The hours passed, and I never went back to sleep. The tea had done nothing for me. Fuck.
Resigned to staying awake, I made coffee, hoping it would perk me up.
As I did my hair for work, I wished for a better lot in life. Normal. Simple. I didn’t want to think about the ruggedly dangerous stranger who’d practically fucked me into a coma. That was a one-time thing that I would take to my grave. I’d been lucky to have gotten away with it. My excuse of deep sleep and a bad phone charger connection that had allowed my cell to die was strangely accepted as truth. Of course, by this point, these fuckers thought me too cowed to lie. I didn’t buck at the bit these days the way I did when I was younger. The years of abuse had worn me down.
I pulled into work, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I was tired already. I had the morning shift, though usually I worked doubles.
Megan was the first face I saw when I walked in. She looked harried, like she hadn’t slept well.
“Josh kept you up late again last night?” I couldn’t hold back a fake laugh. I’d been forcing myself to play her friend for a long time to keep the peace.
Megan sighed. “The boys just came back from a run, so you know how it is.”
I nodded. “Fucking and drinking until the sun comes up. I get it.”
We closed the subject. I shouldn’t have even brought it up anyway. I didn’t want to think about the MC.
The bells above the restaurant door rang out, but I didn’t turn around. Megan always liked greeting the customers. She put the handsome ones in her section and the families in mine. She always complained about how loud the children were. How annoying the mothers were, and that they never tipped. I didn’t have those issues. Still, I didn’t complain. It worked for me. The last thing I needed was a man.
“Too late to hide,” Megan hissed in my ear.
I felt his gaze penetrate my soul before I looked over my shoulder.Speak of the devil, and he’ll appear.Josh. What could he possibly want from me now?
Trouble.
I shuddered as he made a beeline for me and Megan, but I knew from the glint in his eye he wasn’t there for her. Josh had been sent here for me.
“I don’t want nothing to do with this, hun,” Megan told Josh as if she had a say. “She’s all yours.”
She was so damn selfish. Josh may be here to finally kill me. Maybe that sounded dramatic, but hell I wouldn’t put it past him.
Megan smacked me in the arm with a wet towel and sauntered off to flirt with her latest customer, leaving me alone with her man.
Keep it together.He wouldn’t hurt me with all these witnesses, right? I inwardly scoffed. When had the MC ever cared about who saw them breaking the law?
Hell, the sheriff himself had hopped in one time.
Fuck my life. Half the time I was stuck in my head having flashbacks. The other half I was looking over my shoulder trying to avoid situations just like this one.
Josh waited until she was out of ear shot. “You got my money?”
“It’s not your money,” I bit out. “It belongs to the club.”
“Don’t get uppity with me, bitch. You are skating on thin goddamn ice as it is.”
I sighed. “We are getting paid after this shift.”
“Cash?” His eyes gleamed.
I nodded. He wanted to skim off the top. They all did. Keeping me in debt meant the MC had a whipping post they could use and abuse all the time. They spared the other club bunnies their more depraved sides, saving all that horror just for me. It didn’t matter if it was something large or something small, if a brother needed to blow off some extra steam, he’d come looking for me.
This was my lot in life. There was no escape. Just more pain.
“Go get it now.” Josh nudged his chin toward the main office.
“Ted isn’t going to give me the money right now. I’m not even sure if he’s done the bank run.”
“That ain’t my problem. You get my money, and we won’t have nothing more to say to each other.”