Page 36 of Foxx
My knife is part of a matching set, one for me and one for Nicola, gifted to us by our brother. Both are black-handled tactical folding knives with tungsten-gray blades. Mine has a dragonfly engraved on it, while hers had a bumblebee. Nic lost hers the night she was raped, after she tried to cut her assailant. Ever since that night, I’ve always carried mine with me, just in case.
Aiden pushes the door, and it opens with a quiet ding.
There’s a bar directly in front of us with retro padded stools and a stainless-steel counter. Behind the bar is an open window to the kitchen. A neon pink and blue sign overhead saysEarly Birdie’s Café.Along the walls flanking the door are retro light-blue padded booths. Photos of musicians and vinyl records hang on the walls. It feels like I’ve stepped back in time. There’s even a jukebox playing music in the far corner.
Aiden gestures to a booth in the far back corner near the emergency exit. There’s only one patron, sitting at the bar, eating a rather delicious-looking slice of key lime pie. He looks to be about eighty, and his hat saysGone Fishin’.
When Aiden walks by, he pats him on the shoulder and says hello, and the old man’s face lights up.
“Catch anything out there today, Merve?” Aiden asks with an annoyingly beautiful smile. An almost-human smile.
“Enough for supper,” Merve says, smiling back a near-toothless grin. Merve focuses on me, then looks back at Aiden.
“Good man, the streak continues.” Aiden chuckles before he takes a seat at the booth.
As I slide in across from him, it hits me that it’s the first time I’ve seen him show affection. Everything in this moment feels out of place. The space itself feels like something out of the sixties, and whatever they’re making in the kitchen smells delicious, maybe pies for the next day. The fact that this biker king made the thirty-minute drive to come here specifically, which he obviously does often enough to know the locals, makes me wonder again who the hell Aiden Foxx really is.
“Do you own this place too?” I ask.
Aiden pulls out a smoke and lights it. This must be the last restaurant in America that allows smoking indoors. There are even clean ashtrays on each table.
He shrugs on an inhale.
“You know, you’re giving me cancer right now, and also that poor old fella at the bar,” I bite out.
Aiden smirks as he takes another drag and blows the smoke away from me.
“The shampoo you wash all that hair with, the creams you put on your skin, even the clothes you wear on your back are filled with chemicals that are doing far more damage to your body every minute of every day than this will do to you.” He holds his cigarette up before taking another inhale.
“Poetic,” I bite out as a server posts up beside us. She sets down a shot of whiskey in front of Aiden and turns to me.
“Welcome, sweetheart, what can I get you to drink?” I look away from Aiden’s hypnotizing blue eyes to her. She wears a light-pink uniform and a friendly smile. Her crisp short-sleeved shirt is tucked into a knee-length skirt. Her gray hair is pulled back in a severe bun, and her name tag saysRuth Anne.
“What’s your lemonade like?” I ask, leaning forward to rest my chin on my palm.
“Fresh squeezed every day.” She smiles.
“I’ll have that, please, with a shot of coconut rum.”
“Oooh, I like your style. You need a menu?”
I open my mouth to say yes, but Aiden is faster. “She doesn’t,” he says. “She’ll have what I’m having.”
“Coming up.” Ruth Anne happily turns to Aiden. “Gotta say, it’s nice to see you not sitting here alone for once.”
“Got stuck babysitting,” Aiden bites out on his exhale, his voice deep and low, his eyes on mine. He puts his cigarette out in the ashtray in front of him.
I flex my fist under the table and retort, “Actually, he kidnapped me.”
Ruth Anne looks between us for a beat then starts to laugh.
“I knew she was too good to come with you willingly,” Merve pipes up from the bar.
I smirk at Aiden. “Right, because I like my men to at least be attractive, Merve.”
Merve howls.
Aiden opens his mouth, but then his phone buzzes and he stands abruptly. He heads down a hallway, disappearing behind a bathroom door that saysBucks.
