Lily’s gentle soul was distressed at the cold-hearted reaction of forcing Jewell to fire Harvey.
“He was given several chances. All he had to do was make an effort to do his job. He came in late, he was missing items from several of the orders that customers were billed for, and he had his buddies clocking out for him when he decided to leave early, which was a regular occurrence with him. The Last Riders give to charity, but they don’t run one.”
Lily nodded. “What are you going to do?”
“Do you really want to know?”
She did, and she didn’t.
“Nicole is really sweet.”
“I’m sure she is. Harvey makes a habit of picking sweet women to keep himself out of trouble. This time he picked the wrong woman. He took a chance that she wouldn’t say anything to me, and when he came in earlier today with Lucky, he knew he had you running scared but that you hadn’t alerted Lucky to how he was acting toward you. Harvey took a chance that, sadly for him…” Steel laced his expression when she couldn’t contain her troubled fear about what Shade would do. “He miscalculated. While he doesn’t give a fuck about his woman, I do.”
“Shade, please don’t.”
“Where are the boxes you needed my help with?”
With the change of subject, Shade was done discussing Harvey.
Showing him the overfilled boxes, she mutely pointed where she wanted them stacked beside the counter.
Waiting tensely for Shade to lecture her about how she handled Harvey coming on to her, she unconsciously began twisting her hands together. Tears brimming her eyes, she then started to go in search of hangers when a tug on her long hair had her turning to see him casually holding a long strand gripped in his hand.
“Come here.”
Walking back to him, she stopped in front of him.
“Are you okay?”
“I don’t want you angry at me.”
“I’m not angry with you. I’m angry at Harvey.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re not?”
“No, I’m not.”
Lily breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being so understanding.”
“Harvey is the one at fault, not you. He realized you’re soft-hearted and tried to take advantage. Unluckily for him, I’m not soft-hearted. I knew when you came home something was wrong. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen fear in your eyes.” Shade reached out and gently laid a possessive hand on her cheek, his lips curled in a half-smile. “I don’t plan to kill him, if that’s what has you worried.”
“I didn’t think you’d actually kill him.”
“Just fuck him up?”
She flushed guiltily.
“I won’t. I won’t lay a hand on him. Does that make you feel better?”
Happily, she smiled up at him. “Yes.”
“Good. Now, do you need any more help before I leave?”
Her smile dropped. “Where are you going?”
“I have a few errands to take care of for Viper. Why?”
“I thought you would keep me company until it was closing time.” She didn’t try to hide her disappointment that he was leaving her alone.
“Are you afraid to stay here alone?”
“Of course not.”
“Good.” Shade dropped his hand from her cheek. “Because Harvey won’t be bothering you anymore. Whether I’m here or not in person, you will be under my protection and I won’t let anyone hurt you. Do you believe me?”
“Yes. But what are you planning to do?” There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that Shade had a plan in mind.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got that.”
CHAPTER 4
Shade entered the dim interior of the bar, nodding toward Mick as he came through the door. He hadn’t expected the bar to be busy at this time of the day, and it wasn’t. Mick’s customers wouldn’t fill the local watering hole for at least another hour, making a pit stop before heading home.
With his eyes, he searched the dark room for the man whose car was parked outside. Seeing Harvey sitting at a small table against the wall, he soundlessly made his way through the bar.
Without asking, Shade sat down across from Harvey, enjoying the satisfaction on Harvey’s face that he had angered him enough that Shade had sought him out.
As soon as he sat his ass down, Mick came over.
“Can I get you a drink, Shade?”
“No.”
The owner of the bar turned on his heel, leaving the two men alone.
“If you came here to threaten me about Lily, you can go fuck yourself. I’m not afraid of you.”
“I didn’t come here to threaten you.” Shade leaned back in the chair, carefully laying his hands on his waist when all he wanted to do was tear the slimy fucker into a million pieces. “I came here to save you the trouble of planning to make any further attempts of getting within a five-mile radius of my wife.”
“Whatcha going to do if I do? You can’t do jack shit about it.”
Shade narrowed his eyes on the man sitting across from him, continuing to speak as if Harvey had never spoken. “Do you care about Nicole and your kid?”
“If you’re going to threaten me with them, that won’t work either.” Harvey smiled smugly, showing rotting teeth.
“No. I don’t use women and children as ammunition when I want to get back at someone.”
Shade knew the barb had hit home when Harvey gripped his beer mug as if he wanted to throw it at him.
“The only reason I mentioned them is so that, if you do, then you should be making some plans for them when you’re gone.”
“You hear that, Mick? He just threatened me!”
“I didn’t hear shit.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Shade saw Mick go to the other side of the bar.
“That sweet little cunt is too good for you.” With rising resentfulness, Harvey turned red as his anger mounted.
“Better men than you have said that to me before. You want to know how much of a fuck I care about when they do?” His lips twisted in mockery. “The fact is that she is mine. Another one is that you’re no
t man enough to come at me for being fired and thought you’d use Lily to draw me out. What was the plan? Provoke a fight with me over Lily so that you could use that to say why you were fired? Or were you willing to take the beating that you’re trying to provoke me into giving you so you can sue? Get a nice fat settlement and sit on your ass for the rest of your life?” Shade gave a shrug when he saw Harvey’s eyes widened at the last one.
“It’s your fault that no one in town will hire me!”
“You haven’t been able to find another job for two reasons. One, you have to actually look for one, and two, when you do get offered one, you have to take it. Knox offered you a job as a janitor at the police station, which you turned down, even though you would have made more money than you made working for The Last Riders.”
“I’m not going to mop floors or empty trash cans.”
“Why? Because it wouldn’t give you the ability to steal from another business like you did from The Last Riders? You think I wouldn’t do menial labor if I needed to feed my woman and child? I’d empty bedpans if I had to. But that’s the difference between you and me. I don’t mind doing a day’s work for what I have. Unlike you, who wants to take what’s not yours or have it given to you.”
“I didn’t steal.”
“Don’t lie. I found the items for sale on eBay that you stole, and I can prove it, so don’t sit there and pretend you didn’t. It makes you look pathetic—you are—but I wouldn’t flaunt it any more than you already have.”
His ridiculing got the reaction he was waiting for. Harvey stood up so fast his chair fell backward.
“You’re just jealous that Lily wants me!”
Shade’s eyebrows rose humorously at Harvey’s shout.
“I have pictures of us together!”
He had to use all his military training not to pull out the gun nestled under his jacket and put a bullet between Harvey’s eyes. Instead, he gave him a grim smile.
“Prove it.”
With a cunning demeanor, Harvey sat back down. “No. I have plans on who I’m going to show them to.”