The Vow (Black Arrowhead #1) - Dannika Dark Page 0,73
beer, Red wiped his hand across his denim shirt. “Let me know if you want me to cook you up a burger.”
Lakota stifled a laugh as the bartender wandered away. You needed an iron stomach to eat Red’s food.
He took a slow sip from his bottle, reminiscing over the previous night with Melody, as he’d been doing all day. His first time had been so damn perfect, yet he couldn’t help but wonder how he compared to her previous lovers. Maybe for her it hadn’t been such a big deal, and that thought alone was enough to steal the wind from his sails.
“Woman trouble?” someone asked.
Lakota looked over his shoulder at the dark-haired man sitting in the booth close to him. He’d seen him in the bar a number of times. Kind of hard to miss a guy in blue cowboy boots, but people in small towns had their quirks.
The man swirled the alcohol in his glass, not looking up. “You just look like you’ve been struck by Cupid’s motherfucking arrow.”
“Isn’t that why we’re all here?” Lakota said conversationally.
“Amen,” the man sang. “Are you one of them? You look familiar.”
Lakota strode up to the booth and sat down so the man could get a good look at his eyes. “My father’s white, so I pass for what matters.”
“Good man,” the stranger said. “My name’s Crow.”
“I’m Cross,” Lakota said, using his surname. He casually lifted his bottle and gazed up at the TV again. “Are they saying who did it?”
Crow looked shitfaced. Four empty glasses were neatly lined against the wall, each with a wadded-up napkin stuffed inside.
“Someone should do something,” a man grumbled from the bar. “Sick of this shit. Can’t even let my daughter walk to her friend’s house anymore.”
Lakota decided not to fire off too many questions about the murder since people were listening. “Know of any job openings around here? I could use something steady.”
Crow set down his glass and reached in his pocket. “Nope. Most Shifters around here live off what little land we got. A few guys haul lumber for good money, but they’re pack bitches.”
Quirking an eyebrow, Lakota asked, “What do you mean?”
“The packs have more money because they take all the good-paying jobs. The rest of us have to fend for ourselves.” Crow opened a box of cigarettes and lit one. “Want a smoke?”
Lakota shook his head, studying the gold box of Pilgrims. “I quit last year. Too expensive.”
Crow took a long drag. “You do what you gotta do.” After the smoke cleared, he flicked his ashes into the ashtray. “So where’s that woman you were with? You know, the one with the bubblegum hair.”
“Don’t know what you mean.”
Crow exhaled smoke through his nostrils. “I drove around yesterday morning and saw you two outside the motel. I’m not judging. She’s a sweet piece of ass.”
Lakota shifted in his seat when he felt his wolf stirring with jealousy.
Crow finished off his drink and set the short glass on the napkin. “Pickings are slim around here. I guess you know that already. Grab on to what you can, or you’ll end up with someone else’s leftovers. Just between you and me, is she as wild in the sack as she looks?” He took a long drag from his cigarette, his gaze distant. “I sure do love a sweet face on a bad girl.”
Lakota clenched his jaw. If Crow said one more word about Melody’s sweet anything, he was going to get a thrashing. It was how a lot of men talked, but it felt too personal to hear someone speaking that way about someone he’d known his whole life.
Crow rested his elbows on the table and brushed his messy black hair away from his eyes. Then he gave Lakota a sardonic smile. “You may think you’re fooling people with that little bun on your head and the shift in your accent, but at the end of the day, you’re no different from the rest of them. Girls like her don’t mess around with your kind, so I bet it felt real decadent taking a bite of forbidden fruit. Was she juicy?”
Lakota leaned forward, his voice low and menacing. “Do you feel that sharp prick between your legs?”
Crow looked down at where Lakota had his arm beneath the table with a blade to his groin. He took a puff of his cigarette and leveled Lakota with a stare. “Always knew you were all savages at heart. Just like that two-faced murderer.”