your paws off ah me!” Bobby is struggling with Mike, his face in panic. He breaks free of Mike’s grasp and clumsily dashes for freedom, careening straight into the bar next to me. Tessa gives a shriek and skips over to me. The bartender jumps to the side as glasses go flying. I hop off my chair and Tessa pulls me to the side, away from the broken glass. What the hell is happening?!
“Get back here!” Mike roars. He wrestles Bobby to the floor with an arm-bar and then gets him to his feet. Meanwhile Ben has literally slung Tony over his shoulder and is holding him as easily as if he were a sack of potatoes.
“C’mon let’s keep playin’, nobody here’s cheatin’! Hand to God!” Bobby cries out, still wriggling as Mike steers him to the door to join Ben and Tony. “Don’t kick us out!”
“I’m not kicking you out,” David says, calmly, impervious to their cries.
“Fuck me.” Jeremy’s words set the tone. Suddenly even the kid looks deathly serious.
Now I’m getting scared. David’s face is blank and expressionless, he turns to me with a harsh stare. He told me to go. I stand up, wanting to say something, but I feel Tessa’s hand press my arm gently. The bartender is looking down and Tessa is likewise averting her eyes from the scene.
“Da fuck! Where are you takin’ us then?” Bobby squeals, a look of horror flashing across his face.
“You’re gonna have to answer to Mickey in Chicago if you fuck with us!” Tony spits out the words at David.
“Then I’ll answer to Mickey in Chicago,” David says. He nods to Ben and Mike as they give him one last backward glance—perhaps for confirmation. “I’ll be there shortly.” He doesn’t bat an eye as his enforcers haul the two men off. They don’t stop struggling.
I can’t hold it in any longer. “David, where are they going? What are you going to do with them?” I scamper over to him, almost tripping on my dress.
“That’s nothing you have to worry about, Lilly.” He turns a calculating eye on me. I feel like I’ve been doused with ice-cold water. “Those men cheated. And they need to be taught a lesson.”
“How? What are you going to do?” A wave of guilt washes over me as I think about the role I played in this.
“I think it’s time for you to return to the penthouse, Lilly.” David says, preparing to push past me. I grab his jacket by the lapel to stop him, almost losing my balance as I do. His eyes have that stormy glint to them and he’s looking at me like I’m a stranger.
“David, please! Don’t hurt them.”
“I told you to go.” He shakes me off roughly and gestures towards the door. “Now.” His voice is ice.
“I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s going on.” I stamp my foot.
“I said go!” David’s voice is sharp and commanding. When I don’t budge, he takes a deep breath. “Marco!” he calls out. A second later, the security guard who’d been positioned at the door outside of the room steps in.
“Yeah, boss?”
“Get her up to the penthouse. Now.” He gives a careless wave towards me, his cufflink glinting in the light. The cufflink that I helped him put on mere hours ago, as if I were an actual girlfriend of his.
“Hands on?” Marco asks as he lumbers towards me.
“Whatever it takes.” David avoids my look.
“David, no, you’re making a mistake,” I screech as Marco picks me up by the waist and swings me onto his shoulder. I pound on the security guard’s chest and kick my feet but it’s no use. He’s an impenetrable wall of muscle. “David, stop it! Please don’t hurt anybody! Don’t hurt them!” I’m sobbing out the words. Tears stream down my face, hot and sticky. If something bad happens to those guys...it will have been my fault! “Please, David!”
David is unfazed when he adds to Marco, “And watch the door, don’t let her out.” Then, just like that, I’m hauled out as unceremoniously as Tony and Bobby were. My sentence is imprisonment in the penthouse.
Chapter Sixteen
David
I’m a business man. A busy business man. And I don’t have room in my life for three fucking things—Lying, cheating, and drama. That’s why I usually steer clear of relationships. As Lilly gets hauled out of the private room, I breathe a sigh of relief. She’s almost as bad as Deanna when she wants to be. And I told her earlier