3. Char
CHAR
I felt his gaze on my back. Well, more like my backside. But, still. His feral glances. His hungry demeanor. He looked at me as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks and I was the only food source for miles. It made me shiver as I made my way toward DeShawn as he stood at the kitchen window.
A man like that could ruin a woman in the best possible way.
“The guys are loving it,” I said as I propped my forearms against the stainless steel countertop hanging from the kitchen window.
DeShawn peered over my shoulder. “I can see that.”
I turned around and propped my elbows up behind me. “See the one that keeps peeking over here?”
“You mean, the guy that couldn’t stop staring at your ass while you walked over here?”
I giggled. “That’s the one. His name’s Dallas.”
“Man, his parents must’ve hated him.”
“DeShawn!” I squeaked as my head fell back with laughter. “You’re so mean, you know that?”
“Hey, I just call it like I see it.”
Dallas tossed me a glance from those bespoke green eyes of his, and my heart slammed against my chest. I figured feeding them was a good way to get back into their orbit for some conversation.
Maybe they’d beckon me back over. Maybe Dallas would crook that long, dexterous finger of his that he had wrapped around his food and pat his knee for me.
Make me sit on his lap like a good little girl.
My toes curled at the thought before I heard my boss’s voice. “Char?”
I whipped my head toward her voice. “Yeah, Miss Lilly?”
She peeked her head around the corner. “Can I see you for a second in my office?”
“What did you do now?” DeShawn asked.
I scoffed as I pushed away from the kitchen window. “I resent that comment.”
“You mean, you resemble it.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. “Whatever it is, I’m gonna tell her that you did it.”
DeShawn smiled with those pearly whites of his. “Yeah, good luck with that. I’ve been a good boy here lately. Miss Lilly would be in my corner in a heartbeat.”
“Now,” she said curtly.
I’d never heard that tone of voice on her before, and it gave me pause.
“Go,” DeShawn said, “I’ll keep an eye on your meat puppets over there.”
I rapped my fingers against the shelf hanging from the window. “Thanks. I’ll be right back.”
I quickly followed Miss Lilly around the corner and down the short corridor that led toward her office.
Most of our backrooms were nothing but storage for our things after we clocked in, but one of them had been converted into a proper office after I had been hired on a few years back.
A bar owner without an office hadn’t sat right with me, so I enlisted DeShawn and a couple of the other employees way back when to help me clean out one of the rooms so that she could have a place to herself.
I loved it whenever she added something new to decorate the walls.
“Hey, hey!” I said as I walked into her office. “Is that a new picture?”
“Have a seat,” Miss Lilly said as she ushered her arm out toward a chair.
A chair I’d never seen before. “Now, this is very new. When did you get this?”
“Char.”
I swallowed hard. “Miss Lilly, you’re worrying me. What’s going on?”
She sat behind her desk. “Have a seat, and we can talk.”
I quickly did as she asked. “All right, what’s going on?”
“Those men you served earlier, what did they want?”
I blinked. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, what did they order, Char?”
I didn’t understand how that was important. “Uh, just some drinks. They didn’t order the food, though. That was on me.”
“And who’s going to pay for it?”
I shrugged. “I planned on it.”
She leaned back heavily in her chair, and I didn’t like the sigh that fell from her mouth. “Did they ask you for anything? Outside of their drink order? Did they harass you in any way?”
My eyebrows rose on my forehead. “No, no, nothing like that. Why? Are they known for doing stuff like that?”
“For starters,” she muttered.
“Miss Lilly, what’s going on?”
“And you’re sure this is the first time they’ve ever been in here? You know, to be served?”
I shook my head softly. “I mean, in the three years that I’ve been here? I haven’t seen them around, no. I figured they were from out of town. Just passing through.”
“Is that what they told you?”
I shrugged. “Yes?”
“Is that a question? Or an answer?”
“Honestly? The more you grill me on our specific conversation, the less I can remember.”
She tilted her head back and gazed up at the ceiling. “I’m sorry, Char. I’m just… a bit on edge.”
“Because of them?”
She picked her head up and fiddled with her computer’s mouse. “Something like that.”
“Have they been harassing you?”
She stopped messing around with her mouse, but she didn’t bring her gaze to mine.
“Miss Lilly?” I asked as I slowly stood. “Have those men been harassing you?”
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to.”
So, I placed my hands on top of her desk and bent down, leveling my gaze with her face as she refused to look at me.
“Do you know who those men are, Miss Lilly?” I asked.
She peered over my shoulder. “Close the door.”
“What?”
“My office door. Close it.”
I pushed off her desk and did as she asked. “All right, can you talk to me now?”
I didn’t get turned back around to face her before she spit it out.
“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of the Metal Reapers.”
I furrowed my brow as my gaze connected with hers. “The what now?”
Miss Lilly stood. “You’ve lived in this town for three years and you don’t know who the hell they are yet?”
My stomach dropped. “I don’t keep up with the news much.”
She scoffed as she folded her arms across her chest. “Nothing they do ever makes the news. They’re too careful that way.”
“You’re not making any sense, Miss Lilly.”
“Must be my time,” she whispered to herself.
I didn’t like the way that she was talking. “Your time for what? Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on. Do I need to throw them out?”
“No!”
My eyes widened as her voice ricocheted off the corners of her office. “You sure about that?”
She cleared her throat and drew in a deep breath. “Whatever they want, Char, make sure they get the best of it. Okay?”
“Why are you afraid of them?”
“What?”
I walked over to her, rounded her desk, and placed my hands on her shoulders. “I can see it in your eyes. You’re frightened. Why? Have they done something to you? Said something to you?”
“Char, just do as I say, okay?”
My hands fell away from her shoulders. “Not until you tell me why you’re scared of them.”
“Why are you not?”
I shrugged. “Because I don’t feel like I should be scared of them, I guess.”
She snickered as she moved around me. “If you know what’s good for you, that’ll change. Come find me when it does, if I’m still here. But, in the meantime?—.”
“While you’re still here?” I asked as I whipped around to see her moving out into the hallway. “What in the world does that mean?”
“It means,” she said as she pinned me with a look, “do as I ask and stop asking questions.”
Her words slammed against my chest. I don’t even know why.
Even to this day, I’m unsure as to why her command stopped my heart in my chest. Maybe it was the fact that she had never been so demanding before.
Maybe it was the fact that the fear in her eyes leaked down to the turn of her frown.
Maybe it was the way she wouldn’t give me all of the information upfront, as if speaking about them would somehow cause her to spontaneously combust. It didn’t get any better, though.
Even as I found the strength to leave her office and return to my post, the second I laid eyes on the bar I found those three leather-jacketed men.
Bellied up to my bar. Talking amongst themselves.
While they reached over the bar and robbed me of the rest of my napkins.
“I hate to break it to ya,” I said as I slipped back behind the bar, “but last call was five minutes ago.”
“I didn’t hear anything about a last call,” Mr. Salt said flatly.
“Pretty sure you have to say it before it’s true,” Dallas said with a cheeky grin upon his face.
I leaned forward, using my arms to shove my tits together as his hungry gaze dropped to my cleavage.
“The usual?” I asked.
Dallas licked his lips, and it sent a chill down my spine. “The usual.”
And as I started plucking glasses from above my head, I found Miss Lilly standing on stage. In the darkness. Watching me, as she fiddled with something on the speaker system.
With a look in her eye that I simply couldn’t place.