Read South Row for Free Online Page B

wine shelf to the corner of the room; a printer in another corner; a mini fridge; a door leading to the parking lot of the club; and a secret door, made to look like a mantle fireplace on the other end of the room, that leads to the bar and the main club area. I’ve been in here one too many times to be intimidated.
    “Talk,” he growls and I have to bite back the urge to giggle. The big, bad, boss man.
    Okay, I’ ll go first.
    “ What the fuck were you doing up there, South?” Collin yells. Soooo…I guess he’ll go first.
    I almost blanch under his ire. His eyes are swirling mad; his heaving breath testament to his anger. The veins in his neck are protruding and his nostrils are flexing with every angry intake of breath. I should be scared. But, like I said, I almost blanch.
    “ Who the hell do you think you are to judge what I do?” I yell right back. I wanted to throw a fuck in there somewhere, but somehow couldn’t. So maybe his anger disarmed me a little.
    “ Who am I?” he shouts. “Yeah, who the fuck am I?” He visibly starts to calm, to retreat.
    No, don’t back down!
    “I’m nobody. You’ve been gone for ten years, South. Ten years ,” he stresses years as if I don’t know how long I’ve been gone.
    “I thought–” he pauses and looks away, but I see the hurt in his eyes.
    “ We thought you were dead. That he–” Collin squeezes his eyes shut as if in pain. When he reopens them, the anger from earlier is back.
    “ Not once did you reach out to us to let us know you were okay. The whole fucking town spent weeks looking for you. Some of us, months!” he rages, and I know he’s referring to himself.
    Well, when he puts things like that I sound like a selfish bitch.
    “But here you are, alive and well, sliding up and down a crab-infested pole, slutting it up for lowlife perverts,” he spews with disdain.
    “Pot, meet kettle,” I shoot back. He’ s pissing me off.
    “ Hey, I run a clean, upstanding establishment,” Trace butts in.
    “ Shut up!” Collin and I yell at him at the same time.
    “ Don’t shout at him!” I snap at Collin.
    “You just did!” he accuses with his hands in the air, I’m guessing in exasperation.
    “ I’m allowed!”
    “Now, wait just one–”
    “Shut up!” we yell at Trace again.
    I scream in f rustration and stomp my feet. I’m not throwing a tantrum. I just…saw a bug. Yeah, that’s it. A bug.
    Collin pauses and stares at me. His lips twitch into a smile that he tries to fight. It makes me calm down and try to fight the smile tugging at my own lips.
    “Don’t,” I warn, the smile appearing in earnest. “I’m mad at you.”
    “Well,” Collin mutters, that panty-melting smile now in full force. “I’m mad at you, too.”
    We are locked into another stare. I know he needs answers, but I just want to get my fill of him, and apparently, so does he of me.
    The door bursts open, shattering the moment. We turn to see Connor being drawn back by a very pissed off Jesse.
    “I tried to stop him, boss,” he says, struggling with him.
    “All of this is my fault,” Connor admits. “If I had just told you both about each other, none of this would have happened.”
    Still pissed off at my best friend, I walk over to him and step on his toes with my stiletto.
    “Fuck!” he cries out, hopping on one foot and trying to clutch at the injured one. “Goddamn it, South!”
    “ Better her than me, little bro,” Collin asserts conspiratorially.
    “ So, you approve of this abuse?” Connor wisecracks, straightening up.
    “ This is no time for jokes, Connor!” Collin booms.
    Damn. His anger is back in waves. He’s swinging between emotions today. This is unlike him. He only used to have mood swings when something wasn’t right with him, and other than me popping back into his life, it seems something else has him behaving a little…off.
    Jesse releases Connor and leaves us alone. We all turn to Trace, thinking he ’ll do the same, but he