Page 43 of A King’s Obsession

“So you do know how to identify her. Good.”

His eyes narrowed slightly, but that little smile was still there. “You got an attitude?”

I laughed once, although there wasn't a damn thing funny. “Why would I have an attitude?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.” He watched me closely, looking entirely too entertained by this conversation.

“I came up here to tell you somebody was looking for you. Mission accomplished.” I gestured toward the hallway, making it clear I had nothing else to say.

He rubbed his thumb slowly across his bottom lip, clearly enjoying himself now.

I turned toward the door.

“Jru.”

I looked back, trying not to show how quickly his voice had gotten my attention.

“Send her up,” he instructed.

“Gladly,” I replied before stepping into the hallway.

His quiet laugh followed me out of the office.

Asshole.

By the time I got downstairs, Yara was standing near the bar typing on her phone.

“He said come up,” I told her, gesturing toward the stairs.

“Thank you.” She smiled before walking past me.

I watched her go for exactly two seconds before forcing myself back to work.

For the next hour, I trained two bartenders while pretending I didn’t notice that Yara was still upstairs. I corrected pours, went over bottle placement, showed them the inventory system again and made one of them redo an entire count after she tried estimating instead of physically checking what was left.

By the time Yara finally came downstairs, I had almost convinced myself I didn’t care.

Almost.

She crossed the floor while typing something into her phone, called goodbye to one of the security guys and left without looking remotely like a woman who had just spent an hour upstairs doing anything besides business.

Not that I had been thinking about that.

I hated myself.

My phone buzzed a few minutes later. Ashlynn.

I grabbed it quickly, expecting an explanation for why she had thrown me out of her car earlier.

I’ll call you later. Don’t wait up.

I stared at the message. Don’t wait up?

My eyes narrowed. Then I remembered the conversation from that morning. Malachi had asked her to move in.

Shit.

My gaze moved around Vice as another thought settled in. If Ashlynn moved in with Malachi, what the hell was I going to do?