I walked over and lifted her chin. Her left eye was puffy and already starting to turn purple underneath. “What the fuck happened? Are you hurt anywhere else?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m fine. Just my eye. It’s not a big deal. Oak made me sit back here and put ice on it. But I’m fine. I can go back to work.”

Realizing what had dropped when I walked in and startled her, I knelt down and grabbed the ice pack. “You’re sure nothing else hurts?”

“I’m positive.”

“How the hell did this happen?”

Even though I’d seen for myself that she was okay, my heart was still beating at a murderous rate. The sound of blood swishing around in my eardrums made it difficult to hear.

“I was upstairs…” Gia started to say.

“Not you,” I cut her off and turned toward the open door. “Oak!” I yelled.

He must’ve been standing near the door waiting. “Yeah, boss.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. But the only image I saw when I shut them was of a fist coming at Gia’s sweet face. Someone was going to pay for this. And at the moment, it was the man I employed to make sure this type of crap doesn’t go down in my bar. “How the fuck did this happen?” I roared.

The giant man took one look at my face and actually took a step back. Smart move.

“I didn’t see it go down. I was downstairs, and it happened on the rooftop, near the bar. Two guys got into it over one buying the other’s girl a drink. Gia had gone upstairs to bring a bottle of Patrón up because they were running low. She tried to break up the fight, got in between the two guys.”

I heard nothing after the first sentence. “You didn’t see it happen? Isn’t that what I pay you for? To have eyes on this place?”

Oak hung his head. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I should have been there.”

Gia piped in. “This isn’t his fault.”

“Shut up, Gia. Let me handle this.”

My focus had been on Oak, but I caught Gia’s eyes go wide out of my peripheral view. She slammed the bag of ice down on the desk in order to free up both hands to fly to her hips.

“Shut up? Did you just tell me to shut up?”

“Gia…

“Don’t Gia me. You can’t just march in here and start screaming at Oak and tell me to shut up.”

I lowered my head so that our faces were level. I was just about to yell, remind her that it’s my bar and my employees, so I had every fucking right to march anywhere I want and tell off whomever the fuck I wanted. But then I saw her eye again. An ache in my chest reminded me I needed to go easy.

I turned to Oak. “Get out. Shut the door behind you.”

He didn’t need to be told twice.

Once it was just Gia and me in the small office, I took a few deep breaths and focused on what was important. Cupping her cheeks, I asked, “You sure you’re okay?”

Her face softened along with her tone. “I’m fine. Really.”

I gently ran my thumb along the bottom of her eye that had started to swell. She winced.

“Did you fall?”

“No. I just stumbled back. I tried to grab one of the guy’s arms to stop him from hitting the other one, and an elbow hit me in the eye.”

“Rookie move.” I examined her eye closer. “You never grab the arm of the guy in a fight.”

“What should I have done?”

I locked eyes with her. “You should have done nothing. Oak should have gotten the guy in a choke hold or stepped between the two.”

“But Oak wasn’t there.”

I shook my head. I would be dealing with that later. But right now, I needed to make sure this was only a black eye. “Any double vision?”

“No.”

“Follow my finger.” I moved my pointer back and forth to test her eye movement.

“Headache?”

“No.”

“Any bleeding before I got here? From the nose or anything?”

“No.”

I let out a deep breath. “I think you’re going to be fine. You’ll have a nice black eye by morning. But ice will keep it from swelling shut.” I grabbed the ice pack from the desk. “Keep this on. Come on, I’ll drive you home.”

While Gia went to grab her purse, I spoke to Oak and found out that both of the assholes who had gotten into the fight had left with black eyes from my bouncer. That was the least he could do.

As soon as Gia and I got outside, I lit a cigarette. The thick smoke coated the burn in my throat like a salve.

“Hey. You’re smoking!”

I eyed her. “Fucking A, I am. Your fault.”

“My fault? How is it my fault?”

“You scared the shit out of me. Do me a favor. From now on, you see a fight going on, walk in the other direction.”