The woman regained her balance and brought her hand to her mouth, looking like she was going to say sorry for a second. Then she looked me up and down, and seemed to decide that you don’t need to apologize to people below your station or something.
“Be careful!” I said.
Well, she didn’t like that. “What’s your problem?”
“What do you think? You just spilled my drink all over my skirt!”
She laughed. “Well, it’s not like it was a very nice skirt. It looks like it came out of some bargain bin.”
I could feel all eyes on me, but not in a good way like when Jace looked at me. All that attention drawn to my cheap clothes. I had got the skirt from a bargain bin.
“It was a nice skirt,” I murmured, already certain of defeat.
“Hey, don’t disrespect my fiancé,” said the man with her.
I looked up at him and then between the two of them. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, the shame of it all. All around me, people were watching, some of them looked uncomfortable, some of them merely interested. A few seemed to be enjoying the way the riff-raff was being put in her place.
I was going to flirt with the hottest guy I’d ever seen in real life. I was going to have fun, let myself pretend he really wanted me, and get the interview of the century all at the same time.
Instead, I thought I was probably about five seconds away from running out that front door sobbing.
Chapter 6
Jace
I was going to fucking detonate. Three guys dead and Santino escaped? Since when did he turn into a fucking ninja?
Lorenzo called from the warehouse. Apparently he and Roydon arrived just in time for Santino to catch Roydon with a lucky headshot from long range as he was getting out of the car.
Lorenzo shot back, but Santino managed to get to a car and got away. Unbelievable. Now, instead of information and one more dead Picolli, I had to send a clean-up crew in to take care of the mess.
That was a damn shame about Roydon. He was a tough kid and I had the feeling he hated the Picollis almost as much as I did. Fuckin’ shot.
When I came inside out of the cool air, I was just in time to see Coralie leaving her front desk and rushing into the restaurant. I was close behind and my brow furrowed when I saw that it was our table that seemed to be the center of attention.
Some loudmouth asshole and his whore girlfriend were standing over Kendall, with a waiter nearby. They were all talking at once, pointing fingers. The guy was talking about respect and was getting more and more in Kendall’s face even as Coralie arrived and tried to pull him back.
“I didn’t pay five hundred dollars a seat to reserve a table just so I would have to look at the damn help eating in the same room. I didn’t know Luc Monette’s was giving out coupons now.”
Kendall looked terrified, like she was reliving some schoolyard bullying memory. Worst of all, there was this… acceptance on her face, in the near-sobbing quiver of her lip. It was almost as if life dished up this kind of shame to her all the time and nothing ever changed. Nobody ever helped.
A sexy girl like her should have had the world eating out of the palm of her hand. That light I saw in her eyes when she noticed me checking her out shouldn’t be extinguishable by the likes of these people.
I was surprised at how much that affected me. I wasn’t surprised at how murderously fucking pissed off I was.
“Who. The. FUCK. Do you think you’re talking to?”
What little conversation in the room that had survived this long promptly ceased as the whore yelped in surprise and the two of them both startled. The guy whirled around in surprise.
After sizing me up for a second, he came to the wrong conclusion, and pointed at Kendall. “This b-”
“You better rethink what you’re about to say, motherfucker. What happened, Kendall?” I asked without taking my eyes of this dude, all puffed up like he was going to take a swing. I fucking hoped he did.
“She spilled my wine on me,” Kendall said, quietly. Almost apologetically.
“So what are you doing getting in her face?” I asked. “Actually, don’t answer that, because I don’t give a fuck. Get down on your hands and knees, lick her shoes, and beg for forgiveness. Pray to the god of worthless cocksuckers she grants it.”
The asshole looked ready to tell me to fuck off, and I stepped right in close to him until our noses were almost touching. “Five hundred dollars is a big price tag to come here and end up eating your own teeth, bitch.”
I could feel this energy heating up inside of me, flooding my muscles with adrenaline like it did before every fight. On a hair trigger, I waited for the release. I was ready to explode at any sudden movement.