Bombshell (Devlin Haskell 4)

I would like to thank the following people for their help and support. Thanks to my good friend Dan for his continued help, support and positive attitude. To Pam Stack for coming up with more great ideas in any one day than I have time to act upon and for her patience with my, punctuation. To Kathy LeJeune
and
Charles Ford
for their suggestions, feedback and corrections. I would like to thank family and friends for their encouragement and unqualified support. Special thanks to Maggie, Jed, Schatz, Pat, Av, Pat and Emily for nodding politely and going along. Most of all,
thanks to Teresa for her patience, belief and
support.

Cover Photo: Wendy Doscher-Smith

To Teresa

No, we’re not going out, I want you to myself
.

Bombshell

“I’ll have a
pint
of
Summit
and a Cosmopolitan
,” I said, w
ith all the thumping music
in the place
I had to lean halfway across the bar
just
to
give my drink order
.

The bartender nodded,
may
be gave a slight sigh
, I wasn’t sure
.

“That Cosmo for you?” a
woman next to me asked
then yelled “Two Summit
s,”
across
to the bartender.

She stood about five three, brown hair, glasses,
very
nice figure. She had on really
tight
little
shorts,
black hose
patterned to look like slinky nylons
and a garter belt.

“
I look like the Cosmo type?”

“Yeah, I knew
it
as soon as
I saw
you
. Y
ou
’re
prob
ably a big Sex in the City fan.
I’m
Justine
,” she
said and
held out her hand.

“Dev
.”

Her eyes
bore
d into me as I held her hand.
The music
fired up again,
so loud we had to s
peak into each other
’
s ear. We were
in danger of getting body slammed by a half dozen
twenty-something
girls jumping up and down
behind us. They were shaking their hair,
waving their hands over their heads.
Screaming “
woo, woo,” as they twirled around.

“You come here
often? You don’t
really
look the type,
”
she half shouted.

“Woo, woo,” the girls screamed, oblivious to all but themselves.

“I’ve managed to avoid this place
thus far, not exactly my style.
I knew I was in t
rouble as soon as I had to pay the
cover charge
at the door
.
”

She nodded toward the beer
and the Cosmopolitan landing
in front of me
. I handed the bartender a couple of fives
.

“T
welve
-fifty
,” he mouthed the words
.

“Twelve?”

“Twelve-fifty
,
”
he seemed to smile at the joke.

I gave him a
nother five and
shook my head.

“
Apparently s
he’s got expensive tastes.
Maybe you should think about finding a girl who likes beer.”

“Fortunatel
y she has some good points, too,
”
I said into her ear.

“Don’t we all.
”
T
hen
she
gave me that stare
again.

I raised my
pint glass in a toast to
Justine
, knocked a couple of
inch
es
off the top
and carefully
picked up the Cosmopolitan.

“B
e good,” I said.

“I have a lot more fun when I’m bad
.”

“You’
re telling me,” I said. Then th
ought it might be a
wise
idea
to retreat
to my table.

I delivered the Cosmopolitan to
my date, Carol.
S
he
was nestled into a gang of girlfriends
all
talking about stars whose names I didn’t recognize.
Each one held
a different colored
, over
priced
drink
in front of them
.
I
reach
ed over the shoulder of some
long
haired
guy who had taken up residence on my stool
and
hand
ed
Carol her Cosmopolitan
.

“Watch it, you’ll spill,” she
snapped, the
n
turned and shook her head at the guy on my stool. He smiled
back
at her, gave his head a shake to send his hair back over his shoulders
,
then used a finger to push misbehaving strands
behind each ear
.

“Dev, this is Nicholas, he’s from
France
,” Carol
yelled over the noise
.

I
nodded and
figured
Nicholas was attracted
to Carol
by the same things
that
had attracted me
.

“Dev, get Nicholas a drink, will you. What are you drinking?”
Carol screamed
then placed a hand on his wrist
just as the music stopped.

“T
here
is
Frenc
h beer, no?” Nicholas said, looking up
at me hopefully.

“
I don’t think so.” I said.

“No Caracole? No Saxo?”
He sounded put out.

“No
.
Summit
, Leinenkugel,
Grain Belt and they got
Guinness.

“Pity. French beer is the very best
” Nicholas directed this
to
ward
Carol.

Carol smil
ed like she understood,
like it was a fact everyone automatically knew,
nodding
as if
she had a refrigerator full of French beer
in her kitchen
.

“Oh, I just love your accent,” she shrugged. “Maybe you’d like a Cosmopolitan?”

“I think I may try the Martini,
yes?
”
he said, suggesting
he’d never had one before.

“That sounds so cute.”

“A Martini?” I figured that would be at least six bucks.

“Yes, a vodka Martini, a double.
”
He sounded like he may have ordered one
before.

“A doub
le?
”
I asked.

“
Where are the olives from?”

“The olives? A
jar.” I was liking Nicholas
less
with every passing second
.

“Dev, stop it. Just
go and
get Nicholas his Martini.
” Carol glared,
and
the
n added
“please,”
as an after thought.

“And t
wo olives
,” Nicholas reminded
.

Carol g
ave me a look that said,
‘
Don’t even think of causing a scene
,’ then turned back to
focus on
Nicholas.

“Double vodka
Martini, your cheapest bar
pour. I better have another
Summit
, too
,
” I said to the bartender.

“She’s onto Martini’s now?”

It was
Justine
, again. Actually
,
I was glad to see her.

“No
,
some
jackass took my stool and somehow I end up
buying him a drink, French guy.
”

Justine
looked over my should
er and
took a long sip from
her beer. She
moved to say something in my ear and
brushed
firmly
against me.

“That guy with the
long hair and the
big ears?”

I hadn’t noticed
the ears
, but now that she mentioned it, “Yeah.”

“
He
’s
chatting up the girl
in the red?”

“Yeah, the one with the dreamy look on her face.”

“I’m guessing those aren’t her God given attributes.”

“You can tell that from across the room?”

“Hello, yes,
God they’re fakes,
” she said and
shook her head.

“Yeah, they are, but t
hat n
ever really bothered me.”

“Ten
bucks,” the bartender said, setting Nicholas’s Martini down in front of me.

I handed him a twenty. The look on my face must have given me away.

“Just isn’t shaping up to be your night, is it
Cosmo
?”

“Not exactly. Can you stay put for a minute
while I deliver this to Pepe Le
Pew over there?”

“Yeah, promise you won’t be long.”

“Not a problem, believe me.
”

“Me
rci,” Nicholas said, quickly grabbing the drink out of
my hand.

“Be c
ar
e
ful
,
Dev,
God
you’ll spill again. Did he get any on you
,
Nicholas?”
Carol said.

I
could only hope, but
didn’t wait for an answer and
wandered back to
Justine
at the bar
.

“So how long are they here?”

“A
ctually
, she’s
with me, so…”

“I got a beer says no way.”