Page 35 of You Don’t Kiss Your Brother's Best Friends

“The people we work for are here,” he said quickly. “And they’re dangerous, Jocelyn.Verydangerous.”

“Really?” I challenged. “The brunette in the kitchen didn’t look that dangerous. She looked pretty friendly to me, especially with her tongue jammed down Kayden’s throat.”

I was angry. Jealous. Angry that I was jealous! But the grave look on Andre’s face told me this wasn’t the time for jokes.

“You have no idea what’s about to happen over the next few days,” he said in a hushed tone. “If you did—”

“Mr. Bowman?”

It happened fast, before either of us could react. One moment we were talking, and in the next a man had materialized, seemingly from out of the shadows.

“Who’sthis?”

The man was regarding me with a mixture of alarm and disgust. He was tall and dark-looking, with a sharply-angled chin and eyes that looked through me rather than at me. And he was unfathomably dangerous. I knew this without knowing him; it was in his body language, his voice, the way he carried himself. I knew it before I even noticed the incredibly expensive outfit he wore, or the gun, holstered across his chest.

“This is Emily,” Andre said without missing a beat. “I was just going over the menu with her, actually.”

“Themenu?”

“Of course,” Andre shrugged. “She’s one of the servers.”

The man’s eyes were much too small for his face. They narrowed as they focused harder, piercing me even more deeply as he pulled out a small tablet and began punching it with his stylus.

“She’s not supposed to be here until tomorrow,” the man snapped, looking up.

Andre sighed in mock exasperation. “I know.”

“Then why would she—”

“That part’s my fault,” Andre interjected quickly. “I screwed up. Turns out I gave her the wrong date.”

The man stood up a little straighter, until he was looking right down his nose at me. His presence, his aura, the way his face conveyed such grim disappointment — the whole thing gave me the chills.

“I—I’m sorry,” I apologized, playing along. “If you want me to leave, and come back—”

“Leave?” the man scoffed. “Look outside. Do you want to go back throughthat?”

He pointed down the hall, at the nearest rain-soaked window. The trees at the edge of the property were swaying so hard they looked bent over.

“No,” I shrugged, trying to look miserable. “I… I just—”

“It’s a miracle you even made it here, but you may as well make yourself useful. The head chef is in the kitchen. Talk to him, see if he needs anything. In the meantime…”

The man reached into an inner pocket, and pulled out a keycard.

“Go to your room and change.”

I froze up, wholly confused, but only for a moment. When I could finally will my arms to move again, I plucked the keycard from between his long, gaunt-looking fingers. The man frowned.

“Notyou,”he admonished me. “Him!”

Andre took the keycard back from me, without a word. The way he did it made me feel unnecessarily foolish.

“I’ll need to know her schedule,” the man said sternly, addressing Andre again. It was obvious by now he’d completely dismissed me. “Everywhere she goes. Everything she does.”

“It’ll all be in the itinerary,” Andre assured him. “Trust me.”

“Oh, Idon’ttrust you,” the man laughed, and his laughter was like nails on a chalkboard. Casually, he slipped the tablet back into his jacket pocket. “I don’t trust anyone, actually. But that’s okay. That’s how I got where I am.”

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