glancing back at Bingham. She seemed nervous, which made my decision for me.
“Come with me,” I said, wrapping an arm around her back and leading her over to Max, who was waiting at the back door with an exasperated look.
“I wasn’t callin’ a damn staff meetin’,” Max grumbled.
I ignored him and continued on to his office, practically dragging Lula.
“Ruthie won’t like that neither one of us is out there,” she said in a trembling voice.
“Ruth?” Max snapped. “What about me? I’m the damn owner of this place, in case no one’s noticed.” He turned to me. “Why the hell is Lula back here?”
“Bingham wants to talk to her.”
“So?” he asked as though my statement was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. “He likes her. She usually waits on him.” He shook his head, narrowing his gaze on me. “Are you saying that big to-do out there was over Bingham wanting Lula to wait on him?”
“That big to-do is because I don’t trust him with her. I don’t like the way he looked at her.”
“Are you serious?” Max demanded. “He looks at everyone that way.”
I caught Lula’s gaze. “You are not to go near him, okay?”
She nodded, confusion filling her eyes. “I need to get back to work.”
“We’ll talk later, okay?” I said gently.
“Okay.”
Once she left the room, Max turned back to me. “What in tarnation is goin’ on? You’ve known that girl for all of three hours, so why are you acting like a mother hen?”
“I like her.”
“I like her too, but her job is waitin’ on customers.”
“Why are you bein’ so stubborn about this? You were on Bingham like white on rice when he was threatening me.”
“He wasn’t threatenin’ her, Carly.”
I shook my head. “No. I saw the way he was lookin’ at her, and something’s going on there. Were they a thing in the past?”
“Are you askin’ if Bingham was screwin’ her? Probably at some point.”
I scrunched up my face. “Ew! He’s old enough to be her father.”
Max shrugged. “He’s a powerful man. Women find that attractive.”
I wasn’t about to touch that subject with a ten-foot pole. “Are you sure Lula went to Chattanooga? Could she have run off because she was scared?”
Max shook his head. “Scared of Bingham? Half the town’s scared of Bingham, and if you had any sense in your head, you’d be scared of him too. Which brings me to the whole reason I brought you back here—do not antagonize Todd Bingham.”
My jaw dropped open. “You’re taking his side on this?”
“I’m not takin’ anyone’s side, but I’m warning you that you do not want to make an enemy of that man. He’s dangerous, Carly, which you should already know since you had some run-ins with him a few weeks back.”
I almost told him about Hank claiming me as kin, but I wasn’t sure if his arrangement with Bingham was common knowledge. Information was a currency in this town, and I needed to treat it as such. While I trusted Max to some extent—and wanted to trust him more—the only two people I completely trusted in this town were Hank and Wyatt, and I was having major misgivings about the latter. “I’ll be fine,” I said, lifting my chin and straightening my back. “Are we done now? I need to get back to work.”
He gave me a frustrated look, then let out a groan. “Dammit, Carly. I’m not trying to be a bad guy here. I’m worried about you.”
I relaxed slightly and gave him a soft smile. “I know. And I’m sorry if I scared you, but I just can’t back down to a man like him. They like to use people and then stomp all over them when they’re done.”
Understanding filled his eyes. “You’ve dated someone like him.”
I noticed the slight furrow in his brow, and I suspected I knew what he was thinking. While my bobbed, shoulder-length auburn hair gave me more of an edge than my previous long blonde hair, I still didn’t look like the type of woman who went out with drug czars.
I took a breath. “In a sense, yes. I’ve dated powerful men who had the resources to hurt me, and I tucked tail and ran.” The banked anger inside me, never totally extinguished these days, heated up. “But I’m not runnin’ this time, Max. I’m standin’ up for myself.”
As soon as I finished my pronouncement, I realized I’d given away far too much.
“Ah…” he said with a single bob of his head. “That explains why you’re here.”
I