Page 19 of Temptress

I denied it because whenever I saw Sloane Chambers, I had a habit of forgetting everything else. She was the kind of woman who took up every inch of space in a man’s brain. A woman who could make you forget everything else. I’d spent too long putting my job before my family, before my daughter. My priorities had been seriously fucked for years, and I refused to slip into old patterns. Darcy was all that mattered. She came before anything and everything else. I needed to prove that to her. I’d made a promise that never again would anything come before my baby girl, and I wasn’t going to break that promise.

There wasn’t room in my life for anyone but her, plain and simple.

“I’m not denying anything,” I said, bothered by how easily that lie rolled off my tongue. “She’s just a neighbor whohappensto work at the same place I do.”

Kim sucked in a gasp, interrupting the rest of what I was going to say. “She works with you?”

“Well, I wouldn’t saywithme, exactly. We hardly ever cross paths. She’s one of the performers.”

“No way!” she squeaked loudly. “Your new neighbor is aWhiskey Doll? That’s so cool!”

My brows crept higher up my forehead. “You know about them?”

“You’re kidding, right?” she asked sardonically. “Everyone in Virginia knows who they are.”

“I didn’t. At least not until I started working there.”

Kim scoffed loudly. “That doesn’t surprise me. You basically live under a rock. You wouldn’t know what was cool if it came up and bit you in the ass.” I could have taken offense, but there was no point. It wasn’t like she was wrong. I didn’t exactly keep up on the trends.

“Some girlfriends and I actually caught a show once. We had to stand in line for a ridiculously long time before we finally got in, but it was worth it. They’re crazy talented.”

Fortunately, I was about to pull up to the club, so I had a good reason to cut her off. When Kim was excited about something, she could go on forever. “As much as I like listening to you fan girl, I’m at work, so I’m going to have to let you go.”

“All right. But remember what I said. Darcy’s smart. She’s going to be fine.”

I let out a breath, praying she was right. I’d failed Darcy so many times already, I didn’t want to drop the ball now that I was basically all she had to lean on.

All I could do was try my hardest and hope to God it was enough.

10

SILAS

Isat at my desk, going over the security footage from the evening before, making sure my team didn’t miss anything. Part of the reason I’d taken this job in the first place was because the owners understood that I was a single father with a kid under my roof full time, so they were flexible with my hours. There would be nights, however, where I’d be required to work until closing, and despite Darcy’s insistence that she was old enough to stay home by herself, there was no fucking way I would leave her alone until midnight, or sometimes two in the morning.

Fortunately, my new bosses were waiting to put me on nights until I found someone I trusted to stay with her. In the meantime, I was double-checking my team’s work each and every night to make sure they weren’t letting anything or anyone slip through the cracks.

McKenna and Bruce had a pretty solid team before I came on board, and I could see that the majority of them took their jobs seriously. Like me, they were all about keeping these women safe from the creeps and the crazies who took one look at them and got it in their heads that those women on stage somehow belonged to them. But with everything else they had on their plates, it wasn’t much of a surprise that one or two bad eggs had managed to sneak in. I could tell from watching the feed from the night before that I was going to have issues with two in particular.

I just finished going through the feed when my cell rang. I glanced at the screen and smirked before engaging the call and bringing to phone to my ear. “Marco Castillo. How the fuck you been, man?”

My old Army buddy laughed through the line. “Alive and kicking,” he answered jovially. “But to hear my family tell it, getting older by the minute.”

“Only as old as you feel, brother.”

“Fuck me,” he hissed. “Then I’m as old as shit.”

A chuckle rumbled up my throat. “Nah. That’s not possible. Because if you’re old, that means so am I, and I refuse to accept that.”

“Don’t blame you one damn bit. I was just callin’ to see how you’re doing and how the new job’s treatin’ you. Everything good?”

I let out a pained groan. “The job’s great, but that’s about the only silver lining at the moment. Today was Darcy’s first day of high school. Just about killed me to let her out of the car this morning.”

A hum of understanding carried through the line. “I feel you on that one. You got any free time this week? Maybe we can grab lunch, catch up a bit now that we’re in the same area again.”

I looked at my watch. It was already past noon, and my stomach chose that very moment to let out a gurgle, reminding me I hadn’t had anything other than a cup of coffee.

“Actually, if you’re free, I could meet you somewhere now. Just name the place.”

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