left and right. “I thought my party was already here, but I don’t see them.”
The waiter tilted his head. “The hostess would know if your party arrived.”
“Yeah, she was busy, so I thought I’d just duck in.” Over the waiter’s shoulder, she zeroed in on Navi and his date. A table for two with wine and candlelight.
How cozy.
The waiter leaned in and whispered. “We have a dress code in here. The manager isn’t fond of shorts.”
Olivia let her jaw drop. “Oh, shit. I should probably run up to my room and change.”
He smiled. “No one will force you to leave, but you might get a few dirty looks.”
She lowered her voice. “Thanks for the tip.”
The waiter looked her up and down. “Anytime.”
Turning on her heel, she made her way back to the front of the restaurant. She noted the bodyguards once again when someone’s shoulder nudged hers as they walked by.
“Excuse me.”
“It’s okay,” she said, looking up.
Her eyes caught his, and her smile froze on her face.
What the hell was Leo Grant doing there?
CHAPTER TWO
Leo diverted his attention from the couple that had walked into the restaurant and toward the woman he’d just bumped into. Dishwater blonde with mysterious eyes and full pink lips. Beautiful.
The back of his throat itched as if he should know the woman staring at him. Only he didn’t. He would have remembered.
“Do I know you?” he asked.
Her lips instantly closed, and she stood taller. “No.”
She turned to leave, and for some reason his hand found her arm and halted her.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m quite positive.” She glanced over his shoulder, eyes wide, and walked swiftly away.
Is that an accent?
Yeah, he would have remembered her.
He watched her leave before shaking off thoughts of the confusion on her face and turned back toward the restaurant. Then, because he felt someone’s stare, he looked to his left.
Brutis A and Brutis B stared, recognition on their faces.
Fuck.
He shifted from one foot to the other, weighed his options.
Brutis A stood.
Leo squared his shoulders. “He in there?” The question was rhetorical.
Brutis B met his friend on his feet.
It was then that Leo pushed his jacket back enough to display his badge and the butt of his gun holstered at his side.
They didn’t flinch, and they didn’t sit down.
They knew who he was.
“I’ll just look,” Leo said as he moved into the restaurant.
Navi Sobol’s bodyguards right at his back, he marched in.
Sobol spotted him, put his drink down.
With every step, Leo knew his boss wasn’t going to be happy with him. But he moved forward anyway. He had no choice.
Leo arrived at the table with a smile. “I see you’re making yourself right at home.”
Navi folded his hands and placed them in his lap.
“Is there something I can do for you?”
Leo moved his gaze around the room.
Plenty of people were watching them. Hard not to when three men, two admittedly a little larger than him, stood in the center of a posh restaurant talking.
“No, no . . . I’m good.” Leo turned his stare to Navi’s female companion—young . . . but not Marie Nickerson young—then looked back. “How’s the food?”
Navi opened one palm to the empty table. “I couldn’t tell you.”
Leo grinned. “Well, let me know. I’ll put this place on my list.”
Navi tilted his head, looked Leo dead in the eye.
“You kids enjoy yourselves,” Leo said. He’d gotten what he wanted by seeing the man in the restaurant with only the woman.
He turned and found Navi’s bodyguards push in just enough to stop him from walking past without bumping into one of them.
There was no way Leo was going to brush shoulders with them. As much as the men were trying to intimidate him, Leo knew their kind. Hired men who held no value for life other than their own and the man they were paid to protect.
An accidental touch of a shoulder could be considered battery in front of the right judge.
Leo put his hands up, his playful smile still in place. “If you’ll excuse me.”
A noise behind him suggested Navi had called his dogs off.
Brutis A and B separated, allowing Leo a path.
Leo made eye contact with at least two people in the restaurant as he slipped past the paid help.
He felt both bodyguards at his back as he left.
A few yards into the noisy casino, Leo muttered, “Well, fuck.”
Olivia broke her own code and called in. “Get him out of here.”
“Who?”
“The teacher. He’s fucking up.”
“Grant?”
“I don’t care who he works for, he’s fucking up! I can’t do my