t feel like it. As I said before, I’ll take care of the rude or drunk customers. We don’t believe anyone working here has to take any crap from a customer, no matter who they are.”
“You sound like an avenging angel,” she quipped.
Celeste was startled by a shift in Luc’s expression. She wondered if the hint of raw emotion that flickered across his face was a figment of her imagination. She doubted he would have wanted anyone to see even a suggestion of his innermost thoughts. She had an idea that there were depths to Luc Dante no one had access to. It sparked her curiosity to find out just what those depths held.
By the time the restaurant opened, Celeste had familiarized herself with the bar’s inventory and filled the peanut bowls. She was wondering where the waitress was when a brunette whirlwind flew through the archway.
“Hi! You must be Celeste.” The woman grinned. “I’m Flip. Actually, it’s Philippa, courtesy of my dad. My mom’s positive he named me for an ex-girlfriend. It’s better than what my mom wanted to name me, though—Eleanor. Can you tell my parents have no sense of imagination? I tell myself it could be worse. There are some really ugly names out there. I believe names have something to do with your personality, don’t you?”
“Flip! Take a breath!” Luc’s voice came from the entryway.
She stopped and grinned sheepishly. “I’ve been told I talk too much,” she confided.
“I think the reason she makes such good tips is that they pay her to stop talking,” Luc said.
Celeste chuckled. “No offense, but you don’t look old enough to work in a bar.” She gazed at the young woman’s dark brown curly ponytail and hint of glitter under two finely arched eyebrows. Even though she was dressed in the same style as Celeste, she looked like a young girl playing dress-up. Celeste noticed the black high heels Flip wore and winced at the idea of spending a long evening on stilts.
“I’m twenty-four.” Flip imparted the information with pride as she headed for the end of the bar and sat on a stool.
“If she gets too chatty you’ll find the off button on her back,” Luc informed Celeste. “Unfortunately, her model didn’t come with a mute.”
“Ha, very funny.” Flip gathered up a handful of peanuts and popped them into her mouth. She didn’t wilt under Luc’s glare. “I didn’t have lunch today, okay?” She turned to Celeste after Luc left. “The man is totally hot but, like my parents, no imagination.”
Luckily, Celeste didn’t have to worry about a response. Two men in business suits walked in.
“Mr. Haines, Mr. Jackson!” Flip hopped off the stool and walked over to greet them as they chose a table. She returned in record time. “Jack Daniels, neat, for Mr. Haines, and a club soda with a drop of scotch.” She leaned across the bar. “Literally, a drop. He’s tapering off,” she whispered as Celeste poured the requested drinks.
“Always good to hear.” She placed the drinks on a tray and watched Flip serve them. She felt she could literally see the energy bottled up inside the young woman as she stood at the table talking to the men.
Celeste couldn’t help but notice that the men’s eyes didn’t stray from her face as she chattered away. It was apparent they knew her well as they questioned her about her classes at college and her life in general—questions she was only too happy to answer. Celeste wasn’t surprised that when the two men departed the bar, they left a nice tip.
Celeste found herself busy as the evening progressed. She didn’t expect to learn anything useful on her first night, but she did discover she had a useful source. Flip turned out to be a fountain of information about many of the customers.
“Mr. Potter,” Flip confided after requesting a scotch and soda, “seems to think we’re here to serve him. We, as in women. He’s not rude or anything, just your everyday caveman.”
“Do you have any truly strange customers?” Celeste asked.
Flip closed her eyes in thought. “There’s strange and then there’s strange. No one gets out of hand because they know they could be banned from the restaurant. A few months ago, we had this one guy in who was a total creep. He’d always sit in the corner over there and just watch me.” She shivered. “I didn’t like the way he looked at me, but I didn’t say anything because he never did anything but look.”
“But he made you feel uneasy.”
Flip nodded. “Big-time. I finally had enough of the way he looked at me and I told Luc about him. He said if the guy ever did anything weird to let him know right away. He also started coming in here more when the guy was here. After a couple weeks, the guy just stopped coming in. He might have been a really good tipper, but I was glad he was gone.”
“If he ever comes in, will you point him out to me?” Celeste asked, adding, “Just so I know who to look out for.”
“You don’t have to worry. He won’t be coming back. I guess he came in one day during lunch and started watching Tina who worked the lunch shift. Luc took him off to the side and told him he doesn’t tolerate behavior like that. He banned him from the restaurant.” Flip picked up her tray and bounced off.
Celeste found herself so busy for the next while that she was surprised when Luc suddenly appeared at her side.
“I’m your replacement for your dinner break,” he said. “You’ll probably be very happy to spend the next forty-five minutes off your feet.”
“My feet hurt more after watching Flip move around in those heels of hers,” she replied.
“On any night of the week, she can outdo that battery-operated pink rabbit,” he agreed.
“What’s her story?”
“That’s for her to say. You better get going if you want something to eat. Then you can study the kitchen staff for dangerous individuals,” he said wryly.
“It’s my job,” she said simply before leaving.
Celeste chose a vegetable plate and a couple of warm dinner rolls. She sat down to her meal with a paperback novel in one hand. She’d already committed faces to memory. With the book as a cover, she could eavesdrop on conversations going on around her.
She heard one of the cook’s helpers talk about his parole officer, another mention he was going to have to find another apartment and someone else complain that his girlfriend was talking marriage.
Conversations she could have heard anywhere.
“How’s it going?” Hailey asked, pausing in the doorway.
“Busy, but I like it more that way. Doesn’t give me time to worry I’ll make a mistake.” Celeste smiled.
“My first night I was so nervous I dropped a salad in a customer’s lap,” Hailey confided. “Italian dressing was everywhere. For some reason, I calmed down after that.”
“At least it wasn’t soup,” Celeste teased.
The waitress grinned. “Exactly.”
Jimmy came over and examined Celeste’s plate. “You a vegetarian?” he asked almost accusingly.
She shook her head. “Since it’s so late, I thought I’d be better off with something lighter. Plus, everything else smelled so good I was afraid I’d want one of everything.”
“Good. Can’t understand anyone who doesn’t like a good steak. Hey, don’t let that sauce burn!” He was off and running.
“No joke. If you get a cold, Jimmy makes chicken soup.” Hailey grinned before heading back to the bar.
When Celeste returned to her post, she found Luc there having what looked like a confidential conversation with Jared Stryker.
The detective was dressed in his usual thug best. She only had to look at him to know why more than one woman at the police station lusted after him. Worn jeans hugging a rock-hard body topped by a navy crew-neck sweater added to his bad boy image. Light brown hair was tipped with blond from hours on his beloved motorcycle. A battered black leather jacket hung over the back of the stool.
Stryker noticed her first.
“Well, look at the new eye candy,” he drawled. “I don’t know how you do it, Luc. I’d almost say you had connections.”
Luc cocked an eyebrow at Stryker. “It seems I do.”
Celeste looked from one to the other. Luc looked like a dark angel too beautiful to resist, while Stryker was just as dangerous in his own way.
“Interesting” was all she said.
“Jared!” Flip squealed, giving him a one-armed hug. “Is he not cute?” she demanded of Celeste. “And don’t we look cute together? Except I can’t even get him to take me out for coffee.” She pouted prettily.
“Sorry, sweetness, I’m way too old for you.” Stryker lazily caressed the neck of his beer bottle.
“Flip, work,” Luc said quietly.
“You really need to unwind a little,” she told him before taking her filled tray and moving toward waiting customers.
“She’s not like anyone else working here,” Celeste commented.
“Flip’s one of a kind,” Stryker said. “Like you, Goldilocks. With you serving the drinks, I just might have to lower my standards and come in here more often.”
“I’m sure that will make Flip very happy,” Celeste said with a bright smile.
Stryker cast a lazy glance in Luc’s direction. “If I were you I’d be careful, old friend. Beneath that fluffy exterior lies the heart of a rat terrier.” His movements were languid as he climbed off the stool. “See ya later, Luc.”
Celeste didn’t miss the warning in her colleague’s eyes as he sauntered out of the bar. If she wasn’t mistaken, she had been silently informed that the two men were close and that she wouldn’t want Stryker for an enemy.
She didn’t have time to blast a mental reply.
“Go take your break, Flip. We can cover here,” she heard Luc tell the young woman.
Barely a minute later, they were alone save for a couple seated at a table across the room.
Celeste picked up a towel and wiped down the bar’s surface although it was already clean. It was easier to concentrate on the small task than to feel so aware of Luc standing close by. She told herself that he was the boss watching over the new employee, but there was something about his gaze…. Not that she needed to see his expression to know that. She could feel the hum along her nerve endings.
“So, what have you learned about us so far?” he asked in a low voice. “Any good leads?”
“You know I can’t discuss the investigation.”
He turned to face her, leaning one elbow on the counter. “You were pretty free with information yesterday wh
en you wanted my cooperation.”
“You were only told the basics, nothing more.” She turned away and smiled at a man who’d taken one of the stools at the bar. She was aware of Luc’s intent regard as she fixed a vodka martini and served it with a smile. “Besides, I’m nothing more than a bartender with a less than impeccable past. Nothing more,” she said after the man returned to his table.
“I think you were a woman of mystery even before you reinvented yourself,” Luc murmured, then walked away.
By the time the restaurant closed, Celeste felt as if she’d been on her feet for a good twenty-four hours. She hated to think what her feet would have felt like if she’d worn high heels like Flip’s instead of the flats she’d wisely chosen.
It’s not just cops who are flatfoots, she thought grimly as she closed out the cash register while Flip made sure all the tables were clean. By the time she finished, she could think of nothing more than crawling into bed. Sleep hadn’t been plentiful the past couple of nights.
“Celeste, right?” A tall lanky man appeared at the bar. His glasses kept slipping down his nose as if they were too large. “I’m Paulie Connors. If you’ve finished closing out the register, I’ll take the money into the office. Luc did explain that I handle that, right?”
“Yes, he did,” Celeste replied, handing over the cash drawer. “He said you do the restaurant’s accounting.”
He nodded as he took the drawer from her. Skinny wrists protruded from his shirtsleeves.
Celeste thought he looked the part: typical nerd. All Paulie needed was a pocket protector in his shirt pocket to complete the picture.
“Thanks for filling out your paperwork so promptly. Most of the time I have to practically badger people to get it to me,” he said. “See you tomorrow night.” He turned around and left.
“We’re not supposed to go to our cars by ourselves. Luc insists one of the guys always go with us,” Flip informed Celeste in a confidential tone. “You heard about that rape a couple nights ago, right? Maybe that guy’s sneaking into women’s bedrooms now, but that doesn’t mean he might not sneak up on someone in a parking lot. I wanted to get a gun.”
Roses After Midnight Page 3
