Chapter Three #2
I hum and pat him on top of his head. “That wasn’t so hard, was it, Mart?”
He shakes his head, trying to stop the bitch tears from falling down his face. I lean in and whisper to him. When I straighten back, he slowly starts to back away, turning on his heel to run to the back of the shop.
I turn to Lily, who is staring at me. Another employee is whispering in her ear behind her, but smiling at me, clearly infatuated with what just happened.
I walk back to my table, sitting, as everyone continues to steal little glances at me. I notice one person on the phone, probably some feckin’ bollock calling the cops.
Lily comes to stand in front of me, removing her apron. “What did you say to him?”
“Did he just fire you? Because if he did, then—”
She holds out her hand to stop me. “I’m quitting before he has the chance to fire me.”
I shake my head, sitting back down. “You don’t have to quit if you don’t want to. He won’t fire you.”
She sits down in the seat across from me. “What did you say to him?” she whispers.
“That if he ever makes any derogatory remarks about you again that I will remove the skin off his bones and mail it to his family.” I shrug.
She bites at her cheeks, looking around at everything but me. “How do you know where his family is?”
I nod toward the front door, hearing sirens in the distance. “We should probably go before they show up.”
We walk out of the coffee shop, straight to my vehicle. I unlock my car, opening the passenger door for her to get in, and make my way around to the driver-side door.
“You didn’t have to do all that,” Lily says when I enter my vehicle.
“He was an asshole who deserved it.”
“Okay, but no need to go all Superman on him.”
“I prefer Bane,” I say.
She gives me a screwed-up look. “What?”
I hear the sirens getting closer from down the street and quickly make a sharp turn down an alley to head the back way toward her house. “You know, Bane, from Batman.”
She rolls her eyes. “Whatever. Just drop me off at home and go back to Gotham, Bane. I can handle myself.”
I take my eyes off the road, turning to her.
Her emerald eyes have hints of hazel that break through in the sunlight.
She took her hair out of her ponytail so it lies just past her shoulders, waving around like in the Van Gogh painting.
Her button nose and pink puckered lips are perfectly disproportioned on her face.
Her nose is too small, her lips and eyes too big.
Yet they are all perfectly imperfect on her. “Yeah, I’m sure you can,” I respond.
As soon as I pull up to her house, she jumps out of the car before I am fully in park.
I watch her run up the stairs, shutting the door behind her.
When I go to open her front door, it doesn’t budge.
I shake my head, laughing, taking two steps back before I run full speed, and crash my shoulder into the cheap wood.
It cracks slightly and I hear the chains and bolts fall to the floor on the opposite side.
I slam my fist into the crack, breaking open a hole right near the doorknob.
I unlock the door, ramming it open forcefully so it crashes against her wall.
I stand in the doorway, staring at her, watching her fingers wiggle at her side.
“This is breaking and entering. I am calling the cops.” She darts toward her bedroom, slamming that door shut.
I close the broken door behind me and stalk toward her bedroom door.
It could be locked, it could be unlocked, it doesn’t matter.
I still shove my shoulder into the door, breaking it to where it barely hangs from the hinges.
She stands near her bed with her phone in her hand and her face a ghostly white.
I stride to her, rip the phone away from her, and toss it onto the bed.
I wrap one arm around her hips, picking her up off the ground, and walk toward her desk, using my free hand to wipe away all her clutter and sitting her down with my hands plastered at her hips to keep her trapped in front of me.
“No need to get the authorities involved now, yeah?”
She turns her face away from mine, her cheeks turning crimson as she bites down on her bottom lip. I grab her by her chin, making her face me again. I catch her slight glance at my lips, and it makes her pupils dilate big enough to invade her irises.
“As soon as Rowan and Celeste are back, I will leave you and your porn alone,” I say, bringing up her TV show from last night.
“But until then…” Her eyes close and I can hear her deep inhale.
I take the chance and turn her head to the side to get closer to the little part of her neck right between her shoulder, sucking in her sweet smell.
“I will be at your side, watching your every move like a fucking Peregrine,” I whisper against her skin.
I drop the hold I have on her chin, backing away. Her eyes slowly open as she breathlessly says, “The term is hawk. Watching your every move like a hawk.”
“I like Peregrine Falcon better.” I turn around, walking out of her room, leaving the mess of wooden door chips and paperwork all over the floor.
“You’re going to pay for new doors and locks!” she screams.
I sit at the kitchen table, finishing all the events in the DWYM program from the other night.
I add in all the events of Rowan’s house, from the killings to the cleaning, and add in me going to John’s house.
I never liked John. He always pissed me off with his big body and bald head—and now that he has disappeared after the break in and is not answering anyone’s calls, it makes me hate him even more.
I turn my head when I hear a door scraping along the floor. Lily is trying to push her bedroom door open. I prop my elbow on the table and watch her struggle.
“I have to go to work. You coming, falcon?”
“Are you going to behave yourself and not run off?” I stand from my chair, walking toward her.
I can see her pupils enlarge again. Either she did plan on running off, or she’s intimidated, and it turns her on.
I move a strand of hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear. “Don’t test my patience, álainn.”
“That’s not English, is it?”
“No,” I say, grabbing her arm to walk her to the front door.
Rowan’s house being broken into by some ex-Italian mafia members puts us on the map.
And if it puts Rowan and me on the map, then anyone we are close to gets put on the map.
Which includes Celeste and Lily. If anything happened to Lily, I would kill myself.
Then Rowan would bring me back to life and murder me for upsetting Celeste by letting something happen to her best friend.
When we are both at my car doors, I press the unlock button, but before we get in, I look at her and remind her, “Do not run.”