A Dirty Business (Kings of New York #1)(43)

The award for shit friend goes to me.

“Hey.” I grabbed the spatula before she impaled herself with it. Her eyes widened, and I was right. She had no idea she’d even grabbed it. I tossed it on the counter away from her before standing in front of her again. I gentled my tone. Kelly responded better to low and soothing sounds. “I am just going through something. It’s got to do with my family, not you, and I don’t want you to worry about me. I was fine when you were married, remember?”

Her head lifted up an inch. Her shoulders relaxed a little too. “That’s right. You had that Latin lover, who was muy hot. Holy shit. I had to fan myself after I saw him every time.”

I cracked a grin, remembering Eduardo. “He was very pretty to look at.”

Her eyes bulged out, and she moved her head up and down in a dramatic nod. “Understatement of the year.”

Smothering a laugh, I kept on. “Your happiness is your happiness. There’s no contract or lease or deed on mine. Okay? You got me? If you want to move in with Justin, move in with Justin. I want you to be happy. If I found out that you didn’t because of me, you know how that would make me feel. I’d feel horrible. Right?”

“Yeah.” The ends of her mouth started to curve up.

“So if you want to move in with him, move in with him. I’m a big girl. I carry a gun around on a regular basis. I got a stick too. I’m kinda tough.”

A little bit higher and she was grinning now. “You got a badge too.”

I laughed. “I got a badge. You’re right. And trust me, I’m not afraid to use it.”

“That’s right.”

A few more pep talks like this, and she’d be cheering with the spatula in the air. Though I moved that back to the table because with Kelly, it could be turned into a weapon. I eyed her, tilting my head to the side. “You going to move in with your boyfriend, who I wholeheartedly approve of?”

A glow was starting to take over her face. She was low-key beaming at me, ducking her head in a bashful way. “You do, don’t you? You’ve never approved of any of my guys.”

“Justin’s the real deal. He’s a good guy, and I think if you move in with him, you’ll be happy and will make babies.”

She gasped. “You think?!” Her voice went up on a sharp hitch.

“I do.” Kelly’s dream was to be a mother. “I think Justin would be a great dad too.”

“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!” She was shaking her hands in the air, more tears coming to her eyes, and she was trying to brush them away at the same time as searching for a new spatula to grab. I didn’t think she was aware of any of this as well. “Babies. I didn’t—I didn’t dare let myself hope, you know? I’ve just been so scared. He is so great and ohmygoshbabiesohmygoshbabies.”

Oh, boy. Round two, but I knew for Kelly, she was going to get the happily ever after she always dreamed about, so I waded in, cutting her short and just hugging her.

This was a good thing to celebrate.



I purposely got to my shift a little late, just minutes late because I wanted to avoid seeing peeps in the locker room. Kelly worked wonders on me for makeup, and I knew the lighting in Katya would cover the rest, so it shouldn’t be a problem, but locker room fluorescent lighting wasn’t the greatest. It exposed everything. And not that my bruise was a big deal. I’d had worse, much worse, but I didn’t want to get another Kelly reaction from anyone.

Justin did give me a long look when I stepped behind my section.

I lifted my head up in one of those manly nods. It seemed to work between him and me. He stopped studying me, giving me one back, and we were off to work.

They had a new DJ, one whose name I even recognized. He’d been on a reality show too. Kelly had given me the info on the ride in, but my mind had been elsewhere. I’d realized today that it’d been too quiet on my mom’s front. I’d been avoiding her because I didn’t want to deal with questions about her sister, but I was now thinking maybe she was avoiding me, too, and that would never sit right with me.

I made a note to head her way tomorrow, whether she wanted me there or not.

But back to the DJ.

The club was busier than normal, and after the thirtieth girl was almost crushed against my bar, I’d had enough.

I headed over to Justin. “Can you cover me for a minute?”

“Yeah.” He was distracted, finishing a drink, but glanced over his shoulder. He did a double take. “What happened to your face?”

Kelly must not have gotten to him yet, which wasn’t surprising. I’d yet to see her for the first hour, which meant she was swallowed up by the crowd, working.

“It’s nothing. Work thing.”

“Here work thing?”

“PO work thing.”

Understanding dawned, and he nodded. “Gotcha. Yeah. I’ll keep an eye on your section. Where are you going?”

“A word with Anthony. This place is violating too many fire codes for me to ignore it.”

“Good luck.”

Yeah, yeah. I was noting his sarcasm, but this place was just asking for a fire marshal visit. I pushed through the crowd, seeing two of the bouncers outside of Anthony’s office. “He in?”

They exchanged a look before one shifted forward, but he didn’t seem too sure he wanted to do that. “Uh, boss is with the boss. He doesn’t want to be interrupted.”