Hearing Esme's smoky voice again, even elevated in volume in order to speak above the din of the club, made Frank twitch a little.<br/><br/>His eyes perused her body, now that he was up close to it.<br/><br/>"I...think we should go somewhere else," he said, looking around the club. The bouncer continued to eye Frank warily. Frank, in turn, frowned and looked at Esme.<br/><br/>"You wanna tell the gorilla over there that I'm friendly?" After a pregnant pause, Frank added, "Unless of course you think otherwise."<br/><br/>Frank smirked at her and downed some more of his beer.<br/><br/>There was a moment of truth, where Esme could have gone one of two ways: agreeing to talk, or telling him to bug off in so many words. Frank bit on his lower lip nervously, hoping that she wouldn't make him do anything the hard way. To his relief, she agreed to take the conversation elsewhere.<br/><br/>She chose a table at the back of the room, not far from where Frank sat and ate his dinner, admiring Esme's performance.<br/><br/>Once they were settled, Frank took a big swig of beer and said, "You're in danger."<br/><br/>There was no reason to beat around the bush. No reason to sugarcoat it. Esme looked like a woman who didn't want her time wasted, anyway. Might as well cut to the chase.<br/><br/>Frank gave her a moment to digest those three words before continuing. "As fate would have it, I've been retained by a client who has connections to the police, and possibly the feds," Frank said, hoping that he didn't sound like something from a late night Lifetime movie.  "And there's intel that you're being targeted. Kidnapping."<br/><br/>Frank knew that this was a lot to unload on a woman who he had history with and who wasn't exactly thrilled to see him. But again, no reason to hem and haw about it.<br/><br/>Frank eyed Esme closely as she prepared to speak in reply. He thought he knew her well enough to know whether she'd order one of the bouncers to kick him out, or want to know more.<br/><br/>His eyes narrowed as he sized her up. She paused long enough to make him think that if she was going to have him tossed out on his ear, she'd have done so. Instead, he was still sitting across from her, she made no glance toward any gorillas and she didn't throw her drink at him. All good signs.