Page 56 of Shadow

She bit her lip and nodded. “There might have been some loose tongues at her bachelorette party. But it was just me, Darci, Carrie, and Adara.”

He nodded. It had never occurred to him how much of an impact he might have had on the people at Club Exposure. Having lived in the shadows for so long, he didn’t think he’d had that much influence on anyone. He considered a number of them family, but never realized the club was home. At least not until the other night, with Olivia there by his side. He’d been estranged from his biological family for years, but somehow Olivia and the others at Exposure had taken their place in his heart.

A passing diner stopped at their table, and when he looked up, anger bubbled. But Olivia put a calming hand on his arm.

“Mario,” she said with a terse nod.

“Nice to see you, Olivia. Who is this you’re with?”

Her Daddy you abusive fuck.

“This is Cannon. He’s my boyfriend.”

Her answer was the safer one, but he still wanted to knock the fucker out. Normally, he would object to Cannon, but this time he didn’t mind.

“Good for you. I’m glad to see you made it. Would you be willing to demo with me in my workshop this afternoon? I need someone I’m familiar with, and my assistant had to rush home for a family emergency.”

She frowned. “Seriously, Mario? After everything we’ve been through?”

He shrugged. “I’m willing to let all of that go for ninety minutes. Can you?”

She sighed. “Fine. But no cameras. I don’t need my name in the press again because they think something is going to happen.”

He held his hand out for a handshake. “Deal. Thank you. Seriously, this is a lifesaver.”

When Mario was gone, Ripley gripped her arm. “You’re seriously going to help that fucker?”

She held up her hand. “Please don’t. Not here. I know him. If I didn’t say yes, he would have called me out in the workshop, anyway. And yeah, even though it’s him it was one I was going to attend.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Oh really? And you weren’t going to ask how I felt about that?”

She shook her head. “No. Because I’m at work. I don’t owe you that.”

He tried to tamp down his jealousy but couldn’t.

“You’ve got a badge. You can come sit in the front row and glare at him the entire time. Please don’t be mad at me over this, Cannon.”

“Daddy,” he growled. “I’m not Cannon to you, I’m not Ripley. I’m Daddy.”

He shouldn’t be pushing her like that in the middle of the restaurant, but he needed to hear her say it to soothe the storm brewing inside.

“Daddy,” she murmured. “Please don’t be mad at me. I’m not doing anything wrong.”

He sighed. “No. You’re not. And I’m sorry. I just saw the tabloids about what an asshole he was to you, Liv. I don’t want that to happen to you again. You can say no cameras all you want, but someone is going to have their phone out.”

She closed her eyes. “You’re right. But I kind of feel like I need to do this to prove that I’m completely over everything that happened.”

“You don’t have to prove anything to anyone, baby girl.”

“Thank you for that, but I still need to do this.”

He cupped her cheek. “OK. I’ll support you. And I promise not to glare too much.”

What he didn’t tell her was that he planned to call in a favor to make sure she wasn’t alone up there with him.

Chapter 16

OLIVIAsteppedintotheauditorium where she was supposed to be assisting Mario and found him glaring at a woman she didn’t recognize.

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