Judging by what I saw, I hadn’t missed much. Good to know. 

I made my way to the bar to wait, and decided I could use something to help settle my nerves. I nearly changed my mind when I saw how busy it was. I tried to wave the bartender down, for both a drink, and directions on where to go from there, but that was not an easy thing to do.

It took ages, but I eventually made my way through the crowds and leaned halfway over the bar. I finally got the guy’s attention when, instead of a drink, I asked “where’s Dillan?” 

He seemed a bit confused with how forward I was about it. I guess it came off like I knew the man, which I didn’t. He could be the bartender I was already talking to for all I knew. 

“Uh.” The man looked around the club, still a bit off, then smiled in relief. “He’s at his booth. Follow the room around to your left. It’s the only booth roped off.”

I gave him a thumbs up, because I was already getting tired of yelling over the music and pushed back through the crowd. They were happier to let me out than they were to let me in. I was happy to know that it wasn’t as crowded walking around the edges of the club. 

For the first time that night, or in a long time actually, I had no words. The first moment I laid eyes on Dillan, the ability to even formulate a thought flew out of my mind. Between his perfectly proportioned muscles, the wavy black hair cut to just above his ears, the dimple on his right cheek, and the tilt of those thick lips, I knew I was screwed. 

Then I noticed the arm he had over the blonde skank. I was grateful for her presence because it reminded me what kind of man I was dealing with. It cleared up the fog in my brain post-haste. 

Chapter 4

Dillan

Instead of walking around the club tonight, I decided to just sit back in my booth. We didn’t have anything extra going on, so I could afford a little downtime. The music and noise of the crowd were wearing on my nerves though, so I doubted I would last long before heading up to my office. 

I kind of wished we had the basement opened, but we usually avoided that on Fridays and Saturdays. It was too obvious, too predictable. 

About five minutes after I sat down, Bunny slid in next to me. I put my arm around her out of habit, letting her move in close.

“What’s going on? Everything alright?” I asked her.

“Can’t a girl just want some of your attention?” She batted her fake eyelashes at me, giving me that seductive smile she gave to the customers on a regular basis.

“You know the rules, Bunny.” I lightly reprimanded her, stopping her hand from unbuttoning my shirt.

She growled softly in frustration and dropped the act. “Fine. We might have another cop on our hands.”

I pulled my head back a bit. “Might?”

“Yeah, BoBo wasn’t sure. A chick was at the door saying you wanted to meet with her. Said something about Randy being confined to his apartment and she came in his place.”

That did sound odd. “Is she still outside?”

“No, she threatened to broadcast your hidden stuff in front of everyone, so BoBo let her in. She’s over at the bar.”

“What does BoBo think?” He was a good judge of character, so I trusted him. He was my head of security for a reason.

Bunny shrugged. “She kind of threw him for a loop. He says she is pretty but dressed like she has a stick up her butt, and yet has a mouth on her. So, he thought maybe Randy got picked up for something and was on house arrest. Maybe he sold you out. He told her to wait at the bar for further instructions.”

I doubted Randy had done anything to get picked up. I always vetted potential clients before loaning them money. But there were those other cops the other day. Could they have seen Randy at some point and picked him up? Were they trying to use him to get close to me? 

I was pulled from my thoughts when Bunny cursed. “Kent just pointed you out to her. Idiot.”