Page 16

“You were just in here the other day with a redhead.” She accused.

I squeezed Tyson’s hand painfully, probably bruising him and myself. I didn’t care about bruising. My stomach rolled and the urge to vomit was suddenly strong.

Damn it all to hell.

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to chase the tears that wanted out back where they belonged. It was easier than it would have been a month ago. That thought almost frightened me, I was changing, becoming a different version of myself, and I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

I thought I knew what redhead the girl had spoke of.

“Her face had something wrong with it,” the waitress murmured. “One second it looked like she had burns on her face, and the next it was smooth, perfect. It’s weird, I had forgotten all about it until now.”

And just like that, the girl had confirmed it for me, my worst nightmare. The other day, Tyson had visited this place and he’d come with The Dreaded Annabell.

When had he started seeing her, and why the secret?

The light dawned, and I turned to look at him through wide, hurt-filled eyes. That’s where he had been coming from, that was theshehe’d been with.

“What’s going on?” I choked out in a tight voice.

His dark, burning gaze landed on me, his eyes wide and wild. Oh, this was not good.

“Do you trust me?” he asked in an angry voice, a voice I knew had absolutely nothing to do with me and everything to do with the situation. I didn’t take it personally.

I nodded my head without hesitation. Part of me wanted to say no just to be difficult, but I didn’t want to be a liar, not when the situation didn’t call for it.

“Thank you for that. I will explain everything when we are out of here.”

Why would he bring her somewhere he and Quinton went out to eat, some place he had good memories, some place he brought me? That certainly didn’t sit well with me.

Ignoring the staff, Tyson tugged on my arm, intent on dragging me away from the table. I went willingly enough, wanting to get the heck out of there.

The waitress surprised us both when she reached out, grabbed ahold of Tyson’s arm, the one not connected to my hand, and visibly sunk her fingernails into his skin.

The light above us flickered briefly.

I was going to kill her.

“Get your hand off of him,” I shouted at her. “Right now.”

I watched in horror as she sunk her nails in deeper and red bloomed to life around her fingertips. She’d done that one because I’d said something, it was my fault Tyson was now bleeding. I didn’t like feeling like she’d hurt him worse because I’d said something to her, I didn’t like feeling guilty over the actions of others. It made me angry, and when I got angry I was learning that I did inexcusable things.

I put my free hand in her shoulder and shoved none too gently. She went back a step as her upper body jerked back with the force of my shove. Her nostrils flared angrily as her eyes took on a wild, feral look. She was beyond mad. Now I’d gone and done it. Why did people of the same sex always seem to end up looking at me through crazy eyes that shouted how much they wanted to punch me right in the face? Well, more like slap me in the face, this girl looked like a hair puller, and those were usually the slapper types.

She held on tighter to Tyson, so I shoved her again in the shoulder. This time I pushed even harder than the first time, even going so far as to lean into her when I pushed. She fell backwards, landing on her butt and she was finally forced to let Tyson go. Blood from where she’d dug her nails in good trailed down his arm.

The other girl gaped at us with wide eyes while the one sprawled out ungraciously on the floor started calling me a bunch of horrible names in a very loud voice. People were starting to appear somewhere from the back, and they looked just as startled as the girl with the gaping mouth did. This did not look good for us.

Tyson practically ran out of the restaurant with me being dragged along behind him. Thankfully, the place was empty of patrons, so there weren’t any witnesses outside of staff to what had gone down. I hoped they didn’t have cameras, that could be bad for me.

I was shaking by the time we made it back to the Rover. Tyson took the keys out of my hand and pulled me around to the passenger side. He hit the button on the key fob, unlocking the doors, opened the passenger door up, and all but shoved me inside without any sort of protest on my part. He slammed the door shut forcefully and rounded the hood quickly.

He got in the driver’s side and slammed that door shut as well. I didn’t even bother with telling him not to slam my doors.

I put my seatbelt on and tried to ignore him. He wanted to be mad? That was fine by me, that made two of us. I felt mine was more justifiable than his was, somehow, I didn’t think he’d feel the same way.

“I don’t think Uncle Quint and I will be going back there any time soon,” he muttered under his breath.

“Nor you and Annabell,” I shot back snottily, not even liking the taste of her name on my tongue a little bit.