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That finally spurred Eve into action. “What? Blackmailing?”
Augie waved the phone in my face. “Blackmail. Motivation. Whatever you want to call it. Whatever keeps you out of this club.”
Anger reared its ugly head. It had been there all day, held at bay by my sadness and pain. But now it came roaring to the surface, desperate for a release. “Give me your phone. Delete those photos. Now.”
Augie taunted me. “Nuh ah. Where’s your badge tonight, copper? You haven’t got it, do you? No uniform, no badge, no cuffs. As far as I can see, you have no power here.”
The anger swelled, and I pushed to my feet, lunging for the phone.
Augie danced out of my way.
But he was right. I couldn’t force him to give me the phone or delete the incriminating photo. A heavy disappointment stole through the anger.
I’d thought that kiss had been real. I thought I’d felt something in it, something beyond a physical attraction. The disappointment stirred the anger up until it was all I could see. I pinned Eve with a hard glare. “You set me up? Who does that? Today of all days, and after what I told you. This is my career, Eve! Messing with that’s fucking evil.”
It wasn’t lost on me that Eve and Evil sounded really similar.
Her head snapped away from Augie and toward me. Her mouth dropped open. Then closed. Then opened again. She shot off her stool and put herself right between me and Augie.
But it was me she stared at with shimmering eyes. Me she stared at with fire in her gaze.
She slammed one hand into my chest. “I set you up? How the hell would I have set you up, Boston? You came in here tonight. You! I didn’t invite you. I didn’t trick you or coerce you into coming here. I opened my fucking bar to you. Fed you. And yeah, maybe I kissed you.”
The fire in her eyes flickered, showing a raw vulnerability. It was only a flash. But it was there.
I saw it.
But Eve didn’t give me time to comment.
“The real question here isn’t whether I set you up, but why a photo of you kissing me would be such a problem for you. Great to know that kissing me would have such devastating effects on your career. What about my career? You’re the one who waltzed in here and accused me of running a sex club! You’re the one who trashed my place. Who’s ruining whose career, again? But I was willing to overlook all that. To be the bigger fucking person.”
Her chest heaved, fingers balled into fists at her sides. Her gaze raked over me, head to toe in a long, sweeping look that somehow tore me right open.
She saw me for who I truly was.
And I saw her.
“I don’t know why I thought you were something different. You’re just like all the rest. Get out of my club,” she seethed.
Augie smirked at me and held the phone up again, the photo still displayed. It was way too fucking tempting to punch him in his smug face. But Eve still stood between us, and even though I was pissed, I wasn’t going to risk taking a swing at Augie while she was anywhere near him.
I walked out of the club, leaving Augie, Eve, and the photo behind.
14
EVE
Iwatched Boston walk out of the club with a red haze clouding my vision. Fuck him for last night and turning me on like no other guy ever had. Fuck him for walking in here tonight, soft and vulnerable and sad. Fuck him for kissing me back.
Fuck him for being so damn good at it.
I clenched my fingers into fists at my sides, spun on Augie, and slammed one right into his stomach.
My knuckles met hard abs with a jolt, but the satisfaction I got from Augie doubled over and winded outweighed any ache in my hand.
He coughed and spluttered, clutching his midsection. “What the hell, Eve! What was that for?”
I snatched his phone from his hand and found the photos he’d taken of me and Boston. The one of us kissing gave me the tiniest moment of pause. I’d been into that kiss. I’d felt it right down to my toes. It wasn’t a typical first kiss, that was full of heat and passion and a promise to rip the other person’s clothes off.
