“Go and check. She’s been gone all fucking day and her phone is off.”
“She’s probably just—”
“Styx,” he growls, clearly not willing to listen to any of my rational suggestions. Although, I can’t deny that the thought of her disappearing off-grid doesn’t have dread pouring through my veins.
She was angry last night. But surely it wasn’t enough just to take off like this. She has to be somewhere just laying low.
Or out with a guy…
I banish that thought from my head the second it appears.
Summoning the jealous beast inside me that likes to pop its head up often when it comes to Kat isn’t going to help right now.
“Fine. Give me ten and I’ll let you know.”
I hang up on him before he can argue that’s not good enough and take off back toward the main doors.
The queue to get inside is already beginning to stretch around the building thanks to it being two for one cocktails night.
The girls are out in full force for it, and when I round the corner, I find two of them who are blatantly underage sweet-talking Jake to let them in.
Dragging my stone-cold mask into place, I march over. “ID,” I demand, holding my hand out toward them.
The older looking of the two glances up at me through her lashes and my brow quirks up, ready for whatever bullshit is going to come. “We were just telling your boy Jake here how we forgot it.”
“How inconvenient for you,” I hiss. “Maybe you should head home and grab your girl guide badges, see if it helps with your cause.”
They both gasp in horror while Jake barks a laugh, although he doesn’t seem to be in all that much of a rush to untangle himself from them.
“Try again in about three years, yeah?” I suggest, stepping aside to allow them to vanish down the street and take their obscene skirts and too heavy makeup home to play Barbies.
After a few seconds, they must decide that I’m a lost cause and eventually stop petting Jake like he’s their favorite pet and scamper off down the street like scolded children.
“Who the fuck pissed on your ice cream tonight?” Jake asks once they’re out of earshot.
“Dude, it was a stretch if they were sixteen.”
“They were fun.”
“A fun way to get yourself arrested.”
Jake’s a decent guy, but his morals could use a little bit of work. He’s heading for thirty, but no pussy is out of the question for him on either end of the age spectrum.
“You tell yourself that every time you let your girl in here?” he asks with a smirk.
“That’s different. She’s older than them. And she’s not my girl,” I shoot over my shoulder, even though it pains me to do so. “I need to take a piss, I’ll be back.”
“Try not to make my night worse the next time you decide to come and do some work.”
I head for the bar, there’s a seat around the far corner of the end where I prefer to work when I’m in here that seems to be Kat’s favorite place to hide in.
I want to find her, I want to be the one to take care of her, even if it means carrying her drunk ass out of this place once more and taking her home—my home—and letting her sleep it off. At least it would mean I’d get her to myself for a while. Even if she woke up and ripped me a new one.
Watching her in my bed would be totally worth it.
But when I round the corner, I don’t find Kat but some old guy who’s throwing back rum like it’s going out of fashion.
“Fuck’s sake, Kitty Kat,” I mutter under my breath before taking off on a loop around the club, looking for a flash of dark hair.