Page 109 of The Trouble With Bad Boys

Sienna scoffed. “What’s so wonderful that he had us herded in here like swine?”

“How about”—I pulled the paper with her name on it off the top of the stack King gave me and handed it to her—“a really big raise.”

Sienna tore open her paper, her eyes going wide before she looked up at me. “Is this for real?”

“It’s real, honey. King went to bat for us and got each and every one of you a raise.” I handed out the papers, saving Leni for last. “Even you, sweetheart.”

“Carina!” She gasped when she opened it. “Are you fucking kidding me?” She threw her arms around my neck, pulling laughter from me the way only Leni Harper could.

“I couldn’t even if I tried.” I let my gaze sweep across their smiling faces, stopping only when my attention fell on Nevaeh. She was frowning, but at her phone screen, not the unopened paper in her hands. “Nevaeh? Is everything okay?”

She glanced up, her frown disappearing in a snap and replaced with a smile that felt tempered at best. “Yes. Lovely. Thank you, Carina.”

“Please tell me you got something for yourself, too,” Sienna said, coming up to take Leni’s place in front of me. She bent to hug me, surprising me. “Lord knows you put up with more than you should with that man.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh please.” She stepped back and gestured to the girls. “We all see it. You’ve always put yourself between him and us. Anytime we have a problem, it’s you who takes care of it. So you coming in here and telling us King got us a raise is bullshit, because we all know it’s because of you.”

“Carina does have a way of taking men out at the knees,” Leni boasted. “You should hear what she did to our old boss at the Minx.”

I was drawn forward as Ruby and Lucy hooked their arms in mine, pulling me closer to Leni as she told them about Jerry’s demise. I was happy. So completely thrilled that I could share this with them.

And yet…

My mind wandered to Nevaeh, to the feigned excitement, to the frown she’d directed at her phone. And as we left that morning, something in my stomach churned, made worse when the girls thanked me once again and Nevaeh was not among them.

I needed to talk with her, to find out what was bothering her.

But I needed to deal with King first.

Ten

KINGSTON

A weight had been lifted off my shoulders. My stomach no longer rolled and clenched every time I looked around the casino floor. The girls didn’t have that sense of desperation about them that they used to. They were happy. Which made me happy.

Which made me think about the one thing that made me even happier.

Carina was a distraction. My obsession. She always had been, but now that I’d tasted how good she was, I couldn’t get her out of my mind.

Seeing her work, flirting with the customers and getting them to place higher and higher bets, keeping them in their chairs, keeping them coming back… It filled me with as much pride as dread.

She was mine. The best of the best and the woman I wanted in my bed every day for the rest of my life. But the thought of something happening to her made me lose my mind.

She was right. I would kill anyone who touched her.

Which was a problem, considering this was her job.

I finished my rounds, touching base with the high rollers and checking in with the bouncers and the girls posted at the rowdier tables. It was a slower night, and I had reports to get ready before I met with Mr. Leonetti next week. Hand on the staff-only door, I cast one last glance around the room, and I nearly jumped in my place when the door flew open in front of me.

Carina barged through the opening, crashing into me before she could stop herself. I grabbed hold of her, my first instinct to wrap my arms around her and make sure she was okay.

“Carina, darling, what’s going on?”

“Oh, King.” She clung to me, her hands tight on the sleeves of my jacket as she looked up at my face. “We need to talk.”

Without taking my hands from her body, I ushered her down the hall to my office. “What is it?” I asked when I opened my door.

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