Page 52 of Awaken the Dragon
Ziva waved a hand at Shola. “Nonsense. You know how long I’ve waited for another woman to be in this house on a daily basis? Feels like forever,” she quipped. “Although I gotta admit I hadn’t thought it would be Theo bringing a woman home.”
Shola paused. Ziva had been putting the other outfit back into the garment bag while she talked. But there was something in her tone, something about the way she said Theo’s name that made Shola think...oh no.
“Are you, or were you, Theo’s girlfriend?”
Shola was aware the words sounded awkward and considered clarifying or possibly apologizing for being so blunt and maybe a bit nosey. But she didn’t, because in the end, she really wanted an answer.
Ziva zipped the bag and turned slowly to face Shola.
“It was a long, long time ago,” she replied. “And I probably thought it was more than he did. So no worries there. He’s as free as a bird.”
Or a dragon. Shola didn’t say that because she wondered how freely the subject of what he was could be discussed in this house. It seemed like not much.
“But you still care for him? You still work with him?” she asked because she knew there was some emotion there, even if it were only on Ziva’s part.
“We’re good together,” Ziva said, and then immediately followed with, “at work.We, all of us here, are a very good team. We’re doing important work by helping people. I’m not going to mess that up by harboring feelings that will never be reciprocated.”
Her words made sense. They were courageous and smart. And Shola decided to believe them. Ziva had been nothing but nice to her since she arrived, so Shola wasn’t going to repay her by doubting what she said.
“Are you his girlfriend now?” Ziva asked.
She should have known that was coming.
“No,” she answered honestly. “I do not believe I am. I am here to do a job.”
Ziva smiled and headed for the door. “Yeah, you’ve told us that a time or two.”
Enes rested her elbows on the bar top and leaned forward.
The club was packed tonight. Every table and booth were full. The back room was reserved and overflow eating had been requested and accommodated. An up-and-coming rapper was on the stage spittin’ rhymes while a group of about forty people crowded around the stage. Across the room, more customers crowded on the dance floor. Servers came back and forth to the bar at twice the intervals they normally did, filling drink and food orders. In the area they called the storeroom, business was also boomin’ because the majority of their guests loved a puff of hella with their hip-hop and hot wings.
“Are they coming tonight?”
She didn’t have to look over her shoulder to see that Prinze had come up behind her. She’d felt the warmth of his presence seconds before he spoke.
“That’s what they said,” she replied.
“And so you’re just gonna watch the front door all night?”
With a weary sigh she turned, pressing her back against the bar and folding her arms over her chest.
“No. I’m also going to keep Warrick from getting us both killed. You know, like I’ve been doing for the last few days.”
Prinze had a thick build. He used to wear locks but had recently chopped them off to sport a cropped wavy style instead. His eyes were obsidian, style of dress casual, but he could wear a suit as well as any lord on the court. Prinze was no lord, and neither was Enes. But they ran this club and made sure the money kept flowing for Warrick as if doing the job well could earn them the title.
“You haven’t been working alone,” Prinze replied. “Now we need for tonight to go down without a hitch. Because any slipup and we’ll be on two hit lists. And I don’t know about you but I consider one far less dangerous than the other.”
He was right. If this plan to pay the other club owners—who were also big-time crime bosses—and negotiate a new, more profitable deal with them didn’t work, Warrick would kill him and Enes for calling the meeting and working on Warrick’s behalf without his knowledge. So failure was not an option.
She turned around again and resumed staring at the door.
“Let me know when they get here,” Prinze said.
Enes nodded. She wasn’t in the mood to talk.
Before Prinze walked away, he cupped a hand to her ass. Enes rolled her eyes. She wasn’t in the mood for his not-so-subtle hints that he wanted to get laid either. She watched three more people come out of the storeroom with smiles on their faces, while three more were allowed through the door to make their purchases. Moving her gaze to another corner of the club, she caught a glimpse of a couple, the woman with her back plastered to the wall, her legs wrapped around her guy’s waist while he drove hard and fast into her. Enes shook her head. Sex, drugs and music were what most of their customers came for, and they made a ton of money obliging them. Personally, she didn’t care much for two out of the three, but this rapper’s flow was smooth and his beat was bumpin’. She was nodding her head as he went into his second verse. Maybe she should take a run on the dance floor. It had been a while since she’d relaxed enough to enjoy their entertainment.
They walked into the club before she could decide—the dragon, the bride-to-be and the woman who had once visited Enes’s dreams.
