with rage. "You two think you're so much smarter than me. You're wrong. I've had five years to plan my revenge, and you're just making it up as you go along. Pathetic."
He leaned over and swiped my coffee from the table, shooting me a smug grin before drinking it all. I hated sharing my coffee. Despised it. Chase knew it, too, and used to always steal my coffees just to enrage me.
When I gave no response to that little blast from the past, though, he slammed the mug down so hard it shattered on the tabletop. If the whole café hadn't already been watching our interaction, they sure as shit would be now.
Chase looked around with a sneer. "What a cute little café. I understand that old bitch is your deceased lover's grandmother too. Sure would be a shame to see anything happen to this place. Or her."
One of the big, tattoo-covered Reapers at a nearby table overheard that comment and made a move to come at Chase, but I gave him a short headshake.
"I think you've overstayed your welcome, Chase," I told my ex with a smile as I returned to my seat beside Zed. He draped his arm around my shoulders, and Chase's scowl flickered with violence and fury.
He was smart enough to recognize when Zed was deliberately trying to get a rise out of him, though, so with another sneer at us, he spun on his heel and started toward the door.
As badly as I wanted to wash my mouth out with bleach after willingly touching Chase, appearances were everything. I couldn’t let him see anything but confidence and strength, and washing my mouth out with harsh chemicals would only tell him just how badly he made my skin crawl. Instead, Zed calmly handed me his own coffee and I took a sip as we watched our nemesis leave. Or... he tried to.
He made it within a few steps of the main entrance to Nadia's Cakes, then staggered, swayed, and dropped like a sack of bricks.
No one in the cafe spoke. They all just stared in shock at the motionless man on the ground or at me and Zed sitting there with the smuggest of smiles.
"Oh good," Nadia commented, coming out of the kitchen with a pie box. "You killed him. 'Bout damn time."
I snorted a laugh, standing up from my chair once more. "I wish. Nadia, do you have any cotton swabs or Q-tips or something?"
The old woman just frowned at me in confusion. "No, why would I?"
"I do!" The waitress from earlier announced, diving under the counter. She popped back up with her makeup bag in hand, dug around inside, then pulled out a fresh box of Q-tips, still unopened. "I use them for makeup," she explained, handing them over.
I gave a small smile that was probably pure evil and plucked two from the box. "Perfect. Do you also happen to have a permanent marker and a ziplock bag?"
The waitress bobbed her head and rushed away again, and I headed over to where Chase was unconscious on the floor. Just because I couldn't help myself, I delivered a hard kick to his ribs, and one of the Reaper guys watching hissed a sharp breath.
My gaze jerked up to meet his, and I shrugged. "He deserves worse."
The guy gave a grim smile. "What'd you drug him with?"
Crouching down beside my fallen enemy, I allowed myself the luxury of this small win. "A lady never reveals her secrets," I murmured, rolling Chase over and opening his mouth so I could swab the inside of his cheek thoroughly with the Q-tips.
The helpful waitress hurried back to me, holding a plastic sandwich bag open for me to drop the saliva-wet Q-tips into.
Zed took the sealed bag from her and tucked it into his jacket pocket, looking down at me with an arched brow. "Now what? He's going to know we drugged him for a reason."
I shrugged and took the permanent marker from the waitress. "So what? Not much he can do about it now." I uncapped the pen with my teeth, then went to work drawing a massive dick on the side of Chase's face, complete with hairy balls.
When I was done, I capped the pen and pushed to my feet to admire my handiwork. "Not bad," I commented to myself.
Zed looked like he was on the verge of full-blown laughter as he snapped a photo on his phone. "Some skills never fade, no matter how long it's been."