Ruthless Bastard (Dangerous Love 3)

Benji laughed. “Not as good as the chocolate martinis you love so much, but a close second, right?”

“It made me happy,” Kinsley agreed. She shoved the box in the recycling bin before addressing him again. “Last night looked busy.” When she’d come in this morning and took a look at the sales report Benji had left for her on her desk, she’d nearly jumped up and down. Whiskey Blues was having its best year yet. “You should have called me in.”

“Yeah, it was nonstop,” Benji said with a shrug. “I called Lola in. She didn’t mind, and really, we got this place handled.”

Benji was a godsend employee. “I hope the tips made up for the rush.”

A bright grin filled his face. “Lola said she made enough to buy a purse she’d been looking at. She left a happy girl. And I basically made my car payment. We’re good, so stop worrying.”

“Okay, fine, I won’t worry then.” Kinsley had worked so hard after college getting the bar up and running. To step back felt completely unnatural.

“Anything from the insurance adjuster?” Benji asked.

“Nope. I called him this morning for an update, but he said these things take time, and it’ll be another few days or so before anything happens.”

Benji leaned his hip against the ice bin, crossing his arms. “How long do you think we’ll have to close to get in all the new stuff?”

“I’m hoping just a couple days,” she answered. “We’ll shut down on a Monday and Tuesday when things are dead.”

“Cool,” Benji said. “My parents have been nagging at me to come see them. Maybe I’ll go head out there.” Benji’s mom and dad were snowbirds and spent the winter in Florida.

“The beach sounds very nice right about now,” Kinsley said, glancing out the window. The current storm was dumping heavy snow on the town. Usually that meant fewer customers.

Benji followed her gaze and snorted. “Yeah, no kidding. They’ve got a killer condo down there right on the water. You’ll have to come sometime.”

The thought of bright sun and warm days nearly had her saying yes, but…she placed her hand on her belly. “I doubt I’ll be going anywhere for a while. I kinda got my hands full.”

“Right,” Benji said with a wink. “I guess the baby will make traveling a bit hard now.”

Everything was changing now. Good changes. And scary changes, too. The unknown never made her feel great. Ready to end her workday and curl up on the couch with a bag of chips and Netflix, she reached for the garbage bag, determined to help Benji before she headed out for the night.

As soon as her fingers brushed against the bag, Benji nudged her hand away. “I’ll take it,” he said.

“Touch that garbage bag and die,” Kinsley stated very slowly.

Benji barked out a laugh and held his hands up in surrender. “Damn. I almost forgot the bite you have.”

“I’m pregnant, not fragile,” she reminded him. “Please don’t baby me. You know I’ll hate every second of that.”

“I do know that.” His smile beamed as he shook his head. “I’ll never understand you. Most women want a gentleman.”

“Yeah, but those women probably didn’t grow up surrounded by a bunch of big tough guys.” She’d always liked standing on her own two feet. “Trust me, if I need help, I’ll ask, okay?”

“Deal,” Benji said, turning away to do more bar prep.

Kinsley finished tying up the garbage bag then carried it into the back. Justin stood with his back to her, his headphones stuck in his ears. He was bobbing his head to the beat of his music while he organized his kitchen for the night ahead.

“Hey,” she called.

Nothing. No response.

She laughed, honestly wondering how Justin didn’t have hearing problems. Until the night got busy, he shut out the world with whatever music he was listening to. She lifted the garbage bag a little higher, noticing there was a hole in the bottom dripping whatever grossness onto the floor. As if on cue, her stomach roiled at the retched stench coming from the dark liquid. She hurried to get outside and breathed deep past the somersaulting of her stomach, keeping her lips shut tight. The snow fell from the sky in huge flakes. Kinsley loved nights like this. As a kid, she used to stand out in the snow and eat the snowflakes as they came down. She shivered now, thinking kids had to have inner furnaces or something. She used to spend hours outside. Now she’d much rather sit by a cozy fire, curled up with Rhett, if she was being honest with herself.

By the time she’d tossed the garbage bag into the larger bin outside, and took in two deep gulps of cold, fresh air, the n

ausea settled. That was a step forward in the right direction. Maybe this morning sickness was finally over. She hoped so.

She relatched the metal clamps on the side of the garbage bin to keep the raccoons and bears out. Not that there were a lot of bears that came into town, but there had been at least two since she’d owned the bar. Both were shot with darts and relocated before anyone got hurt. With a final wipe of her hands on her leggings, she turned around, walking right into a wall of hard chest.