I bust up laughing and everyone looked my way, but I couldn’t stop. I nodded at her. “Yeah.” I sucked in a breath. “Thursday? I’m usually off in the afternoon.”
“Dealio, be prepared to spill your secrets.” She spoke with dramatic flair. “You know I have thumb screws.”
I snorted, unable to get the idea of Rachel as evil genius out of my head.
The chair next to me scraped out and I looked up, wiping my eyes. Dare cocked his head in question and sat down. I heard a second chair move and saw Jericho sit down. I needed to eat fast because this looked more like a biker thing than a tattoo thing, and that was a line I wasn’t prepared to cross. Two other guys I didn’t know walked in and dragged chairs up on the other side of Zayn at the head of the table. I had no idea who they were, so I focused on my sweet tea, sipping it with an intensity the task didn’t require.
“How’d the day go?” Dare spoke low in my ear.
I shrugged. “Not so busy, but Zayn says that’ll change soon.”
“Yup. Always does, in about another month we’ll wish we had an hour to ourselves.”
Rachel strolled over then to take orders.
I heard the giggles before I saw them. Three women, all fairly attractive, with barely any clothes on, wavered in on stiletto heels. They looked like they’d already started celebrating before they made it here. Nothing wrong with that, at least until they moved to our table. Angel brightened up, shooting me a satisfied sneer, before chatting away with the newcomers.
“So, you didn’t run away,” Jericho boomed.
I jumped, especially at his choice of words. Words that held a bite for me because I was a runaway. In fact, I always ran away.
“Still here.” I pointed to myself.
He pulled out his wallet. “I owe Dare twenty bucks, I bet him you’d be gone inside a month.”
What? He’d bet what?
A smile played across Dare’s lips as he leaned back in his chair.
I leaned forward halfway across Dare’s spot, actually pointing my finger at Jericho before I even knew it. “You hired me, thinking I wouldn’t stay.” I fumed. “Are you an idiot? Or do you like losing money?”
The table kind of quieted, but I was on a roll. “You don’t bet against your hires.”
Before I finished speaking, Jericho’s deep laugh rolled out across the table. He glanced over at Dare. “Red, you do have a temper.”
“Lila,” Dare growled to his friend.
“Lila.” Jericho stared at Dare as he said my name. “I think most would say I’m an idiot, don’t you, Dare?”
“Fuck yeah.” Dare grinned in this cold way I’d never seen. I think it was his scary look, one that should frighten me away, but it didn’t. I glanced at the girl show across the table, they tittered but kept their faces down. I wondered which one of them he’d sleep with tonight. I mean, I’d turned him down, so he was totally free to do whoever he wanted. While my mind processed the very rational logic, my body and heart rebelled.
Acid or hate burned in my stomach and I had this urge to punch one of those women, not because they’d offended me, but because they’d have what I’d turned away.
Shit. Temper, jealousy—will I be wrestling around on the floor in a catfight next? Surveying this crowd, I’m sure it’d be a hit, but I had more control than that. I repeated those words until I no longer wanted to claw my eyes out.
Instead, I focused on Zayn, who told story after story—funny stories. I finished up my fries and considered just how long I needed to stay before I left. A good question to contemplate in the bathroom. I headed toward the back, thinking my combat boots sounded loud on the dusty wood floor. Rachel gave me crazy eyes, or maybe she was trying to communicate via eyeballs, whichever, it didn’t translate.
I’d no sooner closed the door into the two-stall bathroom when it opened again. Great. I hated peeing with company. As I glanced back, Rachel leaned against the door and then locked it.
“Are you crazy?” I thought it a fair question.
“No. Are you?” she shot back. “Those biker babes, party girls, whatever the club calls them, follow Jericho everywhere, and Dare. You need to protect your man.”
“He’s not mine.”
“Like that, is it?”
“Yeah.” I headed into the stall to escape her.
“Even if it’s not exclusive, don’t be shown up by that trash.”
She talked to me while I peed. Who did that?
“Peeing here.” True, I hadn’t had many girl-type friends, but wasn’t there a line that stopped well before my bathroom stall?