Joel stopped and gave her the eye.
“Except you, Joel. You’re a hero among villains,” she amended.
With a nod, he handed over a fresh glass of wine for me and vanished again.
Sloane attached herself to the straw of her drink like it was a protein shake after a body building competition.
“Okay, seriously. What’s going on with you?” I asked. “Does this have something to do with Lucian last night?”
“Lucian? Now, that’s a sexy name,” Lina said.
Sloane snorted.
“A sexy name to go with a sexy man,” I agreed.
“There is nothing sexy about Lucian Rollins,” Sloane said when she came up for air.
“Okay. You’re definitely lying. Either that or an entire section of the Dewey Decimal System fell on your head.”
She shook her head and picked up her shot. “I’m not talking about Lucian. None of us are talking about Lucian. We’re talking about Knox.”
“Can we stop talking about him?” I asked. It felt like an X-Acto knife to the heart every time I heard his name.
“Of course,” Lina said.
“Cheers,” Sloane said, lifting her shot glass.
We clinked glasses and knocked back the whiskey.
A man with a toothpick dangling precariously from his mouth wandered up and leaned an elbow on the bar, crowding Lina. His t-shirt didn’t quite cover the belly that peeked out over the top of his black jeans.
“Which one of you ladies wants to come check out the back of my bike?”
Joel lined up another round of shots in front of us.
Lina picked up her shot. Sloane and I followed suit and knocked them back. She put the glass down on the bar, and before Toothpick knew what was happening, she had the stiletto of her boot digging into his chest.
“Go away before I make you bleed in front of your friends,” she said.
“I like her and her shoes,” Sloane whispered next to me.
“Christ, Python, leave ’em alone before your old lady shows up and cuts off your balls.”
“Listen to the nice man, Python,” Lina said, giving him a shove with her foot. He slid down the bar a foot, then put his hands up.
“Just askin’. Didn’t know you were lesbos.”
“Because that’s the only reason we wouldn’t want to fuck you, right?” Sloane said.
Sloane was a lightweight, and she’d already had two shots and a very strong Bloody Mary.
“Can we maybe get some water?” I asked Joel.
He nodded, then cupped his hands. “Listen up, assholes. The ladies aren’t lookin’ for a ride or a good time. Next idiot who bothers them is gettin’ thrown out.”
There was a general muttering around us, and then everyone went back to what they were doing.
“Joel, are you married?” I asked.