Page 21 of Devil's Last Dance

“I’ll have a water.”

She nodded, turned to the fridge, and he kept his gaze on her, waiting for the right opportunity. She poured him some water and as she reached out to put the water in front of him, he struck. He grabbed her wrist, not too tightly, just enough to hold her, and then he pushed her hair off her face, and saw that Candice was trying to hide a bruised eye.

Antwone had seen enough of them to know the cause of a black eye. He had even caused a lot of black eyes himself. It wasn’t something he was proud of.

“Who the fuck did that?” he asked.

Anger flooded his whole body.

She pulled her hand away and tried to hide the bruising on her face. “It’s nothing. Please don’t worry about it.”

He saw her hand shake as she tried to hide it.

“Was it your landlord?” he asked.

“Antwone, let it go.”

“No, I’m not going to let it go. Unless you tell me right now that was the result of some kind of chick fight, I’m not letting it go. I refuse.”

She sighed. “Please, it’s nothing. I promise.”

“You and I both know it’s not nothing, so why don’t we try this again? Someone laid their hands on you and I don’t like it.”

Candice nibbled her lip. No one had come to the bar, so she couldn’t make any excuse to run or hide. He wasn’t going to let her go without finding out the name of the asshole who had done this.

He felt the need to cause war, to spill blood. Whoever had done this now had a time limit on how long she or he would last.

“Look, I don’t want you to freak out, okay? It was my ex, Devon. He came by this afternoon. He wanted to talk and to be honest, I wasn’t interested in what he had to say. We’ve been broken up for a long time. He never liked that I never wanted to move in with him. I refused to get rid of my apartment and my life. When it was over, it got a little ugly. I’ve not seen him in months, so him turning up at my apartment today was a surprise. We started arguing and well … this happened.” She pointed at her face. “It will never happen again.”

“Your ex, Devon?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“What is his last name?”

She rolled her eyes but she gave it. “Please, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.”

“You’ve got a black eye, which means he hit you with enough force to make it bruise quickly.”

“I know, I know, it’s just … it’s over.”

“Do you love him?” Antwone asked.

“No. I don’t love him. He was an asshole.” She smiled at him and took his hand in hers. “It will be fine. Trust me. It doesn’t hurt a whole lot.”

He didn’t like it. It may not hurt a lot right now, but for Devon, it was going to hurt a hell of a lot more.

“How many times has he hit you?” he asked.

“Once before. That was when I ended it. Please don’t worry about it. I can handle it.” She gave him a smile. “I’m glad you’re here.”

And then she lifted his hand to her lips and kissed his knuckles.

He didn’t want to let her go.

But there were people to serve.

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