Page 72 of X's and O's
If I was walking back into my old life, I may as well embrace it fully.
This was all I was good at. All I knew. It had been stupid to think I could have anything more.
Fang needed to stop staring at me like I was a ticking time bomb, just ready to go off.
“You give any thought to joining Grayson’s group?” he asked, trying to sound casual. “Hawk had him come tell you about it, right?”
I eyed him. “Don’t need fucking therapy.” At least not the kind a doctor could offer. The only thing I needed was a target who needed taking out. Blood spilling, both his and mine.
Fang stopped, swiveling to face me. “Listen. Hayden’s restaurant is always full of rich twats in suits. Just wait outfront for me, okay? I’ll be in and out with the food in no time.”
“I don’t need—”
Fang leveled me with a stare. “I’m not asking you, brother. I’m telling.”
He outranked me now, so there was nothing I could do but fucking nod. But it was like a kick in the fucking teeth.
So much had changed and yet, apparently, I was the same man on the inside after all.
Fang offered me the pack of cigarettes, and I took them, slumping against the wall outside Sinners and lighting one up while he went inside. I watched him greet the maître d’ with a nod, then make his way through the crowded restaurant toward the back where I assumed the kitchen was.
My gaze snagged on a couple in the center of the dining room. An older guy, with silver hair that glinted beneath the dim lights of the restaurant. A white shirt open at his throat, his sleeves folded casually to his elbows. Tanned skin covered muscled forearms, and he reached across the table, linking long fingers between those of his date.
A beautiful, curvy blonde whose face had lived rent-free in my head every second of the day since I’d first laid eyes on her.
All I could see was his hands on her skin.
The way he leaned in, until his lips hovered just over hers.
And Violet closing her eyes, like she was going to kiss him back.
A thick swamp of jealousy crashed down over myhead, drowning me, making it impossible to feel anything else.
I stormed into the restaurant, barely aware of the door cracking off the wall as I shoved it open so hard it should have shattered. I didn’t stop when the maître d’ yelped out a weak demand that I couldn’t just walk in there like that.
Like hell I couldn’t.
Eyes swiveled in my direction. I ignored them all, until the one set I wanted turned my way.
She’d been smiling at him.
It fell straight off her face the moment she saw me, and my heart shattered into a million pieces.
Her date looked in my direction and instantly stood, putting himself between us.
Up close, I realized he wasn’t as old as his silver hair had led me to believe. He was probably only in his forties, maybe six or seven years older than me at most.
But it didn’t matter. “I need to talk to Violet.”
He glanced back over his shoulder at her, and she shook her head slightly.
He turned back to me. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“I just need one minute of her time.” I went to step around him so I could explain to her all the millions of things in my head I needed to say, though how I was going to make them into any sort of coherent sentence was beyond me. Just the tiny glimpse across the restaurant, the soft, flirty smile she’d bestowed on this jackass, and the fact she’d been about to kiss him was all my brain needed to spin words and thoughts into mush.
He put his hand on my chest. “She’s not interested.”
I stared down at his hand, anger building inside me. I logically knew it was misplaced. This guy wasn’t anyone to me. It wasn’t his fault demons I’d thought I’d put to rest had woken up and were now viciously roaming around inside me, just looking for an out.
