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Her face reddens and I can tell she’s worried. I grab her hand and squeeze it.
“No, silly.”
She sighs and in goes a healthy gulp of her margarita.
“Let’s start over. Hi, I’m Sapphire. Have you seen my cousin? She’s about this tall, cute, plump ass in a skin-tight white strapless dress. Love in her eyes and is always happy. It’s annoying really. I’ve seemed to have lost her and found a nosy blonde trying to get me killed instead.”
I roll my eyes dramatically. “Cute ass, huh? Okay, I’ll take that.” I tap my phone. “I can give them your number if you like. Walk over, drop it on their table.” I know my smile turns devilish while her expression is closer to a sheet of paper—completely blank.
“Belle, please don’t get me killed. Your brother is sweet and all but I don’t want to get on his bad side.”
“Okay, okay. I get it. I know how miserable you are about thinking you owe Harlon. I just wanted to help. Tell me I didn’t see what I obviously saw between you and those men just a minute ago and I’ll drop it.”
“It was nothing.”
“Did I mention it’s a paying job?”
Her brows shoot up. “Paid to get knocked up?”
I wiggle my brows. “Yep.”
She gulps her margarita, tossing the whole thing back letting her cheeks bulge with the liquid.
All the movement of her throat draws my eyes to my cousin’s throat. I suck in a harsh breath out of surprise.
There’s not enough concealer in the world to hide the black and blue marks marring her skin, but she definitely tried.
“Oh my God, Sapphire! What the holy hell happened?” My voice climbs and I can’t stop looking at her throat, bare shoulders, and fingers. “Were you in an accident? Here I was flooding your phone all day with silly selfies and talking babies when you were in trouble and obviously traumatized.” I must have sent her a dozen selfies of me with the men. We’d met over lunch to talk about the show tonight. We’d been happy but there was tension there too. Something was up between Gage and Aziel. Rush filled me in when they went to pay the check. He shared they were at odds about Aziel wanting to leave the military. I wanted to press for more answers but those two had no plans of opening up to me on that front.
I sigh and shove the men from my mind, turning my attention back on Sapphire. I weave the fingers of her hand through mine over the table’s polished top. “Tell me. What the hell happened?”
I turn her chin left, noticing the thumbprint on one side and the four fingers on the other.
“Damn, Sapph, is that a cut, too? Who did this to you?”
“It’s nothing. A misunderstanding at work. It’s all sorted out. Honestly. How about another margarita?”
“Here, take my drink. I’ll get us more. Lots more. Should I cancel my show? Oh, crap.” I glance at my watch. “It’s almost time.”
I scoot my chilled margarita into Sapphire’s hands.
A little wide-eyed, I watch as she takes a small sip and then a second and third. Yeah, we’re going to need more liquid courage.
I stop a passing waiter dressed in Club Sin’s attire. Black dress slacks and crisp white shirt. No name tag.
“Hey, sweetie, will you bring a pitcher and an ice pack please?” I move into momma hen mode. “Now tell me everything.”
I don’t take my eyes off Sapphire’s face as she spills her guts for the next half hour. She fills me in on the trouble with work and a runner named Snake Eye who ended up going to the basement with Harlon.
Ouch.
“Whoever this Snake Eyes is, I hope Harlon cuts his nuts off and feeds it to him in front of those two asshole security men who were supposed to protect you from douches like him.” I take in her bruises and I’m close to picking up the phone to make a few calls when she plucks it out of my hands.
“I got this, okay?”
“Okay.”
We clink glasses. Around a mouthful of tequila and salty margarita mix, Sapphire concurs with my throat-cutty take on what should happen with the man who attacked her.
