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A small group of people noisily enters the diner, and Steve spins his head to take a look, giving me enough time to turn my head in the opposite direction.
With a start, my heart suddenly in my throat, I recognize the three thugs that mugged Steve only yesterday.
The familiar fist bump between them as one rests a hand in his jacket pocket sets alarm bells ringing in my mind.
I twist my neck to tell Steve, but he only gives me a calm, knowing look.
“Already taken care of,” he murmurs without a care, gripping a forest of French fries and topping the inside of his burger with them.
I open my mouth to say something, but the waitress reappears, looking worried.
“You’d better tell your friends we don’t need any trouble in here,” she hisses.
Steve looks her in the eye, calmly telling her to go back for a few minutes and not worry.
“They’ll be gone in a…,” he starts to say, but another group enters the already cramped diner.
Headed by the two familiar security guards from his building, the rest of the group are uniformed cops and a couple of guys in suits so cheap, they must be detectives.
With a simple, silent point of his finger to the booth at the end of the diner, it’s as he predicted.
All over in moments and without too much fuss.
As the thugs are led past our booth, Steve wishes them all a Merry Christmas before casually resuming his meal.
He calls the waitress over to order another couple of burgers. When she leaves the check to be paid, Steve slides a thick bundle of bills to her, wishing her a Merry Christmas too.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
Steve
I was worried Holly might get shaken up a little seeing those assholes again.
I texted my security team as soon as I spotted them. All my security is ex-Navy Seal. They get bored sitting around all day, so this was something for them to chew on.
They’re pretty tight with the local law enforcement too, which is handy.
But if anything, I think it’s me who feels something more as they’re led away.
There’s something about the city and how it brings out the bestandthe worst in some people.
How I don’t think I want to raise our kids in a concrete jungle, no matter how nice the castle we have in the sky is.
Thinking about how much I don’t like the city, period.
I never have, really.
“Which small town do you hail from?” I ask Holly, relieved when she’s happy to play along like nothing just happened.
She tells me the name, but I admit I’ve never heard of the place, geography never being my strong point.
“Liked it there?” I ask her, helping myself to a second burger.
“Loved it!” she beams, her whole face lighting up at the mention of it.
I offer Holly another burger, even just a bite of mine. But she shakes her head, having hardly touched her first.
“I was actually planning on heading back since the job fell through. Until…,” she trails off, blushing as she takes a noisy last sip from her thick shake.
