Page 37 of Three to Fall

“Me too,” I said quickly.

“No,” all three men said in unison.

I rolled my eyes.

“I worked my way through med school at a bar,” Gray offered.

Hayden didn’t look happy about it. “This probably won’t end well.”

“Probably not,” Hawk agreed. “But what choice do you have?”

None. We all knew it. What Luca wanted; Luca got.

And he very firmly had Hayden in a spot none of us knew how to get him out of.

9

HAYDEN

I’d never chopped vegetables as aggressively as I did while watching Luca and his father and their friends on the restaurant security cameras. I resented every slice of my knife, and the sharp blade took chunks out of the chopping board because I wasn’t being careful.

I needed to settle down before I took a slice out of my finger and ended up with yet another round of Hawk’s stitches. But Luca’s presence always got under my skin.

Especially with him and Kara in the same room.

I didn’t want her anywhere near him. But it seemed that was inevitable today.

I just needed to cook quicker. Get them out of here faster.

Kara came over from the sink where I’d basically hidden her, busying her with washing dishes, and I relaxed an inch at having her close to me. She rubbed a soothing hand up and down my back, not saying anything, but just knowing her presence was all I wanted.

“They’ll be gone soon, and then we’ll get the party back on track. Luca said it’s just an hour.”

She had a lot of faith in Luca’s word.

I did not.

Kara’s hand pausing on my back should have been the first sign of trouble, but it was Luca’s shadow falling over me before I realized there were other people in the kitchen.

His father and his friends all stood behind him.

Luca cleared his throat. “So this is where all the action happens…”

I glared at him. “What are you doing back here?”

“Just giving my father and his friends the grand tour of the place while we wait for our meals.”

“Kitchen’s off-limits,” I snapped. I nudged Kara toward the back of the room, away from Luca’s friends and their leering stares.

An older man narrowed his eyes at me disapprovingly, but his words were directed at his son. “You let your staff speak to you like that?”

“I’m not his staff,” I bit out.

Luca changed the subject. “Chaos is an amazing chef. The food is getting rave reviews…”

Luca’s dad wandered into the kitchen, peering into the frying pans on the stove and strolling about the place like he had every right in the world. He paused behind Kara and cocked his head to one side, studying her. “And who’s this pretty thing? Too pretty to be hiding away back here if you ask me.” He glanced at his son. “What have I told you? You put the pretty ones out in front where we can see them. Nobody wants to be served food by men.” He offered me a fake smile. “No offense.”

Anger bubbled up inside me, but Luca stepped between Kara and his father and gave me a ‘I’m handling it, settle down’ look. Which only made me want to hit him more.

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