Fire & Brimstone (Neighbor from Hell #8) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,10

matter what happens, what they find, you’re not in this alone. I’ll go through this with you.”

“Rebecca Shaw,” the nurse said, letting her know that her time had run out, “the Doctor’s ready to see you now.”

Chapter 5

“This is disgusting!” the middle-aged woman that could have been the poster child for soccer moms everywhere, said with a sneer, making sure that everyone in the restaurant heard her.

“I see,” Lucifer murmured thoughtfully as he looked down at the plate she’d shoved in his face before he had a chance to ask what was wrong.

Well, he knew what was wrong. This woman and her three clones, who couldn’t decide if they wanted to devour him on the spot or send him bitchy looks in support of their friend, had belittled his waitress and embarrassed her in front of everyone. They were also pissing him off and creating a scene in his restaurant, which unfortunately for them wasn’t something that he would tolerate.

“The French fries were ice cold and soggy. The burger was burnt to a crisp on the outside and completely raw in the middle. The bun was completely dried out. The coleslaw was rancid and-”

“Then why did you eat it?” he asked in a deceptively calm tone that had all of his employees that were in the large dinning area going completely still and some of the regulars sharing nervous glances as he looked from the empty plate in his hands to the woman trying to force him into giving her a free meal and something to talk about later around the water cooler.

“Because I was hungry and I didn’t have much choice since your waitress was too busy flirting with the bartender to come check on us!” she snapped back, probably thinking that taking it to the next level of bitch would help her case.

It didn’t.

“Then why didn’t you flag down one of the other waitresses or walk out?” he asked as he gave her a look that dared her to continue with this line of bullshit.

“I shouldn’t have to wave down anyone!” she yelled. “And if you knew how to run a restaurant then we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“I see,” he murmured thoughtfully as he placed her plate back on the table in front of her along with her check. “Pay your bill and get the hell out of my restaurant,” he said, more than willing to let her off the hook since he had other things that required his attention, but apparently she wasn’t willing to let this go.

“You expect me to pay for this garbage? You can’t be serious!” she shouted as she came to her feet, grabbed her purse before she reached down, picked up the receipt, squeezed it into a ball and threw it at his face.

He easily caught it and, keeping his eyes locked on her stunned ones, he tossed the receipt on the table, opened his mouth and-

“No! We don’t kill the customers!” the sudden weight on his back yelled. “We are not going over this again!”

“Get the fuck off!” he snarled, keeping his eyes on the bitch, who’d decided to take advantage of the insane woman plastering herself to his back and bolted for the door with her friends right behind her, but only after they’d each thrown a twenty dollar bill on the table.

“This isn’t how we handle rude customers!” Rebecca yelled as she tightened her hold around his shoulders and tried to pull him back, but her feet didn’t touch the ground so all she ended up doing was pissing him off more.

Cursing her back to hell where she belonged, he reached up, grabbed her by her arms and leaned down, forcing her weight to drop forward. She released a loud squeal as the momentum threw her over his shoulders and sent her careening towards the hardwood floor. Before she hit the floor he had her thrown over his shoulder and was walking towards his office, determined to finally see this thing through to the end even if it killed him.

“Didn’t we discuss the manhandling this morning? she demanded, not really sounding all that angry as she grabbed onto the back of his pants and held on when she should have been doing everything in her power to get away from him.

*-*-*-*

“Wait. Where are we going?” she asked when she realized that he’d just walked past his office door and was heading towards the back hallway.

“To have a little talk,” he bit out coldly, which really didn’t frighten her,