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Micah called, not quite a yell, “Anita, what’s taking so long?”

“Ronnie doesn’t want to leave.”

“Then, let’s go.” Something in his voice made me want to see what was happening with him.

“I’ll be right back, don’t do anything that you can get arrested for.” Dallas gave me a look that said plainly he was going to try and do just the opposite, but it was the best I could do, unless I wanted to drag Ronnie out of the booth by her hair. I wanted to see why Micah’s voice sounded the way it did.

Micah was very politely, but firmly, saying to an older gentleman, “Thank you, but no, we’re waiting for a friend.”

“I’ll be your friend,” the man said. He flashed a wad of bills about waist height, so you wouldn’t see it from farther into the club. The bill that showed was a twenty, leaving the implication that it was a roll of twenties.

Micah shook his head.

The man peeled off two twenties.

“No,” Micah said.

I was almost up to them, when the man peeled off two more twenties—eighty bucks—and held it up to Micah. “No one else is going to offer you more tonight.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I said, “I’m throwing in room and board, and sex with a girl.” I put my arm around Micah’s waist, and he did the same to me.

The man’s eyes flicked to me, then back to Micah, then to me. “You’re his friend?”

I nodded.

“You really were waiting for a friend,” the man said.

“I did tell you that,” Micah said.

The man frowned and started folding his money away. “I didn’t think you meant this kind of friend.”

“He did,” I said, and gave him the smile that was bright and cheerful and never reached my eyes. I looked around for Nathaniel and found that I could barely see him around the backs of a couple that had him backed into a corner. He raised a hand, so I’d be sure to see him. Or maybe he was asking for help, like a drowning man.

I took Micah’s hand and brought him with me. I think safety in numbers was our best bet. “Excuse me, boys and girls,” I said.

The couple turned and looked at me. The man was tall and dark, the girl was a little taller than me and blond. She was wearing a halter dress that needed to be lined better. Her nipples were dark imprints against the pale fabric. I carefully kept my gaze above her waist, not even wanting to know if there were other dark imprints lower down. I don’t mean to give the idea that they were cheap looking, they weren’t. The girl was wearing a diamond in her engagement ring big enough to choke a puppy, and her bracelets were gold and more diamonds. Her makeup was artful, which meant she looked like she was wearing almost none but was actually wearing a lot. The man was dressed in a suit that had been tailored to his body and had probably come from the same shop that Micah and Nathaniel got theirs from. It had the look.

“I’m sorry, but we were talking to the gentleman first,” the man said.

I took in a lot of air through my nose and let it out slow. The woman’s perfume was powdery and expensive. “Actually, I was talking to him first, because I brought him here.”

They gave each other surprised looks.

Nathaniel started trying to ease past them. “Sorry,” he said, “I did tell you I came with somebody.” When he was safely beside me, and I was holding both Micah’s and Nathaniel’s hands, I figured we were safe from any more propositions. Silly me.

The woman went up on tiptoe, and the man bent down so she could whisper. I didn’t care anymore. I started trying to maneuver us back to Ronnie. The area was just a little narrow for three people to move easily.

“Wait,” the woman said.

I turned back, because that’s what you do when someone speaks to you.

“All three of you with us,” she said.

I blinked at her, the long blink that gave me time to process information when I just didn’t believe what I’d just heard. Once upon a time, I’d have asked her what she meant, but I’d grown up since then, and I knew the answer. “No,” I said, and sort of pushed Micah in front of me and pulled Nathaniel behind. We came to an abrupt halt, because Nathaniel stopped moving.

I knew what I was going to see before I turned