Pink Princess Fairytini (Fairy Files #2) Read Free Page A

again and let out a low growl.
    “Look, I’ve just lost another staff member and I need to get downstairs and fill in for him, so if all you’re going to do is growl at me, I’m hanging up.”
    “Fuck.” His words were barely audible above the growl. “I need your help, Chloe. Can you come by my office tomorrow morning?”
    “Okay,” I said. “I’ll be there at ten.”
     
    “What’s up, Merc?” I asked, patting Mercury on the back. He was sitting at my bar, and I was waiting for Pierson to fill an order for one of my tables. Most of my staff were men, but I always liked to keep one or two women on the floor every night for those tables of women who wanted a true man-free girls’ night out, and for the rare tables of straight men we got.
    Mercury frowned at my nickname for him. I noticed more than one woman admiring his fit body and chiseled features, his scruffy beard and scars did little to hinder his good looks, but he didn’t notice or care. “The usual. Galena is angry because I never pick up my dirty clothes and put them in the laundry hamper, which somehow means I don’t respect her or appreciate everything she does to keep our home clean. I know a lot of her anger comes from her hatred of being stuck indoors, but it doesn’t make her any easier to live with.” Galena was Mercury’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of his daughter. She’d come to the Non to escape the killing wrath of my fairy grandfather, King Regalia, who’d been set on teaching me a lesson by killing my friends and everyone they loved. I’d expected her to return to Rubalia as soon as my mother killed my grandfather, but she’d stayed. Mercury wanted more time with his daughter and Galena had agreed. Mercury had stayed to pose as a drug dealer and find out who was behind the fae drug being peddled to humans in the Non. So far, he’d come up with no answers.
    “Too bad you and Vin can’t live together,” I said, trying to be sympathetic.
    His face paled and his blue eyes widened. “We’re not ready for that.”
    A loud crash interrupted our conversation. I held up one finger and rushed to the kitchen area. Neil was crouched down, picking up bits of broken glasses and putting them on his tray.
    “He came in the exit door,” said Conner, one of my fantasy providers. “Ran right into me.” Conner still held a tray with neatly arranged tapas at shoulder-level. He was a pro and had managed to save the food in the collision.
    I nodded and moved out of the way so he could pass. Neil looked up as Conner left. “Sorry,” he said. “I’m not used to this fast pace, I guess.”
    “It’s okay. Glasses can be replaced.” I headed back out to the floor to pick up the drinks for my table and decided to call for Neil’s references during my break. If he couldn’t handle the pace of Ephemeral, which was slow compared to a lot of other clubs, I don’t know how he’d managed driving cab.
    I smiled warmly at the ladies at my table, especially the one in the center seat, Martha, who’d just gotten out of a bad, I suspected abusive, marriage, and delivered their drinks. They looked a bit glum, and I figured they’d been discussing Martha’s divorce, so I sat down with them and let them tell me the story, offering what encouragement and advice I could. I had the contact information of wonderful lawyers and therapists who specialized in domestic abuse, since we saw women who’d been in those sorts of situations more often than I would have ever imagined possible, and I gave Martha business cards for a couple of them.
     
    We closed early and all I wanted was to go home and collapse into bed. Even after a slow night, all the drama with Dale and Neil’s six accidents, proving that klutziness was going to be a problem for him, had exhausted me. I hadn’t been able to get ahold of any of Neil’s references and I had a bad feeling I’d get no good news when I did reach them.
    I started toward the bus stop, scanning the street for