Fire & Brimstone (Neighbor from Hell #8) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,9

that had every right to run it into the ground.

Lucifer was stuck in his ways, refused to change anything or look for ways to improve the restaurant and evolve to meet growing trends. As far as he was concerned, the day that he’d opened Fire & Brimstone’s doors to the public, the restaurant had been absolutely perfect the way that it was and didn’t need to change. She’d admit that it probably had been perfect back then, but that was ten years ago and lot had changed since.

When she’d first started working at Fire & Brimstone she’d realized that the restaurant was in desperate need of a massive overhaul or it wasn’t going to be able to keep its doors open for very much longer. The food was horrible, overpriced and, more than often, was charred beyond recognition. Staff turnover was high and the employees that stayed were complete assholes that didn’t give a damn that the restaurant was in a downward spiral as long as their checks cleared.

It had been a nightmare.

She’d also noticed that Christopher, (AKA Lucifer Bradford to those that didn’t want to piss him off) had been in way over his head. Technically, he still was and if she let him have his way and get rid or her, then the poor man wouldn’t know what to do with himself or the Fire & Brimstone. He needed her, almost desperately, she concluded with a pitying sigh and a shake of her head, because really, she had no choice but to stay and help him.

It really was for his own good.

“I wonder what they found,” Melanie said with that calculating tone of hers that just made Rebecca want to sneak into the bitch’s room one night and smother frosting all over her face so that she could sic Mojo on her.

“They didn’t find anything,” she said in aggravation, foolishly taking the bait and promising herself that if Melanie kept this shit up that she was stopping at a store on the way home and buying a dozen cans of frosting.

“Then why would they ask you to come in?” Melanie asked, sounding smug, which she knew from experience wouldn’t last long.

As soon as the Doctor broke the news to them that she was probably a fucking nut job just looking for attention, Melanie’s tone would turn slightly…crazed. At least, that’s how the last Doctor had described it.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” she said instead of allowing herself to be drawn into this pointless conversation.

She absolutely refused to have this conversation again.

It just wasn’t happening.

It wasn’t.

“They found something. I can feel it,” Melanie said firmly, which of course earned an eye roll, because Melanie was always sure that they’d finally found a reason why she couldn’t seem to go a day without getting sick.

She should keep her mouth shut, because she knew that if she ignored Melanie long enough that she’d get bored and drop the conversation, but the stubborn part of her that couldn’t leave well enough alone just couldn’t keep quiet.

“Yeah? And what am I going to do if they find something, huh?” she demanded.

“We’ll deal with it,” was the immediate response that had Rebecca sighing heavily as she tossed the magazine back on the neat pile in front of her so that she could give her undivided attention to her best that she loved more than anything, but was likely to kill one day.

“Really? What if they find out that I’m diabetic or that I have cancer?” she asked, because she honestly wasn’t sure what she was going to do if the test came back positive. It would probably take her years to get over the shock that she was actually sick.

“Then we’ll find the best cancer treatment in the world if it’s cancer and if it’s diabetes then we’ll cut back on sugar and watch what we eat,” Melanie said, sounding completely confident that they’d be able to handle whatever it was and that was great, sweet really, but Rebecca knew that they weren’t going to find anything.

“This is the last appointment that I’m going to,” she said firmly, because she was done.

“We won’t need another appointment after this,” Melanie said, sounding so damn sure of herself. “They figured out what’s wrong and now they can fix it.”

“Uh huh,” she mumbled, hoping that Melanie would shut up and drop it.

“And don’t worry,” Melanie said, reaching over and giving her leg a comforting pat that was going to get her drizzled in gravy one night, “no