Chapter 28

“South America,” Nick replied promptly. “Always wanted to go. Proper backpacking job, all the way round, like. I’ve got it all planned out, just need to find some way to pay for it.”

“Well, good luck,” Tab said, skirting the pencil around, brushing his fingers out from his still fist, to create a sketched cranium. It wasn’t satisfactory, so he tried again. Skulls weren’t perfectly round, and with Nick’s hair shaved down, it was obvious. “Why do you shave your head?”

“I’m a doorman at Sparkles. Unofficially. Cash-in-hand type deal, you know? Anyway, it’s easier if you look hard,” Nick said.

“You are hard,” Tab mumbled absently, then blinked. Sparkles was the gay bar in the next town over, and…“Unofficially?”

“Not licensed,” Nick said. “I work the bar in there sometimes, too, when they can get the proper lot in. They just need a couple of blokes to look hard at the door and stop the local yobbos thinking it’s a great idea to have a queer-bashing tonight.”