Men start flowing into the room like a stream of water flowing down into a river. Before I can blink my eye, the room seems to be swarming with men in their expensive suits sitting around the room ordering drinks or talking to other men decked out with expensive watches, chains, cufflinks, or anything that a man might want to wear who has money falling out of their pockets when they want it to.

Pearl walks up, tapping the bar giving me fifteen orders on a paper where she wrote them down. Pulling glasses down quickly, my hands grab the bottles that need to fill all the orders. Stacking them on her tray, she walks off as men come up, spitting off orders left and right at me. Tumbler's eyes have not stopped scanning the crowd, then watches me before going back over the room again. After a few hours, the men are getting wasted, looser along with becoming braver with their pick-up lines hitting on both of us hard. Pearl weaves in and out of the men delivering the drinks, avoiding most of the hands reaching out to attempt for a pinch or grab.

Just then, a handsome man sits down on the stool right at me. "Hey, princess. Can I have a Gin and Tonic, please?"

I hear a grunt come from Tumbler, which lets me know to watch out for this one. "Of course."

Setting the glass down, first placing the ice cubes in the tall, narrow glass with the ice coming near the top, then my hands reach for the gin, tonic water, and lime juice, pouring all of that over the ice. Taking out a clean long-necked spoon, I stir it well before setting it at his place, quickly retracting my hand away from him.

He looks up at me with a very sexy smile. "You are very good at what you do here, doll. How come we have never seen you up here before?"

Jackson has walked up behind him. "That is because she is new here. She has been working for me close to a month, but after proving how good she was on the main floor, I pulled her up here for the night to satisfy all of my guests this evening."

The sandy blonde man swings around on the stool. "Jax, man. Long time no see."

He crosses his arms over his chest. "It has not been that long, Patrick. Just a few weeks ago was the last time we ran into each other while you had a certain person by your side that was not supposed to be there."

He chuckles. "It was not my fault that you did not satisfy her in the bed as I did."

Jackson takes a step towards him slowly. "That had nothing to do with why she latched onto you. How much did she suck out of you before you saw what she was really after?"

His grin falls, "Way too much. You warned me, but I did not listen. Where did that beauty of a woman go anyway? She still owes me a week in bed for what I gave her" as his eyes roam around the room.

"She is no longer allowed in my club. Mateo took her home last night, but she probably took off out of the state knowing her. She was vulgar to me last night where I pulled a gun on that smart mouth she had" as his hands tighten around his arms.

Patrick smirks. "You should have done like I did when she popped off at me like that. Filled that hole with something to where she could not say anything for a while."

Turning around, making a gagging face at their sex talk, I move down the bar to another guest who is but not before I heard Jackson say, "I am not a pervert like that to hurt women against their will. You may enjoy forcing women to satisfy your needs when they don't want to. You get off punishing women like that, but I don't."

Not looking at what is happening with them, my body moves further down, refilling drinks where men hold up shot glasses or empty ones want more. Tumbler rolls his eyes at me then nods to the two still talking. I make a gagging face where a small smile comes over that stone-cold face of his for just a second before it is back to normal. The night goes on while the men start getting out of hand, fights break out as men pop off about their differences, what someone stole from their business, or where some are still awaiting payments for shipments that were delivered weeks ago. Tumbler, along with Mateo, had escorted over a dozen men out the doors for not calming down when they slammed their hands on shoulders. The men rounded on them, taking swings but missing or not making good contact since they were waisted.

Patrick has been bugging me all night trying to talk, but my answers have been short as my body travels up or down the bar making sure all of the orders have been filled as I set a drink down, a hand clamps down over mine so fast that I never saw it coming. Looking up, he is standing there grinning at me as his blue eyes bore into mine. "I have been trying to talk with you all night, doll. Why do you continue to ignore me?"

Pulling on my hand, but he is in an iron grip, "I am doing my job, sir. Filling all these orders doesn't leave me a ton of time to talk; I do apologize for that."

Looking around, Tumbler is had just left with another guest to throw out the front door. Just then, the doors ding while Mateo walks out. His eyes zero in on what is going on as he advances Patrick, who never sees him coming. His hand clamps down on the man's shoulder, sending him flying across the room, crashing into a chair as he flips over backward. He gets up, looking at Mateo with hateful eyes. "I was talking to the lady-man. There was no call for that to happen."

"Were you not told to keep your hands to yourself?" Mateo's voice is low and dangerous. "You know the rules of being up here. Your hands stay to yourself, not on the workers."

Patrick pulls up to his full height. "That has never stopped any of us before. We could always talk or flirt with the help around here. Your goon did not need to throw me halfway across the room."

Jackson walks up, looking at him. "That is totally different than putting your hands on one. If they have time to talk, they are allowed, but we are swamped this evening, as you can see. He had all the right to do that when you did not release her hand."

As his eyes flick back and forth from Jackson to me, she stands to his full height, then back to Mateo. A cold laugh bubbles out of him. "She is the replacement for that whore you got rid of. You have never been this protective over a woman unless you are interested in them."

My spine snaps straight while everyone has now stopped talking or drinking, turning their attention to the argument going on in the middle of the room. There is no way he could like me this fast; we just met last night for the first time. Also, there is no way that I would ever get involved with him on that level. I am on a mission to take him down, not become his lover.

Jackson takes a threatening step towards him. "I would close your mouth right now if you know what is good for you. Either you apologize to her for not respecting the rules, or my men will escort you out if you get my hint on that part."

Patrick's eyes narrow at him. "You would not do that to me; we do way too much business with each other for you pop me off."

My body is frozen at what is going on right now. He would kill someone for just touching a worker? What if this is exactly what Jackson is saying but not in so many words? Is there some unwritten morse code that just a few words translate into action or an entire sentence?

Both mountains of men don't move as their eyes are trained on the one target who finally looks in my direction. "Fine. I will say that my actions went above and beyond tonight. I am sorry for touching her in that way when she was doing her job."

Jackson's body seems to relax just a hint as he turns around to be "Do you accept his apology for touching you?"

Looking at him but seeing how this is not what he wants happening right now, "Yes, thank you for that. It is nice to see such a gentleman own up to a mistake."

Mateo's shoulders shake just a tad as Jackson fights not to crack a smile. On the other hand, Patrick has that look that could scare a woman out of her mind. The one that says you will pay for what just happened.

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