If she didn’t need the cash so badly, Kallie would’ve stood up to Sasha and left despite his addictive charisma. But by staying, she made a hundred bucks in a couple of hours. She liked the money as much as she liked the way Sasha’s touch, and the sound of his rich baritone words, felt.

She was starving by the end of her shift, and visions of hamburgers danced through her head. Now she had the means to buy herself the biggest meal her favorite fast food joint offered. And cover a bill, maybe two.

Sasha had parked his rear at the end of the bar and watched her as she was shown the shift-end tasks. Of course he looked at the other waitress, too, but it didn’t feel like he spent as much time watching her as Kallie. She argued to herself that it was because she was the new girl. Not fresh meat. Just the new girl, and he wanted to make sure she knew how to do the tasks her job required.

Kallie sat at the bar eventually as well, to count out her bank while the busboy mopped up. Her notions of a hamburger had become an obsession. She intended to buy one or two and then go home. She swore she could almost taste the burger as she finished counting. It had been a long night, even if the time had passed quickly. No one mentioned the shooting or asked about it. No cops came in to question them. It was like the thing had never happened. A part of her wondered if it had just been a figment of her imagination. She handed the bartender a tip and then tipped the busboy and cook also. She was still dead broke, but it felt good to have some pocket money once again. She slipped her sweater over her cocktail outfit and took off her apron.

As she collected her purse from under the bar, a beautiful woman entered. Beautiful was putting it simply. There weren’t enough adjectives in the world to describe how pretty this girl was. Tall, blonde, with big brown eyes. Makeup done to perfection, and her clothes probably cost the equivalent of owning a small island.

No one was quick to announce they were now closed. She walked right up to Sasha, who put his big bear paw around her.

Kallie found herself jealous. It must be nice. Having a man like that to grab you up and—she pushed the thought away. She would never date a man who had other women in his life. She paused. He never asked her for a date! Or even hinted at anything close to it. What was she thinking? Who said he was even interested in her?

“Where are you parked?” Sasha asked Kallie casually over the woman’s shoulder. “Have Niko walk you out.”

“My ride’s out front,” she replied curtly. Her ride was the bus, but she didn’t tell him this. She didn’t want to be the third wheel to Sasha and his date even for a lift home. Not that he’d consider offering her a ride. Nor would she have accepted it. She did have some pride, and her attraction to this man had already become too much for her.

A hole in the wall by the door reminded her of the shooting from earlier. She shivered and made an effort to push her shoulders back. It’s only three stops to the 24-hour burger place; two more stops home. Get over it, Kallie.

The plan marked the first time in a while Kallie felt even a little bit happy. She said goodnight and hurried out.

Wrapping her arms around herself, she shivered and headed for the bus stop. She felt vulnerable in her work uniform and skimpy sweater. Tomorrow, she thought as she stood under the lamp light bus stop sign, she’d bring a gym bag with a change of clothes. This wasn’t the clean end of town. It wasn’t a good idea to be dressed the way she was at this time of night in this part of town. With her luck, someone would think she was a street walker, and she’d already had enough humiliation in her life to last a lifetime.

Kallie spied Sasha and the woman out of the corner of her eye as they climbed the steps out of the stairwell to the street level.

He stopped.

Kallie turned to the side and pretended not to notice them. She glanced down the street for her bus.

Except Sasha created a vacuum of stony silence that forced her to look over her shoulder.

He was staring her down, a frown on his handsome face. “You said you had a ride,” he scolded.

Kallie laughed nervously. “I do. I meant the bus.” She smiled as she shrugged. “It’s my ride.”

The woman Sasha was with didn’t smile back at all. In fact, she looked pretty pissed off.

Kallie tried not laugh, but a chuckle slipped through. The woman kind of looked jealous—of her!

Sasha growled, “I don’t find it funny. Go back in and get Sal or Niko to give you a ride.”

“I’m good,” she insisted. Even though she didn’t want a ride with him, she did feel annoyed by the fact that he didn’t offer her a ride himself. He was her boss, wasn’t he? “Seriously, it’s fine. The bus’ll be here any minute.” She wanted to disappear from his magnetic gaze.

Disappearing had been her motto as of recently, had it not?

“I’m not asking,” Sasha stated, his eyes blazing at her. “Go inside and tell them you need a ride.”

She turned to face him fully, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. She started to stare him down, but this was one battle she was not going to win. And she did have a job she needed to keep. She huffed and finally relented. “Fine.”

She strode around him, purposely close just to annoy the woman on the other side of him, and then stomped down the steps to the bar. She’d do as she was told; why make a scene at a Russian bar in the shady part of town where thugs burst in shooting on a daily basis?

Back inside, she asked Sal for a ride. While she waited for him to finish his work, she wondered how it was that Sasha could make her set aside what she wanted to do for herself, and get her to do what he wanted her to do. She’d just gotten out of a situation where, against her better judgment, she did things she thought she would never do.

It’s the past. Leave it alone.

However, one look at Sasha and she let her fantasies go crazy. He was the kind of guy, if given the chance, she couldn’t say no to. She guessed he was pushing six-foot-four and all solid muscle. He didn’t wear tailored clothing that showcased his form but, then, he didn’t have to. There was no hiding the fact the man was the embodiment of power. He looked like that with his clothes on. Imagine what he looked like without them!

Stop it, Kallie. Seriously, give it a rest, horn-dog.

Though it wasn’t the high-profile world of finance and corporate cutthroats, he appeared to be the CEO of the underworld that lurked in the Russian district where she now worked. She knew the area had its lore about mobsters, gangsters, money lenders, and mafia, but during the day when she looked out the bus window at the neighborhoods, she saw families, and men carrying groceries for elderly women back from the grocery store.

When she’d first wandered to this area, she’d seen the lights of the neighborhood bar glowing at sidewalk level. ‘Temnota.’ She’d speculated that it was probably filled with regulars who’d lived in the neighborhood for generations. She’d fantasized about working class men, big guys like Sal, and even bigger guys, to make her feel safe and grounded again. She’d had enough of fear.

As her luck would have it, the first night on the job men were shot and stuffed in a cab. Now, as she waited for a strange man to take her home, she didn’t know what the hell she’d gotten herself into. Her stomach had been through the mill between first day at work nerves, fear of being shot, and butterflies because of Sasha. Now it felt hopelessly empty. Once she got away from the place, she was sure she wouldn’t have the nerve to come back.

When Sal appeared with the other waitress with him, she felt a little relief. She wouldn’t be riding in the car with a stranger after all, even if it was a guy from work. But the drag was, now she couldn’t get that burger she’d been salivating over.

“Where to, ponytail?” he asked with a half-smile. Sal had a thick Maryland accent. If he’d been good- looking, too, she’d have quit.

“The A&W?” Kallie joked, half serious.

“A&W?” Sal scoffed. “You live near that burger joint?”

Kallie didn’t know how to negotiate this one. She was stressed, tired, and hungry. She just wanted people out of her space. “That’s where I’m heading. Honestly, I’d prefer to take the bus.”

“Yeah, well, Sasha did not prefer it. Let’s go,” he said.

Sal drove a Mercedes, which gave Kallie pause. It seemed to be such a strange thing to experience the ride from the perspective of the underworld. It kept dawning on her, where she was at the moment. It was weird. Exhilarating. And damn exhausting.

Sal pulled through the drive-thru lane of the burger place. They were two cars behind. He looked over at her. “You meeting anyone here?”

“No,” she answered, stressed now since he seemed so puzzled by her choice of places to eat.

“What’s up with you then?” he asked.

She didn’t feel like telling him exactly why she wanted a hamburger so badly. That she hadn’t eaten in forever.

“What business have you got here?” he pressed.

“I didn’t have time to go grocery shopping,” she said lamely.

“Then place your order and I’ll drop you off at your house.”

The other waitress from the bar, Angie, sat silently in the back seat.

Kallie had a feeling Angie didn’t like her. Did it matter? They weren’t supposed to be friends. She shrugged and asked for two deluxe big meals.

Sal barked her order into the loud speaker, then turned to make a face at her for the gargantuan amount of food. “Really? Skinny, you can eat all that?” He drove around and then handed her the bag of warm food, paying for it first.

She tried to give him the cash to pay him back.

“Keep it,” he said with a slight gruffness. “First-day survival deserves a treat.”

She knew better than to argue with him. It was about five minutes to her place, but riding with the food on her lap, with the aromas in her nose, was the greatest torture Kallie ever endured. At least that’s what her head told her.

Sal pulled up to the front of her building. “Which one?”

“What’s that?” she asked back, opening the door.

“Which one is yours?”

“3A,” she answered. Wondering why he felt he needed to know.

“What’s your cell?” When she gave it to him, he took out his phone and called her. “Stay on the phone until you get to the apartment and let me know you’re safely in.”

“Okay,” she replied, and hesitated.

“What?”

“Sal, thank you for the ride and the food,” Kallie said. “But I’m just not sure if I’m coming back to work.”

Sal looked forward through the windshield, ignoring the snort from the waitress in the backseat. “See you tomorrow, Kallie. I’m waiting here until you’re in your apartment.”