Moving away from the wall, I stood up straight and squared my shoulders.
“Oh, fuck,” Quinton muttered under his breath. “Look at her face.”
“I see it,” Dash said, and his voice shook with laughter.
I didn’t find anything amusing. Not one tiny, little thing.
“She called me an asshole,” the woman accused. She pointed her clenched fist at me and spit out, “I paid good money to be here and I will not put up with this disrespect from you or anyone else while I’m here.”
“You are an asshole,” Quinton said in a bland voice.
She flinched as if he’d struck her. She must not have ever seen this side to him before. Dash’s words from earlier came back, flooding my mind. This chick had the hots for Quinton and if he were unavailable, she had no problem working with Damien. Then Julian. She would probably make a better coven member than me because she had no problem with latching on to more than one of them.
She switched tactics immediately. In the blink of an eye she went from high screeching to low pleading.
“Quint,” she whined, “you don’t really mean that.”
“Get out,” he snapped at her in a harsh voice.
I had a feeling Ms. Prissy Pants had never seen the real Quinton come out to play before. She was in for a real treat.
“I’m not leaving until I get what I paid for,” the lady whined as she stomped her foot angrily, like a naughty child.
My lip curled in disgust as I watched a grown woman get ready to throw down a massive temper tantrum.
She stomped her foot a second time. With her hands on her hips she leaned forward and hissed at Quinton, “You owe me a reading. I already paid for one and I’m getting what I paid for. I’ve been coming to you amateurs for months now. Months! And you’ve yet to really give me what I’ve paid for. If you aren’t going to give me what I want then I demand a refund! I want it all back, every cent I have spent here.” She stomped her foot several more times, and screamed, “I want it and I want it now.”
In the silence that followed her screaming came an unexpected sound. A pathetic sounding meow from a cat.
Nobody had said anything about there being a cat.
Another pathetic sounding meow came as a dainty little black cat strutted into the room, coming from the kitchen. He was adorable!
“Oh my god,” I squealed and clapped my hands gleefully, forgetting the drama going on around me and focusing solely on the cat. “What a pretty little kitty cat.”
I had always thought it would be awesome to have a cat. They napped a lot, purred when you petted them, liked to laze about in the sunshine, had serious attituded problems and a superiority complex. They were adorable little creatures and this one was cuter than most. He was mostly black with a little splash of white on one of his front paws.
I walked towards him, ready to pet him, not caring in the least if he turned out to be a feral little beast and snapped at me, showing me his claws and teeth.
Two steps in on my journey across the room and I came to jarring halt as an open palm slammed into my cheek. My head jerked to the side as pain exploded in my cheek.
I blinked in shock as I cradled my injured cheek with both hands. Someone had struck me, slapped me across the face.
“You stupid bitch,” I heard Quinton growl before a feminine voice cried out in pain.
I couldn’t bring myself to care about what he did to her to make her cry out like that. The days where I allowed someone else to hurt me were over and I was glad for Quinton’s interference because I honestly had no idea how to respond to what she’d done to me.
She cried out again and I heard sounds of a struggle. I looked up in time to see Quinton had her in a headlock with his arm around her throat. She was spewing out profanities and clawing at his arms as he dragged her out of the room.
I closed my eyes as my shoulders slumped forward.
I was more than ready to go home.
Note to self, don’t ever get in the car with Quinton unless you know your destination and the purpose of the trip ahead of time.
This was all his fault.
What an A-hole.