I can, so I just don’t have it in me to deal with letting anyone down gently. Fuck, no one has babied me about anything since I lost my dad and I think maybe that has made me hard, unforgiving and just over everyone’s bullshit.
The only thing that really starts to get to me is Tomi’s presence.
I think I’ve caught his eye and not in a good way.
Well, neither way is good but I think I’ve pissed him off in some way. He was rude to me back in the office when I’d punched his brother from grabbing me, dismissive when he caught me in his office helping Poe, but now he’s gotten freaking malevolent about my presence. The problem with this is that he’s constantly at the club now.
I think he’s having issues with the books or something because he has a booth of his own to sit in each night and he slams back the beers and whiskeys as he goes through all of the paperwork. The other girls all try to talk to him but he never really talks back to them and he never takes any of them up on their offers of… stress relief.
They all start glaring at me even more, like it’s my fault he’s pissed off.
I try to stay out of his way.
I hide in the shower and the locker room, I arrive on time but never early, and the second my showers are done I get the hell outta dodge.
He doesn’t try to follow me or speak to me, so I count it as a win. I keep my head down, put everything I can into my dances, and I keep my mouth shut.
It works.
It works so well at keeping me under the radar that I become an easy target without even fucking noticing, my head too fucking caught up in being invisible that I forget that there are other men to have to worry about.
I come out of the back door, fishing around in my bag for my keys, my feet moving on autopilot, and I don’t even notice him leaning against my car until he speaks.
“Angel, good to see you.”
My stomach drops, and I clutch my bag closer to myself.
It’s Finley, my college advisor, leaning against my Chevy with a smug smirk across his lips. I’m positive he can’t be here to rob me but, fuck, I have tens of thousands of dollars on me right now. All of my savings are in this goddamn bag.
“Hey… this is unexpected. What are you doing in Coldstone?”
He stands up straight and I step around to sling my bag into the passenger side of my truck. Fuck, I should probably just climb in and slide over before he has the chance to grab me or something.
“One of the other students recognized you from the first distance class, he came to have a chat with me about where you’re working.”
I look over the tray at him, my keys still clutched in my hand like a lifeline. “I don’t see how that’s any of his business… or yours.”
That smirk of his just gets wider. “I guess it’s not but I mean, you wouldn’t want me to go in and talk to the bikers in here would you? I looked up your details after I saw you here last week. Lots of shit on your application I’m sure they’d be pissed to know about. We should have dinner. Talk things over.”
Jesus.
Fucking.
Christ.
Finley saunters around the car with a smug look on his face while I’m stuck there, struck dumb by his fucking threat. Fear curls in my gut but my legs are rooted to the ground no matter how hard my heart races.
"Look, I don't really date but I can give you my number? I'm tired from a long shift tonight and I'm just going to head on home. I’d love to grab dinner with you later though?”
The smile doesn't falter on his face at all, he just stands there grinning like the damn joker. "You've got this all wrong, I'm not exactly asking. You want me to keep my mouth shut about what's in your file? I want you to come have dinner. It's my shout, what girl would wanna say no to that?"
Any girl with half a goddamn brain. "Sure. Okay, I can grab dinner with you. Where are we heading and I'll meet you over there?"
He reaches out and puts his hand on my arm and I know for fucking sure in that moment