Last Call

The air conditioner kicked on, and the hum completely drowned out the television. Jack increased the volume a few bars too many, which had Rene grumbling.

'I'm going to kill you.'

'You can't. Hippocratic oath, remember?'

'Sue me!' she said as she sprang to life like a lioness. A wrestling match ensued. Rene was on top, then Jack, then Rene. The sheets ended up on the floor, right beside the clothes that had fallen there four hours earlier. Jack was about to retake control of the situation when she grabbed him where it counted, the sparkle back in her eyes.

Jack froze, raising his hands in playful surrender. 'Put the gun down, Rene. Unless you intend to use it.'

She didn't let go. 'I'm wide awake now, thanks to you. Come on. We have some serious catching up to do.'

'Slow down. We've got all week.'

She kissed him gently so lightly that it was difficult to tell whether she'd actually made contact – a kind of sensual ambiguity that Rene had perfected and that could drive Jack crazy Her lips drifted toward his ear as she whispered, 'I have to fly back to Abidjan on Monday'

This time, her words barely tugged at his heartstrings. 'It's okay' he said flatly 'I knew you did.'

IT WAS LAST CALL at Sparky's Tavern.

Theo Knight made the announcement from behind the long, crowded bar. He was smiling widely, and with good reason. Sparky's was an old gas station that he'd converted into the last watering hole between the mainland and the Florida Keys. It was a true dive, but it was his dive. And business was better than ever. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before he could say good-bye to the bikers, the rednecks, and the electric slide and open Sparky's II, a true jazz bar in Coconut Grove. The mere thought blew his mind. Talk about beating the odds.

Theo had never actually made it into the Grove Lords – stealing his own mother's purse didn't cut it – but life didn't offer many choices to the illegitimate son of a drug-addicted prostitute. The cops never did catch the guy who'd slit his mother's throat. The word on the street was that it was 'some John who didn't think her blow job was worth the ten bucks.' Theo and his older brother went to live with their mother's sister in Liberty City, one of Miami 's roughest hardscrabble neighborhoods. Aunt Teesha did her best to raise them, but with five children of her own, it wasn't easy. The Knight brothers were soon on every crime-watch list in the area, thanks mostly to Tatum, but Theo did his part too. He dropped out of high school, stuck his hand in the wrong cash register, and got tagged with the brutal murder of a convenience store clerk. At age fifteen he was the youngest inmate on Florida 's death row. The Grove Lords finally thought he rocked. Theo didn't find the irony amusing.

Especially since he was innocent.

'Hey look who's here,' said one of his barmaids.

Theo looked up from a sink full of cocktail glasses and saw Trina entering the bar. She was the closest he'd ever come to having a steady. He'd met her through his buddy Jack Swyteck, but only after circumstances had forced her to lay Jack out on the sidewalk with a martial arts kick. Almost immediately Theo knew he had to have this sexy brunette with the olive skin of a Latina supermodel and the mysterious accent of a Russian spy.

Trina walked straight to the bar and took a seat on a stool opposite Theo. She wasn't smiling.

'Hey baby' he said.

'Don't call me baby.'

'You still mad at me? It ain't nice to hold a grudge.'

She laid her purse on the bar top and crossed her legs. She had great legs. Strong, too. She'd kicked him in the ass enough for him to know.

'You bought me a bug for my birthday' she said.

'It's not a bug. It's a roach brooch.'

'It was a live insect.'

'Bred by a jeweler who happens to be an etymological genius.'

'Ety-what?'

'Etygomical.'

'See, you can't even say it twice. You have no idea what you're talking about.'

'The man is still a genius.'

'He's an idiot who glued diamond chips and sapphires onto a live cockroach and then figured out a way to attach it to a thin gold chain without killing it. You think I'm going to wear that thing around my neck and let a living, breathing insect crawl in and out of my cleavage?'

Mere mention of her cleavage set Theo's mind to wandering, but he reeled himself in. 'It's a one-of-a-kind piece'

'Thank God for small favors.'

'Baby-'

'I'm not your baby Stop calling me that.'

'Okay fine. You don't like the roach brooch. Let me make it up to you.'

'How?'

'I don't know. You name it.'

She arched an eyebrow, obviously intrigued. 'Do you mean that?'

'Sure. It was your birthday, and I blew it. Tell me how I can make good.'

'Wow, that's really sweet of you. Anything I want?'

'Yeah. But don't get crazy on me.'

She pondered it, then flashed a mischievous smile. 'I know. This will be perfect. I want you to get…'

'Get you what?'

'No,' she said coyly. 'I don't think I should tell you tonight. I'll let you squirm a little. Like that cockroach you hung around my neck.'

'You're just not gonna let that go, are you?'

She leaned across the bar, grabbed his shirt, and pulled him in for a kiss. 'Keep your promise – anything I want – and we're square.'

'You know me. I'm a man of my word.'

'You'd better be. See you tomorrow.'

Theo enjoyed the view as she turned and walked toward the door with a little attitude, all for his benefit. Then in a raised voice he announced, 'That's it, you scumbags. Bar's closed.'

A few groans rolled in from the crowd, but as soon as the bright lights went up, they scurried for the door like cockroaches – sans jewels.

The time was 2:10 a.m. when the last patron found the parking lot. Theo and two of his employees stayed behind for clean up and closing. He took the cash drawer into the stockroom, locked the door, and set himself up at the card table with a cup of coffee, a calculator, and his ledger book. Numbers were not his strong suit, but he didn't mind math as long as it involved money. He was up to $216 in cash receipts when he heard a noise from behind a wall of stacked beer kegs.

He put down the money and listened. Over the hum of the fluorescent lighting, he thought he heard breathing. Slowly, silently, he slid open the drawer. He always kept a loaded.38-caliber revolver in his desk, and he knew how to use it.

The gun wasn't there.

'Looking for this?'

The voice had come from across the room. Theo looked up and froze. The man was leaning against the tower of beer kegs, showing Theo the business end of his own Smith amp; Wesson.

'Be cool,' said Theo. 'Just take the money and go.'

The man was dressed like a bum – pants with grease stains around the pockets and holes in the knees, and an old shirt with frayed cuffs and buttons that didn't match. But his demeanor was oddly cool for a robbery. 'Don't you recognize me?'

'I ain't even seen your face, okay? No need to worry about me telling the cops what you look like. So grab the cash and get lost.'