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The men’s voices faded as their footsteps disappeared down the stairs.
Fixating on the ceiling, she considered going after him to share Evander’s warning. But she just lay there. Someone fucked up… and, chances were, it was her.
FIVE
“I SCREWED UP last night,” she said, striding past Strat to go into his apartment before he had time to register who’d knocked.
In the living room, she tossed her purse at her usual chair, but didn’t sit. Too much frantic energy buzzed inside her, so she paced instead.
“What’d you do, Scamp?” Strat asked, yawning as he approached.
She stopped. “I had sex with Connel McDade.” Shock flattened his affect. For about ten seconds, he said nothing. The silence was too excruciating to tolerate. “Actually, I had sex with two random women and Connel McDade.”
He backed up into the kitchen to put coffee and water in the machine before turning and laying his hands on the breakfast bar.
“Four of you? He was the only dude?” She shrugged. “Damn, why’d I get out of the game? He hiring?”
“Strat…” she said and went over to lean on the counter opposite him. “Evander approached me yesterday. At lunch. He knew I spent Wednesday night over there.”
He frowned. “Over where?”
“Stag.”
“Shit,” he said. “You’re seeing Ire McDade? How long?”
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him the truth. But it was against the rules… Connel’s rules.
“Just this week,” she said, because it was true. “We met at Stag.”
Also true.
“What were you doing at Stag?” he said. “Hiding from Manzani? Shit, Scamp. Avoiding one asshole, you get yourself mixed up with another?”
“This isn’t about that,” she said, going around the counter into the tiny kitchen with him. “Evander’s people have to still be watching because he knew I stayed over… he thought I was screwing one of Connel’s guys.”
“You weren’t. You were screwing him.”
Not that night, but that was irrelevant. “Evander thinks it’s a game. That I’m teasing him or something.”
“Vex Manzani thinks everything you do is to tease him.”
“Right, except Evander’s made a reservation… at a hotel. He wants me to meet him there tonight.”
“Scamp—”
“I know,” she said, hearing his warning tone. “I can’t. I mean, I wouldn’t.”
“They’ll kill each other. Don’t put two guys like them up against each other.”
“I didn’t mean to do that. It wasn’t my intention. I told Conn I didn’t need protection from Evander, but it snowballed and now…” Her hand rose to her throat. “Something happened this morning. Someone hit Connel’s guys… I didn’t get specifics, but—”
“You think it was Vex? That this is because of you?”
“Maybe.”
He took cups from a cabinet and filled them with coffee. “What did McDade say when you told him?” Sucking her lower lip into her mouth, she salved it with her tongue. When there was no reply, he looked back at her. “You told him… You did tell him?”
Exasperated frustration burst out of her. “How can I do that?” she asked. “Maybe I’m wrong.”
