Page 98 of A Lick and A Promise
Did she think I was going to give that to her?
“Gypsy can go fuck herself,” I retorted.
His eyes flared with interest and his lips tipped up.
Then his eyes got sexy and he whispered “Ah, to find my own angel who would go to such lengths to stand by her man.”
It was the perfect opening to tell him Knox wasn’t my man, but again, he got there before me.
“I assume he’s recovering.”
I said nothing.
He kept smiling. “She wants to get a message to him.”
“She has his number,” I replied.
“I don’t think this message can go via text.”
“People talk on phones, Dimitri,” I pointed out.
“What he’s saying is, she wants a sit-down,” Raye butted in.
Oh.
Well then.
“I’m not Knox’s go-between,” I told Dimitri. “If that woman wants to apologize to her brother for whatever went down a week ago, she needs to jump through whatever hoops Knox wants her to jump through. If she’s still bent on this path of recruiting him or punishing him, I’ll repeat, she can go fuck herself.”
“I don’t think I’ll share this,” Dimitri mused. “I think I’ll just say you’re upset about what happened and perhaps she should give it some time for all parties to find some calm.”
The time I’d find some calm with Gypsy would be the year of our Lord 3026.
“Yeah, go with that,” I replied.
He smiled at me like I was hilarious then looked to Raye, and that smile died a quick death.
“Call off your Angels,” he ordered.
I tensed because Raye wasn’t one to be ordered, especially by bad guys, even if they were bad guy allies.
“We’ll discuss it,” Raye returned.
He held her gaze long, nerve-wracking moments before he said, “You’ve been smart so far, Garrett. Don’t blow it.”
This, per moi, was good advice, and I was glad Dimitri was on my side in this. After I gave Raye a piece of my mind, then held a grudge for the appointed bestest-besties-having-a-disagreement twenty-four hours, it would help me talk all the girls down from getting involved in this business.
Or…as I’d just found out, further involved.
Dimitri pushed away from Raye’s car, inviting, “Come to my restaurant. We’ll fill you with good Russian food and vodka. On the house.”
The only Russian food I’d ever eaten was beef stroganoff—that dish was delish—and it was rare I said no to good vodka, so I wanted to take him up on this offer.
I didn’t do that in the mo’, since he approached Raye, brushed his cheek to hers, did the same to me, and I was mesmerized by his continental flair (not to mention, his spicy, sexy cologne).
It seemed you could take the man out of the motherland, but not the motherland out of the man.
Raye and I watched him walk to the sedan, get in the back seat, and it purred away.
