“Oh. Okay. I’m sorry, I thought my email said Stone was going to head it.”
“He was, but the poor fucker— I mean sap— I mean guy—” I winced. Mary was a nice woman who didn’t need me cursing. I usually didn’t mince words around anyone, male or female, but there was something about the woman that commanded respect. She reminded me a lot of my older sister. “He’s down with some kind of bug,” I shared. “Figured it would be better I come down here than Stone spreading his germs to everyone.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that.” She smiled, obviously trying to hold back a snarky response.
Like I said, she reminded me of my sister. Something inside my chest tightened. I missed Crystal. It’d been over five years since I’d heard her voice. I shook the thought away, not letting my frame of mind go in that direction.
“Well, uh, anything I should know?” I asked. Her head tipped to the side as she studied me for a moment.
“You should know?” she repeated with obvious questions in her eyes.
“About the situation,” I explained, or thought I had, considering she was looking at me like she thought I had just been born yesterday. “About discretion,” I reminded her. A muscle under her eye ticked with annoyance.
“Stone didn’t talk to—“ She wasn’t able to finish her sentence when people started to walk in.
Mostly women who ranged in ages from twenty-two to sixty, everyone wearing their uniform as they stood by the edges of the small breakroom that was ill-equipped to hold everyone in the housekeeping department. I wondered for a moment where they got together for birthdays or holidays if it was this tight for the meeting with just the second shift of the day. A sinking feeling hit me that wasn’t something they got together for. I triedto remember if we’d done anything for them for Christmas and made a note to ask Pope about it.
“Don’t worry, I’ll wing it.” I shrugged and felt her hand touch my forearm. There was a warning in her eyes for me to heed, had I been paying attention.
“Griffin—“ she started, but I ignored her. I hated public speaking, so it was better to get this done and over with. Like ripping of a Band-Aid, nice and quick. I cleared my throat and walked into the middle of the breakroom as everyone turned quiet.
“Thank you so much for meeting with me today. I know there is a lot of work to do and––“ My eyes moved through the room as I spoke only to come to a complete halt when I spotted her. Short and curvier than my favorite back road to take my bike on with dangerously dark brown bedroom eyes. It had my brain fritzing out. Who was she?Mine, a voice answered in my head. Something stirred inside of me, and I couldn’t seem to get my head on right.
“Umm…” I cleared my throat and forced myself to look away. I felt the loss of her like a dismembered limb but kept talking out of my ass. “I know everyone has a busy schedule, so I will make this quick, and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.” Though I hoped to fuck they wouldn’t since I didn’t even know what the hell I was talking about.
“I know you usually work with and speak to Stone, but he’s not feeling well, so you guys got me. Apologies in advance.” I shrugged, and a couple of people chuckled. I was dying to see if I’d made her smile. Or laugh.Fuck, what would that sound like?
“Pope wanted us to talk to everyone about the incident last week.” I swallowed, trying to keep my train of thought clear, but it was difficult as shit.
My eyes skidded back to the beautiful woman who I could have sworn was glaring daggers in my direction. Huh, attitudedidn’t usually do it for me, yet I had to fight from getting hard. An erection in front of the entire housekeeping staff was the last thing I needed.
“With the members of Elysium, I think we all know how important discretion is. Not just for them but for the casino and the club. So… let’s just…” My attention drifted back to her. She was staring right at me, and I felt it like a touch.
My eyes dropped to her mouth, and there I was once again, fighting myself from going hard. Had I ever seen a more perfect pair of lips before? Someone cleared their throat, snapping me out of whatever fucking trance the dark-haired beauty had put me in. What the hell was I supposed to say? Discretion. Right.
“Keep your heads down and get to it, yeah?” I said and looked around. One of the few men in the room made a look of disgust while the women looked… shocked? Surprised even. How could that be? Wasn’t discretion something they knew was needed? Hell, every employee and member signed NDAs.
“Get to it?” a raspy feminine voice perked up, and when I looked, I realized it was her talking to me.
“Marty,” Mary warned, and my girl shot her a look.Wait, my girl?
“Mary, get to it?”
“I don’t think Griffin realizes?—“
“What an ass he’s being?” she cut Mary off, and I felt my own brow rise. Her attention moved back to me, and her hands turned to fists at her sides. “You’re telling me if a man corners us, talking about us wearing little sheer French maid outfits and buying us?—“
“Marty,” Mary interrupted, but I could tell my little spitfire wasn’t having it.
“We should just get to it? Are the Steel Sinners into selling women now? I mean, Mr. Monopoly hinted at it, but I didn’t think?—“
“What? No!” I answered, taken aback by her question. Sure, we did a lot of shady shit, but we weren’t into pimping.
“Then how should we get to it exactly?” the tall, slim blonde woman standing next to Marty asked, her hand clasping onto Marty’s elbow to keep her in place. Did she think my girl would launch her body onto me?
Marty.Huh, I liked it. Part of me wanted to say her name, see how it sounded and felt as it rolled off my tongue. Her name suited her.
Wait a second.Incident last week?I’d heard about a member getting his ass kicked and then having his membership revoked, but I hadn’t been listening since I’d been too hung over to pay attention from a party the night before.Had Marty been cornered by that arrogant fuck we kicked out?
