“You should be more worried about what I’m going to do to you.” He pressed a code on a keypad and shoved me into the cold space illuminated by a small lamp on a solid, wooden desk in the center of the room.
He slammed the door behind him as I retreated to the other side of the room.
“There’s nowhere for you to go.”
I gazed around the dusty office with the worn, hardwood floors and peeling paint.
“Excuse the place.” He stalked toward me. “It’s not at all what I’m used to, but something tells me you feel right at home.”
“Do you like insulting me?”
The way he viewed me made me feel small and insignificant. He saw me as less than him because of my clothes, and the fact that I didn’t look like the other women in the club. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to dress nicer and have expensive shoes and a designer bag, but I couldn’t afford those things.
“What is your last name?” He continued to come toward me. “And don’t fuck around with me.”
“Flynn,” I whispered.
I backed up, hitting the wall when he stopped in front of me. The scent of his woodsy cologne swirled between us as flashes of him pressing his finger to my lips with the sugar from the rim of my glass cluttered my thoughts. No one had ever been so forward with me.
I should feel nothing for such a brutal man. He punched my brother and didn’t show an ounce of remorse. Even as he towered over me with his large, muscular frame, scaring the crap out of me, I still couldn’t forget the image of his lips inches from mine as we swayed to the slow beat of the music.
Snap out of it!
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Prior to the unfortunate incident of your brother coming into my territory and causing a problem, I wanted to fuck you.”
“Oh,” I whispered.
“You didn’t see the signs?” He slapped his palms against the wall on either side of me, caging me in. “Or were you too busy worrying about Chance?”
“I didn’t know what he was doing.”
“I’m not sure I believe that.” He cupped the side of my face, causing my heart rate to increase. “Maybe you didn’t know he was attempting to sell drugs, but you knew he didn’t belong here.”
“We came with his friends,” I said.
“You’re telling me Romeo Bello is friends with your brother?” He snickered. “Your brother is dumber than you know if he’s hanging out with a guy like that.”
“Could he be any worse than you?”
His lips curled into a smug smile, but I couldn’t tell if he was amused or offended.
“Do you really want me to answer that question?”
“Mr.Bello doesn’t have my brother beaten up, so I don’t have any reason to believe he isn’t Chance’s friend.”
“Not yet.” He tucked my hair behind my ear, forcing another violent shiver to rip through me. “Just wait until Romeo finds out what Chance attempted to do here tonight. You’re going to wish I killed him first.”
“I don’t want anyone to kill my brother.”
Why had Chance involved himself with these sorts of men? No good could come from an association with them. When he started doing odd jobs for them, like parking cars and running errands, I told him not to get in any deeper.
Their luxury cars and expensive shoes were a red flag. We didn’t belong in these circles.
“Your brother made his own problems.” Milo took my chin between his fingers and slowly turned my head from side to side, inspecting my face. “You are rather stunning.” He traced his fingers underneath my eye. “I like your freckles.”
I had a trail of freckles across the bone on the side of my face that stretched to underneath my eye on both sides. They were faint but noticeable. I had always felt self-conscious about them. No one had ever said they liked them.