Agent Rogue: Renegade

Chapter 8

It was almost one and my turn to get everyone's drinks. Grabbing the money from my bag, and hoping to god I had enough, I pushed back the thought of my draining bank account and rushed towards the bar.

"Here you go, miss." The bartender placed each of the drinks in front of me. They were larger than shots — a selection of beers — so I would struggle to carry all seven of them. I looked over my shoulder and caught Derek's eye through the forming crowd behind me.

"Can you help?" I asked, hoping for him to read my lips. The bar was much more packed at this hour as a large group of men had recently walked in together, their low voices laughing loudly and drowning out all other voices. He nodded and hopped up to make his way through the crowd.

I turned back to the drinks and picked up as many as I could by the bottlenecks before someone tapped me on the arm.

"You know Derek Barnes?"

I frowned, instantly looking the source up and down. Male. Six foot. Pale skin. Dark hair and heavy stubble that brushed the borderlines of being a beard. His clothes were casual and dark, sprayed by the rain. I was almost sure I had seen him walk in with the crowd.

"What of it?" I said.

His lips curled and he raised his hands. "No need to get suspicious! I'm a friend from school."

I cocked my head. His growing smile pulsed in blurs and I took in his words. Derek had ... friends? Initially, one would think of Derek as a popular man: tall, good-looking, funny (if not a bit arrogant) and possessing a fair amount of athletic skill. Somehow it always surprised me how little friends he had outside of the agency... which were none. It surprised me even more that one of them just so happened to turn up unexpectedly in a fairly average bar suspiciously close to Derek's place of work a few hours after he had arrived.

Derek pushed through the crowds and huffed in exhaustion as he escaped the masses of people. "Bloody hell. Didn't think a pub would be this popular at one o' clock in the... Kieran?"

I looked between Derek and Kieran, letting my frown grow.

"So you do remember me!"

Derek blinked, looking from Kieran, to me, to the drinks. He gathered the remaining bottles. "I've never seen you before in my life."

"Really? But you know my name?"

Derek shrugged and turned to walk away. "You look like a Kieran."

"But I don't look like an idiot," Kieran retorted.

"Debatable," I muttered. Kieran frowned.

"You always let your girl talk to people like that?"

My frown deepened even further as Derek's face twisted. He rotated back around and took a step closer to me.

"I don't 'let' her do anything. 'My girl' does what she wants."

One side of my mouth curled into a smile. Kieran snorted and swirled his drink around his glass. He stared at the bronze liquid solemnly for a moment before snickering quietly to himself.

"Never thought you'd keep anyone, Derek. Not after your string of disasters as a teenager."

Derek clenched his jaw and turned away from Kieran. "Come on," he said. "Let's go."

"Don't you want a catch up?" He called as we began to walk away. Derek and I ignored him as we sat down the drinks. Gabby giggled at nothing in particular as she took another bottle. I made a mental note to give her water after that last one.