“It’s a pity.”

“Huh?”

He dipped his head at my hands.  “You’ll miss those fingers, sweetheart.”

“Are you fucking threatening me, asshole?”  Yeah, possibly not my best move, pissing a man like him off.

Something behind Scarface caught my eye, and I diverted my attention to see what it was.  The scary dude from earlier walked towards us.  I hadn’t realised he was still here.

He approached Scarface, aggression written all over him.  “I see you’ve resorted to threatening innocent women these days, Mario.”

Holy god, his voice had a dangerous tone to it.

Mario glowered at him.  “Fuck off, Blade.  This has nothing to do with you.”

Blade.

“No, but I don’t like the way you’re talking to her.  And I’m in the mood to help a friend out.”

Friend?  Where the hell had that come from?

Mario quirked his brows and looked at me as he said, “You’ve got some friends in low places, sweetheart.”  I really wished he would stop calling me that.

Blade shot me a look that very clearly told me not to step into this.

“How about you leave her alone and search harder for the guy you’re after,” Blade suggested.

“And how about you leave me to deal with this the way I choose.  Don’t you have other shit to take care of?”

Blade stepped closer to Mario, his hard glare sending a very clear message.  Don’t fuck with me.  “I’ve always got shit to take care of.”  He thought about something for a minute before saying, “You know, I was talking to Ice the other day, and he mentioned you owe him a bit at the moment.  Asked me what I thought he should do and I told him you’d probably be good for it.  I’m rethinking that advice now.”

I caught the slight widening of Mario’s eyes.  It looked like Blade had hit gold.  His face reddened with anger.  “You’ve always fucking had it in for me.  Why the fuck are you sticking your nose into this shit?  You got something going on with her?”

I opened my mouth to set him straight, but Blade shook his head at me before glaring back at Mario.  “None of your goddamn business, motherfucker.  All you need to know is I will fuck with you if you fuck with her.”

His last threat seemed to do the trick.  Mario took a step away from the bar and motioned for his men to follow suit.  He turned his gaze to me.  “Looks like it’s your lucky fucking day, sweetheart.  But when you see Dale, you tell him I’m looking for him.”

He stalked out of the bar and when I could no longer see him, I turned to Blade.  “What the hell was that?”

Raising his brows, he asked, “What?  No thank you?”

“I don’t know who the hell you are, and what the hell you’re involved in, but I figure it’s not a good thing a debt collector like that asshole thinks I’m your woman.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.  Him thinking you’re my woman is the best thing that happened to you tonight.”

“Fuck!”  I was so angry at this whole situation and the fact I had no control over any of it.

“Trust me, Layla, he won’t be back to bother you.”

“How the hell do you know that?”

“The guy I mentioned, Ice? He’s a drug dealer and the amount of money Mario owes him is enough to get him killed if Ice feels so inclined.”

Holy shit, who the fuck is this man standing in front of me to know all these shady people?

“So you’d have enough sway to convince Ice to do that?”

His stare told me everything I needed to know even if he chose not to answer me.  “Let’s just say you’re safe and leave it at that.”

My head began to pound.  “Why would he be after my business partner?  Like, what kind of shit does that mean Dale’s gotten himself into?”

“Horses.”

I placed one hand on my hip and ran the other across my forehead while I expelled a long breath.  “Jesus, I knew Dale liked to gamble here and there, but I never realised he had a problem with it.  I should have, though.”

“Why?”

“I’ve worked with him for years, and then, about twelve months ago, he asked me if I wanted to buy into the bar.  I knew he did that because he needed money, but I thought it was to help his ex-wife out.  Then, two days ago I discovered he’s been stealing from the business.  Little bits here and there that I didn’t miss or notice, but now there’s no cash left in our bank account and it seems he’s done a runner.”

“He played you for a fool, huh?”

“Yeah, and I can’t fucking believe I didn’t see it.”

Jess and Damian had stayed quiet through this whole thing but Jess interrupted us now.  “You’re not a fool, Layla.  You trusted someone who took advantage of that trust, but it doesn’t make you a fool.”

“If I ever see him again, it won’t be pretty,” I muttered.

Jess grinned.  “I can imagine.”  She knew me well.  Knew I gave people one chance only.  If they fucked with that, I didn’t go back for seconds.

Blade’s phone rang and he walked away to take the call.  I went back to helping Jess and Damian get ready to close the bar.  We were almost done and I couldn’t wait to get out of here tonight.  The stress of the last two days had started catching up on me, and all I wanted to do was sleep it off.