Connor looked up to see three very pissed-off women glaring holes through his forehead.
“What was all that crap?” Angelina demanded. “This isn’t like you, Connor. You’ve always been so . . . sweet. And protective.”
Connor winced. She made him sound like a pussy.
“She didn’t seem that bad to me,” Julie said with a shrug. “And you were a jerk even if you didn’t mean to sound like one.”
“There’s no reason she can’t come to Serena’s tomorrow,” Faith said as she frowned at Connor. “Damon has tight security. No one is going to get onto his property without him knowing about it. And he has Sam.”
“Who the hell is Sam?” Connor grumbled.
“His mountain of a driver slash bodyguard,” Micah said dryly. “He has great affection for our women. He’s like a mother hen with them. The one time they didn’t let him go with him, Damon said he had a kitten.”
Connor frowned. “You think Lyric would be safe there? This is serious. I can’t just leave her anywhere, but if I take her with me, she’s going to balk at the constraints we’re going to put on her. I know you all think I’m being a jerk, but the truth is, I’m going to do whatever is necessary to keep her safe, whether she likes the measures or not.”
“I can go with them,” Micah said. “I’ll call Damon tonight and let him know the situation.”
Connor’s frown deepened. Yeah, he needed a place to stash Lyric so he could get her security straightened out. What he hadn’t mentioned was that if he didn’t get a good feel for this team her record label had hired, he was going to tell them to take a hike.
“You need to go find her and apologize,” Faith sniffed. “If I were her, I wouldn’t go anywhere with you.”
“She doesn’t have a choice.”
“Why are you so mean to her?” Julie asked.
Connor sighed. “I’m not mean to her, Julie. I just don’t kiss her ass like everyone else in her universe does.”
“I like her,” Angelina said. “She’s refreshingly honest.”
“You like everyone, sweetie,” Connor said with a grin.
“I don’t like you right now,” she said pointedly.
He winced. “Oh ouch. Damn. That hurt. Okay, okay, I’ll ease up. I’ll even apologize. The last thing I want is to fall into you girls’ bad graces.”
“Smart man,” Nathan murmured.
“You go find her and tell her she’s coming with us tomorrow,” Faith said. “Damon will take care of things. He always does.”
That earned her a glare from every man at the table.
“Well, he does,” she said defensively.
“It’s not a good idea to remind me of all he’s done for you,” Gray said mildly.
Faith blushed and Connor promptly tuned them out. He was pretty tired of hearing about Damon Roche himself. Him and his damn sex club or whatever the fuck he called it.
“You’re not taking her to his damn club, are you?” Connor demanded.
Faith turned bright red. “Good God, no! We’re going to his house. Not The House.”
“I don’t know,” Julie said thoughtfully. “Lyric might enjoy a night at The House.”
“Julie,” Nathan growled. “You aren’t setting foot in that place ever again.”
Julie grinned cheekily.
“What are you waiting for?” Faith asked. “Go, go, go. Shoo already.”
Connor sighed and got to his feet. Women were a plague. There was no doubt about it. He had his share of crazy ex-girlfriends, but they had nothing on the women currently in his life. He loved them all dearly, but he didn’t envy their men one iota.
He should have known that Lyric would fit in beautifully.
He stalked through the house, annoyed that everyone had turned on him. He never wanted this pain-in-the-ass job in the first place.
She was probably out in the car pouting. He’d have to go out and be nice. She’d probably pop off at him and his dick would stand up and pay attention. Then he’d start having fantasies about kissing her again.
He really had to do something about this masochistic streak. It seemed the more she got mad at him, the more he wanted her. She was a beautiful woman, but never more than she was spitting fury at him like a pissed-off kitten.
He grinned as he opened the door and stepped out into the night. When he looked in the direction of where he’d parked the BMW, his jaw dropped.
It wasn’t there.
He glanced down the street to see the taillights of the car fading as it roared through the neighborhood.
He dug into his pocket and pulled out the keys. What the fuck? She’d hot-wired the car?
He closed his eyes and shook his head. Then he trudged back into the house to face the others.
“I need a ride back to the hotel,” he said before they could say anything to him.
Everyone looked up from the table, all wearing puzzled looks.
“Something wrong with the car?” Micah asked.
“Yeah,” Connor muttered. “She hot-wired it and took off.”
Julie burst out laughing. One by one the others followed suit until the entire room erupted in hoots.
“It was stupid,” Connor growled. “She has some crazy stalker leaving her creepy notes and she takes off alone. This is why I don’t want her at my meeting tomorrow. She’s high-strung and unreasonable. And she doesn’t have one ounce of self-preservation.”
Micah stood and reached down to help Angelina to her feet. “We’ll run you by. We were going to call it an early night anyway.”
Connor would have liked to have called it a night, but he had a feeling he was going to be up for a long time. When he got to the hotel, he and Lyric were going to have a come-to-Jesus meeting. And he was as hard as a rock just thinking about it.
CHAPTER 9
Despite the fact she’d just hot-wired a car and ditched her only “security,” Lyric wasn’t an idiot, no matter what Connor Malone might think. She had no desire to be kidnapped or murdered by some psycho. She liked her life, thank you very much, even if she gave new meaning to the word dysfunctional.
Amazing, the words you learned from therapy.
She kept her eyes peeled, particularly to her rearview mirror to make sure no one was tailing her. She also kept a sharp eye out for a cop. Because what moron would try anything if she had a cop escort her to her hotel?