sighed and dropped down in his seat. “If Calvin isn’t gonna be a part of this family, I need to know right now. Without his help it’ll take us longer to find what we’re looking for.”
“I’ll deal with it,” Sadie assured him and the steel in her voice almost had me worried about Cal, who had taken his woman’s side in some unknown family battle. “Anything else?”
“Yeah.” Terry stood and looked around the table. So far, nobody had asked about the bruises on his face. Maybe they thought he’d gotten on the wrong side with Kat and weren’t saying anything out of respect.
“We’re all worried about the people in this organization,” he said. “I understand that. But the fewer people who know about Fiona, the better.” His gaze locked on mine again. “Right now, the only leverage we have is that no one is talking about it.”
“He’s right. Keep your mouths shut about Fiona,” Jasper ordered. “I’ll make sure everyone is safe.” He looked around the room. “Everyone.”
I knew they’d do their damnedest to keep everyone out of harm’s way, but Lance and Fiona were proof that it wasn’t always possible. Which meant that as much as I had tried to put Army life behind me, it was now time to call on my training to make sure Vanessa was safe.
At all times.
At any cost.
I made my way to the door, and Terry came up behind me. I felt his hand on my shoulder, a touch I’d recognize above any other.
I didn’t turn around; he didn’t ask me to. He said low in my ear, “Whatever that was last night, it’s over. We have work to do here. That’s what’s important. You don’t get that, people could get killed. You good?”
I paused for a long minute, then I nodded.
Terry tapped my shoulder. Like old times. Like last night never happened. Like what I needed didn’t matter.
Chapter Ten
Vanessa
Another day meant it was just about time for another shift with reckless rich people who loved high stakes gambling to take the stress off their otherwise, high pressure lives. Losing a crap ton of money would make me more stressed, not less, but the players and the games were growing on me. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to rooms full of wealthy, reckless men I didn’t know—and worse, stacks of cash. More cash than I’d ever seen at one time.
It wasn’t something I’d ever get accustomed to, being a small town girl from the Midwest, but it was hard to think of them as movers and shakers when they spent most of the night talking smack and giving each other shit like teenage boys. The razzing made each shift fun and honestly, it made them all less intimidating, so the time flew by.
Most nights I found myself surprised when the end of my night rolled around. One of the guys would offer to walk me to my car, except for Evan. He still hadn’t warmed up to me. Maybe he never would if me working here meant I replaced Fiona, the girl who broke his heart. I understood—even if I hated it. I was quickly learning to shake off Evan’s dislike and Provo’s aloofness because those were their issues, not mine.
I had my own worries—too many to name—to bother myself over other people’s problems with me. My goal was to focus on the things I could do something about, which meant working hard to stop thinking of the future I lost when Lance died.
“Easy peasy, right?”
The woman staring back at me in my bathroom mirror with bright blue eyes, thought so anyway. The woman I called Nessa. Tonight, I’d decided to vamp it up in black leather pants and a flowing pink off the shoulder shirt, not for any reason in particular, just because I wanted to look a little different.
Feel a little different.
Be just a little bit different.
The truth was, I felt different. Earning my own money for once felt nice. Not that I ever minded Lance taking the role of provider, but it was nice to know that I wouldn’t flounder without him. I wouldn’t have to run back home and marry some preacher man my mother and father would approve of just to make ends meet. I actually was one of the “doggone independent women” my father used to rant about.
It felt good.
I felt good, and that put a big smile on my hot pink lips because it had been too damn long since I had a genuine