“Now,” I said instead.
She rolled her eyes—but did it while walking.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a brat?” I asked when she slipped by me to get from behind the bar.
“Nope.” Her flirty lash flutter might’ve been exaggerated, but the pleased smile wasn’t.
I kept my mouth shut before I said something I would regret as we headed for my office. Once we were closed inside, I asked, “You sure you’re okay?”
“Annoyed but relieved.” She gestured toward the door. “I thought I blew it, but I told them I learned the move in self-defense class. They seemed to buy it.”
“Security is probably more worried about you and O putting them out of a job.” At her lost blink, I explained, “She kicked a douchebag in the dick till he threw up outside of the bathrooms. I thought she told you that?”
“Not the backstory.” She grinned. “I knew I liked her.” That smile was gone just as fast as she slipped into her role as a detective. “Did you get a name from the guy?”
“No. Searched his pockets for a wallet, but he just had some cash. No ID or anything else with his name, and he was too busy crying and threatening to sue to give one. Warner shoved him in a pre-paid cab with instructions to take him to the nearest emergency room.”
Her eyes widened as her jaw dropped. “What? What happened out there? You’ll be fine. I’ll handle it.”
Christ, that hit me in the chest. She hadn’t even heard what was going on, and her first instinct was to have my back.
I wasn’t the one who needed it, though.
“Not me I’m worried about.” I closed the minimal distance between us and gripped her chin, forcing her face up. “Don’t get me wrong. Wanted to break both his hands for touching you. And if I ever see that motherfucker again, that’s exactly what’ll happen.”
Lo took her oath to serve and protect seriously. Her instinct while getting shot at had been to cover me. Then after, with blood dripping down her face, she’d calmly worked to ensure everyone was safe.
Yet as I bluntly told her my intentions to shatter a man’s bones, she didn’t roll her eyes to call a bluff that damn sure wasn’tthere. She also didn’t remind me of the laws I would be breaking as she talked me down.
No.
She melted.
She fuckin’ melted.
Her expression softened, a small smile curved her lips, and she blinked up at me with those big eyes like it was the most romantic thing she’d heard.
It killed me to break the spell, but she needed the heads-up more than I needed the look of adoration that was testing my control. “Only reason I didn’t do it was I didn’t want this to fall on your shoulders. You fucked up his arm, hellcat.”
“I did?”
“Either broken or dislocated. I’m not a doc, so I couldn’t tell you which.”
“Oops,” she whispered with zero sign of regret or remorse.
That shouldn’t have made my cock jerk.
It did anyway.
“Laura was coming over to grab her tray from the server area and said she saw him spill the glass on purpose,” Lo shared like I wasn’t fighting for my damn life against her pull.
I released the hold I’d kept for too long and put some needed distance between us. “Thought he was just wasted.”
“No, that’s the thing. He was acting drunk, but when he left, I double-checked the system. He only had the two beers I gave him. Unless someone else served him and forgot to ring it in.”
“Maybe. Or he could’ve been a lightweight. Or high.”
“Good thing he didn’t drive.”
