Chapter Nine
Roxi storms in promptly at two, brown eyes flashing fire. “Did you think you could get rid of me that easy? I’m just glad there was no one else available. Did it ever occur to you that I have bills to pay?”
“It’s for your own good,” I growl.
“No. I think it’s for your own good. We’ve already established—”
“That you can handle yourself. But you don’t know who you’re dealing with.” She leans across the bar and I catch a whiff of her perfume. It’s enough to make my resolve waver.
“I think you’re scared,” she says quietly, but with steel in her voice. “I think your gangster friend spooked you.”
She means to provoke me, and it works. “He’s not my friend,” I answer with equal steel.
“Of course he’s not,” she retorts. “But I know how men like you operate. You think if you can’
