“Wait!” Slay’s face grew even more pale as he spoke through his pain. “Name’s…Amanté…Perez.”
The guy’s name is the Spanish word for lover?
Rolling his eyes, Adrian asked, “Where can we find this Amanté?”
“I don’t know.”
He squeezed Slay’s middle finger.
“I swear! I don’t know!” The man’s entire body shook with pain and fear.
“What do you think?” Adrian looked to Gabe. “You believe him?”
“Please.” Slay was crying now. Actual fucking tears. “I’m telling you thetruth!All I know is Amanté comes in here sometimes. He picks a chick…uh…lady he likes. Buys her a…drink. They dance…end up leaving…together. Except your…girlfriend. She left with…another woman.”
Marie.
Gabe studied the man for a beat longer before nodding. “Yeah. I think his sorry ass is telling the truth.”
Adrian released Slay’s hair but kept his hold on the guy’s middle finger.
“I am!” More blood ran from Slay’s nose as he straightened himself up. It covered his lips and dripped off his chin, down onto the front of his shirt. “I swear.”
“Okay.” Adrian nodded. “I believe you, too.”
Slay’s tense shoulders sagged with relief. A second later, his middle finger snapped in two.
The guy screamed and cried some more as he used his right hand to hold the mangled one to his chest. “You said you believed me!”
“I do.” Adrian took a step back.
“Then what the hell was that for?”
“Being a lowlife piece of dog shit who thought it was okay to put fucking date rape drugs into my woman’s—intoanywoman’s—drink.”
Then, Adrian looked at Gabe and held out his hand. “Give me your gun.”
“Ah, God. Please. Don’t kill me.Please!”
“Would you relax?” Adrian shot Slay a look. “I’m not going to kill you.” He turned back to Gabe and wiggled his fingers. “I’mnot. I promise.”
With obvious reservation, Gabe reached behind his back and pulled his pistol from his waistband. He smacked the gun into Adrian’s outstretched palm.
“Thanks.” Adrian smiled. He then aimed the weapon at the mirror behind Slay and pulled the trigger.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Slay screamed and ducked his head, covering it as best he could with his hands. Shards of the reflective glass shattered and fell all around him.
“Thatwas a warning.” Adrian handed the weapon back to Gabe and waited for the idiot bartender to look at him again.
When he did, Adrian very calmly said, “Something you should know about me, Slay. I, too, have ‘mad connections’. If Ieverhear of you putting anything stronger than alcohol into another woman’s drink again, I’ll come back. And next time, I won’t bother with questions or broken bones. I’ll just put a fucking hole through that dense skull of yours and be done. Understood?”
“Y-yes.” Slay nodded.
“Good.” He smiled. Nodding toward the bloody mess on the bar and the piss and glass on the floor, he added, “Might want to clean that up. You’ll be opening, soon.”
Not waiting for Gabe, Adrian grabbed his crutches and started for the door. Before leaving, he stopped long enough to say, “Oh, and Slay? Find another nickname for yourself. One that’s not so fucking ridiculous.”