Her arms cross over her chest and she shifts her weight onto one foot, arching an eyebrow at me. “I’m tempted to have security pat you down on your way out,” she says.
“You’re more than welcome to pat me down, darlin’.” I drop a hand onto her shoulder, sliding behind her, and bend down to put my mouth next to her ear, holding back a laugh while I purr. “You’re only gonna find one weapon on me, though.”
“Oh, good god, Davis!” She shouts, turning to shove me away from her. “You’re such a pig!”
I snort a laugh as I make my way to the door of my office and turn and throw her a shrug. “But you don’t wanna go with me anymore now, do ya?”
Making Rowan Fowler uncomfortable is one of my favorite hobbies. I like to throw out lines that would have her on the verge of pepper spraying me if she didn’t know me, because her reactions are always over the top and hilarious. The little flirtations are harmless and both of us know it; I’d never do anything or touch her. Before she and Colt got together, sure, but now she’s family, and I don’t look at her like that. I just like to fuck with her now.
•
The office of Montgomery Entertainment is more pretentious than I remember it; the building itself is almost entirely mirrored, which is less obnoxious than the interior, painted in shades of gold and white. A handful of receptionists sit behind a long marble desk, typing away at their computers.
“Hi darlin’,” I greet one of them, draping my arm over the desk. “I have an appointment with your boss, can you help me out with that?” Her eyes snap up to me and she straightens her spine, her cheeks going pink while she stares up at me. “Eric Davis,” I add, throwing her a wink.
“Right. Of course.” She types up a few things on the keyboard in front of her, her eyes flicking between the computer screen and me, and the corner of my mouth pulls up in a grin. “You’re— he can see you now. Follow me, please.”
I’m led toward an elevator at the end of a long hallway. The woman pulls a keycard from the lanyard around her neck and presses it to a small scanner at the side of the door. “You’ll be going to eight,” she tells me as the doors slide open.
“Thanks, darlin’,” I tell her with one last parting wink. “You take care, now.”
I step inside to find myself surrounded by mirrors on all sides – even the ceiling. A wide, gold bar wraps around the perimeter of the cabin and I lean against it, crossing my ankles while Muzak that is trying real damn hard not to sound like Muzak plays through the speakers.
The elevator dings as the doors open to reveal another goddamn hallway, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that I’m heading for the white, two-paneled double doors at the end of the hall. I don’t bother knocking before grabbing onto the gold knobs and giving them a turn, shoving the doors open.
“Oh, good,” Nash says, propping his elbows on top of his desk, “the brute can tell time.”
“Already got the ruler out, Nash?” I ask as I pull a chair from the desk and drop into it. “And here I was, hoping this could be a normal conversation.”
“You poached seven of my employees,” He tells me. “Thatis unacceptable.”
He pulls open the top drawer of his desk, bringing out a box of Nicaraguan cigars. He clips the end of one before setting it between his lips and bringing a lighter to the end of it, filling his mouth with thick smoke.
“Oh, I didn’t poach jack shit and you know it,” I scoff, crossing an ankle over my knee. “I made an offer. It’s not my fault they chose safety over being forced to deal with unwashed dicks and no understanding of the word ‘no.’”
“The arrangement that we had prior to this was fine, Texan. I didn’t mind you coming into my club when you were spending your money, but now you’retaking my moneyby taking my girls,” he explains, puffing on the end of his cigar. “It doesn’t seem entirely coincidental that as soon as your club opens, you come in and steal my girls. I was so focused on the business itself, I hadn’t realized you would be such a shark.”
“Only five of them are working for me,” I laugh. “The other two took a cash gift just to get the fuck away from their pimp and his club. You beat ‘em to keep them in line or did you fuck them like your musty clients did?”
“They’re not my type.”
“Oh, not scared or beat down enough for ya?” I taunt.
“They’re not man enough for me.”
I try to keep the confusion from showing on my face. To hear Sophia tell it, Nash had his hands on her and her coworkers all the damn time. It sounded like he was on the verge of forcing them to fuck him any time he got within ten fucking feet of them.
“Listen,” I tell him, “just keep away from them.EspeciallySophia. I’ll keep out of your clubs from here on out, you keep out of mine. I don’t wanna see you around.”
A wide smile spreads slowly across his face, followed by a deep belly laugh. “We’ll see how that goes for you, won’t we?”
Resting an elbow on the arm of the chair, and my chin on my fist, I tell him, “I’m gonna need seven copies of that release agreement from you.”
Pressing the intercom button on the dial pad, he tells the person on the other line, “Do you have the forms that you were asked to prepare?”
“Yes sir,” a woman – I think the same one that brought me up here – says. “Should I bring them now?”
“No, I just wanted to know if you had them. Of course you should bring them now. Don’t ask me stupid questions.”
