The Closer You Get by Carter Ashby Read Free Book Online Page B

see him after he’d been doing…whatever he’d been doing with Erica.
    But then Les and Eddie Dunigan came in. They bellied up to the bar a few seats down from Cora and Lyssa. Lyssa gave Cora an eye roll. Everyone hated when those two showed up. They tended to be particularly nasty to Roux the bartender who pretended not to see them. Fortunately, Jack, the owner, always took care of Roux. He threw the towel he’d been using to polish the end of the bar over his shoulder and went to take Les and Eddie’s drink orders.
    As soon as Jack served them, he had to go to the back for a phone call. That’s when Cora heard Les say something about wishing the dyke would serve them their drinks. Roux didn’t look at him. “I wish he’d step in front of a train,” she muttered.
    “You should call Marshall,” Lyssa said.
    “He shouldn’t have to come running every time his brothers act like assholes…he’d never have a moment to himself.”
    “Hey, why are you girls all huddled together down there?” Eddie sneered.  
    “Maybe they’re gonna make out while we watch,” Les said.  
    Cora stood. “I’m going home. Lyss?”
    Lyssa glanced at Roux. “I hate to leave you alone.”
    Roux smiled. “Thanks. Jack’s just in the back. They don’t mess with me when he’s around.”
    Lyssa stood, and she and Cora turned to leave, but while they’d been talking to Roux, Les and Eddie had come up behind them. Cora found herself face to face with Lester Dunigan, and he smelled like a locker room. And weed. And whiskey. “Get the hell out of my way,” Cora said.  
    “You look different tonight,” Les said. “You look kind of do-able. How about a dance?”
    “I’ve no patience for this. Move, now, or I’ll press sexual harassment charges and have you put in jail.”
    Les laughed. “You gonna hire your fag friend over there? I ain’t afraid of him. Come on. One dance and I’ll leave you alone.”  
    “She said no.” Rye appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, at her side.  
    Les narrowed his eyes. “You’re the asshole robbed me in the pizza parlor yesterday.”
    “Yep. Walk away.”
    Les and Eddie both sized him up before backing up a step. “Free country,” Les said. “I can talk to her if I want.”
    Rye cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders, his feet set apart in a wary posture. Les and Eddie backed down. They walked away, muttering insults under their breath. Rye sighed. Cora looked up at him, but he was watching the two losers as they hovered over their drinks at the end of the bar. “How much trouble are they?”
    “Don’t know,” Cora said. “Probably not much.”
    “They normally hang out here?”
    “No. There’s a little tavern down by the river where they usually go. But every once in a while they make their way up here. Jack doesn’t like them.”
    Rye frowned at Lyssa. “You okay?”
    She looked about to vomit. “He touched my breast,” she said, and then shivered.
    Rye’s expression went cold. “I will go break his hand right now,” he said.
    Lyssa smiled. “Thank you. But there’s no need to go to prison over it.”
    Rye looked over at Eddie, as though weighing out whether it would be worth it. “Bastard,” he muttered.
    Cora found herself smiling. So what if he was a man-whore? So what if he wasn’t interested in her? He was noble and beautiful.
    “Everything okay?” Adam asked as he and Cash joined them at the bar.
    “Yeah,” Lyssa answered. “Dunigans.”
    Adam glared at the two men.  
    “We’re going fishing,” Cash said to Rye. “Adam says he knows a couple good fishing holes.”
    Rye’s face twisted in a comical mix of confusion and disgust. “That’s not some kind of sick euphemism, is it?”
    “No,” Cash laughed. “Jesus. We’re just going fishing. Do you wanna come?”
    Rye glanced at the Dunigans. Then he looked at Cora. She swallowed and quickly looked away. The eye contact was becoming searing. For her anyway.  
    “We should stay with