Stuart gave himself another sexy smirk in the mirror. Richie rolled his eyes. I would too, if I was saddled with an arrogant schmuck like that.
"If you're done thinking about how cute you are, we have work to do," Richie finally growled. "So let's get on with it."
Stuart opened his mouth, but he took one look at the other man's narrowed eyes and swallowed whatever he'd been about to say. "Sure, Richie. No problem. I'm done. After you."
The giant held out his hand in a placating gesture. Richie glared at him a second longer before opening the door and stepping out of the bathroom. Stuart gave himself one more appraising glance in the mirror before hurrying after the other man.
I waited a few seconds to make sure that they weren't coming back, then opened the stall door and followed them.
Chapter 4
Back out in the main part of the club, the two men ambled over to one of the tables close to the dance floor and turned their chairs so that they could see Gin, still sitting with Bria at the Ice bar.
I kept one eye on them as I hurried back over to Phillip's and my booth. While I'd been gone, our waitress had returned and was now leaning over with her elbows propped on the table, giving Phillip a bird's-eye view of all she had to offer, including the plump assets that were practically spilling out of the top of her black leather bustier.
I stepped up beside Sierra, but neither one of them even glanced in my direction. So I reached into my back pocket, pulled out my wallet, and put a hundred on the table.
"Sorry, but my friend and I have to go. That should cover our drinks."
"Go?" Phillip murmured, his eyes still fixed on Sierra's cle**age. "Where are we going?"
"You'll see. Now, come on."
Phillip kept ogling the waitress, so I reached down, grabbed his jacket sleeve, and pulled him onto his feet. I didn't have Phillip's natural strength, since he probably had some giant and dwarven blood in his veins, but I wasn't a lightweight either. In fact, ever since I'd broken up with Gin, I'd spent more time working in my forge than ever before, and I'd grown stronger, physically, at least, as I tried to clear my head and figure out some way to make things right between Gin and me. It hadn't worked, though. Nothing had.
Sierra realized that I was serious about leaving and taking Phillip with me. She smoothly palmed the hundred, flashed me a smile, and sashayed away, already on to the next table to ply her wares.
"Hey!" Phillip said, jerking away from me and smoothing down his jacket. "You could have just asked nicely. There's no need to get physical."
I arched an eyebrow at him. "This from a man who enjoys personally throwing people off his riverboat instead of letting his giant guards do it for him?"
Phillip grinned. "Do you not know how much fun that is? All you have to do is flip them over the side of the railing, listen to them scream, then wait for the splash. A few manage to go in feet first, but most of them do some sort of awkward, flailing belly flop, which only makes it that much more painful and the splash that much bigger. Splat. You can hear the sound all the way up to the top deck. I'm telling you, it's awesome to watch. Besides, I don't throw everybody off the riverboat. That would be bad for business. I only do it when people cheat. Or drink too much. Or fight with the staff. Or act like idiots. Or annoy me. Or - "
He would have kept ticking off more supposed infractions on his fingers if I hadn't shaken my head.
"Follow me," I said.
I started to walk away, but Phillip didn't move. Instead, he gave me a pointed look.
"What are you?" I growled. "Twelve?"
He responded by crossing his arms over his chest and rocking back on his heels.
I sighed, remembering exactly how stubborn he could be. "Fine. Please. Please follow me, your royal highness."
After a moment, Phillip grinned and uncrossed his arms. "See? Asking nicely doesn't hurt so much, now, does it? And I kind of like that whole royal highness thing. Yeah, I could definitely get used to you calling me that."
I snorted and walked away, but I must have asked him nicely enough, because Phillip trailed along beside me as best he could, given the crowd.
I scanned the crush of people, looking for Roslyn. I figured that since I was going to have a talk - and likely something much more violent - with two of her customers, I should give her a heads-up first. It was the polite thing to do. Besides, she'd want to know about the threat to Gin too, since the two of them were such close friends.
I didn't see Roslyn, but I spotted someone else I knew, a muscular giant with ebony skin and a shaved head that gleamed underneath the flashing lights. Xavier, the club's head bouncer and Roslyn's significant other. Suddenly, I had an idea of how to take care of Stuart and Richie with no one, especially Gin, being the wiser.
I veered in Xavier's direction. It took me a few minutes to sidestep through the crowd over to where he was standing by the entrance to the VIP section, but I made it, even if Phillip didn't.
My friend had gotten happily waylaid on the dance floor and was enthusiastically bumping and grinding his way past first one woman, then another. He'd get here eventually, though. I could always count on Phillip to be there for me when I really needed him, despite how horribly I'd failed him all those years ago by believing Salina over him. But I pushed that thought away. Now wasn't the time to think about what a mess I'd made of everything. Now was the time to act and to make sure that Gin stayed safe for the rest of the night.
"Xavier, what's up?" I asked.
He grinned, and we shook hands. Xavier had a firm, strong grip, even for a giant.
"Not much," he drawled, scanning the crowd for any signs of trouble. "Just another night of dancing, drinking, and debauchery."
Once he was satisfied that no one was going to kick up an immediate ruckus, he looked at me. He hesitated, his dark eyes meeting mine. "You know that Gin's here tonight, right?"
"Yeah. I saw her."
He didn't say anything else, and neither did I. Unlike Phillip, Xavier knew when not to push something.
"Is there something that I can do for you, Owen?" Xavier asked.
I jerked my head toward the tables that ringed the dance floor. "See that giant and dwarf sitting together?"
Stuart and Richie were at the same table as before, a couple of beers in front of them now. Richie still had his eyes fixed on Gin, watching her laugh and talk with Bria at the bar. Every once in a while, he would take a sip of his beer, and then he'd go right back to staring at Gin. That left Stuart free to ogle all of the waitresses as they walked by. He even gave a couple of them winks, as if he wasn't planning to coldly strangle a woman to death the second she left the club. A real charmer, that guy.