Hard Up: A Military Mafia Romance Read Free Page B

blurted out, rubbing her wrist.
    “I haven’t had my drink yet,” the newcomer groused.
    “Yeah, well, you haven’t paid either,” she said, grabbing a plastic cup and setting it on the bar. “Now it’s to go.”
    He scowled, but with Callum and Dec towering over him, he didn’t make a scene.
    “Fine. You better hope I don’t see you again,” he spat.
    “I think you’re done here,” Dec said, looking straight down at the stranger.
    Dec put his hands on the bar, and Vi saw the newcomer’s eyes light up with recognition as he took in Dec’s hand tatts.
    “Got what I needed anyway,” the guy said.
    He gave Vi one last sneer before snatching up the cash and making himself scarce.
    “Hey…” Callum started, but Vi wasn’t paying attention.
    She was already moving to get out from behind the bar. “We’re closing early! Everyone out!”
    After a few minutes of grumbled insults, the last customer left. Vi turned to find the Black Saints standing by the bar. Arms crossed, expressions hard, they watched her return to the bar.
    “You guys need to get out of here,” she said.
    “Nice gratitude there,” Cor said, his tone like ice.
    “That guy was looking for the three of you. I didn’t say anything. If you’d just stayed put and let me handle my own business, it would’ve been fine.”
    “He grabbed you. Hurt you,” Callum said as she skirted them and went around the bar.
    “I’m okay,” she said, opening the cash register. “He saw your tatts though, he’s probably coming back.”
    Silence for a moment. She looked up at the mirror behind the bar. All three men were exchanging glances.
    “I’ll get the car started,” Cor said, making a quick exit.
    Vi’s hands were shaking too much to count the register down the way she should. Vi stuck everything in the drop bag, then stuck it in the safe. She could do the math later, when she’d calmed down.
    “Give us a second,” she heard Callum say.
    When she turned to grab her tips from the bucket on the bar, Dec was on his way out.
    Callum stood before her, his expression stormy.
    “You need to leave,” Vi said.
    “So do you. You can’t stay here,” he said.
    “Jesus, give me a break. I live here,” she said, jogging the bills to make a neat, but flimsy stack of ones.
    Fishing in the bucket, she made sure to get all the quarters from the bottom. Every cent counted, got her closer to getting out of this hellhole.
    “Vi—” he started.
    “You don’t know me,” she said, glancing up at him. “One night of sex doesn’t make you responsible for me, Callum.”
    His lips thinned, but she didn’t give him time to respond.
    “Not even a whole night, because I’m pretty sure you dipped as soon as I closed my eyes. So… you know. Just go.”
    “I can’t leave you here,” he said.
    “Seriously? I’ll be fi—”
    Her words were cut off by gunshots. A dozen of them, rapid-fire. Vi dropped like a rock, crouching behind the bar.
    “Oh, fuck,” Callum said, scrambling to come around the bar and kneel beside her. “Get upstairs, in the bathtub.”
    “Callum… you don’t have to go out there,” she said, already knowing it was futile.
    Mob soldiers lived for this kind of shit, it was in their nature.
    “Can’t.”
    “Wait!” she said when he rose and started toward the door. “He’s got a semi-automatic. You’ll be killed.”
    His green eyes flashed, but he just shook his head and shouldered the side door open, slamming it behind him.
    For a second, Vi wondered if she should try to lock the doors, but another burst of gunfire froze her in place.
    There was an honest-to-god battle going on outside, and nowhere for her to run.
    Vi was trapped, terrified, and helpless.
    The gunshots were frightening, but the silence that fell afterward was more chilling. It stretched for one full minute, then another…
    She looked up, a metallic glint catching her eye. It was the revolver her bosses kept under the cash register. For emergencies,