our eyes open and our ears to the ground.”
Rue grunts and takes a sip of his drink, muttering and cursing under his breath as he shifts around to get his phone out of his pocket. “Trink and Poe are going to some dipshit’s party tonight. Speck just sent a photo of what they’re wearing and you need to tell Trink to quit her shit.”
I roll my eyes. “What the hell do you think I’ve been doing? She’s a fucking nightmare, doing whatever the hell she can to piss me and Hawk off. Women are more fucking trouble than they’re worth.”
As if fucking summoned by my words, Diamond sashays her ass over to the table and brings a new bottle with her.
Rue nods at her and then says, “What’s the deal with the new chick?”
She blinks at him.
Yeah, he’s not exactly known for chasing tail. He keeps any of that shit as far away from Coldstone as he can fucking manage because nothing on this Earth is going to mess with with his little flower.
“Well I’ll be fucking damned. I mean, she’s hot but I didn’t think she was hot enough to tempt Ruin fucking Callaghan. Those tits of hers magic or something?”
I don’t like that.
I might be fucking pissed about being ‘struck but it’s powerful shit and I’m not fucking happy about her talking about Angel like she’s a piece of meat.
Rue doesn’t even need to look at me to spot it, he just directs the conversation to something a little less likely to piss me off. “She’s getting a lotta interest. It’s not good for the club for us to ignore that now is it?”
She huffs a little but I can see the temper tantrum melting away now she knows it’s just business. It’s pathetic how easy all the strippers get hot and fucking bothered about him.
Ain’t a woman in this place that hasn’t tried to coax my cousin into bed.
“She’s a good worker but not exactly willing to go above and beyond. She’s on time, dances like a dream, and keeps her shit in line but there’s been a lotta interest in getting private dances from her and she won’t budge. A bit jumpy, I think in a few months once everyone is over her pretty face and the money dries up a little she’ll sing a different tune. They always do.”
Rue nods and jerks his head at the bar. “You’ve got a line waiting. Off you go.”
She huffs and walks away with an extra shake to her ass like that’ll tempt him.
It won’t.
He leans over to slide my glass at me and encourages me to drink the fuck up. “So you’ve got until the shine wears off to get her the fuck outta here. You think you can handle that?”
I shake my head. “I’ve never met a stripper without a problem. She’s either got a pimp, a drug addiction, or four hungry kids at home. Not the kinda situation I wanna get myself into. I’m steering clear.”
Rue nods at me, his face serious for about a second before the mask slips and he’s smirking at me. “Then why the fuck are you still here then, brother? If she doesn’t have you wrapped up tight then why are you staring at her ass like you wanna spread her out on the stage and fuck her so good that everyone watching knows who she belongs to?”
Goddammit.
He’s not exactly wrong but I fucking hate her for doing this to me. I drain the last of the whiskey in my glass and slide the empty glass away from myself because I can already feel it taking effect… like how badly I want to walk over to the guy trying to talk to Angel right now and break his fucking legs.
“Fuck me, things are about to get interesting around here.” Rue laughs and I ignore the fucker.
It’s not like I’ve been cleaning up after him and Poe for years.
I’m a nice enough person not to fucking say it to him though.
My response to being ’struck doesn’t get any better as the weeks stretch on.
I put Speck back on watch down at The Boulevard even though he’d be fucking handy for keeping an eye on Trink right now. It’s probably a shit move that’ll haunt me later but the fucking cuntstruck heart has demands and keeping an eye on Angel becomes my top fucking priority.
Even if I do fucking hate her for breathing.
My solution is to drink a lot. A whole fucking lot.
After