Sophie Morgan (Book 1): Relative Strangers (A Modern Vampire Story) by Helen Treharne Read Free Book Online Page A

from my hands and gestured to a small brass hook attached to the underside of the bar. Before I could object, he had nimbly tucked the bag on the hook, neatly hiding it under the bar.
    "Please forgive me if I appeared rude," he added, "you seemed very uncomfortable."
    "Uh, thanks. Thanks very much." His accent was Eastern European I think.
    I caught a glimpse of Mickey out the corner of my eye. He was busy trying to serve two very drunk girls at the end of the bar, both of whom were clearly trying a little too hard to keep his attention. Fair play to him, he was fending them off quite well.
    If it was possible to look like you were speeding up the pulling of a pint, he undoubtedly was achieving it. I was flattered. The stranger followed my gaze and spotted Mickey’s steely look. He turned back to me and caressed my shoulder gently as he walked away. Nothing further was said; he just disappeared silently into the crowd.
    "You okay? Is he bothering you?" Mickey asked.
    The familiar Irish tones shook me from my stupor. Maybe it was because I wasn’t used to conversing with attractive, well groomed, older men, but ‘tall, dark and handbag’ as I decided to nickname him, had knocked me for a six a little. He was just so damn suave – or perhaps just incredibly well-mannered and being extremely handsome just gave him the illusion of being debonair. He was very different from Mickey with his dark shaggy hair and baggy jeans hanging halfway down his bottom. Not that he was unattractive by any means, but it was a bit like comparing your favourite jeans and a couture trouser suit. I pondered on that for a moment – in reality which would you get more wear out of?
    "I'm all right," I tried not to smile too much, he was just helping me with my bag, well her bag, you know what I mean".
    Somewhat reassured, Mickey nodded and went back to serve his customers. The girls at the end of the bar were flashing him big smiles and one of them was attempting what I thought was meant to be a wink. He gave a nod to Sean, who picked up on serving them, and Mickey went about seeing to other, less lascivious orders.
    Occasionally he would come over and have a chat, picking up intermittently on the same bit of conversation. sometimes he would stop for a moment and listen to the music, singing along when he knew the words and helping to whip the crowd into a frenzy with some rigorous hand clapping and feet stomping.
    Tracy and Kieran came over for a drink at intermission, when she firmly laid her claim by gripping his hand and laughing at his jokes a little too much. All in all, it was turning into a pretty good night.
    I was taken quite by surprise when, three songs into the second set, Sean grabbed me by my shoulders and told me that he thought someone had stolen my bag. My first reaction was to look down, but when did I could see that my small black purse was hanging securely across my body.
    I quickly realised what he meant, and my eyes darted to the hook under the bar where Tracy’s bag should be - it had disappeared. I raised myself up on the stool’s footrest and tried to catch Tracy’s attention.
    Waving my arms frantically in the air, I beckoned Tracy to the bar, simultaneously asking Sean if he’d seen anything and if so, what exactly. By the time Tracy weaved her way through the crowds, Mickey had noticed that something was going on and put down his half-pulled Guinness to come over too. I’m surprised that the rest of the crowd didn’t come over as well just out of curiosity. It must have looked like I was having some sort of seizure with the amount of thrashing my arms were doing.
    As Mickey and Tracy tried to decipher what was going on, my overwhelming thought was that her passport was in her bag. How the hell do we get her home if her passport's in there? Plus her money and her house keys - how will she get in? Bugger, I bet she’s left her credit cards in there as well . The most obvious solution was to try and get the bag back