Before starting to have feelings for my boss.
“I truly don’t know if Jameson will let her go out in this,” Rosy snickered as we made our way downstairs. “You all see how he looks at her. And now she’s a freaking smoke show.”
“Those boys aren’tlettingus do shit,” Pink reminded us, and we all agreed in solidarity.
“Remember, we stand our ground. Even if Hades makes heart eyes at you, Rosy,” Pink told her as we rounded a corner. “And I’m going into Chicago. They can get fucked if they want us to stay in Paradise Grove.”
“Oh, Lord,” Olive groaned.
“What?” Pink shrugged. “If he wants to send security to watch Mia so she doesn’t run off, they can, but no one is staying locked inside this community all summer.”
“Excuse me?” I halted. “I would not run off on Franny.”
“Or us,” Rosy added just to be clear that she was a part of the equation.
“Right, or you. Or Archer. Jameson knows this. So it should be fine.” All of them stared at me. And it dawned on me in that hallway that I wasn’t privy to the whole story. I hated feeling like someone hadn’t told me something. “What?”
Pink smirked like she had a brilliant idea. “You know what, let’s go tell him.”
I stumbled, not at all sure I wanted to barge into that office, but I mean, I was a big girl. I stood up for myself. Even if the man behind that door was also a killer.
And when we opened the door, I was sure his friends were too.
The faces of those men, all dressed in dark suits, were murderous.
“Bane Black,” Pink singsonged as she sauntered in with her hand tightly gripping mine. “I’m leaving your ass to go dance tonight with these lovely ladies.”
Each of the men halted their conversation to look our way. I could tell who belonged to who immediately by the way their eyes drifted over their significant other. Bane was a beast of a man, eyes so cold they could make you feel like you were in Antarctica, but he kept his stare on Pink. Jameson and another man sat on the leather sofa, but Jameson’s eyes didn’t look up from the paperwork he had in his lap, as if he were completely unaffected by my presence. He did shift enough to pet Malek by his side, but that was it. Instead, the man next to him glanced up at me and smirked, while Hades acted like the grim reaper in the room, a cloud of darkness shifting between Rosy and him, although he didn’t speak first.
He left that to Bane. “Mrs. Black, you sure you don’t wantmeto come dance with you?”
“Negative.” She looked at her fingernails as if completely unaffected, but I saw the blush on her cheeks. “It’s ladies’ night.”
“It’s your night every night. So, do what you want, but I’ll be watching and tracking you the whole time.”
“Don’t trust me?” She lifted a brow.
“Don’t trust men around your pretty pink—”
“Shut your mouth, Bane,” she told him as he walked over to her and kissed her full on the mouth. The girl was still holding my hand and didn’t even let go as he gave her a kiss to make even my knees weak. She shoved him back after a second and murmured, “Love you.”
He didn’t hesitate to say it back as Olive’s husband leaned against the desk and stared her down. “Why do you have to go without me?”
“Because girls need time away.”
“From the love of your life, honeybee?” He sounded like a dejected baby, but when he moved in to kiss her, he grabbed her ass and proved he was very much all man.
Olive rolled her eyes and kissed him two more times before pulling back. “You’ll be fine, Dimitri. Be a good daddy tonight and put our little one to bed.”
The man next to Jameson tsked at them. “I’d tell you all you’ve gone soft, but I think you know that already.”
His voice was a lot like Jameson’s, and his eyes just as cold. Their jawline and bone structure were very much the same, and it occurred to me that Jameson had a brother he’d never told me about.
Maybe more than one.
I honestly didn’t know anything about him, and he probably wanted it that way.
He wanted me disconnected, and so I would be. How dare he even act as though he cared enough to offer a flight to seemy sister, when now he couldn’t even be bothered with my presence?
