Page 25 of Property of Fire

“You good? I hurt you?” I ask her, slowly slipping from her pussy. I right my jeans and pull hers up. She’s just gonna have to deal with me inside her right now. There’s no private bathroom in her office for her to go clean up in. I might have to rectify this.

“No,” she answers, her voice a bit off.

Turning her face me, I grip her chin and force her to look up. “You good? I hurt you?” I repeat.

“You didn’t hurt me,” she answers, and I believe her, but something is still off.

“Then, what’s wrong?”

“As hot as what we just did was, you didn’t have the right to order me in here or take care of Luca the way you did,” Evelin says, getting right to what’s bugging her. “I didn’t need you to handle things for me. I was doing just fine.”

Stepping out of her space, I move across the room and lean against the edge of her desk. “Let’s get a few things out of the way.” Crooking a finger, I motion for her to join me. When she walks right between my legs, I grip her waist, holding her where I want her.

“When it comes to the bar, yeah, you’re the manager. You handle all the bullshit you gotta to run the place. This does not include being hassled by an employee. Someone hassles you in any way, you report it to us. You know this. It’s been the rule since day one. This rule doesn’t just go toward you, it’s for all the staff. We don’t put up with it.With you being my ol’ lady, no one, and I mean no one, fucks with you. You don’t put up with men talking shit like Luca did about wanting to get between your thighs.”

Evelin opens her mouth, but I’m not done yet.

“We put you in charge of the bar, Eve, because we know you. You can handle the job, get it done, and you’re smart enough not to let things get to you. We also know you’re able to come to us if you need help. This type of situation, you need to come to us and help you when shit goes down. Like tonight.”

“I had it handled.”

“That wasn’t a situation you needed to handle,” I tell her, tugging her even closer.

“I could have handled it myself, Fire. To manage this place, I have to prove I’m capable of dealing with people like Luca.”

I get where she’s coming from, but it ain’t her job to be capable of dealing with men like Luca.

“If it were a patron who got in your space, would you handle it or have one of the bouncers do it?” I ask.

“Depends on the situation of them being in my space and the size of the person,” she admits.

“Right, so, think on it this way, he’s a bigger dude than you, Eve. He was in your space, not backing off as you told him to, repeatedly, I might add. Since he didn’t listen to you, I did what I had to do. I backed him off you and delivered a message at the same time.”

“I think everyone took note of the message you delivered to Luca.” Without saying it, I know she’s talking about where I burned the guy’s throat.

I’d been pissed and wanted to kill him. I don’t know how I did it, but I’d been able to burn the flesh on his throat without thinking too much about it.

I’ve got a feeling I’m going to have to get a handle on what I can now do. I’m lucky I haven’t hurt Evelin with my newest gift, which I don’t know if I actually want. What I know for certain is that I have this gift, and I’ve got to learn to use it before I do something that I’ll end up regretting. This also means I might have to actually talk to my biological mother again. Find out the answers to questions that fill my head surrounding all of this.

“You know he’s going to hold that scar for the rest of his life, right?” Evelin’s question pulls me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah,” I answer, grinning. “He’ll know he can’t fuck with what’s mine. He’ll think twice before fucking with someone else’s woman too. Now, we done with this? I’m ready to get to the clubhouse.”

“We’re staying at the clubhouse?” she asks, brows drawn together.

“Yeah.” I nod and explain. “Was going to stay at the house, but Brimstone and I were talking, and with the threat against you, it’s best you’re at the clubhouse where it’s more than just me around to make sure you’re safe.”

I wasn’t going to take any chances with her life. It means whether she likes it or not, her ass wasn’t going anywhere without me or someone to keep her safe at all times. She’s just going to have to get used to it.

SEVENTEEN

EVELIN

I truly hopethat Fire doesn’t think this conversation is over. I get what he said. It all makes sense, but still, I have to show I can handle things myself.

Okay, so he was right again about what I should be handling and what I should be giving to them. Luca being one of them. I should have let things be where they were, gone and gotten Fire or one of the other members who were in attendance. I prefer to be stubborn and independent. To handle things on my own.

I love my job managing the bar. It’s challenging in some ways and fun in others. Sure, there are times that it’s just not that great, but those aren’t that bad. And once I get a few more waitresses hired, we’ll be even better. This means I need to call Boot and ask him if he finished going through the applications and running checks before he left.

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