Stepping out, I go to grab her a drink, and when I close the door, she doesn’t make a sound.
“You think that’s smart?” Snow asks, nodding to my room where Katarina is more than likely sleeping.
“Possibly not.”
“Good. I’m glad you see it for what it is.” He nods.
“Do I, though?” I ask, looking back to my door.
“Why is she in your room?” he asks. “You never bring them back to your room.”
Snow’s right, but there’s something about Katarina. I knew it from the first time I saw her out front of a nightclub one night with her sister.
Katarina is different.
“You didn’t have Tanika in your room,” Snow says, using her name.
I didn’t love Tanika, but I saw the pain she was hiding from everyone else, and we bonded over that. I could have loved Tanika given time. Possibly. Maybe. Who fucking knows!
“She’s asleep,” I say, referring to Katarina.
“Then why not take her home?” he asks.
She asked me the same thing. But for some reason, I don’t want the average Friday night. I want it with her. Even if it means her sleeping in my bed.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kat
My head is sore, and my body is warm. Opening my eyes, the room is still dark, almost pitch black as I blink a few times, trying to make my eyes adjust. It takes me a moment to remember where I am. I can still hear music going on outside the room. Looking around, I reach for my purse and grab my phone out.
Fuck! I’ve only slept for a few hours.
The sun should be coming up now if it’s not already. Annabelle usually wakes around this time, and I feed her, then we go back to sleep.
Lying down, my hands go to either side of my body, and I realize I’m alone in the bed—a bed that isn’t even mine.
Sitting up, I look for my heels and see they’re placed on the floor at the bottom of the bed neatly with my jacket lying over one of the chairs. Reaching for it and sliding on my heels, I walk out with my phone in hand and my purse over my shoulder.
Voices are yelling, girls are screaming in delight, and I look around for Blaze. The sun is almost completely up, so I don’t have to squint to see everyone.
“Oh, it’s you,” someone next to me seethes.
I turn to see Rebecca. She has a drink in her hand and a look of hate written all over her face. She looks back to see where I came from, and her lips form a thin straight line. “He likes to fuck the new ones, and you’re just that. New for him to taste,” she spits, then walks off.
I raise an eyebrow and huff. Damn, I don’t have a car. And I feel a sense of déjà vu being back here this time, though I’m not drunk, I am the sober one.
Messaging my sister, I ask her to come and get me, not even knowing if she’s awake but hoping she is. Rochelle messages back straight away, telling me she’s on her way.
I spot him sitting at their bar with Snow next to him on one side and Silver on the other, her hand on his back as he talks animatedly to Snow. She notices me first and smiles. It’s not a ‘nice to see you’ smile either, it’s more like a ‘fuck you’ smile.
“Blaze,” I say.
He turns to face me, shrugging off Silver’s hand and looking me over. “You going somewhere?”
“Yes, home.”
“I drove you,” he says, stating the obvious.
“No shit,” I reply, complete with an eye roll. “My sister is coming.”
“She isn’t welcome,” Blaze says.
“I don’t fucking care. Lucky for you, I’m leaving.” I turn to walk away, but run straight into a hard body, almost falling backward.
Marley looks down at me, a drink in his hand as he smiles. He doesn’t bother to help me straighten myself, and I give him my best fuck you stare.
“We haven’t even fucked yet,” Blaze says.
“Yeah, that’s not happening,” I reply with a shake of my head.
I can’t get far as Marley hasn’t moved, so I look up at him. “If you don’t move, I will kick you right between your legs. Do you hear me?”
Marley looks behind him, then nods his head and steps to the side.
“Thanks for nothing, asshole.”
“I’ll see you tonight at work,” Blaze yells.
I cringe.
This can’t keep happening.
This shit needs to stop.
“No. Don’t come in.”
“Now, why would I not? It’s my place.”
“Because you distract the girls,” I reply, waving my hand to the two who are already here. Granted I fired one, and the other is almost fired if she keeps her shit up.
“Or, do I distract you.”
“No. No, you don’t.”
Blaze gets up and walks over to me. When he leans down to get in my face, I can smell whiskey on his breath and pull back.
“I think I do.”
“If you keep fucking with the girls, I will quit. Stop coming in, and let me run the place as I have done way before you came along.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Luckily for me, I don’t care what you want,” I say back to him.
“Kat.” I turn at the sound of my sister’s voice, she’s dressed in one of Marcus’s shirts and a pair of shorts. She looks from me to Blaze, then lets her eyes float around the room. When she stops at someone, her eyes narrow. I turn to see who she’s looking at—Silver.
“Do you know her?” I ask as Rochelle walks over closer to me.
“She tried to fuck with my relationship. I hate her, and she’s lucky I don’t let my fist go through her pretty little fucking face,” Rochelle says with venom in her voice as she looks to Silver, who has the decency to glance away from a furious Rochelle. Looking to Blaze, he’s watching Rochelle, afraid she’s going to lose it, and I wouldn’t blame her. Rochelle has a tendency to let her fists fly first. I know from growing up with her. But she’s pregnant now with Blaze’s niece or nephew.
“Like I said, you come back in to the club, and I will walk out.” I turn, but his voice stops me. “You should just quit then. No woman gives me ultimatums.”
“I quit,” I say while walking out with no qualms about it.
Rochelle follows me out until we reach the car. Her hands are shaking as she squeezes the steering wheel. “I hate her, why was she there?”
“She works for me. Well, did,” I say, knowing I have just quit a fucking job I need.
Goddammit!
“Mischa works for you?” she says, her eyes wide. “Blaze knew this?”
“Well, yes.”
“I’m telling Marcus. For fuck’s sake. This shit is not cool. She was the one who lied and said she slept with Marcus. I couldn’t hate her more.” Rochelle starts the car and throws it in reverse, driving out fast. She takes me home so I can get my car and pick up my daughter from Mom’s.
When I get out of her car, I look down at her. “Calm down. Marcus loves you, and only you.”
She nods.
“I know, but she’s a real bitch, that one.”