Page 19 of Broken Daddy
Where was he?
“I’m not.” His grinned as amusement danced through his eyes. “I’m Donovan. And you sound disappointed.”
“What? Oh, no. I’m just . . . he’s been in here every morning with Sondra. I . . . who are you?”
Now he was out-and-out smiling. “Donovan.”
“Well, yes, I know that. But are you a bodyguard as well?”
He studied her closer this time. Shoot. Should she not have asked that?
“Hayes told you that he was a bodyguard?” he asked.
Oh no. Was she going to get Hayes in trouble? Was this guy his boss? Hayes didn’t seem like the type to take orders.
“Are you his boss?”
“You’re just full of questions, aren’t you?” he asked.
“Ahh. Yeah, I’m nosey.” She shrugged unapologetically.
“Devi! Take his order. You’re getting a line,” Aaron snapped.
Oh shoot. She was. “What would you like?”
“Uh, Sondra would like?”
“A spiced chai latte with oat milk,” she said. “I know. She orders the same thing every morning.”
“And do you take the order every morning?”
“Uh-huh. It’s my job. What would you like, sir?” she asked in a polite voice since she could feel Aaron glaring at her.
“What does Hayes usually order?”
“An Americano. No cream, no sugar.” That’s what he’d ordered yesterday, anyway.
Donovan grimaced. “Yeah, he would. That sounds terrible. I’ll have a latte.”
“Sure thing. That’s nine dollars,” she told him.
He handed her some bills and walked off to join Sondra at her usual table. She took the orders for the next two customers. Then Aaron grabbed her arm as she walked past him carrying a plate with a muffin on it. She flinched and the muffin wobbled. Devi watched it worriedly, knowing that he’d blame her if it dropped onto the floor.
Aaron grabbed her arm right where Vega had last night. She’d woken up with it bruised this morning.
She’d always bruised easily which was a pain in the butt when people kept grabbing her.
“What are you doing?” Aaron snapped at her.
“Let me go.”
“I’m this close to firing you, Devi. So tread very carefully.” Aaron held up his thumb and forefinger so they were an inch apart.
Her heart skipped a beat. Losing this job would be a disaster. It sucked most days, but that was all due to Aaron. Devi actually liked being around all of the customers. And she couldn’t survive working just one job, unfortunately.
So Aaron had her over a barrel and the bastard knew it.
“You need to stop talking so much and do some work,” he told her.
