Page 53 of All My Broken Dreams

“What are you doing here?” Casey asked when his cousin approached the table.

Deacon kept his eyes on Robbie. “I’ve come to pay my respects. How are you?”

Her tongue clacked against the roof of her mouth before she could get the words out. “Why don’t you tell me? Isn’t that your job–to find out all about me and report back to your uncle?”

His face lost color. She almost felt sorry for him until he turned on Casey.

“What have you been telling her?”

Casey had a look of genuine concern and pity on his face. “She had a right to know, Deacon. Robbie was singing your praises and I thought before she gets too attached, she should hear the truth. Don’t you agree that was the right thing to do?”

“I was going to tell you myself,” he said. “I’ve told you most of it. I never lied to you about my feelings for you. I’m your friend.”

Robbie flung her head back. “Stop it! Just stop. You have lied to me about everything from the beginning. How can I trust you when you do things like this?”

She banged Harry’s coffee mug on the table.

Deacon stared at it and then turned with slow menace on Casey.

“You took it at the meeting. You planned this from the beginning.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about. I gave Robbie the mug. That is all I have done. It was Harry’s property and she had a right to it. You didn’t have a right to take it, Deacon. I think that’s what you need to worry about right now. Robbie is justified in her anger.”

He lowered his gaze to her and snarled. “So this puny misery is who you choose to believe? I took the mug, aye. I showed it to Alastair because I had the same questions you did about Harry’s disappearance.”

“Why didn’t you tell me then? Why did I have to find out about it from Casey? Name calling isn’t helping your defense, Deacon. You sound like a spoiled child, blubbering in the school yard. Every word out of your mouth has been a lie. You took the mug because you’re a jealous, pathetic asshole who is desperate to be liked by a bunch of people that you sneer at in private.”

Tears stung her eyes when she saw the wounded look on his face.

“If that is what you think of me, then I’ll leave you to it. You are every bit the liar you say I am. You said you wouldn’t change. Five minutes with this craven piece of shit and you are already talking like him. I’m done with the lot of ye.”

Casey burst into hysterical, high-pitched laughter that shocked Robbie. His laughing attracted the notice of a crowd that had formed near their table and they demanded to know what was so damn funny.

“Don’t keep it to yourself, Manderville! What the hell has you so bent?”

“My cousin, the janitor, has just announced that he is done with us all.” Mirth danced in his eyes as he gazed contemptuously at Deacon. “It struck me as funny since I wasn’t aware he was one of us to begin with.”

“Casey, don’t…,” Robbie said weakly as the crowd burst into laughter. She shrank against the booth, sensing she’d opened a Pandora’s box of bullying when she yelled at Deacon.

She couldn’t look at him. Couldn’t bear to see how he was taking the catcalls, hoots of derision and the cutting insults.

He deserved it, she told herself. Deserved every bit of their mocking. Didn’t he do the same thing to her? Was she supposed to believe he didn’t repeat everything she said? Was she expected to give him the benefit of the doubt? The mug was sitting right in front of her!

Every suspicion she had, every move she made–he told Fuil Bratach everything.

Well, now it was his turn to feel excluded, gossiped about and put down. Now it was Deacon Wake’s turn to feel like a colossal fool.

Mission accomplished.

Deacon did what he always did when he felt humiliated. He lost his temper.

“You foul little toad, step outside so I can bash that stinking, little smirk off your face!” He gripped Casey’s arm and yanked, twisting it slightly and his cousin let out a screech that was enough to wake the dead.

“You’re hurting me! You bastard–I’ll kill you for this! Goddamn you, you’re hurting me!”

Robbie pounded Deacon’s arm. “Let go of him! What’s the matter with you? Deacon–leave him alone!”

“I’m barely touching him! He’s screaming the way he always does when anyone dares to defend themselves against his bullshit.”

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