Better When He's Bad

CHAPTER 10 Dovie

IT WAS THURSDAY AFTERNOON and the restaurant was dead. Brysen kept giving me looks as we stocked the tables and I kept ignoring them. My week had been a blur of activity. On Tuesday, I had to work and Bax had strong-armed me into letting him replace my schoolbooks. I thanked him for it all night long. On Wednesday, I had class, which was nice because I needed some breathing room from Bax. At this rate, I was going from sexual amateur to pro overnight with no room for me to catch my breath or process it while it was happening. Bax was out running around on Wednesday night, so I had told him I would just crash with Brysen. I thought he was okay with that until I got a call at three in the morning telling me he was outside my friend’s house and I had two minutes to get my ass out and into the car. I wanted to ignore him, wanted to make him stand out there and feel bad for dictating to me, but I didn’t. I was in the car and back at the house and under him all in less than twenty minutes. He just took everything over, and as much as I didn’t like it and was scared spitless by it, I couldn’t seem to stop it from happening either.

“Stop looking at me like that.”

Brysen pulled out one of the empty chairs at the table I was restocking and I was forced to look at her.

“You disappeared in the middle of the night with a guy I watched snap another guy’s arm in half with his bare hands and you don’t think I’m going to worry? Who is this guy, Dovie? More importantly, who is he to you? Because ever since he came on the scene, you haven’t been acting like yourself.”

My hair was back in a ponytail for work, so I couldn’t play with it like I did when I was nervous.

“I told you, he’s going to find Race.”

“When? It’s almost been a month and Race hasn’t made an appearance. I know you’re sleeping with him. Are you sure he isn’t just leading you on so he can get a piece of ass without having to work for it?”

It was a valid question, but Bax wasn’t the kind of guy who had to work very hard in order to get laid.

“It’s not like that, Brysen.”

“Then tell me what it’s like, Dove, because I’m worried about you.”

I sighed and pulled out a chair next to her. I propped my chin on my hand and looked her dead in the eye.

“I want him, Brysen.”

“Well, duh, he’s a babe. All guys with that wrong-side-of-the-law swagger are, but you’re smart enough to know he’s dangerous and that nothing with him is going to be permanent.”

“I am, but it doesn’t seem to matter. He just looks at me and everything inside me heats up, and if he touches me, it all boils over. I feel like I’m addicted to him or something. I know he’s bad for me, but I don’t care.”

“Dovie . . .” Her tone was warning. “You need to stop whatever it is you’re doing with him before you’re too far in. Wanting someone is different than needing them, and there is no way in hell you need anything that guy is carrying around. Stay with me until Race shows—or better yet, get the hell out of town until all of this blows over.”

I bit my bottom lip and just shook my head in the negative. I didn’t want to leave the Point, and not only because my brother was still out there somewhere.

“I can’t.” And she was wrong. When Bax got distracted and forgot to be Bax, all the things Shane brought to the table I very well could need from this point on. Bax made me crazy and sent my control out the window. Shane made my heart hurt and made the foolish, girly part of me want to make everything in his life better; make him forget five years of his life had been wasted behind bars.

She wanted to say something else, but just then the door opened and we were suddenly packed for the early dinner rush. I put it all out of my mind and worked on staying on top of my tables and making some decent tips. I was doing a pretty good job of it too, until I got a rowdy table of guys who were obviously from the heart of the Point. I think they were already drunk when they came in, and no matter how many trips I made back and forth between their table and the kitchen, I couldn’t get them to be quiet or stop trying to grope me. I was getting frustrated and short-tempered with them because I knew they were going to stiff me. Ramon the bartender refused to intervene because he was busy and . . . well . . . a giant pussy.

Brysen kept giving me sympathetic looks, but her hands were full with her own tables, so I was in the trenches on my own. I was keeping it all together, just wanting them to be gone, when all five of them got up and headed toward the front door before I had even dropped the check off. That made me see red, and without thinking that they were already loud and out of control, I hurried to catch them before they could leave me stuck having to pay the bill.

“Hey, wait a minute! You guys need to pay for your dinner!” I put my hand on the elbow of the guy closest to me and gasped when he not only yanked free but shoved me away with both his hands on my chest.

“Shut up. The service was lousy. We aren’t paying for nothing.” His cohorts chuckled at his boast while my face got hot with fury.

“Your service was fine. You have to pay.”

He took a step toward me and I backed up instinctively. I glanced at Ramon, but he was steadfastly ignoring the drama. What an ass.

“We wanted the hot blonde, not you. Fuck off, Red.”

He pulled back his hand like he was going to smack me and I flinched involuntarily. The last thing I wanted to do was try and explain to Bax why I was walking around with a black eye. I sucked in a breath and opened my mouth to scream, only I didn’t need to because all of a sudden the drunk was gone from in front of me and I was staring at the back of Bax’s shaved head. He grabbed the guy by the front of the shirt and hauled him through the crowd of his gawking followers. The guy was making gurgling noises and frantically calling to his friends for help the entire way.

“Crap.” I started to follow him out to the front of the restaurant when Brysen suddenly stopped me.

“Are you okay?”

“No. I have to go, Bax will kill him.”

“Let him. That jerk was going to hit you.”

I flinched. “I know.” But Bax didn’t need more blood on his hands because of me. I didn’t want to be that to him.

“Dovie,” Brysen called out to me as I rushed to the door. “Forget what I said. You deserve a guy who makes the rest of the world treat you right.”

There were raised voices, and it didn’t surprise me that not one of them was Bax’s. I had seen him in action. He didn’t waste time talking when he had a point to make. The guy who had raised his hand to me was unconscious, facedown on the asphalt of the parking lot. Bax had one of the drunken buddies on the ground next to him with the sole of his black boot on the back of the guy’s neck. The look of fury on his face was enough to keep the rest of the crew a safe distance away.

“Bax, let him go. This isn’t necessary.”

His black gaze shot to me and I shivered. I hated it when all I could see in it was myself looking back.

“He was going to fucking hit you. He’s lucky I don’t break his neck.”

One of the guys in the crowd held up his hands in surrender. “Dude, we know who you are, we didn’t know she was your chick. It was an honest mistake.”

That was the wrong thing to say because Bax removed his foot off the other guy and stalked toward the guy who’d just spoken. He made a really pathetic squeaking noise and tried to back up, but Bax snagged him around the collar and hauled him to his tippy toes while he got right in his face.

“So if she wasn’t mine it’s okay in your world to raise your hand to a woman? Why? Because they’re too small and scared to fight back?” He shook the guy so hard I heard his teeth snap together from where I was standing. “What about me? Why don’t you take me on, asshole?”

The guy looked like he was going to cry. “I saw you break that guy’s arm after he stabbed you at Nassir’s. You’re crazy!”

“Damn straight, and I wasn’t even pissed then like I am now.” He let go of the guy and sent him flying across the parking lot with a hand on the center of his chest. “When your buddy wakes up, remind him I have his wallet, so if he wants to get shit-faced and act like a douche anywhere else, I can find him again, and it isn’t going to end well.”

The remaining guys who were still mobile hobbled their injured and unconscious friend into the flatbed of a pickup and raced away from the restaurant.

“Bax.” He held up his hand and pulled his phone out before I could ask him what he was doing here, though I had to admit his timing was perfect. He might have called Race an altruistic bastard when we first met, but apparently he had some strong threads of chivalry running through the dark fabric that made him who he was.

“Titus, it’s Bax. Tell your drunk patrol to pull over a red pickup on the south side.” He rattled off the license-plate number without telling his brother thank you or good-bye. He turned those dark eyes on me and I felt like they were pulling me in. I sighed and walked over to wrap my arms around his waist.

“Did you have to knock the one guy out?”

“He had a glass jaw and he’s lucky that’s all I did. You don’t hit girls. In fact, if Benny’s nose wasn’t already broken, I would shatter it in retaliation for him knocking you around.”

“Not that I’m not grateful, but what are you doing here? I told you I was staying at Brysen’s after work tonight.”

“I have to run to Spanky’s and I figured I would let you know where I was going and what I was up to.”

A chill ran along my skin when he told me he was going back to the strip club.

“Why are you going there?” If he told me it was to talk to Honor again, I might hit him. I knew he wasn’t a stranger to the District or the girls there, but I didn’t have to like it. In fact, I was pretty sure in that very moment, I hated it.

“There’s a card game tonight and I want to see if a familiar face is there. I might have a line on the rich guy Race was asking about.”

There was more to it, I could tell.

“Can I go with you?” I fully expected for him to tell me no, to tell me I would just be in the way, but he cocked his head to the side and considered me silently for a long minute before answering.

“You gonna go home with me after?”

I shivered and ran my hands over my arms. “Yes.”

“How much longer until you get off? I think I might want to have a drink at the bar and chat with the dick who was just going to let that drunk idiot hit you in the face.”

“I’m almost done. I just have to finish a few more tables. Leave Ramon alone. I like this job. Normally it’s easy and I make good money. Ramon’s job is to look pretty, not play bouncer.”

He gave me a flat look and I rolled my eyes. Even though it was rewarding behavior that I didn’t really approve of, I used his arm as leverage to reach his mouth and planted a big ol’ sloppy kiss on his mouth. He tasted like cigarette smoke and the worst kind of enticement.

“Thank you.” It came out as a husky whisper.

“Life knocks you around enough as it is, Copper-Top. Dickheads like that don’t get to add to it. At least not while you’re on my radar.”

He followed me back into the restaurant and I looked at him over my shoulder.

“How long do you think that’s going to be?”

He cocked a dark eyebrow at me and the star next to his eye fluttered as his jaw clenched. “What?”

“Me on your radar? How long do you think that might last?”

We shared a long look that was only interrupted by Brysen telling me she had cashed out my last table for me, so all I had to do was clean the section and do my side work. I looked back at Bax and he was watching me in that way he had that made me feel like he was seeing right down into the very heart of what made me, me.

“So far you’ve been on there longer than any other chick I’ve ever met. Hurry up, I don’t want to miss who I’m after.”

I blinked at him like an owl. “You gonna tell me who you’re hunting?”

“No.” With that, he turned on his heel, his face a mask of displeasure as he walked up to the bar. He was probably going to scare Ramon into next week, but I couldn’t say a small part of me didn’t appreciate that he was doing his intimidation and threatening thing on my behalf.

Man, I wished having a crush on him was easier than it was proving to be. His dual personalities were hard to keep up with, and the more time I spent with him, the more reasons I found to appreciate all the badass, criminal tendencies that made up Bax as I did the softer, more tragic parts of him that made up Shane. The last thing I needed or wanted was to fall under the spell of both of them.

I blazed through the rest of the stuff I had to do, fueled partially by the desire to find out what Bax had up his sleeve, but mostly out of fear that he would pull Ramon across the bar and I would end up having to find another job. Brysen kept giving me these knowing looks that made me blush. There was no arguing he was hot, but having a guy go all gladiator for you was something else. I wasn’t used to being protected, even with Race I was still used to taking care of myself. Having Bax act like a buffer between me and all the bad things in the world was a potent aphrodisiac and zero help in making me keep my head on the level where he was concerned.

I pulled my hair out of the tie that held it and shook out the curls. I took off the baggy shirt I wore for my shift so I was left in one of the fitted T-shirts Bax had bought for me. I didn’t have any desire to walk back into Spanky’s looking like someone’s frumpy, put-upon girlfriend. They were simple fixes, but they must have been effective because when those devil eyes rolled over me from head to toe, there was no missing the spark of heat that flared to life in their coal-colored depths.

Ramon came around the end of the bar and stopped right in front of me. He put both of his hands on my shoulders and rattled off a flood of rapid Spanish I didn’t understand. He kissed each of my cheeks and apologized so profusely that Bax had to come free me from his overenthusiastic embrace.

“It’s fine, Ramon, seriously.”

“I should have paid better attention.”

“Things happen.”

“Never again.”

Bax put his hand on the back of my neck and guided me toward the front door.

“You better hope not.” His voice didn’t have any warning, just a tone of finality that implied it better never happen again or no one would ever find Ramon’s body.

We didn’t talk much as he drove to the District. He never really said too much, but when he did, I was learning it was important to listen. There was no missing the fact he was a man of action, but when he decided to say something, it was like the two halves of him merged into a whole.

“Why don’t you want me to know who you’re going to the club looking for tonight?”

His eyes darted to me and his hands tightened fractionally on the steering wheel as he maneuvered the powerful car through the busy street.

“Because if I’m wrong or he’s not there, I don’t want to upset you or get you all worked up for no reason.”

An apprehensive shiver danced over my skin. “Why would I get worked up? What does it have to do with me?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

I tried to wriggle more information out of him, but he just answered my questions with grunts and dark looks. By the time we pulled up in front of the club, I was a ball of nervous energy and frustration. Plus, I was less than thrilled to have another run-in with the girl who had slept with not only my brother but also my . . . whatever Bax was. I knew intellectually I had no claims, no rights about whom either of them slept with before I was in the picture, but that didn’t mean it didn’t make my head hurt and my eye twitch involuntarily.

The imposing, mahogany-skinned bouncer was standing sentinel when we walked in the door. He flashed a gold-enhanced grin at Bax and they exchanged some kind of complicated guy handshake. His eyes drifted over to me and his grin got bigger.

“Damn, girl. You don’t need lipstick to make a fella happy. You just need clothes your size.”

Bax grunted at him and put a proprietary hand on my lower back. “I told her those suckers were dangerous.”

Chuck laughed and I had to fight the urge to cover my arms over my chest.

“Ernie isn’t going to be happy you’re here. In fact, he told me your open invitation has been revoked per Novak.”

“He here tonight?”

“No. No one has seen much of him, but Benny’s been around way more than usual. They want her brother something fierce. Better keep her close, Bax. They figure out she can be used to draw Race out, they’ll take her.”

I shivered and leaned closer to Bax’s side. I didn’t like that Chuck was talking about me like I wasn’t there, but I liked what he was saying even less. I didn’t want to be a pawn in some criminals’ chess game.

Bax tucked me into the curve of his body and tilted his chin up.

“I think that’s why Race waited until I was out to go ghost. I think he knew they would have to get through me to take her, and that buys him time to play whatever hand he’s holding. Benny can fuck off and I welcome Novak trying to come anywhere near her. I would love to have one more reason to break his neck.”

He was always so violent. It should disgust me, make me want to run the other way. It didn’t. It made me feel like Benny and even the mysterious Novak would leave me alone because it wasn’t worth the trouble of tangling with him. Bax was a shield against the reality of living the kind of life I had no choice but to live.

Bax seemed more keyed up than normal. He didn’t have the hood of his sweatshirt up around his face and his eyes kept bouncing around the room and then back to me. The place didn’t look so much like a trashy strip club tonight as it did a trashy casino. There were tables and dealers, and the girls who typically danced on the stage were walking around in itty-bitty outfits, handing out drinks and sitting on the laps of old men while the scent of dirty money and choking smoke from cigars filled my lungs. I felt Bax tense from where I was plastered against his side and he bent down so that his lips were practically touching my ear.

“Okay, see the guy in the gray polo shirt?”

I scanned the crowd. They all looked like bankers and golfers, guys who were out cheating on their wives. I pinpointed the guy Bax was asking about and gave my head a little nod.

“Do you recognize him?”

Why he thought I would recognize the guy confused me, so I opened my mouth to ask him what was going on when the older man suddenly lifted his head like he could feel me staring at him. I felt like the very ground under my feet slipped away. I had never seen him before, didn’t know him from Adam, but I saw those eyes in the mirror every morning when I got up. He looked a lot like Race and clearly he was where my dark green eyes came from. But he was a stranger.

“Lord Hartman.”

It wasn’t a question and I saw a grim line flatten the older man’s mouth when he caught sight of who I was with. I stiffened up and went to pull away from Bax, but his hand tightened on my spine and his dark eyes pinned me in place.

“Don’t.”

“What do you want with him? Why did you want him to see us together?”

I was mad. I didn’t want him to use me. I wanted whatever was going on between us to be more than that. I was fooling myself. Now I understood why he had been so willing to let me come with him on this excursion tonight.

“Stop. He’s the one Race was asking about. Somehow he’s tied into Race’s disappearance and my trip to the joint. I wanted him to see that even with Race gone, someone has your back.”

“Why?”

“Because that rich asshole wanted you gone.”

I jerked away from him and moved so we were face-to-face. I felt all the blood bleed out of my face and I started to get dizzy. Yeah, I knew Lord Hartman had no use for me, didn’t particularly want to acknowledge that I was a living, breathing human being, but wanting me off the face of the earth seemed a little extreme. What bothered me most was the matter-of-fact, chilling way Bax gave me the information. Talking about a threat on my life should bother him, crack that icy exterior he always had, but there was nothing. His eyes were as black and as infinite as always.

“Great, so my brother is missing and the guy responsible for my birth wants me dead. This was a fun date, Bax. Can we go now?”

“No. I need to talk to him. I need to find some of the missing pieces, and he’s bound to have them.”

“I’m not going over there.” I hated that my voice squeaked in alarm.

He leveled me a hard look.

“I need to talk to him. Either you come with me or you fend for yourself until I’m done. Benny’s bound to show once someone lets him know I crashed the party, so you need to keep your eyes peeled.”

If only he knew how many times I had heard that very warning where he was concerned lately. I backed away from him like I couldn’t get away fast enough. I purposely avoided looking at the man who had already paid one person to get rid of me before I even took my first breath, and now it sounded like he was trying to finish the job. I made my way up to the bar and found an empty seat. The bartender gave me a look and I rolled my eyes. I looked younger than my twenty years but I needed something to calm my nerves, so I hooked a thumb over my shoulder in the general direction of where Bax was winding his way through the crowd.

“I’m with him.”

The girl gave me a “yeah, right” look but gave me a shot of Jack on the rocks while I tunneled my fingers in my hair and tried to sort out the live current of emotions flowing through me.

“Back again.” It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t bother to answer, but when the stacked stripper that had been rubbing up on Bax from my first visit here slid into the empty space next to me, I was forced to look up at her or appear like I was scared of her and hiding. “That’s surprising.”

I wished she’d looked run-down and tired like so many other strippers in the District, but now that she wasn’t naked and dry-humping Bax, I could see that she was startlingly lovely. I bet she made a fortune.

“Why is it surprising?”

She snagged a plastic sword from the bar and stabbed a couple of olives from the drink station. She popped them in her mouth and met my gaze directly.

“Because you looked scared shitless and disgusted when you left last time. Plus, Bax isn’t known for being available for a repeat performance, if you know what I mean. His dance card is full.”

I slammed back the whiskey and blew out a stream of fire that followed it hitting my gut. “We aren’t dancing.”

The pretty stripper laughed a little and pointed the end of the sword to where Bax had gone. “Oh, yes you are. You should see the death glare he’s giving me right now. If I didn’t know for a fact that he doesn’t hit chicks, I would be so freaked out.”

I rubbed my forehead and looked at her out of the corner of my eye. “What kind of name is ‘Honor’ for a stripper anyway?”

She took a couple of beers the bartender handed her. “Honor . . . on-her . . . get it?” She laughed a little. “My real name is Keelyn.”

I let my head drop back down. How did I end up here?

“I don’t know what I’m doing here.” I didn’t mean to blurt it out to her, she didn’t like me. She had been naked with the two most important men in my life and I didn’t really think she was any kind of ally, but the words just tumbled out. She tilted her head a little to the side and her artfully painted mouth kicked up in a grin on one side.

“When you are connected, even in the most basic way, to a guy like Bax, this is where you end up, honey. I know he makes the ride worthwhile, but the destination leaves a lot to be desired. Do yourself a favor and remember falling in love with a guy like him is about the stupidest thing you could do. It’ll make your life here even harder, and we all know how rough it is already just to get by.”

“I’m not going to fall in love with him.” I wished I’d sounded stronger, more sure of the fact.

She just gave me a look that was full of knowing and pity. Great, like I needed a stripper to feel sorry for me.

“Honey, you’re already halfway there if you forced yourself to come back here.”

“What’s going on?” Bax’s deep voice was hard and suspicious as his hands landed on my shoulders.

“Just making nice.” I sounded like I had been sucking on a lemon.

“Yeah?”

Honor laughed and sauntered away, making sure to shake her ass in Bax’s direction as she left.

“Yep. You have so many charming friends, Bax.”

He grunted at me and took my arm in his hand. “Let’s go before the welcoming committee shows up.”

I slid off the bar stool and my knees wobbled a little so he had to hold me up.

“Did he help you? Do you have all the answers?” Like there was ever a justifiable reason for wanting your own flesh and blood dead.

“Some of them.” I let him pull me out of the club like a rag doll. “Granted it took a little force and he doesn’t look so much like the king of the castle anymore.”

I looked at his hands and noticed that his knuckles were bloody. My stomach should turn at the thought of him beating the answers out of the man that was half of my DNA, but all I could feel was a solid ball of anxiety and disappointment. “Tell me.”

He looked down at me and sighed as he pushed some of my wild hair away from my face. “It isn’t pretty.”

“It never is.”

“Let’s go to the house.”

I recoiled at the idea. The cute little bungalow was so nice, so removed from all the ugliness that filled the Point. I felt like hearing all about my father’s plans to off me would somehow taint it.

“Let’s go to my apartment. I cleaned it and it’s closer.”

“Your furniture was trashed.”

I rubbed my arms and shivered even though I wasn’t cold. “Fine; let’s go to your place in the city.”

He pulled back and narrowed his eyes at me. “Why?”

“Why not?” Maybe seeing his crash pad, I would get the idea that there really was no Shane, that he was always just Bax and I would never, ever be foolish enough to hand my heart over to that guy. Maybe he knew exactly what I was doing, because all his barriers snapped into place.

“Fine. Let’s go.”