"Mmmmm. Delish." Meredith appeared at my shoulder, her pointed tongue touching her upper lip. "All strong and confident. Smoldering. A big juicy stallion."
I snorted caustically. "Hell, Merry, you thought the UPS guy was a stallion too until you found out her name was Sherry."
"It was dark, okay?" Miffed at my lack of enthusiasm for her man watching, she flounced off to bus Jerry's empty bottle. While she was there she wiped up a lake of drool that was forming under Jerry's unconscious, slack-jawed face. There was nothing like a dedicated customer. I hoped he woke up in time for the band, because I was willing to bet he'd be the audience, the sole head-banging member. Leather-boy Genghis and his Horde were going to be some disappointed, not to mention destitute, rockers. Hey, wasn't like I hadn't warned Samuel.
Three hours later Samuel and his pals proved me wrong. I wouldn't say the place was wall-to-wall people, but it was as packed as I'd ever seen it. Niko said nearly the same when he drifted up beside me, phantom silent. "It appears someone has raised your bar from the dead. This may qualify as a miracle even in the eyes of the Vatican."
"Yeah," I said briefly as I leaned, arms folded on the table in one far corner. I gave the opposite chair a shove, pushing it into his hand. "All this time I thought this place would never amount to anything without some decent booze or basic hygiene. Turns out all we needed was a new band."
"Wouldn't you require an old band to qualify this one as a new one?" Not waiting for a smart-ass answer to an even more smart-ass rhetorical question, he flowed smoothly into the chair and promptly made the sign of the evil eye at my dinner. "Get thee behind me, Satan."
I ignored him and continued to give my heart a run for its money with the fried sampler platter from the restaurant next door. Fried cheese, fried peppers, fried potatoes, and the topper, fried potatoes with cheese and peppers. It was the lowest common denominator of all the food groups and I was enjoying every life-giving molecule of grease. "How went your chat with George?" I said around a mouthful. "No go, huh?" There was an unmistakable, to me anyway, tension around Niko's calm eyes. Luck sure didn't look to be a lady tonight, more like the bitch she always was.
"She wouldn't speak to me. Her mother wouldn't even open the door," he confirmed with a grim twist to his mouth.
"And you didn't kick it down? What the hell kind of ninja superhero are you anyway?" I waved to Meredith across the room and pointed to Niko. She nodded and headed for the juice in the fridge. Niko wasn't much on alcohol and considering our mom, that was understandable. About things like that, he'd always been smarter than I was.
"I suppose I'm the kind that doesn't terrify teenage girls and their mothers."
I curled up the corner of my mouth at his disgruntled tone. "Yeah, they'd take away your cape for that."
Meredith slithered up at that moment, probably saving me from retaliation in the form of either a brisk butt kicking or a more lackadaisical steel toe to the shin. She put a glass of cranberry juice in front of Niko and draped over his shoulder like a silicone-enhanced orange tabby. "Nikki," she purred, her breasts threatening to swallow his neck in a loving embrace. "I haven't seen you in weeks. I'll start to think you don't love and adore me."
My brother's eyes slid back toward her with all the resignation of a man on death row, then returned to me with a roiling wrath that would've dropped a charging boggle in its tracks. I took pity on him. "Hey, Mer, I'm almost done with my break. Watch the bar for me for a few more minutes?"
She gave a long-suffering sigh that had the mounds of her breasts rising to smothering proportions. Niko was a man caught in an erotic avalanche. Giving him a lingering kiss on his cheek, she disappeared into the milling crowd, calling out over her shoulder, "You owe me, Cal."
"Get in line," I murmured. Pursing my lips, I turned my attention back to Niko and gave a low whistle. "I almost lost you there, big brother. Nearly had to send in the Saint Bernards to dig you out."
"What I cannot fathom," he gritted between clenched teeth, "is why she doesn't feel the need to include you in her voracious affections."
"Probably senses my inner slimy monster," I grunted philosophically, wiping the grease from my supper on my bartender's apron.
"Senses your outer sarcastic imp is more likely." A knuckle knocked lightly on my forehead. "The only monster in there is laziness. It's more than voracious in its own right, however."
"Pick up your socks. It always comes back to that, doesn't it?" Scooping up the stained paper plate, I smothered a yawn. "Finish your juice, Grandpa. Then come help me at the bar. This is the first time I've had to actually work since I've had this job. It's killing me."
"And there's the monster," he said dryly, shaking his head.
For the next few hours he worked with me slinging booze and refilling the bowls with cheap, generic pretzels. He spent a lot of time dodging Meredith too, but I'd take that out of his tips. I was wrestling with a new keg when I heard a newly familiar voice. "The new help isn't quite as pretty as the redhead."
Looking up, I saw Niko raise his eyebrows at Samuel and say gravely, "My ego is shattered." The words were joking, but his gray eyes were cool and distant, a frozen layer of unconcern over a lake of mistrust. I might be running out far in front, but I didn't have the corner on suspicion. Niko was smart as hell and wary as shit, and that had kept us alive. Had kept me free.
But now would be the time, wouldn't it? This was the moment I would step up and say Samuel was okay. He wasn't a Grendel in the world's best human suit. Wasn't a crook. He was just your average Joe, a good guy, one I'd enjoyed talking to. So I should tell Nik that, right?
Shit. Not in this lifetime.
Yeah, Samuel seemed like he was all right, but realistically, I didn't know him from Adam. Snap judgments? I'd gotten over those about the time I was toilet trained. Swore off diapers and faith in the human experience all in one week. You had to admire my efficiency. "Niko, this is Samuel. He's with the band," I said neutrally before adding slyly, "Minion to the leather god."
Niko kept pouring pretzels into a bowl, precisely to the rim, no less, no more. The Zen of pretzel arranging—it's long been a lost art. "Ah. The singer that time forgot. To be more exact, that the eighties forgot. His hair spray bill must be staggering."
"You've got a lot of room to talk, Rapunzel," Samuel pointed out. "You're not exactly going for the brush cut look yourself."
I grinned and reached over to tug on Niko's braid. "He's got you there."
Samuel took a handful of pretzels, disturbing Niko's pristine sculpture of bread and salt. "You two brothers?"
Niko gave him a narrow-eyed look, then repaired the damage. "That obvious, is it?" he asked blandly.
"Oh yeah. You boys are just two sides to one coin." Samuel chewed with a marked lack of enthusiasm. "Man, Where'd you get these? Dumpster? Sawdust factory?"
"How'd you know? You play the best joints; you get the best grub," I grunted. After serving some beers and a shot or two, I turned my attention back to Samuel. "You guys are pretty good. Retro, but harder than I'd have thought, Genghis's leather pants aside."
Niko gave an inaudible humph. Inaudible, but heavy in the air nonetheless. "Yeah, yeah, Nik. It's not the Beatles, I know. No 'Long and Winding Road.'" I raised my eyes toward the empty, sterile heavens. To Niko there had been one band in existence; the rest was just derivative noise. "You were born old, you know that?"