Page 85 of Well Aware

“What the fuck,” I snarled, standing up. “Koen, don’t let her out of your sight while I’m gone.”

Koen nodded as I marched toward the door where my sister had arrived with none other than the root of all of Magnolia’s problems.

“You can’t be in here, and you know it,” I growled at my sister.

She’d been banned from every bar in town, mostly because I’d had my friends refuse her service and trespass her.

“I’m just showing my new friend around,” Seraphina said. “He wanted to know which restaurants and bars were the best.”

I leveled her with a look.

Of course, it didn’t surprise me that she would find this rich prick when he came into town.

“Take him to your precious country club,” I said. “And not here.” I looked at Cain. “You’re not welcome here.”

“It’s a free country.” Cain crossed his arms and looked like he was about to settle in for a fight.

“Owned this place for thirty years,” Hopps, a fellow club member, said. “You’re not welcome if I say you’re not welcome. Either obey my rules, or I’ll call the sheriff and get you trespassed.”

My sister snorted. “Told you he’d be this way. The beer and food here isn’t good anyway.”

The lying twat.

The beer and the food here was amazing.

She just said that because she liked it here and couldn’t come inside.

Black came through the door behind them, and his smile grew upon seeing my sister.

I’d asked Black once why he was so happy to deal with my sister, and he told me that it made his day when he got to bring her down a couple of pegs.

He was a big fan of my little sister. She’d watched his daughter when she was young—before his wife had disappeared with her and hadn’t come back since—and he had a soft spot for Sonja.

Black told me a couple of years ago when I’d asked him about that smile he always wore around my sister, that he’d worked the scene that night of my sister’s death. And Seraphina hadn’t given one single fuck that she’d killed her own sister.

Her only worry had been her car, and how she was going to get a new one now.

“Ms. Vanderbilt, do you know you’re standing in a building that you’ve been trespassed from?” Black drawled, sounding amused.

A long moment of silence later, Seraphina was looking like she wanted to slap herself.

Mostly because she knew that she was about to be spending a night in jail.

Black wasn’t one of his deputies. He was hardcore and wouldn’t allow her to get away with breaking the law in front of him.

“I, uh…” Seraphina hesitated, unsure what to say to make this situation lean in her favor.

She should know better, though.

When it came to Black, he was her number one least favorite person, right next to his damn wife.

“You, uh, what?” Black pushed. “Forgot that you weren’t allowed in this establishment?”

“I just wanted to show our new resident around,” she said.

“New resident, huh?” Black leveled his gaze on Cain. “I can give you one piece of advice, new resident. Don’t involve yourself with Seraphina Vanderbilt. She’s nothing but trouble and will ruin your life if you give her half a chance.”

A-fucking-men.