Page 83 of Demitri

I hit the button under the bar that notifies Brodie I need assistance. Usually, I’d just yell through the window I had to pee, but this will let him know something’s going on out of the normal.

“What’s up, Boss?” He rounds the corner, looking at me worriedly.

“I need to grab some change from the office.”

“Sure thing. I’ll keep an eye out. Nothing’s cooking at the moment.”

I don’t turn around and look at the girls. I scoot around Brodie and out from the back of the bar, making a beeline to my office, not stopping to talk to anyone.

“What do we do?” I ask as soon as I make it through my office door and close it behind me.

“Nothing,” Demitri replies.

“What the fuck do you mean, nothing?”

“Mia, do we want her here? No. But has she done anything? Technically, no. Tonight, we watch. We wait.”

“What if she says something to me?”

“Like what?”

“Like ‘I know you’re fucking my brother, and I want his money!’”

“Oh,Krasotka. What we do is not fucking. Earth shattering, orgasm inducing, dehydration causing, but not fucking.”

“Enough. Stop distracting me with your sexy words and broody eyes. What am I going to do?”

“You’re going to go back out there and do your job. Run the bar that you built and make your customers proud.”

“And?”

“And deal with what comes your way when it happens. Wait for her to come to you. She isn’t stupid enough to make a scene in front of everyone out there. Too many witnesses. Maybe she just likes your bar.”

“Yeah, and maybe she has another listening device she wants to drop off.”

“Go. I’ve got you. I won’t let her hurt you, okay?”

“Okay.”

Demitri stands and does my favorite thing. He holds his hand out to me. I know it’s because he doesn’t want to move away from the cameras, but that gesture, asking me to put my faith in him. It melts my heart every time. I give him my hand and he tugs me to him, kissing me gently.

“I’m here. We do this together,” he tells me when he pulls back.

I nod, letting him hold me for one more minute before letting go and stepping away. I trudge back behind the bar and laugh at Brodie, who’s hitting on the college girls. I make a sweep of the room and see the woman sitting in the same booth as last time, drink already in her hand. Well, at least I don’t have to talk to her yet.

All of a sudden, my safe place doesn’t feel very safe with her here. It’s going to be a long night, isn’t it?

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

DEMITRI

“Come on, answer the damn phone,”I say to myself, calling Aiden.

No answer.

Grady.

No answer.

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