To Die For - Davidson King Page 0,41

Shane answered as he poured olives into a clear canister.

“He doesn’t have his earpiece in, and Sparkles is here to talk to him.”

I furrowed my brow. “Sparkles?” I looked over his shoulder as if the man would be there, but he wasn’t. “Just let him in. He can sit here, and you can go see if Atlas is free.”

It was odd that Ciro wouldn’t let him in. I mean, it was Sparkles. He was the least threatening person in the world.

“Yeah okay, something’s up with him though, for sure,” was all Ciro said before going back to the doors. I looked over at Shane, who shrugged and moved around the bar filling everything.

Ciro returned with Sparkles in tow, and I knew the second he entered that Ciro was right. He was devoid of all makeup, not even the foundation that was signature for him. He wore gray sweats and a T-shirt. Nothing about him was very Sparkles to me.

“Have a seat, I’ll see if Atlas can talk.” Ciro left, and Sparkles sat on the stool. He wouldn’t meet my eyes, and it felt weird.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

I grabbed a glass and filled it with ice water and handed it to him. “What’s going on?”

He shrugged, took the glass, and drained it halfway. “I just need to talk to Atlas about something, is all.”

“I tried calling you. Was our date so horrible that there won’t be another?” I asked, and he finally looked at me. Under his eyes, it was all dark shadows. He was shocked by my words while I was shocked by his appearance.

“Oh, no! Max, that was the best date I’ve ever been on.”

“Great. Then when are we doing it again?” That was what I asked, but I wanted to ask him what the fuck was going on.

“Um…I have some things to work out but, soon, I promise.”

I was about to ask more but Atlas approached. “Hey, Sparkles. Ciro said you needed to talk to me. Come into my office.”

As soon as Sparkles walked away, Atlas shot me a questioning glance I could only shrug at. I had no idea what was going on, but I was damn sure going to find out.

I tried to occupy my mind by getting everything done. Ledger kept doing sound checks, Ciro and his guys were walking the floor, making sure everything was in order. Toby stood at his podium, reading what I assumed were the work schedules for the night, and Shane and the other bartenders were cleaning up. All the servers were sitting around waiting since everything they had to do was done, and I was about to go out of my skin when I saw Atlas and Sparkles heading my way.

“I’ll see you later, Sparkles,” Atlas said to him, and Sparkles shot me a quick glance and left. It was so strange. I knew he wasn’t mad at me, but it was more like he was worried or embarrassed.

“Max, can you come to my office for a minute?” Atlas asked and walked away, not waiting for me to respond, assuming I’d go.

“I got this, go on.” Shane nodded and I went to Atlas.

In Atlas’s office, I sat across from him, and he creepily stared at me for a good twenty seconds.

“Dude, what’s going on?”

“Do you know why Sparkles came to talk with me tonight?”

“No, and it’s sort of pissing me off, if I’m being honest.”

Atlas sat back. “I know you’ve wanted in his pants for a long time. I also know you went on a date, and you’ve even been acting different. I sort of like the new Max, even if he does punch dickwads in the face in my restrooms.” He chuckled and while I wanted to share in the laugh, I was worried. Something was up. “You said your date was great, and you were going on another one.”

I had talked to Atlas after my date and yeah, I was optimistic. “Yeah…so?”

“So, Sparkles coming in here asking me to release Dorian Birch of the ban I have on him to this place was a little unexpected.”

I sat, speechless for a moment. It felt like a ball of lead plummeted to the pits of my stomach. “What?”

“I knew something was up. I mean you saw him, Max, he looked…well, not like himself. I made small talk, asked if he was okay, and then he went on this really long, sometimes hard to follow, speech.”

“Can you summarize it for me?”

Atlas sighed. “I shouldn’t. He asked for anonymity on this in case anyone