So now I was back and had been back for a couple of years though with decreasing regularity.

Further, last Saturday I’d told both Viv and Sandrine all about Knight.

Sandrine’s comment was, “Hope he leaves you alone. He’s totally hot but he’s also a total ass**le.”

Vivica just stared at me and said nothing. This was her way. She tended to cast judgment only when she had all the facts even if, I found, one of those facts included the knowledge that some guy had sent “his boys” out to beat someone up for me. Still, it was one of the three million, twenty-two thousand, six hundred and eleven things I loved about her. That said, once she cast judgment, whether it was right or wrong (or whether I thought it was right or wrong), it would take torture to make her change her mind. This could get a tad bit irritating. But it was, as far as I could see, Viv’s only flaw. And since we put up with enough of them from Sandrine, it all balanced out.

Until I mentioned him, neither of them knew Knight Sebring.

But obviously, Viv had asked around. I wasn’t surprised. This was also Viv’s way. She tended to be curious and that curiosity would go into overdrive once a man gave me a thousand dollar phone and had my landlord beaten up to make me safe(ish).

“Really?” I shouted back.

She nodded. “Yep. Since it opened eight years go.”

Wow. Interesting.

Suddenly, I was happy that I’d pulled out my best going out dress. It was designer but I bought it at a secondhand shop. Black, skintight, two inches above the knee, one shoulder bare, other arm sleeveless, across the side it gathered to a big, opened hole that exposed the skin of my other side under the sleeveless arm from ribs to the top of my hip. It wasn’t hot. It was scorching hot. And part of that scorching was the obvious fact that, to wear it, there was no way I could wear underwear. I loved it. I’d paired it with spike-heeled, strappy sandals that were black but looked like they were coated with silver glitter. They didn’t cost the bomb, I got them on sale at a mid-scale shoe store but they were sexy as all heck.

“Did you, uh…” I was still shouting in her ear as we pressed through the bodies on our way to the bar, “learn anything else about him?”

Her eyes caught mine and she shook her head. “Nope. No one knows much about him except he’s Nick’s older brother. I think he’s thirty-four, thirty-five, got different ages on him but only those two. He’s not Nick’s biggest fan which means I’m leaning toward liking him. He’s also got a serious, kickass name. And he owns this club.”

Not a lot of information, some of it I already knew, but still interesting.

“Ohmigod!” We both heard Sandrine shriek and our eyes went forward to where she was powering through the club, cutting a swath for Viv and my passage, to see she’d turned back to us. “That ass**le is here!”

Before my eyes could move to where her finger was pointing, a VIP dais that was medium-sized, across the club from us but had a spectacular elevated view of the room since it had at least five steps up, Sandrine was again powering through. But this time she was practically throwing people out of the way to do it.

This was because Nick Sebring was clearly visible up there. This was not a surprise, we met Nick here and Nick was almost exclusively and always here in his own VIP section.

My first thought, and I acted on it, was to scan the dais for Knight.

He was not there.

My second thought was that this was a bummer.

My third thought was to remind myself it wasn’t. He had someone beat up and lamented the fact he couldn’t do it himself. Sure, he did it for me and Landlord Steve was a jerk but he did it and that was scary.

My last thought was that I better get my booty in gear because Sandrine was riled and when Sandrine was riled this usually caused a scene.

Vivica had my last thought first and she was hurrying behind Sandrine in the futile hope of heading her off.

And it was futile.

Before I was even close and Vivica was twenty feet behind, Sandrine was up the steps to the dais and pushing past a bouncer who was looking behind him toward Nick to see if he had the all-clear for her entry. Sandrine, with years of experience, was adept at getting anywhere she wanted to go, past bouncers, security, to the front of lines, backstage, her ass at choice window tables in trendy eateries. You name it, she found her way to get it even if she had to use her toned muscles to do it.

Which she did now.

I watched Vivica follow and the bouncer didn’t turn back to see if he had the all-clear for Viv. He caught one look at Vivica’s rounded behind in her tight, turquoise dress and didn’t stop looking.

Seeing as he was distracted, this made it easy for me to get by him too.

Vivica was too late and I was woefully too late. I knew this the instant I hit the scene.

And I say woefully because Nick Sebring was not just a mammoth jerk.

Nick Sebring was scarier than his brother.

And I knew this because I interrupted Knight Sebring having a calming cigarette by intruding in his very personal space and helping myself to his phone. Even though he made his irritation clear, he ended up giving me a ride.

Nick, on the other hand, was done with Sandrine, her texts, her phone calls and her storming into his VIP section intent on making a scene and he’d chosen a terrifying way to communicate this to her.

And I knew this when I got to their side, opposite Vivica, got close and saw Nick had Sandrine by both upper arms. He’d jerked her so her body was against his, his face in hers and I knew his hold hurt because Sandrine’s beautiful face was twisted in pain.

“Nick, let me go,” she whispered, “you’re hurting me.”

“Am I gonna hear from you again?” he asked in a way I knew he was repeating himself.

“No,” she whispered.

“Had you, don’t want more, don’t want your shit,” he growled, still in her face and still clamped onto her. “Get me?”

“I get you.”

“Willin’ to make my point clearer, you even think you’ll have second thoughts,” he kept at it, pissed off in a way I didn’t think it would calm for a while and he had his hands on my friend so I got closer.

“Nick, please, let her go. She’ll be cool. I promise. Just let her go and we’ll be out of here,” I said loudly to be heard over the music but also softly in order to let him know I meant what I said.