Page 72 of Black Sheep
“Afteryou tell me why the hell you’re making moves on the Rossettis before talking to me first, when we just struck a truce.”
Fucking. Great.
42
Drew
At the sound of the door closing and locking, I wake and jerk up in bed. Before I can rise, Cannon stands at the doorway to the bedroom. He looks like he got absolutely no sleep.
“What time is it?” I ask.
“Late. Or early, depending on how you want to look at it.”
I glance around for a clock but find no glowing lights to orient me. “So ... that means?”
“Six a.m. I’ve been up all fucking night, and it kills me to see you all mussed and in my bed, knowing I didn’t get to be there with you.”
Coming more awake, I blink a few times. “What happened at the club? Is everything okay?”
He shakes his head and looks so weary that I climb out, still in his robe, and move toward him. I don’t know where the instinct comes from, but I feel like he needs a hug. Without another thought, I wrap my arms around Cannon and rest my cheek against his chest.
“I’m sorry for whatever happened.”
“Teal happened, and it was her own fault.”
I loosen my grip a fraction, not wanting to completely let him go, and glance up. “What do you mean?”
“She’s an alcoholic and needs to go to rehab, but it’ll be a miracle if she goes.” He pauses, sweeping some hair out of my face and tucking it behind my ear. “She thinks she’s in love with me.”
I squint up at him. “Um ... why?”
Cannon cups my jaw with one hand as he slides the other one around my back. “I didn’t give her any reason to think that, if that’s what you’re asking.”
In that moment, I realize I trust him too much to think he would do something like that intentionally and then start something with me. Maybe it’s misplaced trust, but it’s there all the same.
“I didn’t think that. At all.”
“Good, because it’s not true. She’s a nice girl. Probably too pretty for her own good, and no one taught her that she’s got a hell of a lot more to offer to the world. According to Tanya, their dad walked out when they were young, and it fucked Teal up majorly.”
A rush of sadness sweeps through me. “I’m sorry. I know you care about your employees. It’s obvious from even the short amount of time that I’ve been working at the club. It must kill you to see her spiraling out of control without being able to help her.”
He opens his mouth to reply, but his phone vibrates in his jacket pocket. Pulling in a deep breath, he tilts his head back and stares up at the ceiling in annoyance.
“I gotta take this. Dom’s on my ass about Teal and the Rossettis. I hate to do this to you, but if you want to get your stuff, I’ll take you home.” He presses a kiss against my forehead. “I need you to work a double today, because neither Teal nor Tanya will be coming in. I’m really fucking sorry about that. I gotta rework the schedule for the next couple days, because I had some naive hope that Teal would work the rest of her shifts before she was done for good.”
“If that’s what I can do to help, don’t worry about it. I’m happy to.”
The lines of tension ease from his face as he tries to smile. “Thanks, babe. That means a lot to me.”
In that moment, I can’t help but wonder how many people go out of their way to do anything for this man, or if people count on him to be the steady, consistent one.
Yeah, and you were planning to betray him from day one, my inner voice whispers insidiously.
Not anymore, I snap back at it.
I step out of the warm circle of Cannon’s arms and smile. “It’ll just take me a second to get dressed. Sorry for borrowing your robe without asking.”
The remains of the lines on his face fade away. “Don’t ever apologize for that. It looks better on you than it ever has on me.”
