If only looks could kill.

I stared down at Kai, not even three seats away from me, hoping he could read my mind.

It wasn’t that he was foreign, it wasn’t that he was trying to take my job or any of that other stereotypical crap, it was that he was so cocky about it. Never in my life had I seen somebody walk into someone else’s bar, spin a few things around like they owned the place, and then sit back down like they think they’re going to get hired just because they did something flashy.

Maybe that was the way the youth did it, but in my day and age, you had to earn the job. You weren’t owed it. You had to work for it, prove you had the chops for it. As far as I was concerned, Kai only had the chops for standing in front of his mirror to make his hair stood up in just the right places.

But God dammit, no foreigner was going to outshine me. Not on my watch—even if he was hotter than Hades because he damn sure was. As much as I wanted to hate him, I couldn’t stop looking at him, which irritated me more than anything else. He looked like he was a Greek statue come to life, all marbled muscle, biceps bulging underneath the navy sweatshirt he wore way too tight, which perfectly complemented his oceanic eyes. If that wasn’t enough, he also wore his dirty blond hair buzzed on the sides and longer up top.

Awright, I shit you not, the boy was a supermodel.

But it didn’t matter one iota how much I found him attractive because as far as I was concerned, he was never going to get a job here. I didn’t honestly think Jason and George were considering him. I assumed the reason they’d run off like giggly schoolgirls and left the two of us alone wasn’t that they needed to talk, but because they wanted to let Kai down easy, in a way that was more courteous, more southern. It wasn’t like things up north, where people had no time for you, so they just wrote you off and told you where to go and how to get there soon as they were done; we had a protocol down here, and the boys were sure to follow it.

“What’s your deal?” Kai asked, stirring me out of my thoughts.

“My deal? Is that some foreign slang or somethin’?” I asked. I knew damn well what he meant, but I wasn’t going to give him the luxury of getting under my skin since that was clearly what he was trying to do. I couldn’t put my finger on it, couldn’t say why, but my gut was screaming at me there was something fishy about this guy—and not just because of all the fish he no doubt ate. And it wasn’t just because I thought he was hot, though that was bothering me in the pit of my stomach too.

“It’s American slang. I’m asking you what your problem with me is. To use more American slang you might be more familiar with, you seem like you’ve ‘got beef’ with me or something,” Kai said, fixing his deep blue eyes on me. Despite myself, I felt goosebumps ripple across my skin, and I folded my arms across each other to cover it up. He smirked at me.

“Only man I got beef with is the butcher,” I said, and my face caught fire at my stupidity. Why the hell would I say something like that? He burst out laughing, shook his head at me and rolled his eyes.

“Well, it seems like you two are getting along swimmingly,” Jason said, just as I opened my mouth to fire back at Kai, tell him to stop rolling his eyes and take his cocky ass right on outta my bar.

“He started it,” I said, my arms still crossed, and Jason chuckled before rolling his eyes at me. I had to look like a spoiled toddler crying over spilled milk to him, but I didn’t give a damn.

“He’s not wrong,” Kai said, looking at Jason with a smirk.

“Yeah, somehow I didn’t doubt it. You seem like you’re the type who likes to stir things up. Would that be a problem if we decided to hire you?” George asked, fixing his eyes on Kai, whose cockiness seemed to evaporate almost instantly. Good for George for putting him on the spot, doing what I couldn’t do.

“I can be professional. That’s one thing about working in a bar, you have to learn to be around people that you might not necessarily get along with,” Kai said, and I nearly choked at the smile that appeared on George’s face. He was eating the shit up like it was a hearty breakfast, and it made me sick. Kai didn’t mean any of it; I could read right through him like cigarette paper, he was just saying what George wanted to hear to get the job. Couldn’t blame him for that, but it was disgusting.

“Good, I’m glad to hear it. We need some time to talk this over, you know, try to figure things out. You mind leaving your phone number for us so we can holler back at you?” George asked, reaching around the bar to tear off a strip of paper from the cash registers receipt role. Though Kai looked like he didn’t understand the slang, he nodded.

“Absolutely,” he said and flashed me a smile and a wink. If George and Jason hadn’t been there, I would’ve reached across the bar and smacked him right upside his pretty little Swedish head. Was there anything redeeming about this guy?

Kai scribbled his phone number down on the piece of paper and slid it back to George, who held it up and looked at it like it was written in Japanese. I could only see from the back, thanks to the overhead light, but there were far more numbers there than there shoulda been. Was this Kai’s idea of a joke?

“Why are there so many numbers?” George asked.

“International phone number. I don’t have anything set up here yet, sorry,” Kai said.

“How long you been here, boy?” I asked, unable to take it anymore.

“Just a few days, boy,” Kai said, turning my condescension back at me. Of all the things he’d said and done, that enraged me the most. It wasn’t bad enough he’d come in here and made me look like a damn fool, now he was mocking me too? This couldn’t stand, I wouldn’t allow it. I had to make Jason and George both see reason here, make ‘em see that I wasn’t overreacting and trying to stir the grits. This guy was not a good fit, I could feel it in my bones.

“Kinda odd that the son of bigshot movie stars wouldn’t have some cash flowing in to get something basic like a phone set up, don’t you reckon?” I asked Jason, and he shrugged at me. So much for best friend.

“Money can’t solve all problems,” Kai said. “Anyway, I’ll leave you guys alone to deliberate for a while. Give me a call whenever you want me to come back in, I don’t have any other scheduling conflicts, so I’m free whenever,” he continued, standing up and offering a hand to shake for both George and Jason. Good, I was glad to see him go, glad to get his sarcasm and cockiness away from me—it was making me ten times more ornery than I already was.

Didn’t help that Kai looked so much like Scott that I almost choked the first time I seen him.

“What the hell was that?” Jason said, whirling on me after Kai had stepped out of the bar. “I thought I told you to calm the hell down, and yet here you come like some attack dog. Did you get sand in your panties this morning?” Jason asked.

“I’m sorry, there’s just something about that guy, he ain’t right. Don’t tell me you didn’t see it, it was so clear Ray Charles coulda seen it,” I said, and George chuckled. At least he got the joke, but Jason didn’t seem impressed.

“Very funny. I hope you’re not gonna treat every person who walks through those doors looking for a job like this,” Jason said, and again my face caught fire. Sure, it wasn’t fair of me to act like like I had, and under any other circumstances I would never have dreamed of doing it, but I wasn’t kidding when I said there was something off about the guy.

“I’ll leave you ladies to it,” George said and disappeared back into his office. Jason looked from Dan to me and let out a sigh.

“What the hell am I supposed to do with this? If you didn’t scare that guy away, I’d be stunned,” Jason said as he sunk back down into one of the barstools. Dan massaged his shoulders and gave me a look that said that if I said one more wrong thing he’d put a knife in my keister.

“Oh, believe me, y’all ain’t seen the last of that clown yet,” I said, though I wished it wasn’t true.* Like I said, I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something that guy wasn’t telling us, and I was damn sure not about to let Jason make a bad decision by bringing him in here.

“Why do you care so much? Clearly, he’s qualified, more qualified than anybody else we’re ever going to find in this town,” Jason said. “Besides, I thought you’d be happy to have somebody in here to help us, take some of the pressure off you, give at least a few of us a day or two off a week.”

“That ain’t it at all, don’t turn this back on me like that. I’m telling you, Jason, as my best bud in the world, something ain’t adding up with this one. I got a gut feeling about him, and you know how I am about my gut feelings. More times than not they’re right,” I said.

“And what about the times they’re wrong? What if you’re wrong about him? What if this is all some weird overreaction on your part because you feel like you’re being replaced?” Jason asked, and though he hadn’t meant for it to be nasty, it stuck in my chest like an arrow. “I told you earlier, we’re not replacing you, we’re adding to the workforce. There’s a big difference.”

“I know, I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to say you shouldn’t hire anybody at all. All I’m saying is I don’t trust that guy,” I said, which was about as plainly as I could put it. “It’s almost like watching a drunk redneck stumble into the fireworks store. If you’re the cashier, you know selling the lush some combustible stuff is only going to lead to one or more of his arms gettin’ blown off. If you were in a situation like that, would you sell him the fireworks?” I asked and Dan and Jason both laughed and shook their heads at me.

“I don’t even know what the hell that’s supposed to mean,” Jason said. “But what I do know is that the decision is not up to you. Look, I don’t mean to be a dick, and I’m not trying to tell you that your opinion doesn’t matter because you know I trust your evaluation of people almost as much as anybody else I know, but you’ve gotta let this go.”

“I don’t know, Jason, Mike might be on to something here,” Dan said, and my heart skipped a beat. Finally, somebody was listening to reason.

“See? Now even your fiancé’s tellin’ you to listen, so you damn well better,” I said.

“What are you talking about?” Jason asked over his shoulder. Dan frowned and hemmed and hawed before finally speaking up when Jason prodded him in the side.

“I’ve heard some things about that guy; some stuff has come up in the media and some of my circles in Hollywood. He doesn’t have a very good reputation,” Dan said, and I almost jumped out of my chair. Thank God for Dan, thank God for his mysterious Hollywood connections, which in any other circumstance I would’ve been annoyed by.

“Hot damn! Would you look at that, my gut feeling was right yet again,” I said, slapping the bar triumphantly, but Jason only looked at me from the side of his eyes, more or less telling me to shut the hell up.

“What kind of stuff? How bad are we talking here?” Jason asked.

“Well, I don’t know, maybe it’s not my place to tell tales out of school,” Dan said.

“Bullshit, if you know something, you need to spill it before George runs off and hires Kai. Because trust me, I know my brother. In his mind, Kai’s already got the job,” Jason said.

“Fine, fine. Have it your way, but you didn’t hear any of this from me,” Dan said.

“Scout’s honor,” Jason said, holding up three fingers.

“OK, so I’ve heard that his parents have had a lot of trouble with him over the years. I won’t go into too much detail because I don’t know how much of it is true, but I heard that they were thinking about sending him away after his last stunt,” Dan said.

“What last stunt?”

“I don’t know the details. All I know is that he did something awful at the university he was going to, so awful that rumors are swirling his parents might send him away for good because he was giving them such a bad name in the media. You know, the typical spoiled Hollywood kid stuff, only this time Swedish,” Dan said. I knew it was bad, but I would never have guessed it was that bad. What the hell could this kid have done to get him sent away by his parents? I thought it was part and parcel for famous spoiled kids to be able to do whatever the hell they wanted and get away with it…

“Well, I guess we’ll have to do some digging. In the meantime, while we still don’t know what we’re working with, I’d say to lay low—especially you, Mike,” Jason said, fixing his eyes on me. I nodded, holding my hands up in the air. Nothing I could say or do would match up to what Dan had just divulged, the cold water he’d thrown on Kai’s prospects, and weirdly I was kinda disappointed by it.

“So, does he have the job?” I asked. I couldn’t help myself because it didn’t sound like Jason had made up his mind not to hire him.

“I don’t know yet. I guess we’ll have to talk to him tomorrow before I can answer that,” Jason said and got up to go into the office to talk with George. Smiling at me sadly, Dan patted me on the shoulder and left me alone with nothing but my thoughts.

The day just kept getting better.