Page 74 of Whips and Chains
He lifted his head from the menu and peered up at me from beneath the brim of a white baseball cap.
My heart stopped.
“I know your name, Violet.”
My fingers clenched so tightly around the pen the cheap plastic cracked. “Travis.”
He chuckled with a deep laugh. “Why do you say my name like you’re choking on it?”
Because I was.
I glanced over at X, surrounded by a table full of Levi’s friends. And then at Vincent on the door. There were plenty of people here who had my back.
There was no need to make a scene, even though my gut wanted to scream that he needed to get out and leave me the hell alone.
But Bliss hadn’t let me work last night because she’d been afraid of me breaking down and causing a commotion that could hurt her business. I didn’t want to prove her right.
Didn’t want to let anyone know my nerves were so frayed that just the sight of my foster brother had me wanting to sink to the floor, cover my ears, and rock back and forth until he was gone.
I sucked in a deep breath through my nose and let it out slowly through my mouth.
I wasn’t going to let him get to me. He couldn’t hurt me here, surrounded by all of these people.
He was just any other man. I forced myself to believe it before I spoke so my voice wouldn’t wobble. “What can I get you?”
“What’s good?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “All of it.” None of it. I didn’t care. I just wanted him to order and leave.
He dragged his finger down the menu, all while staring at me. He stopped halfway down and tapped it. “This.”
I bit my lip, hating that he was forcing me to lean in closer to him, just so I could read the text he was pointing at. “Buffalo chicken wings and beer combo. You got it.” I spun on my heel, desperate to get out of his space.
Because even though he was just sitting there, it felt a whole lot like he was poisoning the air around him, and it was killing me to stand there and breathe it in.
“Wait. You didn’t ask me which sides I wanted.”
I pressed my lips together and turned back to him, trying to breathe deeply so I didn’t explode. I tried to remind myself that the hidden dangers in my life, the psychopath playing murder games, was a whole lot scarier than this man sitting right in front of me with his patchy beard and beady eyes.
But the little girl inside me remembered exactly how cruel he could be. And that I needed to be on guard every second I was around him or bad things would happen.
I forced words out. “Which sides would you like?”
He leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. “How about a side of ‘heard you’ve got a rich new brother.’”
I stiffened at the mention of Fang but fought to keep that anger and fear out of my voice. “You can order your sides, or the kitchen can choose for you, sir.”
He snorted on a laugh. “Sir? Is that what you’re going to call me now that you’ve replaced me with a real brother?”
“You were never my brother,” I couldn’t help myself from hissing at him.
His smile turned smug. “Good thing, too, ’cause otherwise me watching you in the shower would have been real creepy.”
I shuddered. “Fries it is.”
“I need money, Violet.”
I didn’t care what he needed. I was done talking to him. I moved back through the maze of tables, headed for the kitchen to put his order in.
