Page 6 of Imperial: The Corvidae Family
“We do this for a living, girl. Long nights are our thing but you look like you’re about to tap out.”
“I’m tired, hungry and these people are aggravating as hell. I’ll grab some of these overpriced hors d’oeuvres in a second and I’ll be fine.”
She nodded and grinned. “Yeah, I’ve been killing those damn sausage balls.”
I was about to make sure she was being discrete because the last thing we needed was complaints about us eating instead of working but, a waiter interrupted us. “Ms. Andrews, the guest at table eight is asking for you.”
I nodded automatically. “I’m coming.”
I moved on autopilot. Smiling. Handling last-minute requests. Checking in with the catering team but no matter how busy I was my mind kept circling back to the same thought.
Him…
I had no clue why he killed that man but what bothered me the most was the way he looked at me.Amusement. He found the entire situation entertaining. I was a puzzle he was considering playing with later and my crazy ass wanted that. I was caught in the gravitational pull of something dark and reckless. A sexy ass man with a gun. I groaned in annoyance and focused on getting through the rest of the night.
The moment this event ended I was going home to lock my door and pretend none of this happened.
Things wrapped up around one in the morning. After finalizing the night’s closing details and ensuring everythinghad been cleaned up, I left feeling exhausted. The staff parking lot was mostly empty and too damn quiet which had my mind spiraling again.
I pulled my keys from my bag and paused for a second before glancing over my shoulder. What if he was out here?
Girl, stop tripping. That man is long gone and damn sure not worried about you. But…
That uneasy feeling was still there, like I was being watched however it was likely just me being in my head.
Stop it, Baylyn. You’re freaking yourself out.
I got into my car and locked the doors, feeling a little more settled. Tomorrow I planned on waking up, going to work, and convincing myself tonight never happened.Hedidn’t exist. A man like that didn’t show his face twice. There was no way he would ever show up in my life again.
And that made me sad because my crazy ass wanted him too.
The next morningI woke up groaning at the sunlight that crept through my blinds. For a second, I was back to my normal boring life and then it hit me. The hallway. The body.
Him.
I smiled into my pillow with his unfairly handsome face burned into my memory. He was lethal and relaxed and so damn arrogant. I forced myself out of bed and into the shower, hoping hot water would wash away the insanity I was currently existing in. It didn’t and by the time I left for work I was distracted as hell. The drive was typical with me singing loudly and badly to my favorite songs. Luckily traffic wasn’t too terrible because I made it to work half an hour later.
Haute Events’ was a standalone building with office spaces in the front and an attached event space in the back which we occasionally used for smaller functions, so there was a massive parking lot to accommodate when necessary. I found a spot near the front knowing my heels were going to give me hell today.
I had been at Haute for three years and loved it. I put in time, built my skills, earned Tae’s trust, and finally reached the point where I could plan smaller events on my own.
After locking my car, I was on my way to the door, already mentally planning my day. I moved through the building greeting people but when I dropped into the chair behind my desk my mind was still scattered.
Get to work, Bay. You have shit to do…
I did just that and managed to survive my morning. Barely…
Hours later I hadn’t done a damn thing productive. Most of my time was spent staring blankly at my laptop screen. My iced coffee sat untouched with condensation pooling on my desk next to my planner and stack of sticky notes.
My moral compass was unbalanced.
I felt like shit because I should have called the police. A man died, but calling the police wasn’t going to change that. I had walked away and pretended it didn’t happen because the man who looked straight into my eyes and smiled daring me to react was not someone you called the police on.
He made people disappear. I was too damn cute to end up on his bad side so I decided it was best to mind the business that paid me. I shook the thought away because I had work to do and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about last night.
I dragged my laptop closer, logged into my schedule and decided to get some work done. I was mid-email when Cami peeked in, looking annoyingly relaxed. She dropped into the chair across from me, drinking a smoothie. “Okay. Spill. Why do you look like you need a confessional?”
I laughed. “Probably because you think that everyone else’s lives are just as sketchy as yours. I’m tired.”
