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“If she means so much to you, then perhaps you should stay, Alex,” the blonde sneered. “Though I’d have chosen better for a man of your rank. Patriotism is to be applauded. ”
Alex’s jaw clenched. His hand snapped out, encased Catherine’s wrist in firm fingers.
“I’m sorry, Janey,” he said softly. “It won’t happen again. ”
“Of course it will. ” Janey smiled stiffly. “It happens several times a night, Alex. But I’m sure I can fill the table. ” She nodded to Catherine. “Have a good night. ”
She turned away from them, marked their name from the list, and kept her head down as Alex pulled Catherine toward the door.
She did lift her lashes just enough to sneak a peak at that gorgeous male ass, though. She was all for being cool, composed, and all the good stuff that kept the restaurant running, but some sights a woman didn’t miss out on. No matter how uncomfortable she felt at the sight of this man with another woman.
Well, perhaps more than uncomfortable. She was damned mad and she didn’t have a right to be. She was hurt, and again, she didn’t have a right to be.
It was one kiss, because she had begged. Because he felt sorry for her. And the last thing she wanted was Alex Jansen’s pity.
“Ms. Mackay, there’s a couple waiting in the reception area that was requesting a table a few moments ago. ” Her manager, Hoyt Napier, stepped from the register.
Hoyt was just a few inches taller than Janey in her heels. At five-eleven, he was slender, dark-haired.
Twenty-four years old and sometimes, she swore, her lifesaver, despite his sometimes melancholic intensity. Deep brown eyes were surrounded with thick brown lashes, and tobacco brown hair was brushed neatly back from his broad forehead. Between him and her brother’s adopted son, Faisal, she managed to keep her sanity.
Everything about Hoyt was neat. His hair, his clothes, the way he helped her run the restaurant, and how he often tried to shield her from the snide comments directed at her. Even Hoyt’s mother, Augusta, it seemed, wasn’t pleased that Janey had come home.
“Let them know we have a table ready, then. ” Janey nodded, turning back to the reservation book and staring at Alex’s crossed-out name pensively.
There was no time to dwell on the event, or the woman Alex had with him. But that didn’t keep her from doing it. From imagining him with the curvy blonde. Janey knew he was angry, but Catherine would purr her way out of trouble. Janey was certain.
So why did that thought hurt so damned bad that it made the rest of the night more difficult to endure than normal? As she had told Alex, that wasn’t the first snipe of the night that she had heard, and it wouldn’t be the last. Being the daughter of a traitor, a man who had fooled almost everyone he knew into believing he was patriotic, kind, and to be respected, wasn’t going to be easy.
The fact that she had taken over his thriving business, and the sensationalism of the arrests and events that had occurred six months before, grated on people’s pride. It was a damned wonder someone hadn’t
killed her.
Sometimes she thought the only reason they hadn’t tried was because of her brother, Natches, and their cousins, Rowdy and Dawg. And Uncle Ray. Who had stayed at her side in the hospital for more than a week. His wife, Maria, had babied her as though she had raised her. And Natches’s twenty-one-year-old adopted son—and that one still amazed the hell out of her—was normally at her back like a guard dog. Thankfully, her chef had taken him into the kitchen this week. Faisal took his duties seriously while he was at the restaurant, and he considered her family. Evidently, he saw the family the same way Natches did. Worth killing for. It was scary how much alike her brother and his adopted son were.
Too bad Faisal hadn’t been around the night Dayle Mackay had literally kidnapped her.
She barely remembered her uncle Ray shedding tears three days after she was admitted into the hospital.
Where the doctors had confirmed that the rape kit had shown none of the signs of rape that were consistent with the bite marks on her breasts.
No, she hadn’t been raped, but what Nadine had done to her had scarred her in other ways.
She didn’t sleep well. Not that she ever had, but the insomnia was sometimes worse now. The nightmares could be brutal.
Natches knew. When she looked in his eyes at that hospital, she’d seen the grief there, the fury. He knew, and there had been no one left to strike out at.
She’d had the restaurant for three months now, ever since the Department of Homeland Security turned it over to her and her brother, and it was thriving. Because she let the customers snipe. Because she played the perfect little robot. Just as she had before her father’s death.
“Another full night,” Hoyt murmured as they cashed the last customer out at nearly midnight and locked the doors behind them. “The kitchen staff is nearly ready to leave unless you require anything. ”
Janey shook her head as she rubbed her lower back and turned to stare at the huge dining room. There were several private screened areas that could be enlarged or made smaller. There was a banquet room that was normally closed except to large parties and would have to be reserved well in advance.
“I don’t require anything, Hoyt. ” She finally shook her head. “You can go ahead and leave. Has Faisal left yet?”
Hoyt nodded. “Your cousin picked him up a few minutes ago. ” He paused. “I heard what some of the customers said tonight. ” He frowned lightly. “You act like it doesn’t bother you. ”
It tore a strip from her every time it happened.
