“Did he?” I say through gritted teeth.
Gable shrugs. “We were bonding. But let’s talk about this upstairs, with locked doors and …” He uses his thumb and index finger to make a gun.
“Asher Flynn.”
The soft, English-accented voice floats across the foyer, and I physically recoil. Gable is about to make a run for it,and I grip his T-shirt and yank him back. Ella turns in the direction of Monty’s voice.
Monty looks beautiful, as always. A designer dress, not a blonde hair out of place, perfect curls across her shoulders, green eyes filled with a frightening rage that had once turned me on, but now all I can think about is getting Ella as far away from this woman as possible.
“As I live and fuck,” Monty sings, approaching us, her heels clicking across the floor. “What onearthare you …” Her eyes drift to Ella, and the flash of anger across her face is enough to make me want to throw Ella over my shoulder and run like hell. I’ve once seen Monty snap a waiter's neck when he got her order wrong.
Ireallylike Ella’s neck.
Ella looks up at me. “Are you going to introduce us?”
Nope, I’m going to run and take you to Canada. Do you like maple syrup?
Monty extends her hand. “I’m Monty. I work with Asher.”
Ella unwraps an arm from around me and shakes Monty’s hand. “You work with computers, too?”
Monty laughs musically. “Computers? Yes. Type, type, keyboard, keyboard,” she sings. “And who are you, exactly?”
“Ella.”
“Ella,” Monty repeats, as if tasting each individual letter, and deciding they all taste bitter. “Asher’s …” She pulls at her necklace. “Girlfriend?”
Ella flushes. “Oh, well … we’re dating.”
Monty keeps the smile on her face, perfect red lips around perfect white teeth. She looks like a Colgate commercial, if toothpaste could kill you.
“Dating.” Monty’s expression remains frozen. “Dating.”
Each word from her mouth feels like a countdown to a bomb that’s going to obliterate us all.
Suddenly, Ella’s stomach makes a noise, and she squeaks. “I need to …”
“Tequila.” Gable grabs Ella’s hand. “I’ll take care of this one.”
Ella must really feel sick because she doesn’t even question Gable’s actions and lets him drag her over to the elevators. Once they’ve left, Monty takes a step closer to me.
“Dating?” she asks, eyebrow arched. “You’re dating Bambi?”
“Don’t even go there,” I say. “You leave her alone.”
Monty shrugs a shoulder innocently, tugging on my T-shirt and looking up at me. “Would I do anything to that innocent girl?”
“Yes, you would. Don’t touch her.”
She presses her nails into my chest, and I wince, pulling back.
“You’lldateher, but you won’tfuckme? Since when do you go for watered-down women?”
Rage races down my spine as I stalk toward her. “You don’t fucking talk about her like that. Leave.”
I feel the gun press into my crotch, but I don’t react, because as dangerous as Monty is, and she really is, she loves me. If she’s going to shoot me, it definitely won’t be there. A foot, sure. The dick? No way.
“Monty,” I say quietly, jaw tense. “Leave. Ella. Alone.”
