“You’ll come with me, Julie and Angelina to Serena’s house tomorrow. The men can all go find something else to do.”
Connor held up his hand. “Now wait a damn minute. No one’s going anywhere with Lyric. What part of her being in danger don’t you understand? I’m not risking any of you girls by sending you off together on some girls’ day out.”
“Damn right,” Nathan said with a scowl.
Lyric rose as gracefully as she could under the circumstances. She smiled in Faith’s direction. “Thank you for dinner and your hospitality. I had a really good time. But I should be going now. I appreciate the offer, but Connor’s right. None of you should be around me. In addition to having some crazy person lurking after me, apparently I’m a toxic influence.”
“Sit down, Lyric,” Connor ordered.
“Fuck off, Connor.”
She turned and stalked away from the table.
Connor watched her leave but didn’t go after her. She couldn’t get far without the car keys. She needed some time to cool off and he’d just do something stupid again. Like kiss her senseless.
“Nice,” Micah drawled. “And you once accused me of being an SOB.”
“She’s driving me crazy,” Connor muttered.
“It’s not her you have to worry about right now,” Gray said carefully.
Connor looked up to see three very pissed-off women glaring holes through his forehead.
“What was all that crap?” Angelina demanded. “This isn’t like you, Connor. You’ve always been so . . . sweet. And protective.”
Connor winced. She made him sound like a pu**y.
“She didn’t seem that bad to me,” Julie said with a shrug. “And you were a jerk even if you didn’t mean to sound like one.”
“There’s no reason she can’t come to Serena’s tomorrow,” Faith said as she frowned at Connor. “Damon has tight security. No one is going to get onto his property without him knowing about it. And he has Sam.”
“Who the hell is Sam?” Connor grumbled.
“His mountain of a driver slash bodyguard,” Micah said dryly. “He has great affection for our women. He’s like a mother hen with them. The one time they didn’t let him go with him, Damon said he had a kitten.”
Connor frowned. “You think Lyric would be safe there? This is serious. I can’t just leave her anywhere, but if I take her with me, she’s going to balk at the constraints we’re going to put on her. I know you all think I’m being a jerk, but the truth is, I’m going to do whatever is necessary to keep her safe, whether she likes the measures or not.”
“I can go with them,” Micah said. “I’ll call Damon tonight and let him know the situation.”
Connor’s frown deepened. Yeah, he needed a place to stash Lyric so he could get her security straightened out. What he hadn’t mentioned was that if he didn’t get a good feel for this team her record label had hired, he was going to tell them to take a hike.
“You need to go find her and apologize,” Faith sniffed. “If I were her, I wouldn’t go anywhere with you.”
“She doesn’t have a choice.”
“Why are you so mean to her?” Julie asked.
Connor sighed. “I’m not mean to her, Julie. I just don’t kiss her ass like everyone else in her universe does.”
“I like her,” Angelina said. “She’s refreshingly honest.”
“You like everyone, sweetie,” Connor said with a grin.
“I don’t like you right now,” she said pointedly.
He winced. “Oh ouch. Damn. That hurt. Okay, okay, I’ll ease up. I’ll even apologize. The last thing I want is to fall into you girls’ bad graces.”
“Smart man,” Nathan murmured.
“You go find her and tell her she’s coming with us tomorrow,” Faith said. “Damon will take care of things. He always does.”
That earned her a glare from every man at the table.
“Well, he does,” she said defensively.
“It’s not a good idea to remind me of all he’s done for you,” Gray said mildly.
Faith blushed and Connor promptly tuned them out. He was pretty tired of hearing about Damon Roche himself. Him and his damn sex club or whatever the f**k he called it.
“You’re not taking her to his damn club, are you?” Connor demanded.
Faith turned bright red. “Good God, no! We’re going to his house. Not The House.”
“I don’t know,” Julie said thoughtfully. “Lyric might enjoy a night at The House.”
“Julie,” Nathan growled. “You aren’t setting foot in that place ever again.”
Julie grinned cheekily.
“What are you waiting for?” Faith asked. “Go, go, go. Shoo already.”
Connor sighed and got to his feet. Women were a plague. There was no doubt about it. He had his share of crazy ex-girlfriends, but they had nothing on the women currently in his life. He loved them all dearly, but he didn’t envy their men one iota.
He should have known that Lyric would fit in beautifully.
He stalked through the house, annoyed that everyone had turned on him. He never wanted this pain-in-the-ass job in the first place.
She was probably out in the car pouting. He’d have to go out and be nice. She’d probably pop off at him and his dick would stand up and pay attention. Then he’d start having fantasies about kissing her again.
He really had to do something about this masochistic streak. It seemed the more she got mad at him, the more he wanted her. She was a beautiful woman, but never more than she was spitting fury at him like a pissed-off kitten.
He grinned as he opened the door and stepped out into the night. When he looked in the direction of where he’d parked the BMW, his jaw dropped.
It wasn’t there.
He glanced down the street to see the taillights of the car fading as it roared through the neighborhood.
He dug into his pocket and pulled out the keys. What the f**k? She’d hot-wired the car?
He closed his eyes and shook his head. Then he trudged back into the house to face the others.
“I need a ride back to the hotel,” he said before they could say anything to him.
Everyone looked up from the table, all wearing puzzled looks.