Sighing, I waited to make sure they were gone before making my way toward the club, gaze flicking up toward the camera on the front door, then quietly unlocking the door and stepping inside.

It wasn’t long before I realized that I wasn’t the only one with secrets.

Soren was hiding some dirty ones of his own.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Soren

“Shit,” I hissed as I saw the name on my phone screen.

He was the last person I wanted to think about.

Especially after seeing dread on Saff’s face as Teresa moved into the elevator with her; then the smug satisfaction on Teresa’s face as she came back a few moments later.

It didn’t take a genius to know that something had gone down there.

The last thing I needed was tension between the two women in my life.

One, because I wasn’t sure my business could function without Teresa. And two, because Saff was finally starting to keep her walls down around me.

I was getting to see the fun and silly sides of her—once walking out of the building in the morning after she’d left to find her a half-a-block away baby-talking the pigeons sitting on the back of a bench, or dancing around my kitchen to some horrible aughts pop hit, not even stopping when she saw me watching her.

I wanted more of that.

I wanted everything she had to offer.

I didn’t even care anymore about the obvious lies, the secrets she was keeping for reasons I didn’t begin to understand.

I just wanted her. Point blank, period.

Sucking in a deep breath, I swiped the screen.

“Alen,” I said, wincing at the annoyance in my own voice. “I’m surprised to hear from you.”

Since, you know, he was supposed to still be in prison.

“Clearly,” I said, forcing some lightness into my tone.

I might have been sick of him, but I also couldn’t afford to be openly hostile toward him.

“I’m checking out this new club of yours,” he said, making my blood run cold.

He was always going to find out, of course.

But he was supposed to be behind bars for the next decade. Leaving me free to do whatever the hell I needed to do to keep expanding my business empire.

Not even he could fault me for that.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “We haven’t released the press briefing yet.”

“And yet, here it is. I like the marble floors.”

Oh, fuck.

He was literally checking out the club.

I was rushing out the door before I could talk myself out of it.

There were security cameras at the club, for fuck’s sake. Ones that Saff had installed, so I assumed she had access to. And if she saw some strange guy walking around, she was going to call the cops.

That was the last thing in the world I needed.