Page 174 of With Us

As had been the case for the whole night, the security team worked together to clear the room. I wasn’t sure how the bets or loans worked, but no one was fighting to stick around near a knife wielding man.

Theo came through the crowd, ducking under the stretchy rope and jumping down. “Let’s go.”

I wasn’t about to argue with leaving. Surprisingly, however, I did question him coming. “Do you need to stay? I can wait in a backroom or in the car.”

He shook his head. “It’s handled.”

I nodded and sped up my steps to keep up with Theo’s. Once we were in his car, I asked, “Did someone… You know?”

“Kill him?” At my confirmation, he chuckled. “No, my gattina. I broke his arm, but it’ll heal. He’s banned from the circuit.” He shrugged. “There’s no guarantee his own people won’t do the job, but that has nothing to do with us.”

“Why did we have to rush out then?”

“Sammy and his crew want to get the place clean. Within a half an hour, the place will be empty with no sign anyone was there. It’s a precaution.”

“Got it.” I looked out the window for a moment before returning my attention to Theo. “Can we go to another fight?”

“Right now?”

I laughed. “No. Unless there’s a good one…”

“There’s not.”

“Darn,” I said with a dramatic sigh. “I meant in the future. Can we go again?”

“Of course. You liked it?”

“It was exciting.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it, my gattina.” His hand rested on my thigh, his thumb stroking back and forth. Music played softly, but we just enjoyed the silence as we went.

As we neared the house, a ringing filled the car. Theo tensed as he pressed the button on the steering wheel. “Yes?”

“Just had some visitors,” Sammy said.

“Who?”

“Just a couple of beat cops.”

“The crowd or noise?” Theo asked.

“Neither. Said they received a call about an illegal party with hookers and drugs that would be happening around midnight.”

I looked at the clock to see it was just a little past. Had it not been for the knife incident, we’d all have been there. I was willing to bet there’d been more than one hooker and more than a few people with drugs on them.

Plus, some of the staff was armed, and I wasn’t sure how legal their weapons were.

Theo’s grip tightened on the steering wheel until his knuckles were white. “What happened?”

“Everything was mostly cleared out by then. Showed them our work order, said we were cleaning the building so it could be shown, and they called Susan to confirm. They laughed it off and went on their way.”

“Good. Remind me to give you, Susan, and Gabe a hefty holiday bonus.”

“Like you’d forget. I’ll be in touch if anything else happens.”

When the call disconnected, Theo swore, his voice harsh and almost scary. “Fuck. It’s the fucking rat, I know it.”

“What work order?” I asked. “Rats?”

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