Nightfall Read Free Page B

head back, stared up at the night sky. What a fucking mess.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he massaged, closed his eyes.
    Okay. Get through tonight.
    But when he turned to face the double doors that would take
him back into After Dark, Quinn realized the only thing that made him want to
go through them ever again was the woman sitting in that back corner.
    Yep, he wanted to go right back to her, but there was no
time for that. He didn’t think Maria could handle the rest of the night on her
own. Hell, Quinn wasn’t sure he could trust her to close out the cash register
properly.
    But what if the woman disappeared during that time? She was
definitely not a local. Probably on her way to one of the big cities, someone
he’d never see come this way again. He didn’t like the idea of that. But he
couldn’t think of a single thing to say to keep her sitting at that table until
closing time. Nothing that wouldn’t come off crazy and drive her away faster.
    When he came back in, he found it wasn’t an issue. She
wasn’t at the table. Feeling a spurt of panic, he looked around, gaze darting
here and there, feet itching to run him back to the parking lot before she
drove away. Then he saw her.
    Working.
    She was acting as if he’d left her in charge, instructing
Maria to bus the tables with the tray he’d dropped while she took point behind
the bar. She was in the middle of mixing what appeared to be three different
drinks, her head cocked to listen to other orders coming in. With a
professional warm smile, she responded to one of the patrons, popping the top
of a couple beers and sliding them his way. Then she rang up two sales, a cash
and a credit transaction.
    Anyone else, he would have been over that bar, demanding an
explanation for what the fuck she was doing, but her competence was as obvious
as a veteran cowhand working stock. He was looking at a woman who’d worked in a
bar for a long time. Or a lot of different bars.
    Fine. Yeah, she might present herself better than Artie, but
that didn’t mean he was going to just let her take over without knowing what
she was about. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know his cock was
interfering with his judgment. He needed to engage his other brain, the
supposedly higher-functioning one, and take a good hard look at this situation.
    How he wished he hadn’t used the word “hard”, because that
just made it more difficult to keep that part of him in check.
    Libido aside, he had to admit it was difficult to argue with
the proof in front of him. He’d only been out in the lot ten minutes or so, yet
everyone sitting at the bar had drinks and Maria was quickly finishing up the
table bussing, Quinn’s sexy sprite giving her the direction Artie never had. It
made Quinn rethink whether the barmaid was truly lazy. She and Carol, the other
one he’d hired, were barely kids, after all. Maybe they just needed more
supervision, like what he was witnessing.
    The woman was ringing up another sale when his muscles
finally unfroze.
    “Hey, Quinn,” someone called as he strode behind the bar.
“Nice to see you finally got some class in this place.”
    Quinn forced a smile and nodded. “Just for you, Mike.”
    The register rang again and she handed back change, but
before she could reach for another empty to refill, he clamped his hand around
her wrist, turning away from the patrons so they couldn’t hear him. He jerked
his head at Maria to take over as he drew the woman toward the back wall. The
position brushed her shoulder against his chest, and put her close enough he could
inhale the scent of her hair. The scent of her, period.
    She smelled like cool things. Freshly turned earth in the
shade of an old oak, churned butter pulled from his grandfather’s icebox, and
rain in the fall. All things he liked. “No offense, but I just tossed one guy
taking advantage of me, so what are you doing behind my bar? Where the hell did
you come from? Do you have a name?”
    He’d