Page 10 of Protecting His Woman
“I had nothing to do with this,” Neil said, holding his hands out.
“But you know there are going to be consequences.”
Neil nodded.“Yeah, I fucking know.Call the fucking doctor and tell him he needs to perform a miracle and attach a fucking limb.”Neil bent down, picked up the hand, and shoved it back in the box.“Come on, barn seven is around back.”
Damion didn’t let his gun go, but he also knew Neil was many things, but he didn’t use the products he made, and most times he kept a tight ship.
“Jude sounds like a real piece of work,” Damion said.
Neil laughed.“He believes he is an entrepreneur and wants to expand into trafficking.Like I said, we don’t do that shit in Old County.There are rules, and I’m guessing this is his way of saying, ‘fuck the rules.’”
They opened up barn seven, and that was where he saw Annette lying on a mattress.Her wrist was bound with a blood-soaked sheet, with her arm popping a vein, and still fucking alive.
****
There was a lot oftalk around the diner today, most of it about Damion visiting the Thames place.Usually when Damion was visiting places, it was because they broke the rules.He didn’t go anywhere, they came to him.When he had to go somewhere, someone was going to end up dead.
Vicki looked into the bathroom mirror at her reflection.She wasn’t afraid.Maybe if she lived anywhere besides Old County, what she knew about Damion would terrify her.
She wasn’t afraid.She didn’t even care.How fucked up was that?
He was doing his job, just as she was having no choice but to do her own.
Only, his job involved killing people, while her job involved serving people.She didn’t know if it made her a good person or a bad person.Either way, Tank had told her Damion would be stopping by for lunch, and that is when she would be taking her lunch break.
The truth was, she was starving.The only food she had to eat was what she enjoyed last night at the restaurant.It had been stunning, the best she had ever eaten.She was a pretty decent cook, but everything she knew was self-taught.She used the cooking channel or borrowed books from the library.
She stopped borrowing library books when her mother started to destroy them.Vicki would take them back and offer to pay for the damage.The librarian always looked so sad to see the books damaged, but she never took it out on Vicki.Most of Old County knew what Annette Reid was like.
Even Annette’s parents had nothing to do with their daughter.Vicki had never spoken to her grandparents, and the truth was, she had no idea who her father was.Rumor said it was one of the high school teachers, but there were so many of them.According to the same rumor, Annette didallthe teachers, including the principal.Her mother didn’t believe in hard work, she believed in using her body.
Stepping out of the bathroom, Vicki stopped when she caught sight of Damion, already sitting in his spot.She went to him, taking his order, and was aware of the locals watching him.They were all probably wondering what happened down at the Thames’s.Vicki wasn’t interested in that.
Last night’s date had gone so well.When he took her home, and she stood on her doorstep, she didn’t want to invite him inside where her siblings were.Instead, he gave her a kiss on the cheek and waited for her to enter her home.Delphine had been there, on the sofa, and stayed for a cup of hot chocolate before leaving.
With Damion’s order dealt with, she grabbed both of them a coffee and made her way to his table.She took a seat and felt as the locals started to talk once again.
Damion smiled at her, and she offered a smile back, but also hid it seconds later behind her mug of coffee.
“Are you having a good day?”Damion asked.
“It’s getting better now that I’m with you,” she said.
She wanted to cringe and for the floor to open up and swallow her whole.What the hell was she saying?
“This is why I got the restaurant to ourselves last night,” Damion said, leaning forward.
“I can see why,” she said, whispering back.
He chuckled.“Tell me, Vicki, have you heard from your mom?”
“No, not yet.”
“How long has she been gone?”
“Three weeks,” Vicki said.“It’s not the longest she has been gone.”
“Did she say how long she was going to be?”
