“Can you use some help, pretty girl?” Furi whispered in Candy’s ear as she hurriedly punched the register. She jumped and slapped Furi on the shoulder for sneaking up on her.
“What are you doing here on your only evening off?" she asked grinning at him, shaking her head in disbelief.
“I have no life.” He faked a smile. “Need some help?”
She turned to look at him, giving him her full attention, “Honey, are you all right?”
Furi felt the prickling of tears and immediately got angry. How dare his emotions betray his attempt at control? He wouldn’t cry about the situation, it was useless. Crying didn’t do a damn thing but waste energy. “I’m fine. Can just use a distraction is all.” He shrugged.
“Well, knock yourself out. You can take the far end. Shawn ended up having to go pick up his daughter early, leaving me to tend the entire bar.” She rolled her eyes, “And of course your useless uncle didn’t bother coming out to help me.”
“Yeah, I believe that,” Furi said, while pulling his hair back. He didn’t have on the bar’s shirt but he didn’t care, he was just helping Candy and trying to occupy his mind so that it didn’t wander to the cop across the street. The cop who had probably just gotten out the shower and realized he was missing a houseguest.
Over the next couple of hours, Furi fell into the easy routine and lost himself in the monotony of take order, make order, run tab, refill, cash out, wipe bar, repeat. He was sure some of the regulars noticed he was short on small talk tonight, but everyone’s entitled to one of those days. It was getting near closing time when Furi went in the back to stack the trash at the service door. His uncle’s door was open, so he peaked in, tapping on the frame. “Hey, Unc. Is this a bad time?”
“It’s always a bad time. What do you want?” His uncle grumbled, not even bothering to look up at him.
“My place is being fumigated can I crash on your couch?” Furi chewed his bottom lip.
This time his uncle did look up at him with a look of annoyance across his wide face.
“Three days tops,” Furi added.
“Whatever. Just bring your own washing detergent and food, because you’re not using mine.” His uncle waved him away and Furi gladly left. He really hated asking him for anything, but unfortunately, he was all the family Furi had. Nothing beats family. He came back out to the front and gasped at the large dark figure sitting at the bar. Furi’s chest constricted at the sight. He came. Furi got his legs working and slowly made his way behind bar.
“Um. Candy can you grab that order right there?” Furi pointed at the stern face staring angrily at him.
“No, thank you. I’d rather you took care of me, Furious.” It was spoken casually, but the hard, piercing glare said it was a command.
Candy's head darted back and forth between them and Furi decided it was best to leave her out of it. He walked slowly to the end of the bar and stood in front of his fuming customer.
“I left for a reason,” Furi leaned in and whispered, “I have nothing to say to you.”
“Oh, I think you have a lot to say to your husband, Furious.”
‘Still on the Chase’
Silly, ignorant, bull-headed, stubborn, high-maintenance, jackass, little prick. Syn was grumbling under his breath as he tucked his S&W into the small of his back.
When Syn came out of his room an hour later, he’d been livid to see that Furi had left. At first he threw his hands up, thinking it wasn’t going to be his problem anymore. Furi didn’t respect him and he refused to be called names and rebuffed repeatedly when he was trying his best. But the more he sat and stewed, the more his heart told him to go find the idiot and bring him back so he could protect him. No matter how much the gorgeous bastard irked him, he wanted him in the worse way. Syn threw on his coat and left his apartment.
He was heading to his truck when a cold feeling of dread ran up his spine. It was his instinct telling him something was wrong: really wrong. Syn looked up and down the busy street looking for the source of his unease. His eye’s landed on the lit-up sign of the pub across the street. Are you in there, you fool?
Syn jogged across the street, pulling the door open with too much force, quickly scanning the bar area. Sure enough, Furi was behind the bar, working. Syn sat down in his usual seat, noticing that the place was slowing down since it was closing in about a half-hour. There were a few booths occupied, and at the bar were only three people still sitting, nursing drinks. Two men dressed in expensive business suits sat nearby while he waited for Furi to turn around and acknowledge him. He gave a quick head nod to the two men, thinking they were over-dressed for this place. They looked like corporate types, but were built like Mack trucks.