“Huh… Maybe I’m thinking of that bar off the Avenue… Honey, am I thinking of the bar off the Avenue?” he asks.
I try not to cringe at the pet name. “Yes. Two beers, please,” I say. “Whatever’s on tap.”
Well, that accounts for the bartenders. The man passes the drinks to me, which I pay for, then lead Finn away.
“So… he’s not a bartender,” Finn says.
“And all the waitresses are women.” I pass the beer to him, which he takes but doesn’t drink.
“I suppose they could have been telling the truth, but let’s hang around for a bit and see. He could be in the back somewhere. Do they sell food here?”
“Just looks like snacky stuff. So he could be in the kitchen.”
“While we wait… let’s dance!” he decides.
A scowl forms on my face at the very thought. “Absolutely not.”
“We’re blending, Marcus. I think we’ll stick out if we just grumpily walk around and stare at the employees like creepers. I know you’re used to being a creep, but I’m not.”
“That doesn’t mean we have to dance.”
“Have you never been undercover before?” he asks. “Also, I want to get close to that hallway there, and there’s no one just standing near it, which means we have to dance to it.”
I see the hallway he’s talking about and sigh. “Fine. Just to the hallway, but that’s it. That’s the limit of dancing.” I set my glass down on an empty table and he does the same before grabbing my left wrist with his gloved hand. He tugs me into the crowd of sweaty, jostling bodies while doing some kind of weird jig that I hope he doesn’t think is sexy. Once pinned against the drunk dancers, he turns to me and grins.
“They called me the Dance Machine in my prime,” he says, then starts doing something that is not dancing.
“Did the machine break? Do we need to put it out of its misery?”
He starts laughing. “I’m not that bad.”
“I sure wouldn’t say you’re good, either!”
“I don’t know how to dance!” he cries, but he’s laughing so hard that it’s apparent he really doesn’t care. “Let’s do like a cha-cha to the door!”
And then he starts doing the Macarena. I am positive he doesn’t know he’s doing it, either. When we reach the hallway, I realize he’s still holding on to my hand as he does some little skipping move and shakes his ass like he’s a wet dog trying to get water off him.
“Please stop! It’s hurting my eyes!” I cry as I pull my hand away.
He folds his arms across his chest in mock anger. “Let’s see you dance, then!”
“I’m a swayer, not a dancer,” I say as I just rock back and forth. “I do know ballroom, though.”
“Ooh, really?”
“Yes, I learned it many, many years ago.”
“Sounds sexy,” he says as he loops his right arm around my neck and pulls me to him. My first instinct is to pull away, because I shouldn’t be close to this human that persists on testing me, before I realize he’s wanting to say something. “I saw some boss-type walk out from this hallway,” he says into my ear so I can hear him over the music but no one else can. “Is it too loud for you to use your doglike senses and see if you can hear anyone in the room he came out of?”
I’m still hung up on the first part. “My doglike senses? Did I hear that right?”
“You very much did. Come on, woof-woof, use those ears.”
“I’m not a dog.”
He sighs. “I’m sorry, Fangy McFangface. Can you listen in?”
“Even if there isn’t someone in there, we can’t just break in. We need a warrant to search the place.”
He jerks back like I electrocuted him. “W-What? I… I thought you were a bad boy. I have been deceived! You are so not sexy.”
“Do you not remember me telling you I had to take specialized classes because my methods were ‘not agreeable or legal’?” I ask. “They made me into a changed man.”
“You said one class.” He’s grinning now. “Did you have to take more than that?”
“Maybe. Now, we would need a warrant—”
“Not if nobody catches us,” Finn says, looking far too eager, and I can’t help but wonder how many things that smile has gotten him.
“Fine. Just this once.”
I turn so I’m close to the hallway as he grabs onto me. He lifts my hand up and literally kisses the tips of my fingers. “What are you doing?”
“Nonchalantly getting us into the hallway. My god, you’re an awful actor,” he says. His body presses against mine as he begins to push me back with it. Then I’m distracted by the way his small frame fits against me, and how I can feel his hips push into me. At this point, I forget to even listen as I’m shoved into the hallway. “So?”
“So… what?” I ask.
“Is there anyone in there?”
“Oh…” I quickly listen, but unless they’re being very quiet, I don’t hear anyone. “No, I don’t think so.”
He hurries down the hallway, and I give the door another listen before he pushes it open and steps inside.
“Keep an ear out for people, please,” he says. “I know it’s hard when you’re distracted by me.” Then he gives me a cocky wink that makes me glare daggers at him.
I cannot be distracted by him in any way. “I was just wondering if you’ve stayed the same size since middle school.”
“It’s so I can woo people because they think I’m cute, and instead I’m like a motherfucking grizzly,” he growls.
“I hope when I grow up, I can be as optimistic as you.”
He gives me a sweet smile as he heads over to the desk. “Me too! Ooh, lookee here. Someone left their phone. I wonder if this is the owner’s phone. What was his name, William Perry, right?”
“Yes, it looks like this is his office,” I say as I tilt a picture frame of William Perry toward him. The man is in his late thirties or early forties with short brown hair that reminds me of a military cut. A woman is hanging on to his arm as he laughs.
“Alright, well, now we have a pretty good idea whose phone this is. Can you smell which buttons he uses more or something so we can figure out the keycode?”
“Yes, let me smell the buttons,” I say sarcastically.
He snickers and sets it to the side before sliding in front of an unlocked computer. I play guard dog as he taps away. “Bingo! He has his phone connected to his computer. Know what that means?”
“No.”
“You grandpa types are so out of the loop with tech,” he says. “Okay, I went through his phone contacts using his computer and he has a contact here for Grady. What’s the number we were given for him?”
“Hold on,” I say as I grab my phone and look it up before telling him the last four numbers. “It’s different. I’m going to message him and ask if he can work tonight. Let’s see if we can get him here.”
“Just be careful not to spook him.”