Slay (Storm MC 4)

Fuck.

“What do you want, motherfucker?” I snapped.

“I don’t want to share my territory. Talk to Storm,” he ordered, and he hung up on me.

I held my phone away from my ear and just stared at it.

Like fuck I’d roll over and give in to his threats.

Chapter Nine

Layla

Jess took one look at me and raised her brows. “I take it he marked your neck.”

My hand went to the scarf around my neck. He’d marked me in mor

e than one place. No way was I going out in public today without the scarf. I scowled at her but didn’t say anything.

She’d just arrived at work and went to put her bag out in the back. Damian had called in sick today so Jess had agreed to come in to help Annie and me. Annie stood at the other end of the bar, stacking glasses. I watched her for a moment. She was doing well, even seemed to be okay with the fact Gary hadn’t come after her. I’d given her phone back to her, and she hadn’t called him. I checked up on that every day just to be sure.

She looked up at me and smiled. “Who is he?” she asked.

It was the first time she’d asked anything about me since she’d moved in. Up until this point, she’d been completely engrossed in herself and her problems to have it in her to think of anyone else. I took it as a good sign. “His name’s Donovan, and he’s a customer who’s been coming here for about a year.”

Jess came back out to the front of the bar and started helping us get ready to open.

Annie kept the conversation going. “What’s he like?” She had that dreamy look in her eyes. Annie was a born romantic. Probably the reason she flitted from guy to guy with hardly a break in-between. She craved love and didn’t do well on her own. She was so different from me.

“He’s complex. Unlike any man I’ve ever met.” I paused to think about him. “I don’t know him that well yet, but I think he’s like those sour lollies you like: sour at first, but sweet when you get to the centre.”

“I can’t wait to meet him, Layla. You deserve someone good.”

I smiled at her. “Yeah, I do.”

Jess joined the conversation. “When are you seeing him again?”

“I don’t know. He said he’d call today. We’ll see.”

“He will,” Jess said, adamantly, like she knew something I didn’t.

“Do you have a crystal ball?”

She winked. “No, but I told him not to fuck you around last night, and he assured me he wouldn’t.”

“It’s so unlike you to trust anything a guy says,” I mused.

“I know,” she said, quietly. “But there’s something about him that makes me totally believe everything he says.”

Me, too.

We finished getting the bar ready and opened about fifteen minutes later. A couple of customers wandered straight in, and I sent a prayer to the universe that we’d be busy today. My bank balance needed it.

The three of us worked well together and had some fun. I loved watching Annie loosen up, and I especially loved seeing the smile on her face. It’d been too long.

A couple of hours after opening, the day went to shit.

Mario and his goons came in, and I sucked in a breath. The look of malice on his face scared the shit out of me.