Page 20 of Guarded By Them

Rue stared down at the menu, her eyebrows drawn together, her lips pinched. Her dark hair fell over her face.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

Her cheeks grew pink. “I... I’m not sure what all of this says.”

Shit. I’d forgotten about her not being able to read.

I leaned over and pointed at the side of the menu that was for the breakfast options. “This part says what they’re offering for breakfast. The section over here is for lunch and dinner, and then this is for drinks.”

She pursed her lips and then lifted her gaze to mine. “What are you going to have?”

“Coffee, waffles, and a shit load of bacon and syrup.” The sweet and salty thing Americans seemed to love was definitely something I’d gotten on board with.

A smile touched her lips. “That sounds good to me, too.”

The waitress appeared. “Good morning, folks. What can I do for you?”

She was slightly older, in her thirties, I would have guessed, and I watched her trying to figure out what our connection might be to each other. Rue looked noticeably younger than us, even though she was only a couple of years younger than me, and I hoped that wasn’t going to cause us any problems. It wasn’t as though Rue was acting like she didn’t want to be with us, but still three older men and one younger woman might raise a few eyebrows. Plus, there were still bruises around Rue’s throat, and though they’d faded a little now, and she wore her hair to cover them, it didn’t look good. If someone asked her directly if one of us had hurt her, what would she say? If she lied and said no, they probably wouldn’t believe her, but if she tried to tell the truth, that would look like a lie as well in order to make excuses for what Ryan had done.

I nudged Rue in the side. “Go on. You order.”

Had she been taken out to restaurants before? It wasn’t something I’d ever really wanted to ask about. Perhaps it was completely selfish of me, but I hated to think of her life before she came to us. The men who had used her made my blood boil. But perhaps we weren’t so much better. It wasn’t as though we’d acted like angels around her either. She’d been conditioned into believing she was only good for one thing, and we hadn’t exactly pushed her away when she’d offered that same thing to us. I told myself it was different, because we loved her, and we wanted to keep her safe and happy, but was it? Perhaps that was something none of us had ever wanted to look into too deeply, afraid of what we might learn about ourselves if we did.

She gave our order to the waitress and flashed me a smile, pleased with herself, unaware of the thoughts going around my head. I couldn’t help but grin back, my stomach flipped and my heart tightening in my chest. A need, a longing, a desperation not to let anything happened to her gripped me.

I’d do whatever it took to keep her safe.

I turned my attention to the other person I felt protective over. “How are you doing, Ryan?”

His expression darkened. “Would you quit asking me that?”

Kodee angled his body in the booth to face him. “If you’re in pain, we should get you to a hospital.”

“No.” His tone was sharp. “No hospital. It’s just swelling. It’ll go down.”

“It might be more than that. You should get it checked out.”

His fist thumped down on the table, and everyone jumped. Other diners turned to look at us, and the waitress who’d been trying to work out our situation frowned.

“Keep your voice down,” I warned him.

“Sorry, it’s just that I don’t want to be the one who holds you all back.” He dropped his volume down a notch, ducking his head and shoulders to speak to us across the booth. “If it wasn’t for me, and what I did to Rue, we might not be in this position now.”

“We’ve all played a part in what’s happening now,” Kodee said. “You can’t blame yourself.”

“That’s easy for you to say. What part have you played? You’re like Mister Perfect, while the rest of us are fuckups.”

Kodee shook his head, glancing away. “You know that’s not true.”

“Well, maybe not over a lifetime, but it is in this situation.”

Tension simmered between us, and I sensed the side-eyed glances we were receiving from other patrons. The last thing we needed was extra attention, or anyone asking any awkward questions. We needed to be more careful.

The waitress arrived with our order. She gave a strained smile as she slid plates on the table in front of us. “Everything okay?”

“Absolutely.” I shot her one of my most winning smiles, the one that normally had women flustered and unable to make eye contact. “This looks great.”

“Well, give me a shout if I can get you anything else.”

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