Nightfall Read Online Free PDF Page B

line.
    “Your bartender and cook are hard workers,” she said.
“They’re just slow and need training. Your other girl can be taught how to pour
a decent drink, if she’s as eager to please as Maria. Once they realize a good
bartender can get better tips than a bad one, no matter the size of her rack,
that will be a good incentive, though Maria’s not lazy. She’s just young and
has lacked proper supervision.”
    Pretty much what he’d realized tonight, thanks to her
temporary management. She stopped, leveled those killer blue eyes on him.
“That’s plenty. You already know I’m an experienced bar manager who knows what
I’m doing. I need a job and you need me.”
    “Correction. I know you can handle being a bar manager. But
I don’t know dick about you as a human being yet, and that’s part of this job
too.”
    A surprising yet very appealing twinkle passed through her
gaze. “I might not qualify in that regard.”
    “Let me be the judge of that. What’s your full name?”
    “Selene Torres.”
    “But you’re not from around here.”
    “Not recently. I was working up north, in New York.” She
lifted her chin, gave him an imperious look. “Does that disqualify me?”
    Quinn had to swallow a grin. “Only if you talked like you
were from there, which you don’t. Do you have references?”
    “Did the man you just threw out?”
    As she did the leg crossing thing again, he had to restrain
himself from throwing her on the desk and yanking down her jeans to fuck her
senseless. But she did have a point. “How about this?” she suggested. “Try me
for a month. If I haven’t whipped this place into shape you can toss me back
out on the highway.”
    “A month, huh? You think you can turn this place around in
that time?”
    She nodded. “I know I can.”
    Quinn studied her with shrewd eyes. “I may prefer to work
with cattle, but I don’t have manure between my ears, Selene. You have the
skills of a big-city bar manager. Why would you want to work here?”
    “I’m tired of the north, big cities and lots of attention.”
    “You running? Abusive boyfriend, something like that?”
Though he couldn’t see this one being slapped around unless it was the last
thing the poor bastard ever did, for some reason the flicker in her eyes raised
something protective in him. That really made him a dumbass. Don’t get into
trouble you don’t want to invite, Quinn.
    “I needed a change of scenery. Beginning and end of story.”
The set to Selene’s jaw said that was all he was getting out of her on that
point. For now.
    He let his eyes roam over her again. Pedraza, you’ve been
without a woman too long. This could be a worse mistake than Artie. Anyone
could see there was more of a story here than she was telling.
    “A month,” he said at last. Scribbling on a sheet of paper,
he shoved it across the desk to her. “That’s the salary. That suit you?”
    He expected her to laugh, ball it up and toss it in his face
as she sashayed out. Instead, she scanned it with serious eyes, then nodded,
folded it neatly and reached behind her to push it into her rear jeans pocket,
making him wish he could slide his fingers into the same snug place. Maybe a
couple other snug places too.
    “We’re open from seven at night until two in the morning,”
he said. “You can clean everything up when you close and set up for the next
day or come in early and do it.”
    “After we close. I like to leave the bar ready to open. But
you don’t need to micromanage. It will just annoy me. You have a problem with
how I’m doing something, tell me. But otherwise, let me run it the way I want.
Bitch at me if the bottom line isn’t what you want it to be.”
    God, the combination of her wraithlike appearance and her
go-to-hell attitude turned him on like a six-burner stove.
    “We’re not open on Monday. Otherwise it’s a six-day work
week.” He narrowed his gaze. “Think you can handle it?”
    “Yes.” She didn’t blink. “But I