I rush into the club from the back room. She is safe in the club. Enzo had passed around her picture, so all the guys know she is off-limits. I hate that they'd even looked at her picture, but it had to be done. It won’t serve anyone if I just go off half-cocked and start killing the entire crew.
“Nice to see you,” Enzo says as I pass him in the dark corridor.
“If you wanna talk, meet me at the perch.”
The perch is the highest point of the club. It’s where I sit, my throne, as I watch the spectacle below. It is also the best place to protect her. In that position, I can trace her gliding on the dance floor and see precisely who talks to her or tries anything else.
I stand there, tracking her every movement with my gaze. She looks so beautiful that it physically hurts to stare at her. She smiles at the bartender, Josie, when she takes her drink and sits down. I didn’t think it was possible to be fucking jealous of a damn chair.
“You look like shit,” Enzo says, coming to stand beside me. “You can’t go on much longer, or you’re gonna snap.”
“Too fuckin' late. I snapped the moment I saw her.”
“You’re no good to her or anyone if you’re fucked up and off your game.”
I scrub my face, trying to get my fucking brain under control. I let everything go. My only interest is Raven. Nothing else seems to matter to me. I can burn it all down and will be fine as long as she is with me.
“What ya gonna do, Vance? Follow her like a puppy for the rest of your life?"
“Fuck off.”
Enzo laughs, hitting me on the back with his open hand. “I love you, man, but you’re seriously certifiable. I’ve never seen you this deranged before, and a lot of pussy gets slung your way."
“I don’t want the other pussy.”
“Can’t you just fuck one of the dark-haired girls and pretend it’s her? Maybe a good nut will get you back on the straight and narrow.”
I grit my teeth, my hands going ghostly white from holding on to the railing so tight. “Don’t want anyone else. Only want her, only her.”
Enzo keeps talking, but I ignore him because, at that moment, a creepy guy with slicked-back hair and a generic suit is talking to my raven. She politely smiles, but her body shifts away, silently telling the fucker that she isn’t interested. The cocksucker doesn’t get the message. He doesn’t back away and go on to the next conquest. He shifts his body closer, crowding her space.
I sprint down the stairs. “Rock, Tony, come with me.”
The two bouncers don't even blink. Like good soldiers, they follow, no questions asked.
I walk up to Raven. “Sir,” I say through gritted teeth, “please come with us.”
“What the fuck for?” the prick asks.
“We’d like to have a conversation with you. Sir, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. I prefer the latter, but I’m not opposed to the former.”
The asshole’s eyes widen and shift from left to right, as if checking for an out, but there isn’t one. This is my palace, and he’d pissed off the king. My boys grab him by the arms and start dragging him away as he continues to yell.
“Hey,” Raven says, “I was hoping I would bump into you. Is that guy gonna be alright?”
I grab a lock of her hair and feel the silky softness on my finger, just a taste of her softness, her beauty. “Don’t worry about him, Little Bird. Why were you lookin’ for me?”
She peers at me as her perfectly straight teeth graze her bottom teeth, making my dick hard as a rock. “I got your delivery. It was really kind. Thank you.”
“It was nothing,” I say, meaning it. I will do anything for the girl; ordering some food is literally the lowest thing I can do on a list of items. I want to make her my queen, to lay the world—my world—at her feet. “I would love to stay with you all night, Little Bird, but right now, I need to go deal with business.” I point to the balcony. “That’s Enzo. He’ll watch you. Once it’s time, he’ll bring you to me.”
I offer her a smile before turning to Josie. “Anything she needs is on the house.”
“You got it, boss.”
I offer Raven a smile before heading to the back.
The club used to be an old warehouse, with all the trappings. At one point, it housed a butchery, and when we remodeled, I insisted we keep some of the old features when we updated the place. The cold storage unit was one thing we kept.
I remove the boning blade from the inside of my suit jacket before I peel it off and hand it to Rock. “Who’s watching him?”