Good. Still not enough. But good.
I grab my phone and send a text to Eli, Tate, and Connor. Three prospects. Young enough to follow orders, useful enough to hold lines, not stupid enough to ignore me if I tell them where to stand. Then I look back at her. “You stay close to me.”
Her lips part slightly, and the argument doesn’t come this time. “Okay,” she says. Not submission. Trust. That’s worse.
Because now I have to keep earning it.
This club is everything I hate in one place. Too loud. Too packed. Too many bodies moving in ways that make clean lines impossible. Bass shakes the floor, thick enough to feel in my ribs. Lights cut over the crowd in flashes of red, blue, and white, turning faces into fragments. The air smells like liquor, perfume, sweat, and men with bad intentions pretending they’re just here to have a good time.
Variables everywhere. Blind spots near the bar. Hallway to the bathrooms too narrow. Side exit behind the DJ booth. Front door covered by one bouncer who spends more time checking girls out than checking who comes in behind them.
I clock it all before we’re ten feet inside.
Eli moves left. Tate hangs back near the front. Connor takes the far side with a decent sight line to the women’s bathrooms and side exit. Not perfect. Better than nothing.
Olivia walks beside me. Close. Like she promised. Her sister spots her first, waving from near a high-top table with Tessa and another girl I don’t know. Her sister’s face lights up with relief before she hides it under excitement, and that tells me she knew enough to worry even if Olivia didn’t tell her everything.
Tessa sees me right after. Her eyebrows shoot up. “Well, damn. You brought the bodyguard.”
Olivia glances at me, then at Tessa. “He brought himself.”
“Even better.”
I don’t answer.
Tessa’s eyes skim me once, then stop when she meets my face. Whatever joke she was about to make dies fast enough to tell me she has survival instincts buried under all that mouth.
Olivia’s sister steps forward. “I’m Mia.” She offers a hand.
I look at it. Then at Olivia. She bites her lip like she’s trying not to smile. “He’s not big on handshakes.”
Mia slowly lowers her hand. “Good to know.”
“Cobra,” Olivia says, like that explains me. It does enough.
Tessa leans toward Mia and stage-whispers, “His name is Cobra. I have several follow-up questions.”
“No,” I say.
Tessa blinks.
Olivia laughs. The sound hits the same way it always does. Harder than it should.I look away before she sees it.
“Drinks?” Mia asks.
Olivia glances at me.
I shake my head once.
Her brows lift. “Seriously?”
“You can have one.”
“One?”
“You’re on medication.”
“I am not on medication.”
