Page 13 of Bossy Ex's Brother

He raised an eyebrow. “You were with the boss?”

“Yeah. And I left something very embarrassing behind, if you know what I mean,” I gave him a coquettish look.

He gave me a doubtful look.

“You can ask the bartender if you don’t believe me. He was there when it…you know…started.”

I nearly blushed, cringing internally. But it worked.

The bouncer’s eyebrow climbed into his forehead, and he smirked before he stepped aside. I ignored the calls of the irate crowd behind me and walked in. The original bartender wasn’t there anymore, replaced by another guy. But the man, a bodyguard, I presume, who’d stood at the end of the hall seemed like he recognized me, so I walked to him and said, “Hey, I need to talk to Luca.”

“He’s not in,” the man said, then ran a scanning, appreciative eye down my body. “You can wait for him in his office.”

“Alright, thanks.”

Then came the most agonizing ten-minute wait of my life. With every second that ticked by, my dread rose. Beth was still in there while I was here, waiting. What if I was too late? Something might have already happened to her. What if she’d been drugged? And what if right now, as I was here, they were kidnapping her to sell her organs?

Or something even more horrifying?

God, I couldn’t take this.

I got up to pace just as the door swung open.

Luca’s eyes instantly flicked to me, and he frowned.

“I need your help,” I blurted out before he could say anything.

“You need my help.” His tone was one of disbelief, tinged with amusement, exactly as I expected.

“Yes,” I answered.

Luca shut the door behind him and leaned against it. “Love to hear it, sweetcheeks.”

I didn’t react to the title, feeling too sick with worry. “It’s my sister. She’s at one of your clubs. She’s underage, and she can’t be in there, but I can’t reach her on her phone, and the bouncers won’t let me in, and I’m freaking out of my mind—”

“Stop.” His voice was stone-cold sober, a complete one-eighty from his previous expression. And there was not a trace of a mocking smile left. “Take a deep breath.”

I did, but it didn’t help the panic that was twisting my stomach into knots.

“What club?” he asked.

“Onyx.”

His face darkened. “That’s no place for a little girl.”

“Exactly what I thought,” I said, but the fact that he was confirming it made me even more afraid. “So you’ll help me?”

“Let’s go,” he said, turning around, and I was confused as I followed him.

“Wait,” I couldn’t keep the disbelief from my tone. “You’re coming with me?”

“Of course,” he said. “As I said, that’s no place for a little girl.”

I nodded, feeling relief wash over me. And then, I understood the subtext.

He just called me a little girl.

“I’m not a little girl,” I told him indignantly. “I’m twenty-five.”

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