Silver Bastard (Silver Valley #1)(14)
Author: Joanna Wylde

Ignoring the strip-club crack, I shook my head. Much as I hated to admit it, Danielle was probably right. There truly wasn’t anywhere else to work near Callup—not for someone with my limited skill set.

Great.

I sighed and Danielle rolled her eyes unsympathetically.

“Look on the positive side,” Blake said. “What are the odds a fight will start at the Bitter Moose on any given night?”

“There’s a fight out there every night.”

“Exactly. It’s perfect, because they can’t fire you or blame you when it happens,” he said reasonably. “You can do this—I saw you throw yourself into the action this morning. Hell, you stay tough like that, you’ll make a fortune in tips.”

“Ooo, do you think we should sign up for the mud-wrestling championships?” Danielle asked, her voice excited.

“They have mud wrestling there?” I asked, my voice rising. Danielle laughed.

“No, you dork,” she replied. “See what a civilized place it is? They’re way too fancy for mud wrestling . . . Well, either that or they haven’t thought of it. Now get your ass into the kitchen and start cooking some noodles. I’ll open the wine. Blake, I expect you to entertain me.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“Strip,” Danielle demanded.

I snorted back a laugh at Blake’s expression, holding up a hand.

“For the record, I’m broke,” I told him. “If you start stripping, Danielle has to pay you.”

“That should work out fine,” he replied, waggling his eyebrows at her.

“Give me the wine,” I demanded, deciding I might as well let go for the night and enjoy—Danielle wanted to party, and after everything that’d happened today, I was more than ready to join her.

Hell, I’d already blown classy for the day.

Might as well have some fun.

—

It was the smack on the ass that tipped me off Blake was drunk.

He’d snapped me with a towel at the diner plenty of times, but swatting my butt with his hand was a new level for us, one that probably would’ve bothered me if I wasn’t feeling pretty festive myself.

Blake smacked me again. What the hell? I spun on him, then realized I was blocking the window and he wanted to go outside . . . Oopsie.

One of the best things about my apartment was the fact that the building next door was only one story—that meant I was able to use the roof as my own personal patio for important things like watching the sunset over the mountains. We’d already feasted like kings (well, more like two queens and a king, but you get the picture) and now it was time for lounging on the “veranda” to enjoy our after-dinner drinks.

Not that I needed more to drink . . .

“Get out here, slacker!” Danielle shouted at me, giggling when I stopped to glare at Blake.

“He copped a feel!” I accused loudly.

“I’m trying to go outside while I’m still young,” he grumbled. “Christ, do we need to have a conference about this here, or you think maybe we can move it along before it gets dark?”

“Asshole,” Danielle muttered, although her voice was anything but annoyed. Obviously she found Blake smacking me funny. I felt a twinge of jealousy—she had this laid back confidence around men, completely comfortable in her own attractions and more than ready to move on if it didn’t work out. So far as I could tell, she was just using him for sex.

Wish I could do that. I’d probably gone out with three guys in the last two years, but they either made me anxious or left me cold. Even if things went well and we started making out, I’d flash back to Teeny and it was all over.

Reaching out, Danielle caught my hand and jerked me forward. I fell out onto the roof, landing on my face. This was apparently extremely funny—Blake couldn’t stop laughing as I tried to right myself. Danielle joined him. Traitor.

“Laugh away, jerks,” I muttered, holding up my wine bottle triumphantly. “You almost made me spill alcohol. That’s a grave offense against the gods.”

They sobered instantly.

“I forgot you were holding the wine,” Danielle said, her voice serious. “I wouldn’t have done that if I’d known the risk.”

We pondered the severity of the situation before she started giggling again, which got me going. Life might be fucked up, but I had damned fine friends despite it all. Five minutes later we sat in a row on the roof’s incline, feet braced on the low false front that someone thought would make the building look more impressive, once upon a time. It’d been a doctor’s office back when Callup still had a doctor. His sign still sat out front, right next to the broken barber pole on the building next door.

“Your apartment used to be part of a whorehouse,” Danielle said casually.

“I know. Regina told me about it.”

“Did you know the girls liked to come out here to eat their meals? They wouldn’t let them out to walk around town or anything.”

“Really?” I asked, intrigued. “I thought it was anything goes back in the mining days. Seems weird that the hookers wouldn’t be allowed outside.”

Blake snorted.

“It didn’t shut down until 1988,” he said. My eyes widened.

“Seriously?”

He nodded, taking a swig from his bottle.

“Yup, my dad used to come here,” he said. “Mom dumped his ass over it, I shit you not. There was one in the building on the other side, too.”

I glanced over toward the three-story building rising above us, across the roof from my apartment. You’d be able to crawl out onto the roof from there, too, although I’d never seen anyone do it. That one just had one big apartment filling the whole second floor. Until recently, an old logger lived there. Six months ago he’d retired and gone south to move in with his daughter. Sooner or later someone else would rent it, but for now I had the roof to myself.

That’s when I saw the flicker of a light inside.

“What’s that?” I asked, my voice a loud whisper.

“What’s what?”

“There’s a light in the window over there,” I said. “Or I think there is. They’re so damned dirty it’s hard to tell.”

“Probably a ghost,” Danielle replied, her voice sage. “You know, Wyatt Earp came through here, back during the gold rush. I’ll bet he shot some prostitute in there, and now she’s just waiting around to have her revenge on all men. You better watch out, Blake. She’ll steal your dick and then you’ll be no good to me.”