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Looking at Charlie, I see her trying to figure out which direction this situation is going to land. A tight smile plays on her lips as one of these assholes walks up to her and grabs her in a tight hug. She’s like a deer in headlights as her eyes dart between the three men in front of her. I’m about to get up from the booth and teach this asshole some manners, but the slight shake of Jude’s head stops me. There are four of them and two of us—not terrible odds, considering Jude’s extensive training from the Royal Marines and our experience in taking out trash like this. But seeing as we’re the strangers in this town, a night in jail for tearing up a diner isn’t a position either of us needs to put ourselves in. Our president, Trick, would have our asses for sure. However, if he lays a hand on her, all bets are off, and Jude will just have to deal with a bench instead of a bed to catch up on his beauty rest.
“Hey, babe,” the guy holding Charlie slurs. “How’s it been tonight? Looks dead as fuck.” He leans down and gives her a disgustingly wet kiss on the mouth before she squirms out of his hold.
“Jace, I’m at work,” she says softly, with a nervous smile. Seems Charlie also has a lot of experience in sensing when a situation can go sideways.
Jace rolls his eyes and looks at his three friends, who are watching the scene with glazed indifference.
“Who cares? No one’s in here.” He gives Jude and me a passing glance but doesn’t seem to view us as any sort of threat. This guy obviously doesn’t have the self-preservation instincts people like Charlie and I have perfected over the years.
“I just came in to see if you had some cash. Me and the boys were on our way to the store, and I’m a little short on funds.”
Memories of my old man coming around to ask for money filter through my head. So do the bruises he left on my mom when she didn’t have any to give him.
“Uhh,” Charlie stammers. “I have like ten dollars.” She fishes around in her pocket, pulling out a five and a few ones from her apron. “Sorry, it’s been slow tonight.”
When she hands the money over, she tensely waits for his reaction.
The asshole lets out an irritated sigh but grabs the money.
“Fine. Hopefully, it picks up tonight. Or maybe you should try to work more shifts. We aren’t going to be able to live off ten dollars a night.”
God, what a fucking dick.
“See you after work,” Jace tells her before laying another obscene kiss on Charlie’s forced smile.
When he passes our table, his eyes meet mine. There is nothing friendly in his gaze, and I’m sure he can see the disgust in mine. I refuse to break his stare because fuck that guy. He’s too drunk to realize I’m the apex predator in this place, not him. Guys like him and his low-life friends only pick on people they see as weaker. That’s most certainly not me and the 6‘3“ Englishman sitting across from me.
When they leave, I look at Charlie, wiping his kiss from her mouth. If she was mine, she would never try to wipe the feeling of my lips away.
Woah, where did that thought come from?
Charlie does her best to pull herself together, and before she turns to Jude and me, her mask is firmly back in place. The one women wear when they need to make everyone believe everything is okay and nothing out of the ordinary is going on. I have a feeling she wears that mask regularly.
We finish up our food, and when Charlie brings us the check, I lay a few fifties on the table.
“Um, let me get your change,” she says, grabbing the money.
“No change,” I tell her.
“That’s way too much.” She stares at me with those deep blue eyes. “Your bill is only thirty dollars.”
“No change,” I say again, this time a little more firmly. Damn, since when did I have to start forcing a good tip on a waitress?
Jude and I rise from the booth, and it’s the first time Charlie sees me at my full height. She takes in my 6‘3“ frame, stacked with muscle I got from playing football in high school and still work to keep. Instead of being frightened of someone my size like I would imagine, she swallows and tips her mouth up in a soft smile. This one isn’t forced like the one she gave her boyfriend.
“Thank you.” She nods once and turns to check on the only other occupied table in the place.
With my good deed done for the night, Jude and I leave the diner, grab a six-pack from the convenience store next to our outdated motel, and head back to our room.
“Damn, Linc. I thought for sure I was going to be helping you cover up a murder by the looks you were giving that girl’s old man,” Jude says after getting comfortable on his queen-sized mattress.
My jaw clenches as the scene in the diner replays in my mind.
“Don’t hulk out on me,” he continues, watching my expression through weary eyes. “We just need to get a good night’s sleep, then get back to Shine. There’s nothing we can do for some girl in a nowhere town. We head out in the morning, and she’s still going to be stuck here, living her life.”
Jude knows me too well. He can tell I would love nothing more than to find that piece of shit who reminds me too much of my father and beat the shit out of him. Make him pay for his sins and my dad’s.
Rising from the bed I was lounging on, I finish my beer. It’s the first and only one I’ll have tonight. Too many memories plague me of too many nights hiding in my room with my brother while my dad went on a drunken rampage throughout the house. I vowed a long time ago I would never end up like him, drunk and volatile.
