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What was happening?
I was so confused.
“Are you going to tell her, or should I?”
I blurted, “Tell me what?”
With one look, Hayes rendered me speechless.
“That’s right, bitch,” Billy barked. “Know your place.”
“Hayes, no!”
His fist was punching Billy’s face in less than a second, causing him to stumble into his biker friends.
“The next time,” Hayes warned. “I won’t be so fucking generous.”
He spun, grabbing ahold of my arm and hurrying us back into his office. As soon as the door closed behind me, Hayes chucked the papers off his desk.
“I know, I’m sorry. I just—”
He glared at me. “Can’t fucking listen to me!”
“I had no intention of confronting him, okay?” I had to tell him the truth. “It just happened. I swear to you. I saw him there, laughing and enjoying life and then I’m remembering the warehouse and I just snapped.”
“Haven—”
“No! I’m not this little girl! I was raised by six really strong, alpha males. I’m not this docile little girl who doesn’t stick up for herself! He needed to know I’m not scared of him. And he didn’t scare me away from you! I’m sorry. I couldn’t just let it go and have you defend me all the time.”
“I’m trying really fucking hard to keep my cool right now. Do you see how difficult that is for me?”
I stepped toward him, placing my hand over his heart. It was beating a mile a minute.
“Please don’t be mad at me.”
“I’m livid.”
“Hayes—”
“It’s not you I’m mad at. This is my fault,” he stressed on edge. “I’m to blame! I know better, Haven, but God help me, I can’t stay away from you.”
His mouth crashed into mine and my back hit the wall in a loud thud.
This wasn’t a kiss.
It was all fear.
For the first Hayes was showing me his weakness.
I just never imagined…
It’d be me.
Twenty-Eight
Haven
“Haven,” Mark announced while I was behind the bar, stocking the liquor for the night.
It was only ten and the bar was packed.
Since my altercation with Billy a few weeks ago, things were a little strained between Hayes and me. For starters, despite us having sleepovers at his house, he hadn’t touched me intimately again. It was almost like he was trying to keep his distance, but at the same time, he wanted me in his life and bed.
I couldn’t forget about what his father said to him. I knew if I asked Hayes, I wouldn’t get a straight answer. It was frustrating to say the least.
I missed his hands on me.
A lot.
“Haven,” Mark hollered over the crowd, tugging me away from my thoughts.
“Your table in the back just got seated.”
“Okay.”
Grabbing my notepad off the counter, I made my way over there, stopping dead in my tracks when I realized who was there waiting for me.
“Shit,” I breathed out, hiding behind one of the pillars.
I never expected to see Jace, Ledger and Reid sitting in my booth.
Oh my God! Do they know?
They couldn’t have. If they did, they wouldn’t be waiting for me. It’d be an all-out war.
What do I do?
I waited until a group of girls were exiting the bathroom. Using them as a shield, I ducked and hauled ass behind the bar.
“Haven, what are—”
“Mark, you don’t see.”
He looked at me like I was crazy, and I guess from an outsider looking in, I appeared insane.
“Why are you hiding down there?”
“Where’s Hayes?”
“In the stockroom.”
I began crawling behind the bar as the bartenders stared at me the same way Mark was.
Once I was out of sight, I stood and rushed down the hall into the stockroom.
“Hayes!” I shouted.
“I’m by the bourbon.”
I found him in between the stacks.
He took one look at me, cocking his head to the side. “What’s wrong?”
“My brothers are here and they’re sitting in my booth.”
His eyes widened.
“They didn’t see.”
“Fuck,” he rasped.
“I don’t know why they’re here. They never come to this part of town.”
He didn’t respond, but the expression on his face did for him.
“I have to hide in here until they leave.”
“And if they come back?”
“They won’t.”
“Haven—”
“They won’t,” I sternly stated.
He deeply sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.
“I know this is stressful.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“They don’t know I work here. If they did, trust me, we’d know it.”
“It doesn’t mean they won’t eventually find out.”
“Stop manifesting that.”
“Peach—”
“Can you please get Dolly to cover my tables until they leave?”
“What if they stay all night?”
“Hayes, stop asking me questions and get Dolly to cover my tables before someone says my name in front of my brothers.”
“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered under his breath on his way out of the stockroom.
I didn’t think he’d come back. I was surprised when he did. He found me fixing the shelves.
“What are you doing? I just stocked all those.”
“I’m overstocking them.”
“Why?”
“I have to keep busy, so I don’t go into full panic mode.”
“Relax. I warned everyone to steer clear of mentioning your name.”
