Off the Clock by Brett Battles Read Free Book Online Page B

tonight?”
    “Fine,” she said quickly as she scooted behind the bar.
    “I see my usual table’s open.”
    In the mirror on the wall, Quinn watched the man walk into the other half of the restaurant. Instead of sitting down, though, he stopped in the aisle between the two rows of tables, and looked toward the front where Ice had retreated and was now singing the song on her own.
    When she finished, the man clapped and finally took a seat at the table. Ice said something in Thai into the mic, then quickly made her way through the dining area and rushed into the kitchen.
    There was the clatter of a plate on the bar. Quinn looked down to see that Natt had put the dish of satay in front of him.
    “I didn’t order this,” he said.
    “On the house,” she said. “Maybe you not wait so long next time you come back.”
    Though her words were meant to be playful, she seemed to have lost some of the enthusiasm she’d had a few minutes earlier.
    “Can I get another?” The guy at the other end of the bar asked, holding up his empty beer bottle.
    “Sure. No problem.” Natt headed over to the glass-doored cooler in the corner.
    When she finally came back to Quinn’s end of the bar, he said, “So what’s the deal with that guy?”
    She didn’t look at him. “He want beer.”
    “I’m not talking about him. I’m talking about the guy who just came in and sucked all the fun out of the room.”
    She started straightening the stack of takeout menus near the register, acting as if she hadn’t heard him.
    “Natt, who is he?”
    He could see a struggle going on in her mind. After a few seconds, her gaze flicked across the room to the table where the man was sitting, then settled on Quinn. “His name Nick. He bad man,” she whispered. “No good.”
    “What do you mean, ‘bad’?”
    “He come in here all the time. Act very nice at first. Make friends with all of us.” She paused.
    “And then?”
    Her eyes narrowed. “He ask Ice out on date. She tell him no. She have boyfriend, but he keep asking. Finally she say okay, go for coffee only.”
    Quinn could feel a coldness growing just below his skin. “What happened?”
    She hesitated. “I say too much already. Forget everything.” She moved down the bar to see if the other customers needed help. He decided not to push her.
    Ice returned to the karaoke machine just after Natt brought Quinn his panang moo . As he ate, he kept an eye on Nick in the mirror, but the guy just sat at his table, beaming in Ice’s direction.
    Once Quinn finished, he put more than enough to cover the bill and a good tip under his beer glass and headed out to his car. But once he was behind the wheel, he didn’t start the engine. He knew he should probably just go home and forget about it. But he knew he wouldn’t. He wasn’t exactly close to Ice and Natt and the others, but they were his friends.
    Anything outside of work isn’t worth the risk. Durrie’s voice again. Would he ever get out of Quinn’s head?
    It was nearly an hour and a half before Nick appeared. His smile was still plastered to his face as he stepped outside, but as soon as the door closed behind him, it disappeared. This new Nick looked like a smug, cocky ass.
    He stood at the corner for a moment, watching the traffic on Sunset. Then he walked across the street, forcing several cars to stop quickly so as not to hit him.
    Finally, Quinn started up his BMW and pulled away from the curb. At the intersection with Sunset, he stopped and watched Nick walk down the row of parked cars. The man stopped next to a Mercedes sedan.
    Nice car . Definitely not what Quinn was expecting. Apparently whatever this Nick was selling, he was doing well at it.
    As the Mercedes came out from the curb, Quinn turned onto Sunset and fell in behind it.
    It wasn’t too much longer before they were winding their way up into Beachwood Canyon above Hollywood. As always, Quinn was careful as he followed the other car, but he sensed that even if he