it off when another customer came up, this one a woman.
“Hey, aren’t you the chick that punched Rogan Germain?” the young girl, who looked to be no more than eighteen, asked.
Amelia didn’t say anything.
“Time for you to go.”
Another bouncer walked up behind the girl.
“It is her, isn’t it?” the girl asked.
“Go,” the bouncer, a big, intimidating cop whom I happened to know, ordered. “Or I’ll escort you out.”
The girl left, but not before letting off one more parting shot in Amelia’s direction.
“It’s going to come back and bite you in the ass one day,” she said to Amelia. “One day, you’re not going to have any bouncers around to protect you, and you’re going to get what’s coming to you.”
The girl left after that, leaving me glaring a hole in her back.
“She’ll be okay here,” the bouncer, Steve, said, looking pointedly at me.
I jerked up my chin at him. “I sure hope so.”
“She will. I wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Nobody here would,” he promised.
Before I could say anything more to that, he left, leaving Amelia sighing in his wake.
“That fuckin’ movie star needs to have his nuts punched up into his throat,” she grumbled. “Do you know how many people came up to me and threatened me today? I was buying tampons, Adam. I was out. Meaning… anyway, they came up to me in the tampon aisle. Harassed me all the way to the checkout line. What in the absolute fuck?”
My lips twitched at her mention of the tampon aisle, and how abruptly she’d stopped that line of thinking.
“So that means no sex tonight,” I teased.
She rolled her eyes. “Unless you want to grow up and get with the flow… literally.”
I rolled my eyes. “I can’t say that’s ever been something I’ve been willing to do with anyone else. But with you? Never say never.”
The idea didn’t send instant disgust rolling through me. Which was promising.
She rolled her eyes. “And I had to leave classes early today, too. The teacher, of all people, was super offended by my actions, and ‘wasn’t comfortable’ having me in her class. What the absolute fuck? I’m a model student!”
My brows lifted at that. “Did you talk to anyone about that?”
“I did,” she confirmed. “The dean, of all people. Guess who his favorite movie star is? Guess who was also ‘very disappointed’ in me?”
I narrowed my eyes. “What happened?”
“What happened was I got permission to attend the classes remotely, finish up my final year, and then I was asked, very kindly, to find another college next semester.” She rolled her eyes. “Apparently they’re allowed to kick me out based on criminal records. She even showed me the bylaws. I’m lucky to be finishing the semester.”
I was pissed off for her.
“Did you explain what happened and why you did it?” I asked curiously.
She nodded, looking pissed. “I did. I told them everything that happened. They didn’t believe me.”
I hated that for her.
Even more, I hated that I kind of liked that she was being forced into a corner when it came to not working here.
No matter who was here working, or how ‘safe’ she said it was, there was always the potential to have things escalate when alcohol, horny men, and aggression was in the picture. Much like it was at the strip joint she was currently working at.
“You want to grab a bite to eat after your shift?” I asked curiously.
Amelia placed both elbows onto the bar and leaned into them, her face in her hands as she stared at me.
I tried valiantly not to look down her shirt but fucked myself with only a quick glance down.
The tank she was wearing allowed me to see straight down her shirt, and she was wearing a red lace bra.
Sweet baby Jesus.
“I don’t get off for another hour,” she told me, amused by where I was looking. “Actually.” She looked at her watch. “Make that two, at least. I was supposed to be here to train Tomi. Not sure what’s going to happen now.”
“Well,” the mayor, Lynn, said as he came up and leaned an arm against the bar, “I’m going to pull one of the waitresses off rotation, bring her over here, and have you train her. Tomi’s gone.”
Amelia smirked.
“She was a bitch, anyway. If she’s late for this, she’s going to be late for other shit, and I’m not going to play that game. Her being a bitch to you was strike three tonight,” Lynn murmured, his eyes lighting on me. “Who are