Whisky State of Mind (18 page)

“Tell you what. I’ll give you a try. You turn up here tomorrow about this time, after the morning rush, and we’ll see how you go.”

“Seriously? Oh my God, that would be awesome. Thank you so much.”

“Don’t thank me yet. It’s hard work.”

Sky smiled as she handed over her money. “Takes more than hard work to scare me off. Thanks again. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Taking her coffee she caught the reflection in the glass door as she pushed it open and felt as though a little bit of the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. At last, a job she would look forward to coming to. She already knew in her heart she had it—there was no one more suited to this job than she. She lived and breathed coffee and now she’d have all day to mix and match blends and be surrounded by like-minded people. This was a definite improvement to the day.

****

It was official. She finally found a job she loved. Her first, official day as a barista had been awesome.

Jonah had given her the job at the end of the first day. It’d been a little more difficult than she’d anticipated to figure out the large coffee machine
, but she’d persevered and by the end of her first full day of work was happy to say she’d mastered it. The downside was she had to admit that she didn’t know as much about coffee as she’d thought she did. She had a brand new appreciation for baristas. Who knew there were so many annoying, uptight, unreasonable people out there? She’d met some really unlikable people working as a waitress, but coffee drinkers took the cake. Thank God she’d had some time to master her,
no, I don’t mind if you change your order mid-way through making it
, smile.

The message on her machine
, though, soon wiped the smile from her face.

Sawyer was coming over.

There had been no time to prepare; he was no doubt waiting for her to get home, because within minutes of her collapsing onto her sofa the front door buzzer blasted as though someone was leaning on it.

She took a breath and dragged herself to the front door, pressing the button and opening the door to wait.

Man, was he pissed. She saw him take the steps two at a time and winced as he reached her door in two long strides, brushing past her and leaving her to shut the door.

“Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?”

“Hello to you, too,” she murmured as she came into the room.

“What the hell are you playing at?”

“I sent you a message.”

“You resigned from your job in a text message,” he shot back dryly. ”A
text
message, Whisky. Is that all we get after everything we’ve done for you?”

“We had a business arrangement, remember? You needed a waitress, I needed a job. It was business. Your words,” she reminded him, tightly.

“Common courtesy wouldn’t hurt. Telling us face to face would be the decent thing to do.”

The decent thing to do wouldn’t be a gun dealer
, she thought angrily, but kept her thoughts silent. “I admit, it wasn’t handled very well. I’m sorry. I got offered a job I couldn’t refuse.”

“A job where?”

“In a coffee shop.”

He gave a small grunt then ran a hand through his hair. “Should have known you’d leap at something like that.”

He looked tired and she felt an urge to sooth away his frown, then immediately hardened her heart.
He lied to you, remember?
“I’m sorry I didn’t give you any notice.”

“Johnny’s worried about you.”

It hurt that her father was worried, but how could she look at him in the same way if she believed he was lying to her? She wished she’d never heard that damn phone call. “I’ll come and see him on the weekend.”

“That’s it?”

“What do you want?”

“How about an explanation? Something had to happen to make you leave without a goodbye. Has Yvette been making trouble?”

“No, I can handle Yvette’s type, it was nothing. I just think it’s best if I find my own job. I don’t like owing people anything.”

“You think we gave you a job so you’d owe us something? How about the fact your father just wants you in his life and he really loved having you around the place?”

“Look, it’s…I can’t concentrate with you around. I thought it best if I just left.”

“I was the reason you left?”

“No…kinda’. Oh for goodness sake, it doesn’t matter; I was offered a better job and I took it. It’s no big deal.”

“It’s a big deal to me.”

Sky caught a very un-Sawyer-like expression that almost looked vulnerable, and had to drop her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Are you sure nothing happened?”

Sky lifted her eyes and looked at him. “What could have happened, Sawyer?” She saw a flicker of something cross his face as she held his gaze steadily. Could it be guilt?

His phone beeped and he frowned as he pulled it from his pocket, glancing at it quickly before letting out a soft curse. “I gotta’ go. This is important. This isn’t over, Whisk.”

She didn’t bother replying, just followed him to the door and held it open for him.

“He needs you, Whisk…we all need you,” he said quietly, lowering his head to brush his lips across her mouth lightly, before coming back and taking her face between his hands. He probed her gaze, almost desperately, before once more lowering his head and taking her mouth in a deep, bone
-melting kiss. Then he stepped back, looked at her once more, and turned away to disappear down the stairs.

Sky stood in the open doorway a long time, staring at the spot he’d last been, stunned and shaken at the intensity of the kiss. It was like he’d been trying to tell her something. Something she was too scared to question.

Chapter
17

The night was quite warm and Sky took a deep breath, enjoying the mix of scents floating along the street as she walked.  She loved the busy lifestyle of the city. She loved being just a face in the crowd, where no one knew you, okay let’s face it, no one really cared who you were, but that was okay, she was happy being ignored, it gave her time to study everyone else around her. People were fascinating creatures.

At first she was completely oblivious to the fact someone was following her, until a weird chill began to creep across her shoulders and she turned to look behind her.

Three men were walking in a line across the pavement and catching up quickly. Sky wasn’t usually a panicker, but something about these men scared her. The usually busy street, even at this time of night around her apartment, was strangely deserted and another wave of fear washed through her. Uncaring that she may be acting like a complete moron, she picked up her pace and broke into a fast walk. She was almost home. She dug her keys from her pocket and held them tightly. She still had to get the key in the lock on the front door once she got there. Was there enough time to do that? Behind her she could hear the footsteps getting closer. Then suddenly a dark streak went past and one of the men was now in front of her.

Sky stopped abruptly as the man blocked her path.

“Hey there darlin’,” he drawled in a voice that sent a cold squeeze to her heart.

“Excuse me,” she managed to mumble, trying to side step around him, but he blocked her move and now the two other men were blocking her escape behind. “What do you want?” No one was more surprised when her question came out sounding as calm as it did. Inside, she was quaking.

“What do we want?” The man in front of her asked with a sly smile. Behind her she could feel the two men crowding her, and could only imagine the sleazy looks they had on their faces. She felt dirty just by being this close to them.

“You forgotten us already? I’m hurt. Truly, hurt.”

Sky studied his face a little closer and realized with a sinking heart that this was the guy from the bar on her first night who’d caused a scene. What the hell were they doing here? Surely getting thrown out of a bar didn’t warrant them tracking her down and coming here to …what? She didn’t want to even think that far ahead.

“I thought you’d be able to handle rejection, clearly it wouldn’t have been your first time,” she said trying for a calm, confident tone as she wildly tried to think of a way to get away from them. Damn it, where was someone when you needed them? The street was empty.

“Such a smart mouth, such a waste,” he crooned.

“Get out of my way,” she tried for more of an attack rather than retreat approach.

In a lightning-fast move, the men behind grabbed her, and she was dragged into the alleyway a few feet away.

She struggled and tried to yell, but was slapped across her face for her trouble.

“You see, we know who you are. You’re Johnny’s kid.”

“So?”

“So, we need to send a message to your Daddy. He’s acting just a bit too high and mighty. Someone needs to let him know that he may be some kind of a legend, but that shit don’t carry any cred any more. It’s time that he realized there’s younger competition around. The Switchblades are movin’ in.”

“You’re going to try and take The Black Mustangs
’ territory?” She asked incredulously, and almost laughed.

“We’re not gonna’ try, darlin’. We’re gonna
’
do
it,” he snarled, obviously taking offence to her surprise.

“You’re crazy. My father may be clean
these days, but I can guarantee you there is no way he’ll let a bunch of thugs come into his territory and start messin’ with his reputation. He’s trying to clean up the image of biker clubs. He cares about his community.”

“Too late. We’ve already moved in and Daddy’s gonna’ have to accept the fact that we’re taking over his streets.”

“If you’re so damn tough—why aren’t you telling him this yourself?” she said, enjoying for a brief moment the flash of anger that lit the biker’s eyes, proving she’d hit a sore spot.

“
’Cause knowing his precious daughter was used by three of his enemies before giving him my message will hurt him more than anything I can say to him,” he grinned, reaching out a hand to touch her hair, before slapping her across the face and shocking a gasp of pain from her.

The bravado of a few seconds before slipped away and fear quickly replaced it. Gut wrenching fear, like she had never known before. She could smell the breath of the two men behind her, who now touched her, running their hands along her arms as they held her, while the loudmouth began to undo his belt. Sky
kicked out at him but he dodged her movements easily, laughing at her frantic attempt to escape.

“I’m gonna’ enjoy this. I like a bitch with spirit,” he crooned. “Don’t you forget to tell him, Razor sends his regards.”

She bit the hand that remained across her mouth but was given another slap before she could scream, and material replaced the hand as one of the men stuffed his filthy t-shirt in her mouth to keep her quiet.

A loud roar, like thunder
, echoed through the narrow alleyway. Sky closed her eyes against the painful glare as the light momentarily blinded her.

Rough hands shoved her against the wall
, the rough bricks scraping painfully against her palms. Behind her she could hear the scuffle of feet and the sound of men swearing, their shouts and yelling bouncing off the walls around her. The whole time she remained blinded by the bright light. On shaking legs, she made her way along the wall, keeping her back pressed firmly against the hard bricks and moving toward the streetlights she could see just up ahead.

She had no idea what was going on behind her, although from the sound of fists and swearing, someone was getting the crap beaten out of them. She didn’t stick around to find out, the
minute she stepped out onto the sidewalk she ran, stumbling her way toward her front door. It was only when she reached the entrance that she realized she didn’t have her keys.

Pounding on the door, she pressed random door buzzers until one of them, thankfully
, buzzed her in. Slamming the front door behind her, she climbed the stairs and didn’t stop until she reached her own front door.

Stopping to dig the key out of the
potted plant by the door, she wiped at the stream of tears pouring from her throbbing face. She ran down the hallway and straight into the bathroom where she immediately threw up the contents of her meager dinner.

When she felt strong enough again, she pulled off her clothes and stepped under the shower, sliding to the tiled floor and letting the water rain down on her as she wrapped her arms tightly around her raised knees and let her tears fall until she was drained. 

Eventually though, she had to get out; the water had gone cold and she couldn’t work out if her teeth were chattering from that or leftover shock.

She wrapped her towel around her and shuffled into her bedroom. Without bothering to get dressed, she pulled back her
blanket and crawled under. In the distance she could hear the phone ringing, but she was too tired to get up and answer it so she shut her eyes and fell asleep.

****

Rough hands were holding her, and a deep, chilling chuckle sounded close to her ear. Sky screamed, opened her eyes, and realized she was in her bed. Safe.