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waitress looks at the two of us and then turns away with a shrug. “This is settled, Ash.”
    A well of rage bubbles up from deep in my gut. “Summer, you think shit’s settled? It’s not.”  
    The waitress returns and Summer takes the to-go box. She mutters a quick thank you, then throws ten dollars down on the bar.
    “Shit’s settled,” she says, turning to me. A flash of that girl I used to know looks back at me. “You were a bad decision then, Ash. And I’m not making the same fucking bad decision all over again.”  
    She pushes through the three frat boys, and walks right out of the door.

CHAPTER SIX

    Three Years, Five Months Ago

    The anxiety is getting to me. For the past two nights, the redheaded man with the tattoo—Jonathan Ash—hasn’t been watching my aunt’s pub. Instead, it was the short one with the watery eyes. Ominously, strangely, there was no one there when I left tonight, on my way to the neighborhood bar. The one where I met the redheaded man.
    I showed up with two friends from medical school thirty minutes ago, but now the place is crowded, and it’s hard to make out who anyone is. I look around expectantly, and a surge of hope rushes through my core as I scan the room.
    He’s an asshole. Not your next romantic expedition. He’d just as soon slice up the side of your face. No reason to believe he’ll be here anyway.  
    My heart quickens when I think of him, and tension coils tight inside me. I take a sip of my drink and slump against the bar. No use wishing a man were here when he’s not. Alcohol starts to flood through my body, and soon I’m ordering another drink and chatting with my friends until they leave to dance again. With the relaxation sweeping through me, the worries of the past few weeks starts to fade. Images of the hardbodied mafia man pass through my mind, fleeting as clouds.  
    Just as I reach that point of tipsiness that erases every care I have, a calloused hand touches my arm, and I look up to see a steely blue gaze, eyes sparking with intensity.  
    “You following me, Sunshine?”
    “Fuck—no—I just come here sometimes to—unwind—” I start, and some of my Long Island Ice Tea spills on my dress. The red-haired man—undeniably the same one who’s been watching me and my aunt for a month now—lifts one side of his mouth into a grin.  
    “Seems like you’re following me. Because I come here to unwind sometimes too.”
    “After a long day of watching people?” Nervously, I pull a lock of hair behind my ear and look around frantically for my friends. When I’m near this man, lust starts to course through my body, and it feels like my body is beyond my control. As soon as I see him, I want him again. But what he does—I don’t even know the full extent of it. His job is hurting and scaring people—or at least I think that’s what it is.
    My friends know nothing about the life I’m living in the apartment above my aunt’s bar—and nothing about this man.
    I suppress a shiver and hope to God he doesn’t notice how I feel around him. I try my best to sound full of rage whenever I speak to him, but it’s hard when a man looks like that .
    “When I’m watching something as fucking sexy as you every night, yeah.”  
    A pink blush finds its way to my cheeks. The alcohol doesn’t feel as cooling as it did at first—now all of the emotion is pouring back into my body, heat filling me, coursing through me in waves. Ash’s arm sneaks around my waist, and he pulls me in close like we’re old friends. A fever hits me where he touches my skin. I’m too addled to pull away.  
    “I need to find my friends—”
    “The skinny Asian dude and the girl with the black hair?”
    “You were watching me?”
    “Of course I was, Sunshine. Can you blame me?”
    “Well—I—you shouldn’t—where the hell did they go?” My words tumble out together. Ash orders me another drink and puts it in my hand, never letting go of my waist.
    “They went