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He wasn’t snarky about it, probably because our bosses threatened suspension if we tore into each other on comms. Frog apparently got shifted to another client already. I’d been in the area and free, so I took the call with no hesitation.
Drove here as fast as I could. But I didn’t think I’d find Luna hurt or the fitting room partially wrecked.
I did expect Epsilon to be pricks though.
“You didn’t even know she snuck out without security,” Vance chimes in. “We had to tell you.”
Ian makes a prickish face. “Sounds like you care so much.”
“Think what you want,” I say, trying to leave them, but Ian grips my elbow.
Again, I tear out of his hold, and my blood begins to boil.
I know I’m enemy number one to Epsilon since my family hurt O’Malley, but they’ve been trying to take steaming piles of shit on me for much longer than one week. And it’s one thing to shit on me, but when I’m trying to reach someone I care about, I’m not gonna be the easy pushover they think I am.
I whisper with heat, “I don’t work for you. Don’t touch me—and you can get out of my fucking way.”
“Last I checked, you’re a bodyguard,” Ian hisses under his breath. “You stand here. With us.”
“I’m also her friend,” I say loudly enough that Luna can hear. “And my friend is bleeding, so move—”
He blocks me again.
I grind my teeth, my nose flaring. It feels like every time I try to get close to her, someone else is in my way. Heat brews in my chest, and I’m on a rare edge that I usually meet when someone disses Philly or the Birds, or the occasion O’Malley insults me and my family. This edge, though, feels more fatal. More like I could push everyone off the cliff just to hold her hand.
I bow my head to growl in his ear, “Take your grievances or whatever up with your boss, and get outta my way.”
Ian stares me down like I’m a piece of shit.
I glare right back.
He whispers, “I don’t know what’s happening at your father-son get-togethers, but I hope you’re a better nark than you are a bodyguard.”
It actually relieves me knowing the three of them haven’t been listening in on my conversations with my dad. Since they’re on-duty while I’m out with my dad, I bet they’re just on regular comms.
“You all can’t even keep up with her,” Vance says and jerks his head towards Luna.
Luna.
A territorial feeling scalds my muscles. “I can keep up with her better than alright, trust me. Her lip wouldn’t be busted right now.”
“Keep your voice down,” Ian whispers. He was hired only a year and a half before me, and he’s acting like he has decades of seniority here.
But yeah, Luna is looking.
The Cobalt brothers are watching.
I couldn’t care less about protecting Epsilon’s reputation and image right now. Security’s dirty laundry rarely gets aired among clients, but they’re making me want to dump the entire soiled hamper on their heads.
“It was a family fight,” Novak retorts.
I whisper, “You let one of the boys hit her?” I frown though, knowing that’s not right. No way would Tom, Eliot, or Beckett lay hands on Luna. I glance back at her best friends.
Eliot sees my confusion and calls out, “Her lip was an accident!” He pauses before adding, “My rage wasn’t.”
Ian whispers to me, “Her bodyguard would know that if she were here. Where is Frog, by the way?” I open my mouth, but he keeps going. “Eighteen. Barely trained. Who’s Akara going to hire next—his wife?”
Vance chuckles.
“Like you had any training before you were hired,” I tell Vance. “You got the job purely because of your brother.” I turn to Novak. “You got the job ‘cause of your dad.” Silvio Novak is his father, the bodyguard who protected Xander for a while and retired. “Don’t act like you’re better than us, ‘cause you’re not.”
“We’re not fucking our clients,” Ian whispers with bite, and truth: it feels like a mic-drop.
I want to sling something pithy back like, sucks for you or sucks to suck, but I’m not suggesting that he should fuck Luna (makes my skin crawl). And I can’t allude that I’ve also had sex with a client. He has no clue I’m in the same boat.
“Cool,” I say tightly and shoulder-check him.
Ian is pummeled to the left, and I make my move to Luna.
Beckett studies me as I approach his cousin, but it’s hard to meet his gaze. Still don’t know what he thinks of me after the assault, and right now, first, I just want to ensure Luna really is okay.
“You alright?” I ask again.
She nods, but her hand shields her mouth. Even so, she’s so fucking pretty. Her light-brown hair hangs in cute scraggily strands and frames her round face. She stuck green star stickers in the corner of her eye, and her lashes are shaded with a cool purple mascara.
