“Really? When did Gunny start having bands here?” Rita asked in shock.
“Tonight,” came a voice from behind them. Rita turned and jumped to her feet to hug the older man standing behind them.She quickly introduced Kent and the others he didn’t know. Gunny didn’t stick around long as he said he had to make his way over to his other guests.
“Where’s his daughter?” Kent asked a few minutes later.
Rita looked around and grinned. “The brunette behind the bar. The one with the long braid.”
“Ah,” Kent said as he looked over and saw her. He also so Jake Cogburn sitting in a corner, nursing what looked like a soda. He lifted his glass in a silent salute to Kent and his eyes moved to the side to indicate he knew Vickers and his buddies were there. Kent gave a silent nod back. One great thing about being in the military, it had taught him to catch onto non-verbal signals. He turned back around and rested easier knowing that Jake had his and Rita’s back. They didn’t have long to wait before the band took to the makeshift stage. Before either of them could ask what type of music the band played, they struck their first cord and Kent turned to Rita with a grin.
“You dance?”
“I do, do you?”
“Yep,” he laughed as he took a quick sip of his beer, stood, and held his hand out to her. He dragged her onto the dance floor, twirled her around, and caught her in his arms as he started a two-step around the dance floor. They were soon joined by several other couples.
CHAPTER 15
Three hours later,Rita was laughing with Kent as they stepped off the dance floor after dancing for the last three songs. As she turned toward their table, she ran into someone.
“I’m sorry,” she laughed at the man, then cringed when she saw she had bumped into Tim Vickers. She immediately jerked away from him when his hands came up and gripped her biceps. Normally, she would assume it was to prevent her from falling, but not in this case. The look on his face, and the way his hands had been bruising in his grip, didn’t cause fear, but it did make her mad.
“Careful there, you don’t want to have your face smashed,” Vickers stuttered his words. The scent of alcohol coming from his breath could stop a freight train. Rita quickly sidestepped him, but Vickers anticipated it and blocked her way. Before he could do or say anything else, Rita felt a hand go around her waist, and a gentle squeeze on her side. She immediately knew it was Kent and felt safe with him there.
“Excuse me,” Rita said politely and tried to side step him again.
“Not so fast, I’d like a dance with you.”
“Sorry, my dance card is full.” Rita shook her head and this time, with Kent’s help she was able to get around the other man. She didn’t get far before her forearm was grabbed and she was pulled away from Kent. As Vickers swung her around, she did the only thing she could think of, she brought her knee up and hit him where it would hurt the most. As soon as he grabbed himself and bent over, she brought that same knee up and hit him on his chin.
“You’ll pay for that, bitch,” he wheezed out, but still tried to reach out and grab her. Luckily, Kent pulled her back far enough that his hand only grabbed air.
“I don’t think so,” a new voice said from behind him. The three people looked up to see Gunny, Jake, and Stone standing there.
“You’ve had enough to drink, Vickers, it’s time for you to leave,” Gunny said coldly to the man.
“Who the fuck do you think you are, Old Man?” Vickers snarled at Gunny.
“The owner of this bar, and you know it. If you won’t leave peacefully, there are plenty of people to help you out.” At this time the band had taken a break, that was the reason Kent and Rita were coming off the dance floor. Rita looked around and they were surrounded by Kent’s friends, the five men who ran The Centre, and three of the Falco brothers. She looked to the side and saw the women standing there. At the front was Sparrow talking on her phone. She made eye contact with Rita and only nodded twice to her, then pointed to the empty spot beside her. Rita immediately left Kent’s side and went to stand next to Sparrow.
“Stay here,” the other woman whispered to her, and took three steps forward. As she talked, Rita shivered at the coldness in her voice.
“We can do this here, Vickers, or we can take it outside.” She spoke in the same cold tone to the man as she approached.
“Fuck me,” Vickers said when he spotted Sparrow.
“No thank you, that job is for Stone.” She blew her man a kiss and the others chuckled when he play-acted catching it and putting it on his cheek. “I’ve called for backup, they’ll be here in five minutes. Gunny asked you to leave, and we’ll make sure you do. I’ve watched you all night, and in my professional opinion you’ve had too much to drink to drive safely. Unless you want another DUI, I suggest you take the ride being offered you by the officer that will be here any minute.”
“I’m not done partying.”
“Too bad. Gunny asked you to leave, and if you don’t want to be arrested for harassment, I suggest you go outside now.” Before he could answer, Sparrow stepped up to him, gripped his wrist, brought it around behind his back, lifted it hard and far enough he was on his toes, then she walked him outside. The only people that followed her were her husband, Stone, Jake Cogburn, and Gunny. The others shook their heads as they took their seats at the table.
“That could have been ugly,” Kora Falco said as she sat next to her husband, and shuddered at what she’d said. “Not to sound stupid or anything, but who was that guy?”
“A freaking idiot,” Rita said as she grabbed her glass of ice water and drank half of it down. She studied the people at the table, and spent the next ten minutes telling them what Vickers had done the first day of search and rescue training, and what he had done afterward to try and frame her and Kent.
“Holy crap, people really do that?” Kora asked, shocked.
“Babe, don’t you remember how your stalker came after you because he couldn’t pass the psych eval to get back to work after he was injured on the job? Instead of framing you, he tried to kill you.”
