by Nina Levine
The night gave way to day as I dealt with my emails, phone calls, and meetings with Merrick and my boys. There was nothing out of the ordinary today. Three o’clock rolled around, and exhaustion called my name. But as I stepped through the front door of Layla’s bar, I felt pumped. The dual thoughts of seeing her and kicking someone’s ass if they needed it fuelled my newfound energy.
Thursday afternoon seemed to be a quiet time. There were only ten customers by my count. I slowed my approach as I made my way to where Layla stood at the bar. Her ass was on full display while she bent over picking something up from the floor. Fuck, her curves were sexy. My gaze stayed glued to them until she retrieved whatever she was after and straightened. She spun around on the spot and caught me staring at her.
“Fuck, do you always creep up on people like that?” she asked, her hand going to her chest and her eyes wide.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to frighten you,” I apologised.
She calmed herself down and waved my apology away. “No, it’s all good, I was in my own little world and then heard you. You didn’t frighten me, just made me jump a little.”
I followed her to the end of the bar where she had her bag. “You ready?” I watched her rummage through it like a madwoman. What the hell women kept in their bags was beyond me.
“Yeah, just gotta tell the girls I’m going out. I’ll be right back.” She slung her bag over her shoulder and ducked out of sight through a doorway.
Within a couple of minutes she was back, and I followed her outside. She came to a stop and I realised she needed to know which car belonged to me.
“The black Jag,” I said, pointing towards it.
She dropped her head slightly and raised her brows at me. “I probably could have worked out which car it was without the colour.”
I scanned the street. She had a point; there were no other Jags to be seen. I ignored her statement, though, and opened the door for her. This earned me another eyebrow raise. “What?” I asked.
She slid into the seat before looking up at me. “It’s not often a man opens the door for a woman anymore.”
“There should be more of it,” I said.
“I agree.”
Once she had her seatbelt on, I closed her door and walked around to my side. I had no idea where we were going today, but I hoped it wasn’t close by. The more time alone with her, the better, as far as I was concerned.
A couple of minutes later, I pulled away from the kerb, and we were silent until she said, “I always wondered why people would spend so much on a car. Still don’t really get it, but this is pretty damn comfortable.”
I found her honesty refreshing. Glancing at her, I asked, “Did you grow up with money?”
“Yes.”
“But they didn’t spend it on cars?”
“They did. They had so much money and bought anything and everything they wanted or thought I wanted.” She paused before adding softly, “We were the most miserable people you could ever meet. Money did that to us.”
“And that’s why you wonder why people spend so much on cars.”
“Bingo. If my parents had spent their time like they spent their money, happy would have been my middle name.” She shifted in her seat, and I glanced across to see her looking at me. “How about you, Donovan? Did you have money growing up?”
“No. My mother worked her ass off just to give me the basics, let alone anything else.”
“So, it was just you and your mother?”
“Yeah.”
“And your Dad? Where was he?”
Usually, I hated being pushed to talk about Marcus, so it stunned the hell out of me when I found myself answering her question. “Marcus was married to another woman and had another family. He visited us when it suited him and hardly gave my mother any money.”
She sat silently next to me. When she still hadn’t said anything a couple of moments later, I turned to look at her. She was staring at me with a look I couldn’t place. I frowned. “What?”
“No offence to you, because you strike me as one of the good guys, but fuck, men can be assholes sometimes.”
I nodded and murmured, “Yeah.”
If only she knew the half of it.
We retreated from each other, lost in our own minds for the remainder of the trip. It was an easy silence. Hell, although Layla could be stubborn and argumentative, being with her was easy. The half-hour drive passed quickly, and when she directed me to the rundown house in a shitty suburb I knew well, I cursed under my breath.
The past always came back to bite you in the ass.
I cut the engine and looked at Layla. “Why don’t you wait here while I go in and deal with this?”
“Like hell. I told you I wanted to be here for this. I’ve got shit I want to say to him, too.”
I squeezed my fingers around the steering wheel. Why did she have to choose now to dig her heels in? “Layla, I told you, if shit went south you had to do as I said.”
“Shit hasn’t gone south yet.”
“Yeah, well, it’s about to.”
She narrowed her eyes on me. “Why? What are you about to do?”
I shook my head. “It’s not what I’m about to do. It’s what Gary’s about to do.” Gary was a loose cannon. Fuck knew how he’d handle me showing up here.
I watched as she processed my words and saw the moment she realised exactly what I was saying in not so many words. “Shit! You know Gary.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, so do I, and he’s a fucking asshole I need to have words with, so until shit really goes south, I’m coming in,” she declared and exited the car.
Fuck.
I got out as well and hurried to catch up to her. She was nearly at the front door and I had to stop her before she barged in and caused no end of fucking problems. I caught her by the wrist and pulled her back. “Layla,” I hissed, “I’m not kidding when I say you need to let me handle this.”
She scowled at me and yanked her wrist out of my grip. “And I’m not kidding when I say I have something to tell him.”
We stood glaring at each other, neither backing down. And then Gary ripped the door open and stepped outside.
“Blade? What the fuck?” Confusion plastered his face as he looked between Layla and me. To her, he said, “I’m done with you and that bitch cousin of yours so you can fuck off.”
That did it for Layla. She shoved past me and got in his face. “Don’t come anywhere near Annie ever again. You’ve spent the last year shredding what little self-esteem she had to pieces. You’re a fucking asshole, and I hope the next woman you fuck with squeezes the shit out of your balls and screws you over.”
I thought she was done, but she wasn’t. Once she’d said her piece, she caught him off guard with a knee to the balls. As he doubled over in pain, she placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed him so hard he fell on his back. Hell, this was a woman on a mission, and I stood back and enjoyed the show. She wasn’t quite finished yet and took a determined step forward so she could press her boot to his dick. Bending down slightly, she threatened, “You come near Annie again, and I’ll find ways to make you hurt worse than this.”
Goddamn, I was growing hard watching her.
She pressed harder on his dick, and he screamed in pain. “Tell me you understand, motherfucker,” she demanded, and he nodded his head furiously. Oh yeah, he understood. She removed her foot and said, “Good.”
When she turned to look at me, I raised my brows. “You finished?”
Her chest heaved and she blew out a breath. “Yes.”
I jerked my head towards the car. “Wait for me in the car.”
I waited for her to protest, but she didn’t. For once, she did what she was told and left us alone. I waited until she was settled in the car before reaching down to pull Gary up by his shirt. “You sorry sack of shit. Never did know how to treat a woman right, did you?” Memories of his past behaviour flooded my mind, and I had to restrain myself from doing some s
erious damage.
The pain Layla had inflicted was stamped on his face but he put on a show of being unaffected. He spat on the ground at my feet and sneered, “Ricky always did say you were a fucking pussy where women were concerned. Seems he was right.”
Ricky Grecian.
Will I ever fucking escape him?
“There’s such a thing as treating a woman right, asshole. Sadly, men like you and Ricky haven’t got a fucking clue how to do it. If you come near Annie again, I will personally make sure you never have the ability to fuck with anyone again.”
He stared at me. Probably weighing which step to take now. “I’m not fucking interested in her anyway. Fucking cunt wouldn’t open her legs for me.”
Blood roared in my head, and it threatened to explode with anger. My muscles tensed, ready to knock him the fuck out. I wanted his blood, fucking craved it for what he’d said and the way he’d treated Annie and the women before her. I dug my fingers into his shirt and gripped it hard. Pulling him to me, I roared, “Women weren’t put on this earth for your fucking pleasure, motherfucker. If I so much as hear a whisper that you’re up to your old tricks, so help you god.” I maintained my hard grip on him for a few more moments before shoving him away from me.
He stumbled backwards but when he got his bearings, he stalked back towards me and got in my face. “You should watch your fucking back, Blade. Ricky’s got plans to take you out, asshole, and I can’t fucking wait to see that day. He should have done it years ago after you kicked him out.”
The crunch of bone I heard when my fist connected with his face was the most satisfying sound I’d heard all day. I backed it up with a couple more punches until Gary was sprawled on the grass, his face a bloody mess. Standing over him, I growled, “Ricky can plan shit all he likes, but he doesn’t have the backing he’d need to take me out. And you’re wrong about one other thing: I shouldn’t have let him walk away all those years ago.”
I stalked to the car before I allowed my inner demons out to finish him off. He had no idea how close he’d come to death today. Possibly the only thing holding me back was Layla. Judging by her reaction to my blood-covered shirt when I slid into the seat next to her a moment later, she may not have cared.
Her gaze focused on my shirt. “I see you sorted him out.”
I waited for her to shift her eyes to mine before answering. “Yeah, I sorted him out.”
“Good,” she said, and reached for her belt, clipping it in. “Now take me the hell home. I don’t want to spend another fucking minute in this dump.”
I couldn’t agree with her more.
***
After I dropped Layla off back at her bar, I turned the car towards my mother’s house. I wanted to check in on her, make sure she hadn’t caved and let Marcus back in. On the drive there, I called Merrick.
“I want everything you can find about Layla Reed,” I said when he answered.
“I’m one step ahead of you.”
“You’ve got it already?” I asked, surprised he’d beaten me to it.
“Still gathering it, but yeah, almost done.”
“Anything interesting so far?”
“Her family is Reed’s Mining.”
“Fuck.” She wasn’t kidding when she said she came from money. Her family was at the top of the social ladder. Everyone in Australia knew Reed’s Mining.
“She dropped out of the public eye when she was eighteen, though. Cut all ties to her family and no one knows why. It was all very hush-hush at the time, but what seems odd is that her cousin, Annie, also dropped out at the same time.”
“Where does Annie fit into all this?”
“Their fathers are brothers. They inherited the company together from their father.”
“Something happened that concerned both of them, yeah?”
“That’s my guess. It must have been bad, because Layla walked away from it all, both the family and the money. You ever hear of someone walking away from that kind of money?”
No one walked away from millions unless they had a damn good reason.
“Never.”
“I’ll keep digging, see what we can come up with,” he promised.
“How the hell did you know I’d want this information?”
“Blade, you’ve been frequenting her bar for over a year, and now you’ve involved yourself with her problems, putting yourself out for her. You need me to go on?”
Fucker knew me better than I knew myself sometimes.
“No,” I snapped.
“Where are you going now?”
“I’m gonna check in with my mother and then head over to see Madison. Call me if you need me or have anything else to report about Layla.”
“Will do,” he said, and we ended the call.
The more I learnt about Layla, the more I wanted to get to know her and spend time with her. At the same time, it confused the fuck out of me. Ashley still haunted me, and I knew in my gut I hadn’t dealt with that fully yet. To even consider opening up to someone new was madness.
Chapter Seven
Layla
Midnight.
Friday night.
I stood at the bar and surveyed the room.
Where the fuck was all our customers?
“You want a drink, boss?”
I turned to Jess. She held vodka in her hand: my usual drink. Not tonight, I decided. Tonight was a tequila night. I shook my head and pointed at the tequila. “Pour me a shot of that. And you’re having one with me. Damian can run the bar by himself with the amount of fucking people in here tonight.”
She grinned. “Hell, yeah.” She swapped the vodka for tequila and poured two shots.
After she passed me one, she raised her shot. “To good friends and good men.”
I raised my shot as well, and we drank them down together. When I was done, I lined my shot glass up for another and asked, “What’s with that toast? Good men?”
She poured more drinks and explained, “You need to get laid, and it’s been over a week since your man has been in here. Now, I’m not sure what happened there, so I’m toasting to good men in the hopes that either he comes back or someone else walks in.”
I didn’t wait for her this time; I threw the shot back, placed the glass on the bar and slid it her way for more. Eyeing her, I said, “Nothing happened with him, that’s the weird thing. He was all about helping me, and then he just disappeared.”
She shrugged and poured more drinks. “So odd. I would have bet money he was gonna make a move on you.”
Damian finished with his customer and joined us. “You ladies getting trashed tonight?”
Jess grinned at him, held her shot up and drank it. “Sure are. Boss lady is in the mood. I can’t say no to that.”
He rolled his eyes. “Jess, when have you ever said no to alcohol? Seriously, some days I worry you’re working in the wrong place. I often wonder how long until we’ll have to check you into rehab.”
She poked her tongue at him. “Very funny.”
I drank my shot and slammed the empty glass down. “He’s got a point, Jess.”
“Oh my god! I hate it when you two gang up on me.”
I clicked my fingers to indicate I needed more tequila. “Quick, get some more alcohol in you. It makes it all better.”
Damian muttered something under his breath and left us to take care of the customer now waiting at the other end of the bar.
Jess poured another shot. As she handed it to me, she asked, “Is Annie okay?”
“As far as I know. Why?”
“She just seemed a little quiet today.”
“It’s been a big week for her. She hasn’t had a job for so long now and I think she’s struggled a bit this week with learning it all.”
“She’s doing really well, though,” Jess said, and that meant something. Jess didn’t blow wind up anyone’s skirt.
“Yeah, I think so, too. Glad you can see it as well. My goal is to give her as much confidence as possible, and i
f she can master some new skills, that will help.”
“Are you going to call that psychologist you got the name for the other day?”
I drank the shot. “I called her today, and Annie has her first appointment early next week.”
She smiled at me. “You’re a good woman, Layla. She’s lucky to have you.”
I thought about growing up with Annie. She’d been my constant companion when our parents dumped us with babysitters so they could go out to parties. We’d been like sisters back then, sharing everything from clothes, to makeup, and secrets. Annie had been there for me every time I needed her. Looking at Jess, I said, “I can’t abandon her. She’s the only family I have, and we always look out for each other.”
“Yeah, but you seem to do all the giving in that relationship. Annie would be lost without you.”
“I don’t keep score, Jess. You can’t live your life like that. I’m here for Annie for whatever she needs for as long as she needs it. Who’s to say in five years it won’t be the other way around?”
“True.” She held up the tequila. “You want another one?”
“One more, and I think that will be enough.” The effect of the alcohol was slowly making its way through my body, and I was feeling much more relaxed.
Thank fuck.
I drank the shot she passed me a moment later, and as I downed it, my core clenched at the sight I glimpsed.
Donovan.
His eyes found mine, and he headed my way, not letting my gaze go.
“Evening,” he murmured when he was standing in front of me.
My tummy fluttered as his voice slid through me. Commanding would be how I’d describe it best. It affected me so much I almost lost my balance. Never in my life had I come across a man who could do that from the sound of his voice alone.
Jess cut into my thoughts. “I’ll leave you to it.” She took the tequila and headed over to where Damian was. I didn’t take much notice, though, because my attention was completely on Donovan.
“It’s been a week since I’ve seen you,” I stated.
And I’ve missed you.
“I’ve been busy.”
“Bullshit.” Fuck, the tequila was doing all the talking now.
