Impulsive (12 page)

“You’re an ass,” she said.

“I love you, too,” Randy replied, unaffected.

What was it with those two? A frisson of jealousy snaked through Luke’s gut. He knew they’d had a brief affair once. It had never bothered him before, but now the idea of Randy’s big hands on Tasha’s tender flesh set Luke’s teeth on edge. He scowled at his friend.

“Don’t talk to her like that,” he said.

“Excuse me?” Randy straightened and raised an eyebrow “What the hell, Jameson?”

 
At six-three, Luke was still a few inches shy of Randy’s towering height. The man had gone undefeated in the underground fight circuit, crushing every opponent who faced him, but Luke didn’t care. “Just leave her alone.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, that’s how we communicate,” Randy said. “She bitches at me, and I bitch back. It works for us.”

“Well, I don’t like it.” Luke began stocking the cooler with the beer, knowing he sounded unreasonable but unable to help it.

Randy’s chuckled. “Dude, chill. I’ve got more than I can handle with that one.” He jerked a thumb in the direction of Karly, who gave him a warm smile from the opposite end of the bar. “Besides, I wouldn’t dream of hitting on your girl.”

Luke didn’t say anything, but his lips curved downward in a frown.
His girl.
She’d never be his girl. He doubled his speed, shoving beer into the cooler like a mad man to avoid Randy’s amused stare.

“Come on. We all know you’re hitting it.” Randy’s voice echoed through the room. “Don’t act like it’s not true.”

Embarrassment heated Luke’s blood. He’d never been quick to anger, but his temper stretched to its limit under Randy’s ribbing. Even as kids, Randy had delighted in tormenting him. They’d tussled in the grass more than once over much less.
 

“Give it a rest,” Luke grumbled.
 

“Just calling it like I see it, my friend,” Randy replied. “What’s the big deal, anyway? You like her. She likes you. Ain’t no big thing.”
 

Randy slapped him on the back and left to open the door. People filtered in a few at a time. The booths and tables began to fill up. His gaze followed Tasha around the room as she moved from table to table, taking orders, laughing with the customers. And then he saw a familiar face stood out from all the rest. There was no mistaking the dyed black hair with bright red tips or the swagger of a rock star.
 

In the basement, Tasha halted at the junction of two hallways and did a double take. Luke leaned against the wall outside the storeroom, his hands resting behind his back. Her mouth opened to say his name then snapped shut when she realized he wasn’t alone. The silhouette of a hand moved out of the darkness to touch his shoulder.
 

Jealousy filled the cracks and spaces of her chest. Her heart rate doubled. Luke’s lips moved to speak words too soft for her to hear. She strained forward, eager for a glimpse of the other person yet afraid of what she might learn.
 

The muffled thump and thud of music vibrated the wall against her back and made it impossible to hear. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to know what was being said. After a few painful seconds, she’d almost convinced herself to leave when the other person stepped into the soft red light of the exit sign.
 

Elijah stopped in front of Luke, close enough to blur the lines of their bodies into one. He leaned a shoulder against the wall beside Luke. She had a clear view of Luke’s profile, strong and clean. Elijah faced him, eyes glued to Luke’s face. He held a bottle of beer in one hand and tipped it up to his mouth. The muscles of his throat worked as he swallowed, gaze never straying from Luke.

They were quite the pair; long, lean, and sexy as hell. Luke in tight white T-shirt and faded jeans. Elijah in black leather pants molded over narrow hips and a black dress shirt, unbuttoned to the waist, revealing rippled abs. Light and dark. Good and evil. Sex and sin.
 

Elijah ducked his head to speak into Luke’s ear. Luke tipped his head back against the wall and laughed. The intimacy in their body language and facial expressions was unmistakable, undeniable, and completely unexpected.

This revelation turned her stomach to acid. It bubbled and churned. She swallowed hard. Upstairs, the music paused as the band went on break. The hall fell into silence, broken only by Luke’s laughter. She squeezed her eyes shut.

“I don’t blame you. She’s beautiful, man,” Elijah said in his silky-smooth voice.
 

Who? Sherry?
A sliver of jealousy sliced through her heart.

“You have no idea,” Luke replied.
   

A fresh wave of unpleasantness washed over her as the house music kicked in and obliterated the rest of the conversation. No longer able to restrain her emotions or the urge to flee, she backed into a stack of boxes. They scattered and spilled over the uneven dirt floor. One of them raked over her leg, tearing away the skin. Luke and Elijah sprang apart. A wave of crimson swept up Luke’s throat and into his cheeks. Elijah’s face smoothed into a blank wall.
 

“Hey, Tattoo Girl,” Elijah said.
 

“Are you okay?” Luke recovered and moved forward to help her. She flinched when he touched her arm.

“I’m good. I just tripped. No big deal.” She bent to right the boxes, while Luke frowned at her. He kneeled at her side to help. Elijah shook his head, staring intently at Tasha, eyes glowing with heat and something else she couldn’t define.

“Are you sure?” Luke pointed to the scrape on her shin.
 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She put a hand on her chest and tried to slow her breathing. “Jack asked me to come and get you. He wants to talk to us.”

***

Jack gathered the group together in his office once everyone else had left. An undercurrent of tension swirled through the room. Karly and Randy stood near the door. Elijah sat in the chair behind Jack’s desk and launched paper wads at Randy using a rubber band. Tasha sat on the metal file cabinet, and Luke stood next to her. They gravitated together despite the unrest in their relationship.

A knot of dread coiled in her stomach. Ally sat on a corner of the desk, her blond hair swept into a high ponytail and a frown on her lips. Jack paced the space beside her, the mischievous sparkle absent from his brown eyes. When everyone had assembled, he cleared his throat, and silence blanketed the room.
 

“I don’t know what to say, guys,” Jack said. He shoved a hand through his hair in a gesture Tasha had seen Luke use when he was frazzled or frustrated. “We’re in deep shit here. Attendance has been dropping over the past six months. We just aren’t bringing in enough cash to cover overhead, salaries, and expenses.”

“I thought we were doing better,” Tasha said. “What about last weekend? A ton of people came through here.”
 

Luke’s hand rested on her shoulder and gave a comforting squeeze, letting her know he was still there for her.

“It wasn’t enough,” Ally said. “This building is old and needs major repairs. The taxes keep climbing every year. We managed to squeak by last year, but I just don’t see how we can keep doing this.”

“If things don’t turn around, we’re going to close at the end of the summer,” Jack finished.
 

Ally put her hand in his and smiled up at him, tears in her eyes. Their sadness touched Tasha more than she let on. They’d worked so hard to keep the bar afloat. Felony was their haven, a secret place to get away, and she couldn’t imagine her life without it.

“There has to be something we can do,” Karly said, looking up at Randy.

“I suppose I could do some more fights,” Randy said. He’d retired from the underground fight circuit to graduate from college and marry Karly.
 

“No.” Karly shook her head and put her arms around his waist. “You’re done with it. You promised me.”

“I’m sure there’s another way,” Luke said.

Jack’s jaw tightened. “I appreciate your offers, but I don’t want your money. You’ve all got troubles of your own. I talked it over with Ally, and we’ve decided it’s the best thing to do. We’ll do our best to keep things afloat, but I wanted to give you a heads up in case you wanted to look for other jobs.”

No one spoke for at least a minute. The end of Felony meant the end of their surrogate family. People always said they’d stay in touch, but they never did. They drifted apart, and their lives changed. Soon they’d all be strangers with nothing in common but a shared moment in their past.

Her gaze flew to Luke. Where would it leave them? He’d moved here to help Jack run Felony. Once the obligation ended, he’d have no reason to stay. He’d go back to Chicago were he grew up, and she’d never see him again.

Chapter 19

Luke lowered himself into the armchair of his living room and groaned. His head felt like a squashed balloon and his gut churned. They’d stayed at Felony until dawn, drinking shots of bourbon with Jack and Randy, toasting the end of an era. Elijah had crashed on his couch, preferring Luke’s dumpy apartment to the grandeur of his penthouse suite, and never left.
 

Elijah stretched out on the floor and threw a tennis ball at the ceiling over and over and over. Catching it and tossing it back into the air.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The sound intensified the pounding between Luke’s temples.

“It’s like old times, isn’t it?” Elijah asked. “You, me, hanging out after a night of drinking.” He paused. Luke could almost hear his mind whizzing along at breakneck speed. “We need Caroline. I wonder what she’s up to?”

Thump. Thump.
Luke tensed, unwilling to recall the unpleasantness of the only girl he’d loved. Of course, Elijah was oblivious to his tension. He had no idea how things had ended between him and Caroline.

“I don’t know,” Luke snapped.

“What about Chelsea? You ever see her?” Elijah asked. “I thought about looking her up, but I don’t know where she is.”

The mention of Jack’s ex-wife made Luke groan. Chelsea made him promise to keep her whereabouts secret from Elijah, and he didn’t blame her. He wasn’t sure what had transpired between the two of them and didn’t want to know. The less he knew, the better.
 

“You really messed her up, Elijah. I doubt she wants to see you.” Luke felt too hung over to be subtle. Blunt worked best with Elijah anyway. “Or have you forgotten the way you dumped her off your tour bus at a rest park in Idaho?”

“Oh, yeah. Well, there is that,” Elijah said.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

“Would you stop?” Luke snatched the ball in midair and tossed it into the bedroom. “You’re like a little kid.”

“Excuse me,” Elijah said, raising his pierced eyebrow. “Someone sure is pissy.”

“Don’t you have a hangover?” Luke asked, clutching his head between his hands. “How can you not?”

“Dude, I drink more whiskey than that before breakfast,” Elijah replied. “You’re losing your edge.”

As the contents of his stomach roiled, Luke drew in a deep breath and tried to think of anything but food. Or Tasha. Seeing her last night had only made him miss her more. A dozen times, he’d caught her watching him, and each time had launched his heart into his throat. She’d been polite but distant, like they were strangers instead of friends.
 

“I’m not losing my edge,” Luke muttered. “I have two jobs, responsibilities, obligations. It doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for drinking.”

Elijah snorted. “Like I don’t have those things too? I’ve got three hundred people on my payroll and an entire record label breathing down my neck every second of every day. Hell, they choose my clothes, the color of my hair, my girlfriends…” He flopped onto his stomach and heaved a heavy sigh. “I’m sure someone in an office somewhere is freaking out right now because I’m not where I should be.”

“They choose your girlfriends? Seriously?” Luke forgot his upset stomach long enough to give Elijah a second glance. From his perspective, the guy had everything he could ever ask for.
 

“Hell, yeah. All those paparazzi pictures were arranged. My agent calls her agent. They set a time for us to meet. Someone leaks the location, and voila.” Two silver bands connected by a skull encircled his thumb. It winked menacingly in the sunlight when he snapped his fingers to emphasize his point.

“What about the model?”

“Which one?”

“You know which one,” Luke said. “The lingerie chick who’s on all the TV commercials.”

“Oh yeah, that one.” A devilish smile illuminated Elijah’s face. “Publicity stunt.”

“Oh.” Luke slumped back into his chair. “Bummer.”

“But I still shagged her in the limo on the way home,” he added. “Sweet girl. Has a stutter though. I bet you didn’t know that.”

Luke shook his head. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. Nothing you do should ever surprise me.”

“I liked it,” Elijah said. “The stutter, I mean. Made her interesting. Most of those girls are the same. Can’t hold a conversation about anything but themselves.” Luke’s attention returned to his distressed gastro-intestinal system while Elijah continued. “I went out with an actress once. What’s her name? You know the one, red hair, long legs, starred in the zombie movie? Anyway, we went to dinner and a club afterward. We did it in the VIP room. She stayed on her phone the whole time.”

“Are you kidding me?” Luke burst into laughter then grabbed his gut with a groan.

“It’s true,” Elijah said, eyes wide with sincerity. “I thought about sending her a text message in the middle of fucking her to see how she was doing.”

“Dude, that is messed up,” Luke said. “Gives ‘phoning it in’ a whole new meaning.”

“All in the day of a rock star,” Elijah replied. He turned onto his side, facing Luke, and propped his head on an elbow. “What about you and Tattoo Girl?”

“There is no me and Tattoo Girl.”

“I like her,” Elijah said. “She’s interesting. I think I’m going to have her bang out a few tats for me before I leave.” His blue eyes studied Luke, waiting for a reaction.
 

“She’s talented,” Luke replied, keeping his tone unaffected while his chest tightened with jealousy. He bit his lip to keep from saying more than he meant to. Tasha’s rejection still stung, and he didn’t want to discuss it with Elijah. The guy had the most beautiful women in the world falling all over him. He’d never understand what Luke was going through. “Why’d you kiss her?” he asked, unable to hold back the question tormenting. “You knew I was coming up there.”