“Okay, we’ll drop it. So, Ryan, you were talking about a change of plans for you tonight? What were you doing?” Dec always wanted to get to the bottom of things.
Caitlin seemed to be irritated with her police partner as he called her by her last name, like the rest of their precinct seemed to do, even though they knew each other since they were children. “I’m sorry I even brought it up now. Nothing for you or you,” Caitlin said while pointing her finger at Donovan, “to worry about.”
Donovan had enough of Caitlin’s cryptic explanations. “Okay, Cait. Spill it.”
Caitlin sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes. If she was Donovan’s, he would surely spank the sass right out of her ass. He had a feeling that Cait’s unwillingness to share any details about her evening had to do with Bree and Kate.
“Okay, just promise me that you two goons are staying here—”
“Where’s Kate?” Donovan roared, knowing he wasn’t going to like Caitlin’s answer. Last time he checked on his app, Kate was still at her apartment. He had no time to track her again while he was here, and frankly, he hadn’t thought she would go out tonight. Kate wasn’t really the kind of girl to let go on a Friday night. Where was she?
“Geez, little ray of sunshine. Can you keep it down a little? We just had a girls’ night out with Errin, Bree, and Kate. But Kayla and I decided not to stay. The Velvet Club wasn’t really our crowd, you know?” Cait didn’t meet the eyes of either Mills brother as she spoke while tracing the bar with her index finger.
Both brothers stood from their barstool. “I’ll see you there,” he said to Declan. Donovan was going to get Kate the hell out of there and wanted to take his own truck.
“You got it, bro.” Declan squeezed Cait’s shoulder before walking out of Lucky.
Donovan knew exactly what type of crowd usually attended that place. Fuck, he needed to get there ASAP. He was no longer sticking to the plan “make Kate forget that Donovan was an arsehole.” He couldn’t stand by and let Kate meet some fucker in The Velvet Club, of all places.
His brothers urged him earlier to give Kate some breathing room, let her cool off a bit and then tread carefully in approaching her again. Dunc said that Kate had been in a bad relationship before and it had made her so gun-shy that she hadn’t really dated these past three years. He also casually stated that Donovan being a known manwhore wasn’t exactly helping his case. Yep, Dunc didn’t do sugarcoating.
During his drive to the club, he thought back to the last time he was there. He’d started the night in Lucky, and Kate was there, wearing a plain white button-down shirt and a tight black skirt. He noticed her white lace bra through the fabric of her shirt and couldn’t help but fantasize about her in the middle of his family’s pub. He left the pub, so frustrated with himself that he went straight over to The Velvet Club and instantly hooked up with some random girl.
Why did Kate go there tonight anyway? It was a known meat market and a place he could always rely on if he needed some stress release by picking up a willing woman for the night. Kate is so much better than that. She was everything he was not.
He parked his truck and rushed over to the entrance of the club. Declan already stood there waiting with his phone in hand. For a minute, Donovan wondered if Dec had used his cop sirens to get there as fast as he could. Shit, his brother was in over his head with Bree and was probably as fucked up as he was.
“Let’s get our girls, bro.”
Declan didn’t contradict him when he’d said “our girls.” He gave a curt nod and headed for the door.