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My phone vibrated with another call as she let out a deep breath and nodded. It wasn’t enough reassurance for me, but it would have to suffice.
“Andrews.”
“Mr. Andrews.” My teeth clenched at the sound of Mari’s new obsession on the phone. “There’s been an incident at Gilded.”
“What kind of incident?” Mari’s eyes darted to mine, and I mouthed Nate. She immediately pulled out her phone and started making her own calls.
“The kind with complications.”
Complications. I sighed as I remembered Mari and Nate surrounded by bodies on the side of the road. “How many?”
“At least one. He’s an Ace.”
The universe hates me. “We’ll be there in ten.”
I hung up, and Mari immediately started talking. “Geneva pulled the car around, Moore and Tennessee are waiting on the dance floor, and Dominic’s meeting us out back.” Mari stepped around me to head downstairs, but I grabbed her hand. Not to stop her, but to keep her with me. “Grey?”
“I just want one more minute before we have to pretend.”
She stilled, taking my face in her other hand and giving me a final kiss.
“One more minute,” she agreed.
When we made it to the bottom of the stairs, I let her go with one final squeeze, and I saw the subtle smile she tried to hide. Moore and Tennessee flanked her, moving her through the crowd with ease. I followed behind, not surprised when Dominic fell into step with me.
“Enjoy the show?”
“Depends. Did you?” I glared and he smiled. “Seriously, congrats. It’s been decades in the making.”
It had, and it was worth every painful second.
“Are we good?” I wasn’t just talking about the sex, but everything else. Obviously, we both had strong feelings for Mari, but Dominic was slowly proving he’d be a better ally than an enemy. For her sake, we could be friends. Or, at least try to be.
Dominic stared at me again, and that smirk softened into something genuine. Almost friendly. “You only live once, Grey. Got to enjoy it when you can. As far as I’m concerned, Mari deserves to enjoy every fucking day. So, yeah. We’re good.”
On that, we agreed.
Chapter Fourteen
Nate
There was a dead man on the floor of Mari’s club, and it was all my fault.
The entire staff of Gilded, myself included, stood over the dead man. Ivy, our youngest server, practically vibrated in fear, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of me or the fact that I’d killed him in front of her. She reminded me a little of a Chihuahua, all small and shaky. “You killed him.”
Yeah, I did.
“He was robbing us.” It wasn’t an excuse, just facts, but Ivy didn’t seem to understand me. She just stared at me and blinked.
Blink. Blink.
“You killed him,” she repeated. I could sense the panic brewing as her blinking got faster and faster, her breaths coming quicker than I expected. Not wanting to touch her in case she freaked out, I turned to Petra with wide Help me eyes.
“Okay, sweetie. Let’s go take a break in the office.” She took Ivy’s arm, patting my shoulder on her way past. The whole way, Ivy just kept repeating it.
He killed him. He killed him. He killed him.
I hoped she had a good therapist because she was definitely traumatized.
