Page 49 of Dangerous Men (Fortune City Mafia #1)

SYDNEY

The next morning I wake up wanting nothing more than to cancel.

I don’t want to go to another of these barbecues.

Katie and her husband throw a few of them every summer, inviting our gang from college, their friends and acquaintances from work, and all their favorite neighbors from their ritzy neighborhood.

I used to think I enjoyed them. It was a chance to work on perfecting that persona I’d curated so carefully over the years.

I would laugh at the right times and chat with the right people, I’d stand quietly beaming up at Chase once he started joining in.

Those parties were a way to prove I wasn’t a dark, twisted person. I was perfect. Sweet.

Maybe that’s why I feel so stressed about going now. I feel like I’m becoming something new, maybe not the angry girl I was when I was younger, but maybe not that perfectly curated version of myself, either. I don’t have the energy for that version of me anymore, I realize .

But this newer version of me is so fresh, I’m not sure how to act. How to be .

And even worse, this will be the first barbecue I’m attending without Chase. The first one I’ve been invited to since we broke up.

Sure, my friends were bad back then, constantly nagging me about when we’d be getting married and if we were planning to have kids. But at least my relationship with Chase was something they approved of.

Not like every other decision I’ve made.

This is part of the reason I’ve been avoiding them. Why I haven’t bothered to reach out to them much or tried to stay in touch.

As I shower and get dressed, I wonder if it’s possible to fake something serious enough that Katie would let me off the hook and insist I stay home.

I could call up right now and say I’ve come down with a serious case of something infectious and awful, forcing me to stay locked in my apartment indefinitely.

Something stomach-related and disgusting.

Would she believe it?

I know without giving it serious consideration that it’s a lost cause. I have to face my demons sometime, and today those demons will be living in an affluent suburb and dressed in a novelty food-themed apron. How fun.

And so, at twenty past twelve, I slap a smile on my face, straighten my back, and push open the gate to Katie’s backyard, two massive boxes of Jade’s best pastries in my arms, ready to grit my teeth and get through this.

But the backyard is empty.

I look around, confused, a sinking feeling forming in my stomach. Where are the long plastic picnic tables they always set out, one for food and one for seating? Where are all the other guests ?

Where is the barbecue?

I hesitate, considering turning around and just leaving, when the sliding glass door opens, and Katie pokes her head out of the house.

“In here, Sydney,” she says, waving me over.

Something is wrong here. I can just feel it, my intuition sending an uncomfortable prickle down the back of my neck and over my spine.

But I swallow my apprehension, telling myself it’s all in my head, as I follow Katie inside.

Right into my nightmare.

The boxes of pastries I’m carrying almost slip from my arms before Katie can take them, as I stare in horror around their living room. At who is in their living room.

There’s Katie’s husband, Lance, looking annoyed and uncomfortable, seated on the couch with Sarah. And next to them…

Is Chase.

“Hi, babe,” Chase greets me, smiling. There’s a white medical strip over his broken nose, and a dark purple bruise under both eyes.

My stomach sinks.

“What is this?” I ask, voice sharp. “Katie… what’s going on?”

“Okay, don’t get hysterical,” Katie says, setting the boxes down and holding her hands out in a placating gesture. “Think of this like…” She waves her hands in the air, searching for the right word. “An intervention.”

My miscellaneous friends nod in agreement from around the room.

I think I might throw up.

“Why would I need an intervention?” I ask. I’m trying to keep my voice down, trying to stay calm, but I can hear the raw anger in my words. I feel a deep rage brewing inside of me.

My relaxation mantras aren’t going to fix this.

Hell, all the mantras in the world wouldn’t do the trick right now.

“We’re worried, that’s all,” Sarah says, sitting forward to rest her elbows on her legs.

She skipped a few trips to her hair stylist, I notice.

Her roots are starting to show, a dull brown contrast to her usual golden blonde.

“Chase came to us the other day to talk about you, about how you’re doing, and some of the things he told us… well, they have us worried about you.”

I glare at Chase, my hands tightening into fists at my side.

“And what did Chase tell you?” I grind out with a scowl, the perfectly manicured mask I’ve cultivated over years finally slipping. We’ve never fought in public before. I’ve never been anything but the perfect, quiet girlfriend in front of these people.

They have no idea what I can really be like when I need to be.

“The truth. Like how you’re going to lose the bookstore,” Chase says, with a shrug. Like it’s no big deal. Like the end of my business and everything I’ve worked for is just casual fodder for the gossip mill.

My heart pounds in my chest. “I’m going to… what ?”

“We know Mrs. Cohen is selling the property.” Katie sighs dramatically after she says it.

“Chase called her, okay? And you can’t actually think whoever buys that building will see your store as a good investment, can you?

I know that old bat has a soft spot for you, but things will change when someone new buys it. ”

I had been thinking something similar, had even put off telling Jade the bad news because of my own fears, but the moment the words come out of someone else’s mouth, I realize how stupid it sounds.

Our store does run a profit. It always has. Even when other shops around us have shut down, we’ve kept standing. And things have been picking up lately.

Hell, we’re doing well now. Not barely making ends meet, not fighting to make a profit. We’re doing well .

And we’ve never once been late on our rent. We’ve never once paid a penny less than we owed.

Any new owner would be lucky to have us as tenants.

“Why wouldn’t they see us as a good investment?” I challenge. And, this time, I believe it.

Chase just shakes his head.

“I warned you when you and Jade started this venture that it was risky,” Chase says. “Running a business is a lot of work. And even people who know what they’re doing don’t always succeed.”

The implication behind his words, of course, being that I’m not one of those people. That I don’t know what I’m doing.

I am not an ocean of calm anymore.

I am a goddamn raging storm .

Fuck this.

“My store is fine,” I snap, eyes narrowing at the group in front of me. “And you,” I point at Chase, accusingly, “you know nothing about it. This is my business. My store. You need to stay the hell out of it.”

Katie exchanges a look with Chase. On the couch, Sarah shifts uncomfortably.

“Woah, calm down, Syd,” she says, holding her hands out defensively. “This isn’t like you.”

“It’s not just the store, either,” Katie says in a tone so clearly meant to be soft and reasonable.

“We know that Chase made a mistake when he…had his little indiscretion. But he is so re morseful! He’s just been beside himself, and he came to us to help us talk some sense into you.

We all spent so much time together, and we know how much you two love each other.

Don’t let one mistake undo so much work.

He said he’s tried apologizing, and he’s just here to win you back. ”

On the couch, Chase smiles benevolently at me. Aren’t I such a good guy?

“Can’t you see how romantic this is, Sydney?” Katie continues. “He knows losing you was the worst thing he could have ever done. And he’s just trying to fix it. He’s sorry!”

It occurs to me then that Katie is doing more apologizing for Chase than he ever did for himself.

I knew they were all still close, but I never expected they would ambush me like this. This isn’t…this isn’t normal. When I don’t immediately respond, when I just stare at them all dumbfounded, Sarah picks up where Katie left off.

“Chase says you’ve been entertaining a lot of dates lately,” she offers gently.

“Entertaining?” My laugh sounds insane, even to me. “What is that supposed to mean, entertaining ? Are we in some kind of eighteenth-century novel? If you want to say I’m whoring myself out, just say it instead of implying it.”

Katie and Sarah both flinch at the crassness of my tone and words. Predictable as fuck.

“They’re thugs!” Chase snaps. He stands from the couch and steps forward to grab my shoulders.

And I realize then how it must look to them all.

Like he cares. Like he’s worried and wants to protect me.

But the whole time he’s gripping me so tight it hurts.

“They’re dangerous, babe. One of them attacked me . ”

I shake him off, unable to stand him touching me.

The laugh that escapes me is sharp and cruel.

It doesn’t sound anything like the perfected version of myself these people know.

The group must think so, too. Katie takes a step back, while everyone else won’t even meet my eyes from sheer discomfort at the entire orchestrated situation.

“Oh, sure,” I say, throwing my hands up in the air. “Sure, if that’s the way you want to tell it, have at it. Tell me, Chase, babe , tell me more about how they are the dangerous ones.”

Chase’s eyes darken, the implication behind my words clear. “I don’t know what you mean,” he says in a low voice.

I grin, wide and angry. “Really? Maybe I should explain exactly what I mean, then. Maybe I should tell them exactly what kind of person you really are.”

I see the flicker of fear in his eyes, then. The panic that I might out him.

And I love it .