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“Why do I need him?”
“I’m being cautious until I can sort all of this out.” I held out my hand for her. “Some of the people I deal with can be vindictive. I can probably fix what happened tonight by agreeing to things I normally wouldn’t, but it can be resolved.”
“I know you’re not a cop or a lawyer.” She took my hand. “But you never told me what it is you do.”
“Is it important for you to know?”
“I’m just curious.” She shrugged. “You want me to trust you, but I don’t know anything about you.”
“I own this club, and I make a pretty good living here.” Yes, it was a front for the cartel, and I moved most of their products in and out of here, but I didn’t want to explain all of that to a woman I met a week ago.“Are you ready to go home?”
“I haven’t had one of those in a long time.”
“You do now.” I opened the door. “I’m going to take care of you, Emmie. I never go back on my word.”
* * *
The next day,things were quiet. A little too quiet for my liking. We hadn’t heard from Caleb or the cartel. If there were going to be repercussions from last night, I expected to hear about them first thing this morning.
When Luke knocked on my open door, I waved him in.
“What’s all this?” He pointed to the packages I had delivered this morning. “Emmie can’t possibly need more clothes.”
“They’re not clothes,” I said. “It’s art supplies. She likes to draw.”
“That was thoughtful of you.”
“You don’t have to pretend.” I shut my laptop. “I know you don’t approve.”
“I don’t care who you’re sleeping with.” Luke took a seat. “I don’t even care that you paid all that money for her.”
“I paid off a debt that she couldn’t repay. There’s a difference.”
“Uh-huh.” Luke glanced at the packages. “I do care about what happened last night. You beat a man senseless because he looked at the woman you’re sleeping with.”
“That’s not what happened.”
“We took him into the alley. I held him while you punched the living shit out of him. I was there, remember?”
“He hit her,” I said. “That was all the reason I needed.”
“I understand that you were angry, but the cartel expects business as usual, and we can’t let emotions get in the way. We can’t do that if you hold a grudge that has nothing to do with you.”
“He tormented Emmie for weeks. She was sleeping in my stables because she didn’t know where to go. She had no idea who she was hiding from. Caleb terrorized her by sending that piece of shit to collect on a debt she couldn’t repay. A debt that wasn’t even hers. Where is the honor in that?”
“That’s over. We have to move forward.”
“If it were over, Caleb wouldn’t have disrespected me by sending Cobra to meet with us. I paid him far more than what Jaxon owed. I demand respect.”
“I can fix this,” Luke said. “But you have to promise me that this problem with Caleb’s second is over. You made your point last night.”
“I won’t work with Cobra.” I slammed my fist on the desk. “If Caleb can’t accept that, then we don’t do business.”
“That’s not up to you. We have to keep things moving.”
“As long as we’re moving shit through our port, it is up to me. The cartel has always respected my position. I’ve kept them off the radar and made them a lot of money over the last decade. I won’t tolerate anyone coming after what’s mine.”
“Emmie is yours?” Luke shook his head. “She’s a beautiful woman. I can see that. She’s young and naive. She probably makes you feel more alive than you have in a long time, but we can’t jeopardize everything we’ve built because you’ve found a tight pussy.”
