Page 41 of Virtue & Vengeance

“You know, if you don’t like sitting and watching reality TV with me, you could always go home.”

He turned his eyes my way as he chewed a mouthful of popcorn. Instead of responding, he rolled his eyes and turned back toward the TV.

An hour later, we were both laughing as one of the houseguests on Big Brother made a fool out of himself inside the confessional room.

Then an hour after that, I woke in Zander’s arms as he carried me upstairs to my bedroom.

I didn’t let him know I was awake.

Instead, I lay there enjoying the feel of being safe in his arms and filling with some untapped emotion over the fact that he was doing something so charming for me.

My body melted into the plush mattress when he set me down, and I sighed when he pulled the blanket up and over me.

“Goodnight, angel,” he whispered.

And then he shut off the light.

I heard the tap of his shoes on the stairs followed by the television turning off. There were a few more steps and the click of the front door closing.

Zander Hale was something else.

My feelings for him were dangerous, but then again, so was he. Still, that didn’t stop me from smiling to myself and replaying the feel of being in his arms through my mind for the rest of the night until I finally fell back to sleep.

THE NEXT DAY I worked an extra shift. One of the girls from an afternoon shift, which I rarely covered, called in sick so I offered.

That meant I was working with people I hadn’t worked with much. Still, I jumped in and took care of tables without any problem.

No one spoke to me much, and I noticed that on several occasions some of the girls were rolling their eyes in my direction. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but two hours into my shift, I found out what the problem was.

I was clearing a table full of empty bottles and glasses. The tip left behind was nothing next to the money they had spent, which sucked, but still, I did my job.

Once my tray was full with the empty bottles and glasses, I pulled my damp cloth from my back pocket with my free hand and swiped it across the table.

I did this regularly, but for some reason, my fingers shifted under the tray, and I lost my balance. I struggled to keep it up, dropping the cloth instantly so I could use both hands to keep the tray balanced, but I was too late.

The tray slipped from my fingers, and the empty glasses and bottles fell to the floor shattering all around me in a loud smash.

“Shit,” I muttered, reaching over to begin to clean up my mess, but just as I bent over, a shadow covered me when someone stepped up to my side.

“It must be nice knowing you won’t lose your job if you fuck up,” a waitress named Marie said.

“Excuse me?”

Marie and I hadn’t talked much since I started working at Empire. Usually, we worked different shifts, but tonight was an exception.

After working a shift with her, I could say I was glad it wasn’t something that often occurred since she had spent the entire time being rude to me.

“You heard me. Everyone at Empire knows you’re fucking Mr. Hale.”

Her words were like a hammer to the chest.

Who was saying these things?

Did he tell people?

I couldn’t very well admit to sleeping with him. Not if I wanted the rest of the employees at Empire Sevens not to hate me.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

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