Free Take a Risk (Risk #1) by Scarlett Finn

brother.
    ‘Ruge called, but I was too busy to talk much. He’s just back in town.’
    ‘That’s nice, where has he been?’
    ‘Beats me,’ Blaser shrugged, filling the order. ‘If you want to know that then you’ve got to ask Colt. Chances are he won’t know either.’
    ‘Ruger is secretive?’
    ‘He’s always on the move. Always up to something. You kind of lose track.’
    Tracing a fingernail around the edge of the beer tap, she asked what she really wanted to know. ‘Is Colt coming in tonight?’
    ‘Haven’t heard,’ Blaser said.
    Lyssa wasn’t going to push the issue, so when she saw some rowdy patrons on the edge of her zone with almost empty glasses she went to encourage them to buy more liquor. These men were close to drunk; they sang and flirted with her. One touched the back of her thigh and she kept her smile in place but shook a finger at the fondler.
    ‘You know that’s not allowed,’ Lyssa said with her Cherry charm.
    ‘Oh, you love it,’ the fondler said and the others cheered.
    A hand came from nowhere and touched her waist, someone squeezed her ass, and she tried to back away when the men on either side of her rose.
    ‘Dance with me, darling,’ the fondler said.
    His hand came toward her hip but was intercepted by another hand that came from behind her. Lyssa was tugged backwards and the fondler yelped when Lyssa’s protector twisted his arm around to his back and yanked it upward.
    ‘These guys have had enough,’ the protector snarled and Lyssa recognised the voice as Colt’s.
    Security men, dressed in black Risqué emblazoned outfits, took the fondler from Colt to cart him and his protesting buddies out of the club. Colt turned to watch over the top of her head, but she was more interested in the scowl on Colt’s face, trained to the men who had harassed her.
    ‘You know how to make an entrance, babe,’ she said, threading her fingers through his which drew his eyes down to hers. She had always been the tactile sort, and often forgot that others were not so touchy feely. ‘I hoped to see you tonight. I need to fill you in and I’m due a break.’
    Colt glanced at the bar and tightened his hold on her hand. ‘Then let’s get out of here.’
    Keeping her close behind him, Colt led her off the main floor to backstage and up the stairs into his office.
    ‘Are you ok?’ he asked, flicking on the light and nudging her to seat her on the couch. ‘Maybe you’ll reconsider working in a place like this now?’
    ‘Oh, I’m not worried about men like that,’ she said, unfastening the buckles on her shoes and tucking them up under her. ‘But thanks for jumping in, that was very hot.’
    ‘Hot?’ he said, pausing on his way to a fridge in the corner to look at her.
    ‘Sure. A big macho man coming to my rescue, that’s sexy. You can protect me and my primitive brain values that… though so much for you not being security.’
    ‘Like I said, I am when Blaser needs me.’
    Security wasn’t stretched and Colt hadn’t been around tonight to be working for Blaser, but Lyssa wasn’t going to needle him about that… just yet.
    ‘Do you want a drink?’ he asked, retrieving a soda from the fridge.
    ‘Water would be good.’
    He took a bottle to her and opened his can, then dropped onto the couch beside her, glugging down half of his drink.
    ‘What did you want to tell me?’ he asked, setting his can on the table in front of them.
    ‘He left flowers,’ she said and he slowly turned to her.
    ‘What?’ he asked. ‘When?’
    ‘I don’t know exactly when, they were hanging on my back door when I got home last night.’
    ‘Last night?’
    She nodded. ‘I have a ritual I go through every time I return home in the dark.’
    ‘Yeah, I’ve seen all the lights go on and off. Do you carry a weapon while you check the place out?’
    ‘Keys and pepper spray,’ she said. ‘I’ve never found evidence that he’s violated my property, I’m paranoid I guess.’
    ‘He left the