Better When He's Bad

CHAPTER 3 Bax

SHE SURPRISED ME. THAT was hard to do anymore.

I pushed her, downright threatened her virtue, and she didn’t so much as flinch. She wasn’t my type. I liked girls who played on the same field as me, girls who knew enough not to ask if I was coming back or bothered with being on a first-name basis. Not to mention, all that pale skin and orange hair wasn’t my thing. Although she was prettier today in the neon lights of Spanky’s. Her green eyes were luminous and stubborn as hell, and with all that hair pulled away from her face, I could see high cheekbones dusted with freckles and a pink mouth with full lips that didn’t belong on a chick who looked like a Catholic schoolgirl. She was far less ordinary than I initially thought, but she had an entirely untouched vibe going on that I just didn’t have the time or the patience for. I still couldn’t tell what she was working with under all those ill-fitting clothes, but sweet and soft was not a turn-on, and neither was the obstinate way she was hounding me.

It was clear I wasn’t just going to shake her off. She was bound and determined to have her fingers in everything I was doing to scare up information on Race, and the fact of the matter was, she was safer in front of me than trying to dodge my heels in the shadows. In all honesty, I figured she would see the places I was going, the rough crowd I was dealing with, and back off. If that didn’t work, I would just dangle the threat of raging libido in front of her and hope that did the trick. She didn’t strike me as the type that liked getting down and dirty, but I was a bastard and could push any advantage I had if it got me what I wanted.

All strip clubs were the same. Desperate girls dancing for lonely and depressed men. They smelled like baby oil and cheap booze and I had yet to be inside one where either the customers or the workers seemed like they really wanted to be there. Spanky’s was a little different. The girls who worked there didn’t have to rely on turning tricks or taking the clientele home to make a buck. Ernie, the guy that ran the joint, was on Novak’s payroll and let his guys use the spot to do business and run illegal poker games on the weekends, so the girls were well compensated and often acted like pretty pieces of furniture rather than exotic dancers. Chuck kept a tight eye on the place, and I could see not much had changed since I had left as he escorted me and my tagalong to one of the red velour booths in the VIP section back by the bar.

He was giving Dovie a curious look out of the corner of his eye, and when we got to the booth, I shoved her in the shoulder, totally ignoring her sour look, and took a step to the side when he inclined his head, indicating he wanted a word.

“Since when does Race have a sister?”

“Since I got locked up.”

“They don’t look anything alike. You sure she isn’t one of Novak’s? He’s got everybody looking for your boy. Word is he needs him breathing and is willing to pay major cheddar for him.”

I shrugged a shoulder and rubbed a hand over my shaved head. “She look like she could be rolling with Benny and the boys?” It was asked sarcastically.

He laughed drily. “No, but then again you don’t look like the scourge of the Point either, just like some punk kid.”

I was glad my rep still held water when I needed it to. “It’s the eyes. They both have eyes the color of pine. She seems straight, but if she’s not . . . I’ll handle it.”

He nodded because sentimental I was not. She was already in my way, and if she proved to be anything other than what she claimed, I would make her regret it in ways that would be legendary in a place where bad stuff was the day-to-day norm.

I was going to slide in the booth next to her, where she was watching me with those dark green eyes locked on me in a ferocious glare. Her pretty mouth pursed into an ugly frown when bare arms wrapped around my neck from the back and lips that smelled like cherry candy landed behind my ear. I couldn’t tell because of my hoodie, but I was pretty sure a fine-ass pair of man-made breasts were pressing into my back.

“Long time no see, handsome. I didn’t know you were out.”

Her voice was husky, manufactured that way to make horny men think it was a brilliant idea to give her all their hard-earned money, even if it meant their kids and wives went without.

I turned around and brushed a brief kiss on her heavily made-up lips. It was like kissing a candle, and I tried to give her a hug that was as modest as it could be while I was fully dressed and all she had on was heels and a G-string.

“Just got out. Looking for Race. You see him since he blew back into town?” She looked over my shoulder to where Dovie was practically bouncing up and down in the gaudy booth.

“Who’s the Pollyanna?”

I glanced at her over my shoulder and Dovie went still. Her pale hands flattened on the tabletop and she just stared at me.

“No one. Honor, you and Race had a thing before I went down. I need to find him. I think he’s in trouble.”

The stripper opened her mouth but not before Dovie snorted and interrupted with a matter-of-fact, “My brother was not banging a stripper.”

Well, shit. Honor’s fake lashes fluttered and lowered and I could feel her anger rolling off of all that exposed skin. You didn’t walk into a dancer’s gig and insult her. That was just a house rule in the District.

“Oh, honey, he wasn’t just banging a stripper . . . he was banging a whole fleet of them. Sometimes more than one at a time. When Bax says we had a thing, that just means Race liked me best. Seems to me you would know that if you’re gonna be running around calling him your brother.” She hooked a thumb at Dovie’s scowling face and narrowed her eyes at me. “Really? You get locked up for a minute and you bring this piece around? You forget the way it works out here, Bax?”

I sighed and gave my head a little shake of resignation. “I didn’t forget anything. I just need to know what Race is into.”

She pouted for a minute more and kept up her glare contest with Dovie. Neither was going to win since it was like an apple glaring at an orange, so I waited until the dancer looked back up at me. She switched tactics and broke out in a gigantic fake grin. She batted those plastic eyelashes at me and ran her long nails over the zipper of my hoodie. I lifted a black eyebrow and caught her wrist in my fingers.

“Why don’t you ditch the deadweight and come back after my shift? We can chat, and you know . . . get reacquainted.”

“I’m running on limited time and even more limited patience, Honor. You don’t want either to run out.”

She made a face and flipped her long, reddish-brown hair over her shoulder so I could see the pointed tips of each naked breast where they were rubbing against me.

“All I know is everyone, and I mean everyone, is looking for him. He stopped in when he very first got back to town looking for Ernie. I asked him if he wanted to take a trip down memory lane and he wasn’t interested. He was quiet for a while, we all knew he was back and living in the Point, and then overnight he was rattling Novak’s cage and then he was a ghost. I like Race, we all like Race.” That was said pointedly to Dovie and I heard her suck in a sharp breath. “If I knew anything else, I would let you know, Bax. You know I wouldn’t leave you hanging.”

I considered her for a minute, trying to determine how much was truth and how much was just what she thought I wanted to hear.

“What did he want to talk to Ernie about?”

She shrugged a naked shoulder and ran her hand up and down my arm. Any prolonged contact with a female who was missing her clothes was bound to have an effect on my starved sex drive, but for some reason, I found the twitch in my pants annoying and ill-timed rather than exciting and blood heating.

“I dunno. He didn’t say. He did ask if I saw some guy hanging around, though.”

I went stiff and grabbed her by her upper arms. She gave a little shriek as I pulled her up to the very tips of her cheap heels.

“What guy?” This was important. I could feel it. I was a good thief, a successful criminal, because my instincts very rarely failed me, and whoever Race was asking after was key to his disappearance. I just knew it.

“Bax?”

It wasn’t Honor’s overly sexed-up voice that made me realize not only was I squeezing her hard enough to leave marks, but I was also shaking her like a rag doll; it was Dovie’s much quieter, much more modulated one. I set the dancer down and took a step back.

“What guy, Honor?”

She was scowling at me and starting to walk away, her gunmetal-gray eyes flashing sparks at me.

“You’re still an asshole, Bax. I don’t know how I managed to forget it. It must be because you’ve got that whole dark and dangerous thing going on. I forgot that the dangerous part isn’t any fun. Some rich guy. He was asking about some really rich guy, that’s all I know. If you come back, leave Pollyanna at home, and try to remember I don’t like it rough.”

She flounced away with as much attitude as anyone in ridiculous heels and not much else could muster, and I turned to look down at Dovie. A storm was brewing under her pale skin. I could see it in the hot flush high on her cheeks and the way her green eyes darkened to almost black.

Her fingers curled into fists on the table and she snapped, “No way. There is no way Race was messing around with a piece of trash like that.” I noticed she didn’t have the same illusions about me. I put my own hands on the edge of the table and leaned down so we were almost eye-to-eye. She pulled back a little and I saw her gulp.

“What you think you know and what you actually know are two very different things, Copper-Top.”

“I know my brother.” She was stubborn and I liked the way her pretty mouth set in a firm line. Finding someone with that kind of loyalty in a place like this was rare, even if it was misguided.

I pushed off the table. “You know your brother now; you have no idea who he was then. It’ll make for less disappointment if you keep that in mind. I gotta go find Ernie. Stay put and try not to piss off any more of the dancers.”

She screwed up her face, which I had to admit was cute. Those freckles were starting to grow on me.

“I want to come with you.”

“Too bad. Ernie and Novak do business together, so he’ll see me. You try and stick your nose in there, and you’re gonna find your happy ass stripped and onstage whether you like it or not. Ernie isn’t the most enlightened strip-club owner, if you can imagine that. You just keep your ass in the seat.”

I didn’t really care if she was going to listen to me or not. Chuck would keep an eye on her, and if she wanted to tangle with a bunch of half-naked chicks just trying to make their way in the world, that was her choice. Being a babysitter had never been on my occupational goals list and I didn’t have the time to try and convince her that Race was a person with a past, just like everyone else in the Point. Sure, he came from a shiny and more well-to-do place than the rest of us, but that didn’t mean the undercarriage wasn’t just as rusted out and full of holes, just like the rest of ours. The sooner she saw that, the softer the letdown would be when whatever Race had mucked into got dragged out into the light.

I made my way to the back room, nodding in Chuck’s direction and hooking a finger over my shoulder to indicate I had left Dovie on her own. He tilted his chin in acknowledgment and I went to the office and rapped on the door with a knuckle. I didn’t bother to wait for an invite in.

Ernie was a big, fat slob of a man. He was balding and greasy, had beady little eyes, and was as greedy as he was crafty. My theory was that all guys like him started strip clubs because there was no other way they could see hot chicks naked. Novak loved him because he was malleable and a coward. He paid the big boss whatever he asked and let him use the joint for whatever he wanted. In turn, Novak made sure Ernie was insulated, had a steady line of new girls, rich customers, and an endless supply of blow. It was a relationship that benefited both of them. Not to mention, they were both slimeballs and only operated on the other side of the law. In Novak’s case it was the far, far other side of the law.

Ernie was sitting behind his desk talking on his cell. His bushy brows went up high when he saw me. I offered up what passed as a smile but really was more a baring of teeth and leaned back against the closed door with my arms crossed over my chest. My intent was clear. Unless I got the answers I wanted, no one was going in or coming out of the office without going through me first.

“Ernie.”

“Well, if it isn’t Novak’s golden boy back from the joint. I heard you might be poking around. Trying to hit up on your old girls. Five years is a long time; most of them moved on by now.”

Which really meant most were strung out, got smacked around one too many times, or got too old to bring in the revenue. This guy was a class act all the way.

“I’m looking for Race.”

“You and every other SOB in the Point. Don’t know why he had to show back up and stick his neck out. He had a good thing going with you locked up. Out of sight, out of mind. Now his dumb ass is on everyone’s mind and nobody is happy about it.”

“Honor said he was asking after some moneybags. Who was it?”

“Why should I tell you shit? You went away, kid. You don’t have any pull around here anymore. The way things went down with you and Novak . . . shit, you’re lucky to be breathing.”

I narrowed my eyes just a fraction and let my mouth kick up on the side in a grin that had sent far more dangerous men headed in the opposite direction.

“Novak isn’t here. I am. You really want me to get the answers out of you the hard way? You want to find out all the ways I dreamed up for payback while I was locked up?” I pushed off the door and started to stalk toward the desk.

Ernie pushed back the chair that looked like it was going to snap under his bulk. I saw a fine sheen of sweat break out on his bald spot. I might not have pull, but I sure as hell had push.

“Look, I don’t know who the guy was. Race had a picture, like one out of a newspaper or something. One of those fancy society pages. He was all worked up over it. Demanding to know if the guy had been in here. I told him I had no idea, and he put his fist through the wall.”

He indicated a spot that was covered with a raunchy picture of a girl spread-eagled on a bed.

“He didn’t use the guy’s name?”

“No. I told him I didn’t share Novak’s business with anyone, but that Mr. Fancy had been in on poker night more than once. Not alone either. He brought his own entertainment, if you know what I mean.”

I scowled as Ernie leered at me.

“Race didn’t say what he wanted with the guy?”

“No, but shortly after that, Benny and the boys went and roughed up the chick he was shacking up with. Sent him over the edge. Always thought Race was a smart guy, but then he marched into Novak’s compound, making threats and talking crazy. You don’t tell a man like Novak his time is coming to an end, not unless you want to end up in the ground. Boy wasn’t as smart as I thought.”

I didn’t like the sound of any of that. Race was smart and he knew not to make idle threats. If he had something on Novak big enough to sink an entire criminal empire, it was no wonder he was off the grid, and it explained why Novak had all his minions looking for him. I didn’t understand the timing, why he was back, why he had waited until I was loose to make his move, and I had no clue what he had in his bag of tricks that he thought he could hold over Novak. It was starting to make me uneasy. I didn’t do uneasy.

“The guy he was looking for, he have business with Novak?”

Ernie snorted and tapped his too-long fingernails on his desk. “Like I told your boy, I don’t discuss Novak’s business. That’s why I’m still here and why I got all the best girls. You saw Honor; she miss you? I always heard those girls had a thing for you. I think you broke a couple hearts when you got busted.”

The girls liked me because I got what I was after and left them in peace. I didn’t want to hang around and bitch about my day or discuss my work, I just wanted to get off and go home. Fortunately for them, I was fairly considerate in the sack. I always tried to make sure I gave as good as I got, unless I was in a hurry.

“Right now Novak’s business and my business are one and the same. Tell me what you know, Ernie.”

I cracked my knuckles and let my hands curl into fists as he lumbered to his feet and leaned on the desk.

“Saw that you brought Race’s redhead in with you. I don’t know what it is about that girl that has you boys all in a lather, but I think Benny and his boys would love to know you somehow managed to hook up with her right after Race disappeared. Maybe, just maybe, she’s the key to getting him to pop back up.”

I didn’t like being threatened. I liked him threatening a seemingly innocent young woman even less. Dovie might live the hard life, might be familiar with the sacrifice and struggle it took to live on this side of the fence, but everything about her was soft and untouched. She didn’t need Ernie or Benny dirtying her up.

It took two steps and a single lunge to get Ernie around his sweaty collar. He swore at me and I used all my upper-body strength to pull his flabby bulk over the desk. He didn’t have the strength or the leverage to fight me as he swore and scraped at my wrists to get purchase.

“She is off the table. Do you understand?”

He swore at me again and tried to knee me in the balls. A totally pussy move by a guy who had others do his dirty work.

“I don’t have pull, Ernie, but I still have a temper. You might want to pass along to Benny and to Novak when you see them that nobody wants to be on the wrong side of it after five years on the inside. That’s a really long time to stew in your own fury.” I gave his hefty body a violent shake, which had his teeth snapping together. “What was the rich guy’s business with Novak?”

“I don’t know. He wanted something done and came looking for someone to handle it. If he was looking in the Point, it wasn’t something legal, and Novak never met a rich person he didn’t want to exploit and have in his back pocket.”

I stared at him hard, until I determined he was giving me as much information as he had. I shoved him away and took immense satisfaction in watching him hit his office floor assfirst. He swore and glared up at me as I went to pull the door back open.

“You’re useless now, Bax. You aren’t in the game anymore, and Novak thinks you’re a loose end. Your days are numbered. You might want to consider how you want to spend your last days. Race let you go away without a fight. Novak would’ve let you burn. Any normal guy would walk away, hook up a few times, and go out with a smile. Why you gotta stir shit up and piss everyone off?”

This time when I smiled, it actually had humor in it.

“It’s what I’m best at. If you hear anything about Race, you better pass it along, or our next visit will be far less enjoyable for both of us.”

In the hallway, I rolled over what Ernie had told me. Race came from money. His family was tied into a lot of really wealthy families and charities on the Hill. He knew a lot of really powerful men from his life before. He could’ve been asking about any one of them and if the guy he was asking about was in Novak’s pocket, that meant whatever he wanted done was big and all kinds of bad. It was a shame I couldn’t just go to the source and ask. If I got in a room with Novak, one of us wasn’t coming out alive and I wasn’t cocky enough to automatically assume I would be the one walking away unscathed.

“Hey, Bax. Benny and his boys just rolled in and headed right for your redhead. You didn’t tell me you broke the old guy’s nose. Bet he was pissed.” I liked Chuck. He was a solid dude who just followed orders, and I think he was a pretty good judge of character.

I pointed to my black eye. “He sucker-punched me not even a minute after I got my first taste of pussy in longer than I want to think about. He’s lucky the only thing I broke was his nose.”

“I always said none of those boys knew what they were doing messing around with you. Even when you were a kid, you were still twice as scary as the lot of them together.” Chuck sounded proud of that fact.

I lifted an eyebrow and nodded.

“I tried to tell them that. They never wanted to listen.”

I made my way back into the club and immediately saw Benny and two of his guys hovering at the edge of the booth where I had left Dovie. Honor caught my eye and gave me a wink from the stage. I rolled my eyes and shoved past Benny to slide back in the booth next to the redhead.

Those eyes, so green and leafy-colored, were hard, but I could see the fear lurking in the darker veins. I didn’t want to know exactly what Benny had done to her last time, but I wanted to make it clear that he wasn’t going to put his hands on her again without facing blowback from me. I pulled her so that she was flush up against my side. I ran a hand across the back of her neck and got a fistful of all that orange-red hair. The curls were soft and springy where it was gathered up off the elegant curve of her face. Her freckles were dark against the pale canvas of her skin and her mouth looked like all the things I had dreamed about while I was locked up. She wasn’t going to like what I was about to do, but I hoped she was smart enough to just roll with it. If not, it was every man for themselves and she could figure out her own way to get Benny to leave her alone. I didn’t need her to like me or respect me when all this was said and done, I just needed her to do what I wanted and stay out of my way while I handled business.

I brushed my thumb along the full sweep of her lower lip and saw her eyes widen in a flash of understanding right before I claimed her mouth with my own. I held her still with the hand I had wrapped around the back of her neck and held her face with my other hand so she couldn’t jerk away and set Benny off. She was stiff as a board and her hand was digging into my thigh like a claw. I was right, though; she was every kind of sweet and unsullied. She tasted like fresh strawberries and purity, and good God, that mouth, I could press my own to it forever and never get tired of it. The last thing she needed was a guy like me pawing at her. She didn’t open her lips, didn’t let me invade the moist heat of her mouth with my tongue, which I totally would have taken advantage of and done if she’d let me. It was probably a good thing. If Honor’s little bump and grind had elicited an unwanted erection, this closed-lip, virginal kiss with this bothersome girl had me ready to come in my jeans like a kid. I couldn’t feel anything other than the plush press of her mouth against my own, but it was erotic and a total turn-on, which was just one more surprise Race’s little sister had in store for me. I could only imagine what it would be like if she loosened up and actually let me kiss her for real.

I grinned against her pursed lips and licked the tight seam for good measure. I felt her tremble, in either desire or annoyance, and I didn’t care which. When I pulled back, I winked at her and saw that she was glaring daggers at me. I squeezed her neck in warning and turned to look at Benny with a smirk.

There was no missing the black-and-purple bruising around the white bandage that covered the bridge of his nose. He looked pissed.

“I think it’s an improvement.” I nodded at his battered face and grinned just to get a reaction.

He growled at me and I moved Dovie so she was pressed all along my side. She didn’t want to relax, and that wasn’t going to do anything to sell that I was into her to Benny. Not to mention she wasn’t my normal type, so chances of him buying it were slim already.

“Your buddy is gonna crawl out from under his rock sooner or later, Bax, and then you’re all mine.”

“You gonna sucker-punch me again, Benny? Might be harder now that I know you’re coming.”

His gaze flicked to Dovie and then back to me. “Picked up right where your boy left off? There really is no honor among thieves.”

I snorted. “Well, we all know Race owed me. And like you said, five years is a long time to go without. I’ll take my payback however I see fit.” I tilted my head in Dovie’s direction and tried not to grunt as she dug the pointy tip of her elbow into my ribs.

“Why her? I’ve seen the girls you usually roll with. She doesn’t fit the bill.”

I lifted an eyebrow and looked at her sideways. I could literally see where she was biting the inside of her cheek to avoid saying anything. She was pretty cute when she was indignant and put upon. Just to aggravate her a little more, I snatched her slouchy hat off her head and snapped the elastic band holding her hair back off her face. The red waves sprang free like they were escaping from jail.

“I’ve lived in grime and filth for my whole life. Maybe now I want something clean and unblemished by this life. Don’t pretend like you know me, Benny. You never did.”

“I’m starting to think this girl has something magical going on. First Race and now you. Maybe I’ll have to give her a spin to see.”

He wanted me to react, to get mad, so he could have his goons work me over and pay me back for his nose, but I wasn’t stupid, and this was a game I had written the rules to, so I just reclined in the booth and pulled Dovie with me. She put a hand on my stomach and looked up at me under her rusty-colored eyelashes. She wasn’t happy, but she was smart enough not to fight me.

“You can try. A couple of black eyes and a crooked nose will be a picnic after I’m through with you if you do it, but you’re more than welcome to push your luck.”

He grimaced and pulled his pants up with a jerk on his oversize belt buckle.

“Maybe she wants to try a man on for size instead of a boy. Roxie said you forgot all about what a woman wants while you were gone.” He turned to Dovie. “How about it, sugar? Wanna give ol’ Benny a try?”

His leer was enough to make me want to punch him in the nose again, not to mention the fact that he was actually stupid enough to proposition a girl he had just recently knocked around. What a douchebag. I was going to tell him to piss off, to just leave her the hell alone, but I didn’t get the chance because she grabbed my face with both hands and pulled me down so she could kiss me.

There was no closed-lip, restrained press of mouth against mouth this time. Her quick little tongue darted between my surprised lips and stroked across my own. Her fingers curled into the side of my face, rubbing over the black star inked at the corner of my eye and around my neck, and every breath she took I breathed in and felt like she was trying to give me something I had never had before. I nipped the inside of her bottom lip with my teeth and pulled her closer so I could show her what happens when I kissed someone like I meant it. By the time she finally pulled back, her already-full lips were puffy and devoured-looking and her dark green eyes were almost as black as my own. Her chest was rising and falling in a rapid rhythm, and all we could do was stare at each other. Kissing wasn’t a big deal; in fact, it was normally boring and just a motion I went through to get to the main event. This wasn’t boring at all, and now I really, really wanted to know what she had going on under those ugly, baggy clothes.

She blinked at me and tossed a saucy grin at Benny and his boys that looked all wrong on her innocent face.

“I’m good. He’s better, so no thanks.” She dropped her head on my shoulder and batted her eyelashes up at me. I had to bite down a laugh.

“You heard her. Move along, Benny. Stay out of my way and watch your step.”

“You always were too sure of yourself, Bax. It’s gonna blow up in your face.”

I shrugged and grabbed Dovie’s hand to pull her out of the booth behind me.

“I’m surprised it hasn’t already, but it’s going to take someone bigger and badder than you or Novak to do it.” I pulled Dovie out of the booth and pushed past the goon closest to me while tucking her under my arm. I gave Benny one last look over my shoulder. “You know how I drive, Benny. Stay out of my way or you and all your boys will get run over.”

I pushed my luck and guided my companion out the front door with a hand on her surprisingly firm ass. I needed to see this girl in clothes that actually fit her. Chuck stopped us at the door and I gave him the obligatory fist bump.

“Lemme know if my little visit stirs anything up. I need to find Race.”

“Oh, it’s going to stir shit up, which I’m pretty sure was your point, son. You better watch your back with Benny. He didn’t get to be Novak’s right hand by being reasonable and forgiving.”

“I got this, Chuck. I have five years of ‘fuck you’ pent up and it’s all directed at Novak and his crew. I’m not going anywhere until he knows exactly what I think about how that last job went down. I just need to make sure Race is okay and not playing at something too dangerous for him to handle alone.”

“I’ll keep an eye out. I take it you don’t want the boys to know Little Miss Sunshine is related to him?”

“No. Let them think she was just a piece on the side. It’s safer for her that way.”

“Playing with fire by sticking your tongue down her throat. Benny thinks she means something to you, he’s gonna get ideas.”

“Good. Let him. Come on, Copper-Top, let’s get you tucked into bed all safe and snug.”

I didn’t miss that she recoiled from my touch and walked as far away from me as she could on the sidewalk when we got outside. I had to hide an amused grin as she glared at me. That red hair wasn’t a lie. She was all kinds of fiery and full of fight. I shouldn’t like that nearly as much as I did, and I shouldn’t want to see her in my car, but that’s exactly what I was thinking as I led her silently to the Runner.