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I put my phone down as the club manager came into my office. No matter how long I stared at her message, it wasn’t going to change. Cadence hadn’t shown up at the time I’d given her last night, and her phone had gone straight to voicemail when I’d called after seeing her response. I was going to have to come up with a better idea to get her attention.
I went over the usual business details with the manager before he left to return to the floor. It was a typical busy Friday night, and he was the one who had to deal with the burden of keeping everything running smoothly.
If my father had taught me anything, it was that delegation was the most important part of being in charge. Hire capable people to do what you want done, then stay out of the way while they do it. It saved me a lot of pointless irritation, but left me with little to keep my mind occupied when I was trying to ignore the one aggravation I didn’t know how to handle.
She’d told me no!
Looking at the clock, I let out a huff. It was ten, and the club was barely getting into the swing of things, but Cadence would be cleaning up and getting ready to go home soon. I was tempted to call her again and demand she come to the club, but I had a feeling that call would be ignored just like my message, and making demands would only push her away.
Nodding to myself, I rolled back from the desk and stood. I wasn’t going to give her the chance to turn off her phone so I couldn’t reach her.
No, I was going to see if she could deny me in person. It was one thing to type a message and turn off your phone, but it was much different when you had to look a person in their face and refuse to listen to them.
That was something else I’d learned from my father. Business was always done face to face, where you could read the person’s body language while they spoke. It was easy to tell who was hiding something when you stared them in the eyes.
If Cadence really didn’t feel the pull between us it might be better for me to leave things as they were, but I wasn’t going to accept that until I’d seen it for myself.
Buttoning my jacket, I strode from the office, telling my assistant to call only for an emergency. It rarely happened, but there were times when issues popped up that I had to handle myself, which was one of the reasons I spent my evenings at the club.
Climbing into my car, I peeled out toward the crusty diner where Cadence worked. It was across the city from my club, and I’d have to hurry to catch her before she left for home.
Unfortunately, Friday night in the city was too busy to escape the crush. People driving into the livelier districts looking for a distraction, along with pedestrians barhopping, slowed traffic. The route I could typically cover in twenty minutes took closer to forty, and my stomach was already sinking before I drove within sight of the diner.
Empty.
The lights were out and not a single car waited in the parking lot. I’d already missed her.
I smashed my hand into the steering wheel in frustration, and my cock echoed the dull throb of pain from the impact. Just the thought of seeing her had made me hard, and I clenched my teeth to stop the string of curses I wanted to let loose at not getting here it in time. I couldn’t hold back the growl vibrating inside my chest though.
Turning the wheel, I headed in the direction of her house. There was no way I’d go up to her door and disturb her family, but I couldn’t help the impulse to see if I could at least catch a glimpse of her and be sure she was home safe.
It wouldn’t be the first time I’d driven by to be sure all was well. I usually had one of my people keeping tabs on her, but I’d go by one of her workplaces or her house a few times a week to reassure myself.
I realized it was technically stalking, but I didn’t care. Cadence wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met, and something about her had lured me in and left me with no choice.
She was mine.
I rationalized it by telling myself I was making sure she stayed safe. Her brother had been jumped by the Walkers after all, and they could have traced him back to his house. If they thought he had access to more product, they might come looking for him and run into Cadence instead.
Highly unlikely considering he was an unknown kid, but still a possibility.
They were more likely to come after Cadence if they realized I had an interest in her, but it was too hard to stay away. I’d told her we weren’t through, and I meant it.
Every sweet, innocent, hardworking aspect of her made me want to lay her down and corrupt her. To make her as filthy as I was behind closed doors. I wanted to ruin her, and coddle her, and give her everything she didn’t want but deserved to have.
I had tried to fight it, but it was too hard to resist the temptation, especially when I didn’t really want to. The only thing holding me back was that if I succeeded in bringing her down to my level, she’d be no different than the rest of the women I knew.
Tarnished.
Her glow was what attracted me, and it was the part of her I had to protect.
Especially from myself.
Turning onto the long stretch of backroad that led to her neighborhood, my headlights flashed over a vehicle pulled to the side of the road. The car was off, the interior dark, but movement inside caught my eye.
My lips stretched into a feral grin as I pulled to a stop behind it, thanking fate for being on my side for once.
Chapter Three
