16. Simon #2
I settle into the corner I usually lurk from. It gives me a clear vantage point of the front door, the one that leads to the staff area, and the hallway that goes to the bathroom, where another door leads out the back.
It only takes about two minutes before a random drunk girl starts eyeballing me from across the way.
I avoid her stare and try to seem as uninterested as possible.
I wouldn’t have even noticed her in the first place but paying attention to every little thing is kind of why I’m here.
Unfortunately, that opened up a small window of opportunity for this unsuspecting female.
Cracking my neck, I readjust my stance and attempt to get out of her line of view.
Maybe if she can’t see me, she will stop fucking staring.
She's not ugly by any means—some might consider her conventionally attractive, but there isn't anyone that holds a fucking candle to June.
It's like once she unknowingly reached in and ripped my heart out, I can't even stomach thinking of another woman that way.
Sure, I might notice someone pretty, but it doesn't do the same thing for me that it used to.
It's like my heart, brain, and cock all have this June filter that is impossible to bypass.
Not that I would anyway. She's fucking radiant, and not just on the outside.
She's funny and charming and kind, and damn if she isn't fucked in the head just like me.
June has this immense soft side, but then this darkness that could swallow her whole if she's not careful.
She tries so hard to hide it, but there's no escaping the flicker in her eyes when she's faced with danger.
June isn’t afraid of danger; she fucking craves it.
And right now, she’s staring right at it.
I hold her gaze and breathe through the way my heart picks up its pace. Something so intimate about her sultry eyes on mine from across the room. She could be looking at anyone else, and here she is, focused on me.
Cora says something and pulls her attention.
I'd love to be a fly on the wall for her conversations with Cora. But I respect her enough to give her some privacy with her friend, considering she doesn’t get much of it with me being around all the time. It’s a fine line to balance between protecting her and not making her hate me.
Her guys sort of do enough of that on their own—I don't want to be included on the shit list.
I recall Dom’s bloodied face, the hole in his suit that was caused, no doubt, by a bullet.
Coen was injured on his arm, and if I had to take a guess, I’d wager he was shot, too.
They were both dirty and worn out from an extensive battle.
But isn’t that what they have their grunts for?
Why were Dominic and Coen dealing with that kind of situation to begin with?
Unless it was something they don’t trust anyone else with.
Which would make sense why it isn’t common knowledge.
They've been dealing with some shipment issues and trying to keep it under wraps, but even if it was that, other qualified people would have handled it instead of them.
What happens in a week? They told June they would tell her the truth then, but I have no knowledge of anything going down in that time frame.
I've been so wrapped up in her that I haven't paid much attention to the inner workings and politics of the criminal world.
I stay up-to-date enough to get by, but my concern is her and nothing else.
I still have my small team, my investments, my sources of income.
But outside of that, I've kind of fallen off the radar.
I’ve been fortunate that some people have remained loyal to me despite Dominic having taken over.
Sometimes discretion is needed, like the other night when June shot and killed a man in a bar parking lot.
I was able to contact my clean-up crew and get the situation remedied without alerting any of the guys.
People die all the time, and that aspect of our jobs isn’t usually something that brings up much concern unless it’s a high-profile person.
And the dude June murdered was a low-life piece of shit that I can’t imagine anyone will miss.
It was risky, using someone in our organization to handle it, but so far, nothing has come from it, and I hope it stays that way. I don’t really need her guys to be breathing down my neck for letting her kill someone.
We haven't really talked about it—me and June. She seems relatively unfazed by it, almost like it was a pretty normal thing to do. I'm sure that would alarm a normal person, but she and I are a different breed.
If anything, it’s as though a temporary weight has been lifted from her shoulders. I noticed it after the fight night; the way she came to life in that illicit place and felt more at ease than when she’s just going through the motions elsewhere.
I cringe when the girl who was gawking at me earlier stalks across the room toward me. I avert my gaze and hope that I can pretend to be invisible, but it’s hard when you’re a guy like me in a place like this.
“Shit,” I mutter to no one but myself.
She steps right in front of me. Golden blonde hair, tits bulging out of her tight blue dress, ruby red painting her lips. “Hey.” She puts her hand on her hip. “You want to dance?”
“No.” I shift away from her, hoping she’ll pick up on the body language and leave me alone.
I keep my attention on the dark-haired woman who has my heart across the room.
“I’m Carli, what’s your name?” She extends her hand, but I don’t take it.
“Uninterested.” I finally look down at her for a second. “Shit,” I whisper again as I watch June push her way through the crowd toward me.
She shoulders Carli on her way by and weaves her arm around mine. “Oh, so sorry,” she tells Carli then glances up at me. “Didn’t mean to keep you waiting, love.” She throws extra emphasis on the last word.
I grin at her possessive bitchiness. “You know I’d wait forever for you.” All truth, not a hint of a lie.
“Uh,” Carli finally speaks. “You two are…” She points between us. “Together?”
“Mmhm, yeah, why?” June feigns ignorance then laughs. “You didn’t think you had a chance, did you?” She holds onto me tighter. “Brad would never.”
“Brad?” Carli furrows her brows. “I thought your name was Simon.” She shakes her head. “I must have you confused with someone else.”
"Simon?" June chuckles. "That's a silly name." She pulls me away from Carli and toward where she and Cora were sitting at a high-top table.
“What was that all about?” I ask her.
She doesn’t release her hold on me but keeps moving us through the crowd.
“You looked miserable.” June glances up at me through her thick, dark lashes.
“Was I wrong? Because if I was, I can be one hell of a wing woman.” She stops walking.
“We can turn this ship around and go get you a piece of that plastic Barbie.”
This time it’s me that pushes us forward. “Don’t be foolish,” I tell her. “Although…”
“I knew it, you had a thing for blondes.” June halts us again.
“You really are completely oblivious, aren’t you?” I peer down at her. “What I was going to say before you rudely interrupted me, was that was the best place in here to keep an eye on everything.”
“I literally invited you to hang out with us. Isn’t next to me the best possible option?”
It depends wholly on the reasoning, but without question, yes, absolutely.
June drags me the rest of the way to Cora, who’s frantically thumbing something on her phone. She angrily fingers a send button and slams the thing down on the table, looking up to greet us.
“Simon, how kind of you to grace us with your presence. I thought you were just going to lurk in the corner all night like a fucking psychopath.” Cora grins and teases me like I’m not the most dangerous man in the room.
“Aw, go easy on him, he was being attacked by a gold digger.” June pats my arm. “There, there, you’re safe now.”
I shake my head. “You’re something else, you know that, love?”
Cora rests her head on her hands. “What’s it like?” She stares at me and June.
“What, being a gold digger?” June climbs onto the stool she was sitting on earlier and pulls out the one next to it.
“Oh, hush, you’re practically a sugar baby.”
“Am not,” June protests. “I work!”
“Even mister not your boyfriend but is around more than your boyfriends picks up your tab.”
June glares at me. “You did not.”
I shrug and take a look around from where we are.
I don’t like not being able to see everything, but at least I’m next to her if anything were to happen.
It’s been six months and there hasn’t been a threat to her life, but one can never be too sure.
The second you get complacent, that’s when shit happens.
And with her, I cannot afford to take foolish risks.
Cora perks up. “Are you expecting someone?”
“No,” I tell her without explaining anything else. Because what would I say? That I’m assessing for threats to her best friend’s life? I don’t know what all June has told her, and I don’t think I’m the appropriate person to bring it up. I’m all for honesty, but those are not my secrets to confess.
“I thought maybe you had a friend coming.” Cora doesn’t question my lurking, and I’m grateful that she doesn’t pry into things I’m not able to discuss. “Do you have any single friends, Simon?”
“I don’t have any friends.” What I have is more like business acquaintances that I occasionally eat a meal or get a drink with.
No one that I trust or would call for anything other than cleaning up dead bodies or handling professional matters.
Truthfully, June is the only person I’d even consider a friend, but I’m not stupid enough to realize she wouldn’t have me in her life if I didn’t completely persist. What I feel for her is real, what she feels for me is strictly based on the habit of me always being around.