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I was sure they were going to come up with some idea then try to convince me to go along with it. To stay high in the sky in this gorgeous penthouse. Safe. Locked down.
I needed other plans. I had to get myself out of this mess on my own if it were the last thing I did. Of course, I had no fucking clue exactly how, just yet.
Dane got to his feet first. “You’re okay on your own?”
Was I? I knew he meant sitting in the living room, but I had to think bigger than that. I was okay. Or, I would be. I nodded.
“We’ll just be down the hall,” he said to me. “Give a holler if you need anything at all.”
“I will,” I replied, offering a small smile. “Thanks.”
“Let’s talk in my office,” he said to Leo and they swiftly moved off and disappeared around the corner.
My phone buzzed with a text from Jane yet again. Unlocking the screen, I tapped out a reply.
Me: Hi, Jane. Did you get my last message?
Jane: Harper! OMG you’re alive!
Shit. She had to have seen something. The news? Online? Maybe a phone call was in order after all. I navigated back to the phone app and tapped on her name to call her. She answered on the first ring.
“Hi, boss! God, I’m so glad you’re not dead right now.”
I rolled my eyes at her choice of words but accepted the good-natured gist of it. “Thanks. Did you go back to the kitchen after you left earlier?”
“Yeah. I forgot to grab my spare uniform. Made it to the corner just as I saw those men put you in their SUV.”
My eyes widened and my heart skipped a beat. “Did you go inside?”
“No way. The place was shot to hell. I took one peek through the glass in the front window and got the hell out of there. What happened?”
“I’m not getting into it now. I need you to phone the rest of the staff and tell them not to go into work until I get in touch with them.”
“Okay, no problem. Were those the guys from the event last night? The ones who wouldn’t leave the O’Sullivan kitchen?” She sighed. “I’d recognize those two dark and dangerous sex gods anywhere. They were hot as hell last night at the party. I mean, I was a little jellie at all the attention the two of them sent your way and everything. But whoah, weren’t they the tall glasses—”
“Jane,” I said to cut her off. I’d grown used to her naturally bubbly personality and usually loved to chat, but I wasn’t feeling it now. Maybe all this rambling and unnecessary openness was her way of processing the fact that my kitchen—the home base of her place of employment—looked like a crime scene in an episode of some suspense drama series. Chalking it up to that, I added, “Yes, they were the guys from last night. And yes, I’m with them now. They saved my life.”
Maybe she heard the seriousness of my tone. I hadn’t spoken about Leo and Dane in a playful way. I might have if this conversation had occurred between the honey incident and the shootout, but a near death experience made me realize the guys were more than just man candy.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said I was jellie or called them sex gods. I meant…those gentlemen.”
“It’s fine. Could you just do what I asked? Reach out to the others for me.”
“Right. You got it. I’ve got numbers for all the other site coordinators and servers in my phone. I’ll tell them to keep away until one of us reaches out to tell them otherwise.”
“Thank you so much.”
She paused. “So, uh, can I ask you something else?” she asked.
“Sure.”
“The gigs tomorrow, are they a go? I mean, I saw all the shell casings around the back, and the broken glass close to the front entrance. I’m assuming…well, I guess what I’m saying is if you need any help to get the food ready from another location, I can lend a hand. I’m free to work both events, too. Well, just let me know.”
I smiled softly at the offer. I was damned lucky to have an employee like Jane. She’d demonstrated her readiness to step in at a moment’s notice more than a few times before, and in this high turnover food service world, that quality was rare.
“I appreciate the offer. Give me a couple of hours, and I’ll get back to you.”
“Sounds good. I’ll get right on those calls.”
