“Hopefully nothing,” he said, quickly shaking his hand and then brushing past him.
Relief flooded him when Luke shrugged him off and walked the other way which allowed Tag to take a seat at the bar and order a Jack and coke. “Go light on the coke,” Tag told Kane.
“Rough day?” Kane asked as he grabbed the bottle from behind him.
Kane’s comment conjured up an image of when McKenna had been wrapped around him like a damn blanket just a few short hours ago. Rough. Literally. And damn he wanted more of her right now.
Tag didn’t answer Kane, he just nodded his head. The last thing he wanted to do was talk. He preferred to sit right there, drown his thoughts in whiskey and the unruly chaos happening around him. Unfortunately, the crowd seemed a little subdued tonight and Tag found himself glancing around to see what was different.
Nothing really. Not as far as he could see anyway. The club was packed like usual with people laughing, talking and having a good time while some were dancing. Even the tables were all full. Not much different than any other night he supposed.
That’s when he saw her.
Just when he was turning back around in his seat, Tag’s eyes landed on McKenna, sitting across the bar from him.
With Travis Walker.
A wave of jealousy so powerful swept through him, Tag wasn’t sure how he hadn’t fallen off the fucking barstool. The professional in him wouldn’t allow himself to stalk across the room and take her by the arm, pulling her away from that damn cowboy.
The alpha in him told the professional to go fuck himself.
Tag emerged from his seat, downing the last of his whiskey before slamming the glass back on the bar top. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears; feel his hands balled into fists at his side as he moved around to the opposite end where the two of them were talking.
“Murphy,” Travis greeted, eyeing him suspiciously when he approached.
“Walker.”
McKenna didn’t even spare him a glance, but that didn’t stop Tag from interrupting.
“Didn’t know you were in town,” he told the man sitting beside McKenna, drinking a beer and watching him closely.
“Didn’t know I had to get permission,” Travis smirked.
Why was it that he suddenly felt like a foolish teenager trying to prove his own worth? He was reduced to childish machismo standing here, practically facing off with Travis Walker when it was apparent the two of them were only talking. Hell, they weren’t even sitting that close to one another, but Tag still didn’t like it. At all.
There were two words that came to mind, but no matter how hard he tried, Tag couldn’t seem to spit them out. Instead, he allowed his arm to gently brush McKenna’s, wondering if there was a chance in hell that she felt exactly how sorry he was.
Chapter Thirty Five
McKenna made it into the office a little after seven the following morning. That was later than usual, but she hadn’t been able to fall asleep until close to three, and she felt like death warmed over. She was sure she looked like it too.
Her office didn’t look much better.
By the time she arrived, Whisper was already there, along with two security guards that Alex McDermott had placed on twenty four hour watch.
“Hey,” Whisper greeted when McKenna walked through the main doors.
The place looked a million times better than it had even the night before when she stopped by after Tag left her house. Seeing everything she worked so hard to build in such disarray had caused her to go to the club for a drink where she ran into Travis Walker.
They shared a beer, but it didn’t take long for her to remember he wasn’t much of a conversationalist, or maybe he just didn’t find her interesting. Either way, after Tag had come and gone, she called it a night. Only that wasn’t when her night ended.
Unfortunately, she spent the better part of it replaying every scene from every time she had been near Tag for the last couple of months only to make herself hurt that much more.
“Did you call the insurance company?” Whisper was standing in front of her now as she stared at the mess around them.
“Not yet,” she told her. “That’s the first thing I’m doing this morning though.”
That was the plan anyway. Just as soon as she docked her computer and figured out whether there was anything pressing to take care of. She wasn’t sure how anything would take more priority over getting everything in the office replaced, or having the walls repaired, but for some reason McKenna had a hard time dealing with it all right then.
When she made it to her office door, she slowly pushed it open, remembering what she had seen the night before.
And there it was.