“Stay away from her,” I all but growled.
That asshole had the nerve to smile at me. “Oh, come on, help a man out. We’re blood, cuz. You could put in a good word for me.”
“There are no good words I can use to describe you. You’ll stick your dick in anything wet and willing.”
Griffin’s head fell back in laughter. “Hypocrite much? You’re a bigger whore than I am. And that’s really saying something.”
“Look,” I began, trying to take a safer route. “She’s my assistant. The last thing I need is for that shit to blow up in your face and fall back on me. You wanna bang half of New York, go for it. Just leave my employees out of it.”
The look on Griffin’s face told me everything I needed to know. He was buying my bullshit reasoning about as much as I was. “Oh, man. I knew it! You’re hot for her.” He laughed like it was the most hysterical thing he’d ever heard.
“She’s a good assistant and my… friend,” I added pathetically. “I’m not hot for her. I just don’t need the drama that would come with you two hooking up.”
“Bullshit, Row. I saw it the moment I walked in. You might as well have pissed a circle around the poor girl. Good for you, dude. She’s gorgeous. She’s got that southern sweetness thing going on.”
My head felt like it was about to explode. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I sighed. “Can we not talk about my assistant and get back to the reason why you’re here?”
“Can’t a man stop in to say hey to a family member once in a while?”
“Not when that man lives to annoy the ever-living fuck out of me,” I answered.
“Fair enough,” he responded, the grin on his face slowly leaking away, turning Griffin’s usually carefree features into something much more serious. My hackles went up instantly. Griffin Locklaine rarely did serious, as he always said he had enough serious shit to deal with when it came to his job with the NYPD. He worked to keep his personal life as stress-free as possible.
“What’s up?”
“Man,” he huffed, running a hand through his shaggy brown hair. “You know I try my best to stay outta shit. I’m neutral all around, you know that. But I got a call from Aunt Marie a couple days ago.”
My head fell back on a groan. I knew my mother wasn’t giving up about getting me to reconcile with my brother, but to pull Griffin into our fucked up mess was just low. “Fuck,” I hissed out. All of a sudden, the dull headache I’d been feeling at the start of our conversation turned into a sharp, piercing pain.
“This isn’t something you’re going to be able to ignore, Row,” Griffin stated, causing anger to surge through me.
“I know you aren’t actually suggesting I talk to that motherfucker,” I gritted out.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Of course not! Look, I get your anger, man, I do. What Rich did was beyond fucked up, and I’d be the last person to tell you to kiss and make up. I didn’t come here to lecture you. I came to give you a heads up.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “A heads-up about what?”
Griffin fell back in the chair with a heavy breath, running a hand through his hair in agitation. “Aunt Marie called me to try and talk some sense into you, but I told her it was your business and I wasn’t getting in the middle of it. She was pissed, no doubt about it, but she didn’t push.”
“Then why are we talking about this, Griff?”
“Because I got a call from Rich a few days later. He’s coming to the city, Row.”
It was like a band of screaming toddlers had taken up residence in my skull and were all beating on drums. “You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!” Fury I hadn’t felt in years took root in my chest, setting everything aflame. I moved to New York to get the fuck away from Connecticut so I could escape them. And he had the nerve to invade my territory? Fuck. That.
“I’m just the messenger. Believe me, this is the last thing I wanted to come here to tell you. He claims he needed to get away after the split. Apparently, the divorce was less than amicable—”
“What a fucking shocker,” I interrupted sarcastically.
“He took a transfer to his firm’s New York office. He’ll be here within a month.”
My elbows hit the desktop, my head falling into my hands as I tried to grasp the fact that, once again, my brother and I would be sharing the same city… something I never wanted to do again. We’d shared everything growing up—toys, clothes, a bedroom. You name it, we shared it; the plight of being a twin. One thing I never expected us to share, however, was women. I never expected the woman I was head over heels for to crush my heart by betraying me with my own brother. But what hurt worse was that Richard, my flesh and blood, my twin, didn’t hesitate when Bree found her way into his bed.
I raised my head when I heard Griffin stand from his chair. “Look, I know it’s just another in a long line of fucked up situations, but think of it this way. New York isn’t small, Row. The odds of you ever running into him are slim to none. You don’t run in the same circles, your career paths don’t cross. You’re probably never even gonna see the guy.”
I knew Griff was trying to find the silver lining in the shit storm that was my life, and I appreciated the hell out of him for it, but I just couldn’t find it in me to look at things with the same optimism.
“Let’s get shitfaced tonight,” he offered. “I’ll call up Dex, see if he can join us, and we’ll make a night of it. What do ya say?”
Dex was my best friend from college and Griffin’s partner at the NYPD. The three of us were closer than my brother and I had ever been. A night out sounded like just the thing I needed to push all thoughts of Richard out of my head. “Yeah… yeah, that sounds great. Let’s do it. Call him and see if his wife’s willing to unshackle him for one night.”
Griffin’s carefree smile returned. “I’m telling Wendy you said that,” he teased.
“You do that and I’ll tell her about the strippers you hired for his bachelor party,” I returned. We loved to give Dex a hard time about being the only one of us to be tied down, but the truth was we loved Wendy. She was exactly what he needed to keep him on the straight and narrow.
Griffin had just opened his mouth to respond when a husky, seductive laugh echoed from the living room.
Ah, hell.
I rolled my eyes as Griffin’s head whipped toward to office door. “Pepper’s here?” he asked, turning back to me, a gleam in his eye that could mean nothing but trouble. As a favor to Dex, I’d hired his sister, Pepper, to be my personal stylist when she first started trying to open her own store. Pepper lived and breathed clothing and was in desperate need of cash to get started. I didn’t have the first fucking clue what to do with a personal stylist, but I had money to spend and Pepper was just as much family to me as Dex was. She wouldn’t just take a check, so I did the only thing I could. I came up with a bullshit job for her to do so she wouldn’t feel guilty about taking my money.
Turned out, the decision paid off pretty damn well. I never had to buy any of my own clothes, or suffer the torture that was retail shopping, and Pepper had a fantastic eye. It was the perfect arrangement. And it seriously helped that Pepper wasn’t like most other women. There really wasn’t any drama where she was concerned.
Unless it came to Griffin.
I had no idea what happened between the two of them, but for the past two years, it seemed like they were determined to do battle every time they were in the same room. Griff got a sick thrill out of fucking with her, and Pepper seemed to despise the ground he walked on. What made that strange was the fact that they’d been friends before. No telling what happened, but that was a mess I was staying the hell out of.
“Not in my apartment, man,” I lamented. “I don’t want to deal with the bloodstains when she claws your eyes out.”
Griffin turned and headed for the door, grinning over his shoulder as he said, “I just want to say hi to an old friend. No harm in that.”
I didn’t even
bother responding to that asinine comment as I followed him out of the office and down the hall to the living room. Just as we turned the corner, something Pepper said piqued my curiosity.
“See? I told you I’d have something for you to look forward to after Rowan’s done chewing your ass out.”
“Chewing your ass out for what?” I asked as Griff and I stepped into the room. Pepper spun around, her eyes full of laughter—that was, until they set sight on Griffin.
“Ugh, what are you doing here?” she snarled, her red-painted lips curling up in disgust.
“I’m here to see your cheerful, smiling face, of course,” Griffin needled.
“What am I going to chew your ass out about?” I asked again, trying to diffuse the situation between the two people currently taking their corners for a fight.
Navie pulled her attention from the two of them and turned to me, a look of uncertainty in those big, blue eyes I was quickly finding myself addicted to.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
Those denim-colored orbs rolled back in her head as Navie let out a huff and grabbed a garment bag from the back of the couch. Walking to me, she slapped the thing against my chest.
“Here. You need to try this on so Pepper can get your measurements right.”
With a quirked brow, I reached for the zipper and pulled it down. My confusion instantly morphed into displeasure. “Why does Pepper need my measurements for a tux?”
“Because you’re going to the AHA gala at the end of the month,” she mumbled quickly. Unfortunately, I heard her clearly.
“Oh, come on! You know I hate those fucking things. A bunch of rich pricks flaunting their money just so they can look like they give a shit about something when they’re really only thinking about how they can fuck one of the staff without their spouses catching on.”
“Wow,” Navie said with a tilt of her lips. “You aren’t cynical at all, are you?”
“I’m not going.”
She planted her hands on her hips and glared at me. “You’re going, and that’s final. You’re going to be one of those rich pricks for a night. Look on the bright side—maybe you can bang a waitress.” She smiled full-on, clearly pleased with her joke.
“You just want to be fired, don’t you?”
She shrugged casually. “You can’t fire me. Technically, I work for Lauren. And she likes me better than you.”
I was suddenly hit with a stroke of genius. “Pepper,” I spoke, not breaking the stare-off between Navie and myself.
“Yeah?” she asked over her laughter.
“I’m going to need you to find something suitable for Navie to wear to the event, since she’ll be coming along.”
“What? Are you out of your mind? I’m not going with you!”
“I’m assuming you RSVP’d plus one?” I asked, already knowing the answer to my question.
“Of course. Are you ever seen out in public without a bimbo on your arm?”
“Well…” an evil grin twisted my lips up, “…seeing as I’m not planning on looking for a date, and it’s a thousand-dollars-a-plate dinner, looks like you’ll be that bimbo for the night.”
Our standoff continued for several seconds before her shoulders fell in defeat. “Fine. But I don’t like you.”
“Works for me.” I shrugged.
Pepper stepped over to us and hooked her arm through Navie’s. “Go try the damn tux on,” she said before turning back to Navie. “Let’s go talk outfits for tonight. I’m thinking the Neon Room is going to be ripe for the picking, and Mama needs to get laid. VIP, baby!”
Griff and I stood side by side, staring as they headed into the kitchen and out of earshot.
“Hey, Row?”
“Yeah?”
“Think you can get us into the Neon Room?”
I had no doubt my smile was akin to the Cheshire Cat. “I’ll make some calls.”
As I’d expected, Harlow was ecstatic at the idea of a girls’ night out. Before bills, jobs, and the rest of the general adult crap had been dumped upon us, dancing was something we always loved to do. So in preparation for a much needed night out, we spent well over two hours getting ready. The end result was something I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to replicate again.
“Girl, you look hooooooooot!” Pepper whistled as Harlow and I stepped out of the back of our cab in front of the Neon Room. I looked down at my dress, feeling more exposed than I ever had in my life.
When I’d made it home and told Harlow about our plans, she’d immediately run to her room and come back with two dresses, tossing them down and declaring, “Pick one. I’ll wear the other.” One was a sleeveless dress with a cream, jersey-knit top and a shimmery dove gray skirt. It was cute, but the large triangle cutouts on both sides showed more skin than I was willing to show. I thought the silver sequined dress would have been a safer pick; it had short sleeves, and although it would only come to about mid-thigh, it had a modest neckline. The dress was fun, a little funky and, matched with a pair of nude platform heels, was right up my alley. That was until I picked it up and saw the back, or should I say lack thereof.
It scooped down the entire length of my back. Those little dimples at the base of my spine were in serious danger of being exposed, and I worried that if I bent the wrong way, I’d be flashing crack at some poor, innocent bystander. But when I tried to trade back with Harlow, she’d refused, telling me the dress was made for me.
I hated her.
My eyes traveled from my less than modest ensemble to what Pepper was wearing. It was an outfit I’d never have the lady balls to wear, but she absolutely rocked it. The black leather pants hugged her like a second skin. Her red corseted halter top lifted and cinched to make her figure look perfect. And her leopard-print pumps were to die for.
Literally.
As I stood there, I conjured up different scenarios just so I could get my hands on those shoes. She had the sexy rockabilly look down pat.
“You, too,” I answered, leaning in to give her a hug, mindful not to bend too far forward. After quickly introducing Harlow and Pepper, we made our way to the front of the club, bypassing a line so long it snaked around the building. I wasn’t going to lie; jumping ahead of all those people desperate to get in was a heady experience. Pepper flashed our passes—along with a seductive wink—at the bouncer and just like that, we were in.
The instant we stepped inside, my senses went on overload. People packed the dance floor in the very middle of the space, moving and swaying to the beat that vibrated through the floors. Flashes of different colored lights shot in random intervals through the dimly lit building, bathing everything in temporary color before going dark again. The club was two levels, the first floor housing the dance floor and two long bars, one on the far back wall and one to the right when we first walked in. A curved, wrought iron set of stairs to my left led up to the second level. It was completely open, like a balcony wrapping around all four walls, overlooking the action down below. I was willing to bet that was the VIP area. The energy in the club was positively electric, and I felt my excitement build at the idea of getting out there and losing myself in the sea of people.
“Come on!” Pepper yelled over the music. “VIP has bottle service. We’ll get a drink then go dance.”
Standing between Harlow and Pepper, the three of us linked hands as Pepper led us up the stairs. I was so focused on not getting my heel caught and falling on my face that I ran smack into the back of Pepper when she came to an abrupt stop at the landing.
“Oh, hell no!”
“What is it?” Harlow asked. I looked at her over my shoulder and gave her a shrug before turning back to see what set Pepper off.
“Evening, ladies.” I knew that voice. Once I shoved Pepper out of the way enough to make it to the landing, my gaze settled on the man standing in front of her wearing a cocky grin.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Unfazed by the fire in Pepper’s eyes, Griffin’s smile grew b
righter as he took a step toward her. She tried to back up, but with Harlow and me standing directly behind her, she had nowhere to go.
“Just having a night out with the guys.” He tilted his chin, dragging my attention to where Rowan and another guy sat on plush looking loveseats that surrounded a square table. From the looks of it, the entire VIP area was filled with small seating sections just like theirs.
My breath stalled at the sight of him sitting there. If there was one thing I’d been looking forward to, it was a chance to escape the constant thoughts of Rowan that had been plaguing me. Seeing him there, completely at ease, caused all those hopes of forgetting, at least temporarily, to burst into flames.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Pepper shouted as the other guys made eye contact with us.
“Sis!” the unfamiliar one called out excitedly. Pepper’s brother was most definitely not what I expected. The guy next to Rowan was the complete opposite of his fiery sister. He was most definitely attractive, but in a straight-laced, casual way and none of the flash of Pepper.
“I cannot believe you crashed our girls’ night!” she seethed at Griffin between clenched teeth. “And you brought my brother?!”
“Total coincidence,” he answered smoothly. “I don’t see cause for such hostility, sweetness. Can’t we all just get along?”
From the way her entire body grew rigid, I was willing to bet that was the absolute wrong thing to say. “No, we can’t. And there’s a perfectly good reason for the hostility.”
“Oh, please, enlighten me.”
“It’s simple. I can’t stand the sight of you.”
If the venom in Pepper’s voice hadn’t been enough to convince me what she was saying was true, the way Griffin’s laidback demeanor shifted as he flinched was enough to do it. I had no idea what had happened between those two, but whatever it was, it wasn’t pretty.
Just as quickly as the hurt appeared, it was gone and Griffin’s carefree mask was back in place. “Can I buy you lovely ladies a drink?” he offered to all three of us. “I can speak for the other guys when I say we’d be honored for you to join us.”
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