A shot and a half of Jameson’s later and the strangers Monalisa had just met were fast becoming friends. They’d listened with incredible sympathy and attention to her entire history with her father, all about the coin he refused to give her, and how he’d forced her to deceive Van. She felt now like they could be friends for life.

Too bad that was such an impossibility.

Almost at the end of her tale, she tipped back the last of the whiskey in her glass, then set it down on the table of the big booth they were crowded into. She took a breath and finished what she had to say. “And then he threw me out.”

The women responded with a collective gasp.

Pandora shook her head. “Outrageous.”

Charisma sighed. “Just like a man not to give a woman a chance.”

“Not all men,” Roxy said. “But I agree, Ivan should have let you explain.”

Marigold nodded, making her blonde curls bounce. “This is why I don’t date.”

Willa crossed her arms and sat back. “And I thought my stint as queen was bad. Sister, you have a world of trouble on your plate.”

Pandora leaned her forearms on either side of her wine. “Van will understand if you explain.”

Monalisa ran her finger around the rim of her empty whiskey glass. “I’m glad you think that, but that requires him to listen, and I don’t know.” She shook her head, remembering the look on his face. “I doubt that’s something he’s interested in.”

Pandora shrugged. “His reaction was just that. A reaction. I’ll go back to the house with you, and I’ll get him to listen.”

Monalisa sighed and looked around the table. “But he has every right to be furious at me for what I did to him. I lied to him. A lot.”

“You had no choice,” Charisma said. “He’s got to understand what an impossible situation you were put in.”

The door at the back of the room opened, letting in a gust of cold, but Monalisa barely felt it as she stabbed her finger into the table. “I’m still in it. My father’s command doesn’t magically go away because Van kicked me out.”

“What command?”

The deep, male voice turned all six of their heads. Monalisa, Roxy, and Willa had to push up to see over the back of the booth.

“Van.” Nervous energy pinged through Monalisa’s body.

He stared back at her, his gaze as steely as his expression was unreadable. “Lisa.” He frowned. “Is that even your name?”

“Sort of. It’s actually Monalisa.”

His eyes narrowed as if he was calculating just how much of a lie that was.

Pandora slipped out of the booth from her end seat, and the rest of the women followed, forming a circle around Monalisa with Pandora at the front. “Don’t tell me you walked here with that leg and this weather.”

“No.” He tried to look past Pandora to see Monalisa, but Pandora matched his every move, blocking him.

Monalisa almost smiled at Pandora’s protectiveness, but then the realization set in about how pathetic it was that the best friends she had were women she’d known less than an hour. That said so much about her life.

Pandora held her ground. “Then how on earth did you get here?”

More frowning. Van ran a hand over his shaved head. Stalling maybe? “A friend.”

“You must have wanted to be here a whole lot.”

“Pandora, I am here. What else matters? I need to talk to Lisa now.” He grunted. “Monalisa.”

“I’ll say you need to talk. Throwing a woman out in the middle of a massive snowstorm?” She shook her head and clucked her tongue. “Not very gentlemanly.”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. “I know.”

She planted her hands on her hips. “What would your mother say?”

“Enough,” Van grumped. “I will speak to Monalisa now.”

Pandora didn’t move. “What if she doesn’t want to speak to you?”

Monalisa didn’t want Van tortured anymore. He’d been through enough. All of it because of her. She put her hand on Pandora’s arm, moving the witch aside so she could step forward. “It’s okay. I want to talk to him.”

When he saw her, his expression morphed from relieved to upset, then back to a hard blankness. Except for the tiniest hint of something that looked very much like hurt in his gaze, he was once again unreadable. “Good.”

He cleared his throat and looked at the women behind her.

Monalisa understood. She turned and smiled at them. “Maybe we could have a little privacy?”

They all gave her sympathetic nods. Pandora squeezed her arm. “We’ll be on the other side of the bar if you need us. Just holler. We all have exceptional hearing. Well, except for Roxy. Hers is just normal.”

“Thanks,” Monalisa said. But she wasn’t worried. For all of Van’s gruffness, he wasn’t going to hurt her.

Pandora started to leave, but turned at the last second to point at Van. “You be nice.”

He held out his hands. “I am always nice.”

She snorted and left.

The room got uncomfortably quiet with just the two of them in it.

Monalisa dug her teeth into her bottom lip as she gathered her thoughts. “It was nice of you to come.”

He grunted an acknowledgment. “It was wrong of me to throw you out.”

“No argument here.” She took a few steps forward and leaned against the nearest pool table. “You want to hear my side of things?”