Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Jack showed up for work every night for the last three weeks and in a few more, he would be asked to run an errand. That errand would be highly criminal and they would have evidence, and then Jack Cameron would have far worse bills to pay than his student loans.
“She’s on her way home. Her sister is waiting for her there. I managed to get her to call home to make sure she wouldn’t be alone and that someone is looking for her. The asshole she came with didn’t care. He was too busy hitting on some other woman.” Jensen looked to the younger man. He was a handsome kid and earnest as hell. This was exactly the vulnerable young people Hamilton liked to screw over. If there was any way to get him out before this went down, he would. “The fire play scene freaked her out.”
“Yeah, I can see how. That’s an advanced scene,” Jack said with a frown, letting the door close behind him. He didn’t do what most of the staff did. He didn’t reach for a pack of smokes or a vape. He had a bottle of water in his hand. “Given how this is a tourist place I’m surprised it’s okay to run a scene like that.” He seemed to remember something—likely that the whole place had ears—and held his hands up. “But I’m just a bartender. What would I know?”
Jensen tilted his head, taking in the young man. He had dark hair and green eyes and the kind of lean, muscular body that would ensure he didn’t lack for any kind of romantic attention he might want. Likely from women, but there was something about the young man that made him think he might be a bit more sexually fluid than that. Which never bothered him. He’d been hit on by guys before and merely took it as a compliment, explained his own sexuality and thanked them for their interest. Harlow told him watching him handle getting hit on by a dude made her interested in him. “You sound like you know a lot. Tourist and play and even the word scene mean something in a place like this.”
It would if this club was legit, but he didn’t talk about that to the uninitiated.
“Oh, yeah. I did some research when I first hired on,” Jack admitted. “I heard of it, of course. We talked a lot about it when I was in school. I’m interested in the psychology of the lifestyle. I was thinking about maybe making a study of it for my graduate work. I mean when I can get back to school, of course. I have to pay off the first degree, which is surprisingly hard. You know you can’t do much with an undergraduate psych degree. Apparently you can bartend.”
Jensen hadn’t even thought about going to college. He’d gone into the military and scrimped and saved to try to make things easier for Tommy. Tommy was the smart one. Tommy was the one who had a future.
Sometimes he wished it had been him instead of Tommy and that Tommy had met a girl like Harlow and they named their first kid after his fuck-up brother Jensen who loved him the best he could.
What the hell was he going to do after he took care of Hamilton? It was a question he never would have asked before he met Harlow. Now he had to ask what he actually had to offer her if he ever managed to get her back.
“You okay?” Jack asked, studying him.
He had to get his damn head in the game. Again, he blamed being close to her. Seeing pictures of her because he was a weirdo freak stalker. She was starting to look happy again, the smiles reaching her eyes.
It had taken every fucking thing he had to not go to her when he found out she’d been shot while protecting a friend. Niall had to give him secondhand information since he’d only recently joined the club and wasn’t in her inner circle. They seemed to be friendlier now, but he would bet they would never be close.
“I’m good, just tired.” He didn’t even talk to Niall about how hard it was to be close to her. As far as Niall knew he was watching over Harlow because Jensen felt guilty. He hadn’t told Niall how much he hoped he would have another shot with her, that all of this was about getting back to her. He had specifically told Niall he didn’t want to hear about all the Doms she was playing with.
She deserved to have fun, deserved to have someone in her life who took care of her, and right now that couldn’t be him.
Niall would mention it if she was getting serious with someone. Right? Surely it would come up in conversation.