Honey, Honey by Rebel Carter
Chapter Seven
LAW
Korean food on a rainy night was heaven. On its own the cuisine was perfect, the right mix of spicy and savory. There was sweet and pickled, the crunch and snap of vegetables both fresh and preserved, the meat flavorful and tender, fatty in the right ways.
It was one of my simple pleasures and it was one that I indulged in when I burned the candle at both ends. The long day, the damn deal that went sideways and had cost me a cool 40 million, and the fucking weather had me in a shit mood. I needed a damn hot meal, a dry place to relax, and a beer.
Korean food it was, which meant I was crossing the bridge and going into Queens for it. I nodded my thanks at the hostess who handed me a menu and took my coat with a smile. I was in a private room, one that was meant for parties. The unused places at the long table could be seen as wasteful by some, but I didn’t think there was anyone that would be excited to dine with me after the day I’d had.
The empty room suited my mood for space. For quiet.
A server came and quickly took my order of soju, a beer, and galbi. I added on an order of stew as well, my rumbling stomach reminding me that I hadn’t had much that day by way of food. I couldn’t remember consuming anything beyond the coffee I’d drank that morning. I frowned, closing my eyes, and leaned back in my chair, head falling back in annoyance.
Coffee.
Coffee.
Honey.
“Fuck,” I grunted, eyes opening as I sat up. It wasn’t just the money or the long as fuck day. The weather had little to do with why I was in a piss poor mood. It was Honey. I’d spent nearly all day trying to keep the woman from taking over my thoughts, and by how I felt, ticked off and sulking in a Korean restaurant, I knew I’d done a shit job at it. The more I tried to push her to the back of my mind the more she rose to the forefront. Her eyes, those pouty lips, fucking gorgeous tits that I knew were waiting for me beneath her shirt. She’d be soft, her skin would be like silk under my hands, and I could practically hear the gasp from her when I touched her. Fingertips lightly tracing the underside of her breasts before I caught her dusky nipples between my fingers, rolling the plump flesh between them until-
The door to the room slid open and I forced myself not to jerk in surprise. The server gave me a quick smile and placed my drinks, side dishes, meat and a pot of bubbling stew in front of me. “Thank you.” I meant to be succinct but even I could hear the gruffness to my words. They were barely more than a grunt.
“No worries.” She flashed me another smile, but this one was tentative and she cleared her throat, looking like she might keep speaking, which was the last thing I wanted or needed. I nodded at her and reached for the beer she’d placed in front of me. I needed at least half a beer in me before I was going to entertain small talk. I popped the top off while the server flipped on the grill in front of me. The flames sprang to life and the familiar sound of it relaxed me. I took half a swig of my beer and was already reaching for the tongs beside the platter of meat when the server spoke again.
“Will there be anything else?” The server, a pretty dark haired woman, asked me with another quick smile. But this one didn’t have the same veneer associated with friendly customer service. She was searching for something. Her eyes scanned my face and she came forward, the tray against her thighs, fingers clutching it so tightly I could see her knuckles were turning white. She was nervous, but forced herself to come closer.
I paused and reassessed her. She wanted something from me. Even if I wasn’t going to give it to her I wanted to know what it was. From the look of her it wasn’t the small talk that I’d dreaded. She was blushing, the blood rising to her cheeks and painting a pretty pink flush across her pale cheeks. She had plump lips she’d painted blood red and she bit her bottom lip, A flash of teeth and a nervous giggle aimed my way were meant to entice, even if I could tell she was too scared to voice what she wanted from me. A woman like this would wait for me to make the first move. She’d fall in line the second I showed her the smallest bit of interest, which suited me fine. I wasn’t going to so much as breathe in the server’s direction, and I wasn’t putting off the most sociable aura, which would take care of any lingering doubt. On another night I might indulge her, might encourage the little display of cleavage she was currently treating me to with her artfully crossed arms that boosted her tits into a generous display of skin. She was beautiful but she wasn’t the woman my body wanted, not the one that made my dick twitch and my palms itch.
No, that belonged to someone else. That belonged to the beautiful woman running through my damn brain. A woman that I’d spent all of five minutes around, a woman that I’d claimed as mine and then walked away from.
My gut twisted and I frowned. “No, nothing,” I told her, looking away. I poured myself a glass of beer and reached for the bottle of soju. “Thank you.”
“If you change your mind…” she said, voice going soft in a way that I knew. I’d heard it a hundred times before. It was the voice subs used when they wanted to pull my eye, when they were letting me know that they saw something they liked in me, and that if I was game so were they.
I raised my eyes to hers, and gave her a slight shake of my head, but even then I said, “I’ll find you.”
She beamed at me, my dismissal too subtle. “See that you do, handsome. I’m Melissa.” She winked at me and I almost chuckled at her little display of flirtation, but she was gone and dashing out the door with a giggle.
I downed half of the beer before I poured the other half of it into my glass. I added an equal amount of soju to my glass and then took a healthy drink of that before I turned my attention to the grill. If my hands were busy then I could go on autopilot. The calm that I was looking for used to come easier before I went legitimate. Mostly because when I was working on a mark, when I was hunting someone down or enforcing the boundaries, it was natural. I never thought so much as reacted, it was one of the reasons I was so good at what I did.
It came naturally. I didn’t have to think to be a killer.
I just was.
That calm and Zen gifted by giving over my body to the task at hand was good for the stress. But now it was all meetings, conference calls, endless email chains. And deals gone wrong, fucked over by rats like Martin D’Amato. I grit my teeth and added meat to the grill, the sizzle of it a good chaser to remembering what D’Amato’s smarmy smile looked like at the end of the video conference.
He’d swooped on a deal I’d had locked down, raised the price by 25% even though it wasn’t worth that. He was going to be losing money by going through with it but I knew full well, it wasn’t about profit with that fucker. It was about screwing me over and letting me know he’d done it on purpose. D’Amato was sending a message with the shitty deal, and unlucky for him he now had my full attention.
“Gonna get that little shit,” I said to no one, flipping the meat and taking another swig of my drink. I was going to need at least two more of these before the night was over. I glanced over at the button at the side of the table that would bring my server, Melissa, running back and sucked on my teeth. I’d wait some before I resorted to that. I wanted to enjoy a little peace and quiet before I called her back in. After today, I’d earned that much.
