Page 33 of Killian
Ellie
“What’sup with the hunk of man?” Corey asked, standing next to me at the bar top. Big badass Diesel sat only two tables over, his focus on the entire room; not just us, and there were a lot of people. The Drunken Monkey was the place to be.
Great for business, but I had to admit, I was a bit on edge. So much so I let Killian talk me into having people checked and scanned for weapons at the front door before they were allowed inside. It was probably overkill, but I didn’t want anyone hurt because of this mess.
Especially here.
I readily gave into Killian’s request to have a man on me visibly at all times. Apparently, he had his people watching me from a distance before, but after the shootout at my house, he wanted the presence of his people known.
“That’s my bodyguard, Diesel.”
At the sound of his name, which I had no idea how he heard over the music, he turned to us and lifted his chin in that silent greeting that badasses did.
“Okay. Why do you need a bodyguard, and how do I meet him?” She winked at me.
I hadn’t had time to tell Corey what went down yesterday. Truthfully, I didn’t want to talk about it. At least for a while. My mind had raced all night, and it needed a break. One of those mental timeouts. Corey was a chill kind of woman. She was also the kind of woman who analyzed, compartmentalized, and then moved the fuck on. I respected the hell out of her, but right this moment, I was too exhausted to break it all down.
Before I bought the bar, I worked at a doctor’s office. He let us take mental health days all the time, saying if we didn’t have our heads on straight everything would get screwed up. Between the other two ladies and I, we didn’t take but maybe four days off between all of us.
It was a great job. Honestly, back then and even now, I enjoyed working. The drive, the reasons to keep pressing on. I had only felt the need for the timeout once while working there.
There was a saying if you loved what you did, you’d never work a day in your life. That was how I felt at my bar. This wasn’t work—it was home. Only right now, I was checked out.
Right here and now, I was beyond ready for my mental health day.
“This is the short version because I have to get these orders in and approve the others for you. Yesterday some shit went down, so Killian put that big man on me to make sure nothing happens to me. Now I gotta…”
Corey’s hand came to my arm. “Cut the shit, Ellie. Your house was shot up. Hank over there”—she pointed her finger to the man in question at the other end of the bar—“heard it over the police band. So what happened?”
I sighed deep and told her. Not exactly everything, though, because what Bri told us about Khloe was under wraps, according to Killian. Since I didn’t want to get shot at again, it would stay under wraps. I trusted Corey, but my patience to get into all the details was wearing thin.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Corey asked, ever the great friend.
The answer to that question was damn complicated. Okay, it was relative at this point. I was pissed as hell we were shot at, and my place was torn up. Then I felt fear that whoever did this would strike again, and the next time someone would get the bullet. The confusion of sleeping next to Killian and it feeling so damn good … I was a bit scared about that too. I was worried about Khloe and Bri. Then I was happy about the kickass orgasms last night.
Just put every emotion in a blender, fire it up, and that was the feelings rolling through me.
Pretty much fucked up.
“Killian’s working on it. And Diesel is my bud. He’ll take care of me.”
My eyes darted over to the man in question, and his brow was raised.
“How in the hell can you hear us?”
He smirked, and I swore the room stopped for a moment. That small movement changed his entire face from badass scary guy, to hot as hell badass scary guy. It took me a moment to process this.
Diesel tapped his finger to his ear, and I still had no idea how he heard us. I sighed deep. “Anyway. We’re gettin’ it worked out.” I hoped.
“What about your house?”
I grabbed the papers up off the bar and tapped them, getting them straight. “That is a problem for another day. I’m not going there. I can’t deal with it right now. Killian said he’d have his guys board it up.”
“And you’re staying with him?” she asked cautiously.
“Yeah. For a couple of days until I get shit figured out.”
“You need anything, I’m here for ya.” Corey reached over and squeezed my hand. She’d been there through a lot, and it was nice to see she was there through this as well. One could never have enough genuine friends. She gave me her biggest smile. “Oh. And I want to hear how Killian is in bed.”
