Page 50 of Need Him Like Oxygen

Had something else happened to her?

Had she gone after these fucks and gotten hurt again?

Or worse?

All because my fucking pride wouldn’t let me reach out first, wouldn’t allow me to show up at her place and check on her?

I was twenty minutes deep in berating myself when suddenly the door opened, and there she was.

Just seeing her was a punch to the gut, my gaze helpless but to scan over her. First, looking to make sure she was okay. Second, of course, just to linger, my mind flashing with memories of her under me, of her over me.

She was dressed like she usually was—black jeans that hugged her curves, her scuffed black boots, the ones without the heels, and some sort of simple black shirt under her bomber jacket.

Unlike me, her gaze didn’t move around the crowd. And I couldn’t help but wonder if it was because she didn’t want to see me, didn’t want to lock eyes, to be forced to make her way over toward me, to try to force our way through a conversation that didn’t give us away.

She shrugged off her jacket, hanging it on the overflowing rack by the door, before making a beeline for the bar.

“I’ll be back. Need a refill,” I said to the small circle I was standing in. None of whom I’d been paying attention to, so they wouldn’t even miss me when I didn’t show back up.

“Lore, you magnificent creature,” I said, moving in at her side as she also made her way to the bar. “Can I make you something to drink?” I asked, knowing our boss’s wife liked her drinks fruity enough to mask the taste of the alcohol.

“Sure,” she said, shooting me a smile as I moved behind the bar where Cinna was finishing a big pour of whiskey.

Which was how I saw them at first because her hand was wrapped around the bottle.

Her knuckles were all busted up.

I mean, it wasn’t rare to see a capo with some minor injuries on them. We still got our hands dirty when a situation called for it. Even Renzo himself partook in violence on occasion, even though he could easily outsource that. But hers were particularly gnarly. Like she’d been working someone over for a long time.

“Someone dare to call you pretty again?” I asked, glancing down at her hand pointedly, but trying to keep things light.

I wished the light was better in the apartment. I wanted to inspect her face, to see if she was covering up any other injuries with makeup.

“Oh, geez. Do you need some first aid supplies?” Lore asked as she noticed her knuckles as Cinna raised her glass to drink.

“I cleaned them earlier,” Cinna said, and it was fucking pathetic how I felt myself lean toward the sound of her voice.

“Oh, good,” Lore said as I finished making her drink. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages,” she went on. “I texted you,” she added, the tone a bit pointed for someone as shy as Lore.

The two women were as polar opposite as you could get. Where the boss’s wife was all sweet, unsure of herself, and shy, Cinna was all hardness and confidence, and I’d never seen her struggle to assert herself. But, somehow, at the beginning of Lore and Renzo’s marriage, she and Cinna had formed a sort of older-sister, younger-sister bond.

That was clearly strained recently.

It was one thing for Cinna to be avoiding me. It felt like a complete other for her to pull away from Lore.

“You did. Sorry. I’ve been… busy,” Cinna said. “We can get coffee this week,” she added.

“I promise I won’t make you order for me,” Lore said, liking her coffee sweet and full of shit that Cinna would find embarrassing to order.

“Sure you will,” Cinna said, this time shooting her friend a small smile.

“Are the girls having a meeting?” Saff asked, moving up between the other two women.

“Yep. Just the girls,” I agreed, getting an eye roll from Saff.

“Did you like the book?” Lore asked Saff, making my brows raise. That was something I didn’t know about the young, fiery capo. She liked to read?

“Look, Lore,” Saff started, sucking in a breath. “While I appreciated all of the many vivid sex scenes,” she went on, making Lore’s cheeks go scarlet, “it needed a lot more violence. I mean, I’m sorry, these are warring clans doing constant battle, and no one got beheaded? Get real.”

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