Her Scream in the Silence (Carly Moore #2) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,6

nearly impossible task given the room was about six feet wide. “But I don’t need a man to take care of me. I can take care of myself.”

Max grimaced. “I didn’t mean…”

“I know what you meant,” I said. “And I appreciate you being so worried about me, but I promise I’ll be fine. We’ll find a way to make it work. When does Lula start?”

“Tonight—if that’s okay. With it bein’ Thursday and all, I figured there’d be enough tips to spread round.”

But we’d all end up with less money at the end of the night.

“I should have just fired her ass,” Max said dejectedly.

“We both know you couldn’t do that,” I said, offering him a more genuine smile than before. “Business would likely suffer, and then all of us would be hurting.”

“I’m not takin’ her back full-time. I’m makin’ her share some of her hours with you,” he said.

“I’ll take whatever I can get,” I said. “I’m just grateful to still be here. I like workin’ with y’all too much to leave.”

“I meant it when I told you that you’re one of us, Carly,” he said, his voice tight. “You fit right in. Lula’s a flirt, so she’s popular with the customers, but she’s never been interested in getting too close to us. She comes in and does her job and leaves. We don’t know much about her. It’s like she’s guardin’ a lockbox full of secrets.”

I ducked my head to hide my shame. I had plenty of secrets I was guarding too, but I knew what he meant. I might have only been a part of the Max’s Tavern crew for a few weeks, but Max, Ruth, Tiny, and I had been through hell together. They’d stood by me through the entire nightmare, offering me shelter, comfort, and friendship. I felt a loyalty to them that went bone-deep, yet I still couldn’t tell them the truth about my background. Like the fact that my father had planned to marry me off to my lifelong best friend turned betrayer, but only so said best friend could be his successor in an illegal enterprise. After the wedding, they’d planned to have me killed in an accident no one would question.

Although I was fairly certain the freak accident was off the table now. Having given the matter some thought, I suspected they’d use my disappearance to make me look unstable. They’d still want to kill me, but they’d probably make it look like an OD. Or suicide.

“We all have our crosses to bear,” I said. “I better get back out there. I think Franklin and his crew are probably ready for their checks.” No one had gotten them that coffee, unless Tiny had given it directly to Franklin, but I suspected they’d forgotten about it in the excitement.

I headed for the door and Max called out, “Carly?”

Stopping with my hand on the doorknob, I glanced over my shoulder.

“I meant what I said about you being family. Thanks for being so awesome about all of this.”

Chapter Three

Ruth and I had fallen into a routine. I did four lunch shifts and she covered three. We each got one day off a week, and Max had closed the tavern until seven on Thanksgiving last week. Whoever did lunch would stay at the tavern in the slow period between the two shifts, since we were technically open at those times, and leave after the post-dinner cleanup if we were slow and until close if we were busy. Those days ran very long, between nine and twelve hours given the tavern opened at noon and sometimes stayed open as late as midnight, but the midafternoons were slow and Max didn’t have a problem with me taking breaks to visit the library or to use his computer in his office. We didn’t really get paid much per hour, but he always paid me for the full shift, even on the rare occasions I left for more than an hour.

Ruth was scheduled to come in at five, but I wasn’t surprised when she stormed in the back door fifteen minutes early. If anything, I was surprised it had taken her that long.

“Maxwell,” she called out with fire in her eyes, standing in the doorway separating the dining area from the back. “Your office. Now.”

I’d been sitting at the counter, tallying up the tips while Max sat on a stool behind the bar, reading a paperback western. But he lowered the book and shot me a look that screamed, Oh