“I’ll taste it first to make sure he didn’t make it too strong.” Brick grabbed my drink, moved the straw out of the way, and took a gulp. “That might be a bit too much for her.” He put my drink back in front of me. “What do ya think?”
I wasn’t sure if Brick picked up on the reason for my hesitation, but I was thankful to him for trying to put my mind at ease.
Wrapping my fingers around the cool glass, I brought the straw to my lips and took a tentative sip, the mixture of sweet and tanginess hitting my tongue, then sliding down my throat. After my first swallow, I wanted more, so I took another sip, then another before placing the drink back on the bar.
“That’s really good. What is it?” I wanted to have some more but didn’t want to seem greedy, so I folded my hands in my lap and waited for Trigger to at least answer me before I attempted to devour the rest of it.
“It’s called a screwdriver. Nuthin’ but orange juice and vodka.” He saw me eyeing up the glass. “I’ll make you another when you’re finished.” Trigger winked before walking away, stopping to talk to Ace before disappearing into the kitchen.
Reaching forward, I snatched my drink again, the clink of the ice cubes sloshing some of the contents forward, but luckily not spilling any over the rim. “This is good.”
“Drink up, woman,” Brick chuckled. “He’ll make you as many as you want.” He angled his large body toward me, looking me over but not in a lecherous way. “So, what do you think of Linc? You like him?”
His question took me by surprise. What was the right answer? If I told him that I’d been dreaming about Lincoln every night since he rescued me, would that make me seem more desperate than I was sure they already thought me to be? And if I feigned indifference, would he think me to be unappreciative, passing along his thoughts to Lincoln? Maybe even convincing him I was no longer welcome?
“It’s not a trick question, Maddie.”
“Um…” I parted my lips, but then sucked down a few hefty gulps of the concoction in front of me before answering. “Yeah, I like him. He’s nice and has been so caring. He’s sweet.”
“He’s sweet on you,” he replied, smirking when my eyes widened. “He put this whole club in jeopardy to help you, to save you from them.” He nodded, like he was having an internal conversation. Brick’s demeanor switched from playful to serious in the blink of an eye, but before I could respond—and say what I had no idea—he switched back. “You’re beautiful. Why wouldn’t he be?”
“Beautiful?” The question popped out of my mouth on a reflex of disbelief. I’d been called cute and pretty but never beautiful, and even though Brick had paid me such a high compliment, I didn’t get the feeling he was hitting on me. Although, I wasn’t so good at reading guys, the reminder I had to be rescued from the Reapers compounding that notion.
“Who’s beautiful?” Ace asked, strolling up behind me, then taking the seat to my left, leaving me sandwiched between two of the members of this club. Two men I didn’t know. Two people I oddly wasn’t frightened of.
“I was talkin’ about Maddie,” Brick replied, motioning to Trigger when he came out of the kitchen, pushing his empty beer bottle forward to be replaced.
“You want another?” the old guy asked, to which I nodded emphatically, swallowing the rest of my screwdriver and enjoying every single drop.
“Don’t let Linc hear you tell her that.” Ace shook his head when Trigger picked up a bottle of beer and flicked his chin toward him.
With my second drink in hand, my eyes bounced between the two men beside me. While I found them both attractive, my thoughts kept reverting to Lincoln. Not only did I think he was sexy, but I felt safe whenever he was around, a notion I hadn’t experienced in more time than I cared to admit.
“Hey, let me ask you something.” Ace moved his seat closer, bumping my leg with his. “You’re a girl.”
I looked down at myself, then back at him. “Last I checked.” My straw had somehow become glued to my lips, a steady stream of orange juice and vodka disappearing before my very eyes.
“What does it mean when a chick sleeps with you and is clearly interested, but then won’t agree to anything more?” I thought he was finished, but he held up his finger and kept going. “And when I mention that maybe I’m gonna mess around with other people since she clearly doesn’t want anything more with me, she gets all pissed off and starts screaming about how much of an ass I am and that she should’ve never got with me in the first place.”
Based solely on looks, whoever this girl was he referred to was crazy not to want to be with him. While I couldn’t quite figure out what color his eyes were exactly, the mixture of blue and green too close to determine, it was the faint dimple in his left cheek that showed whenever he talked that I was sure drew a lot of attention from the opposite sex. His hairstyle was longer than Brick’s, while still being short, the color a shade lighter than Lincoln’s.
“What the fuck, man?” Brick asked. He looked like he held back a laugh but also appeared confused by Ace’s outburst, much like me.
“What? She’s a chick. She knows how they think.”
“I have no idea,” I rushed to say, slurping the rest of my drink through the straw. “I’ve never had sex with anyone I wasn’t made to.” My admission didn’t sound as harsh out loud to me as it did inside my head, this yummy drink probably the reason why.
“Fuck,” Ace grumbled, scratching the back of his head. “I’m sorry, Maddie. I didn’t mean to…. Shit!”
“You’re an asshole,” Brick shouted, reaching over me to punch him on the arm. Ace nearly fell off his seat, catching his balance at the last second.
“I wasn’t thinkin’.”
“You’re damn right you weren’t.” Brick’s expression softened when he looked at me, clearly pissed at his buddy. But I knew Ace didn’t mean anything with his question. How would he know I’d say what I did? I didn’t even know I was gonna say something like that. The words just came out.
“It’s okay,” I said to Brick before turning to Ace. “It’s okay,” I repeated.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized again before accepting that beer from Trigger.
An hour and a half later, after two additional drinks and three cold pieces of pizza, I was the bravest I’d ever been. Two hot guys seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say, and for once, I didn’t fear they had an agenda or had thoughts for harming me in any way.
The more alcohol I drank, the more curious I became, asking them all sorts of personal questions. I learned that Ace’s real name was Jaime, that he grew up in foster care, and he got his nickname from playing poker. Cards was his way of hustling people before he joined this club, his way in being he went to school with Kaden, two years ahead of him to be exact. Ace loved to talk, as was evident with all the information he told me. Brick, on the other hand, refused to tell me his real name. I suspected he didn’t like it much. But he did tell me that he used to be a bouncer at one of the strip clubs they owned. Oh, and that he was thirty.