in her head, and she dug her finger into the middle of his chest. “Meet me in the alley after closing, you scumbag. Then we’ll see who has the biggest set of balls.”
She’d finally pierced his swagger. “Are you serious? You want to fight me?”
Not exactly. But just because he was big didn’t mean he was quick, and maybe she’d get lucky. Probably not, but maybe. She curled her lip at him. “Why not?”
He puffed out his chest. “I’m not fighting a chick.”
“Afraid I’ll get you pregnant?”
He stepped back, as if she were contagious. “You’re a lunatic, you know that?”
She grimaced as he stalked off. He was quite possibly right.
The three original women in the booth with Logan Stray had been joined by two more, all of them young and beautiful. Since Logan had seemed oblivious to her earlier, she was surprised when he gestured for her to scramble over them and sit next to him, but her heels were killing her, so she didn’t object.
“How old are you?” he said as she slid in. He’d begun to slur his words, not surprising, considering the amount of liquor being consumed at the table.
“Thirty-three, chronologically.”
“What does that mean?”
She slipped off her shoes under the table and took note of the tiny pimple lurking next to his soul patch. “I don’t always act my age.”
“Older or younger?” He asked as if he were genuinely interested.
“It depends on the situation.”
“What about now?”
“Um . . . forty-two.”
“Seriously?” He grinned. “That’s sick. I dig older women.” His breath held the overly sweet stench of the Red Bull he’d been mixing with Grey Goose, and he seemed to be having trouble focusing. “People think everythin’s a big party for me, but it’s not. I got all this business to handle. Lotta people to take care of.”
For a moment he looked like a lonely fifteen-year-old, and she felt a flash of pity for him. She’d been lucky enough to celebrate her own twenty-first birthday at a bar in Boystown with a rowdy group of friends—people who liked her for herself. Maybe Logan knew that without his fame and money, none of these people would be here.
He swallowed the last of his current drink. “I wanna dance.”
Celebs frequently left VIP to go down to the floor, but there was a weird energy in the club tonight that she didn’t like. Too many people, everything louder than normal, guests bumping into each other, servers dropping trays, glasses shattering. A fight had already broken out, and although Ernie and Bryan had intervened so quickly that hardly anyone had noticed, she didn’t want there to be another.
“Let’s talk instead,” she said. “It’s a real crush down there tonight.”
“Tha’s what makes it fun.” He grabbed her arm. “Come on.”
The girls in the booth didn’t like seeing him leave with her instead of one of them, but Piper needed to stay close. Also, Jen would love hearing about this.
Spiral’s patrons were older than Logan’s core group of tween fans, but he was still a celeb, and people began to press in on him. His bodyguards made a phalanx through the crowd. The DJ segued into “Not Witch U Now,” his last hit.
She was a decent dancer, but, drunk or sober, Logan was a great dancer, and she didn’t try to compete but simply surrendered to the beat. He gave her a drunken grin. More people came on the floor, trying to get closer. Logan moved to the edge, grabbed the drink one of his drunken posse members handed him, and downed it.
The music grew louder. Three willowy hair-swishers cut Piper out. As they began grinding on Logan, she pictured a trio of beautiful sharks devouring a very small herring. One looped her arms around his neck, another around his waist. Even drunk, Logan started to look nervous. His security, along with Jonah and Bryan, began to move in, but something about the women’s determination made Piper certain there’d be trouble if the men touched them. She wedged herself in front of the closest woman, but there was only one of her, three of them . . .
And one of Coop Graham . . .
“Ladies . . .” He tapped two of the outliers on their shoulders, at the same time giving Piper the signal to close back in on Logan. “I’m getting lonely here.”
The women moved in for the bigger prize.
Logan, in the meantime, lost his balance. Whether someone pushed him or he was too drunk to stand, Piper couldn’t tell, but he