Page 126 of Control Freak

Shiloh craned his neck to track their progress over to the bar. They’d spotted us the second they stepped inside. I could tell by the smirks on their faces, the smug assholes.

“Hey,” I said, “look at me.”

Shiloh turned back to me, eyes dark and wide in his pale face. “I don’t know what to do.”

“They can’t hurt you here,” I said. “Dalton is still on his way.”

“Right. Yeah.” Shiloh nodded. “You’re right.”

“Let’s just try to ignore them. Let them watch us. If they’re still here when Dalton shows up, it’ll be all the better, right? He can haul their asses away.”

“For what crime? Hanging out in the same place as me? I don’t think the police can do anything.”

“Well, at the minimum, he can keep them busy while we leave. They won’t follow us home.”

He nodded, blowing out a breath. “Okay, that’s— Oh, god. They’re coming over.”

I glanced over my shoulder just as the taller one reached us. He pulled out a chair and sat down at our table. “So, you must be the sugar daddy, hm? Not bad work, Shiloh. He’s decent-looking. Probably takes good care of you. You meet him on that camboy site?”

He scanned my face and laughed. “Oh, you did! You hooked this client good. He probably thinks he’s something special, huh? Not just a schmuck you manipulated for a place to hide out.”

“Heissomething special,” Shiloh shot back, voice fierce.

“Uh-huh.” He glanced at his partner in crime, the brute just now arriving with a couple of beers in hand. He sat one down, then took the remaining chair, blocking us in from the other side. “Shiloh’s not a bad actor. I’ll give him that.”

Shiloh sent me a worried look, but I wasn’t going to believe anything coming from guys like these. My trust was way stronger than that. If it wasn’t, I would never have let Shiloh in, let him touch me more than any other person in the world.

“Oh, how rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Curtis.” He held out his hand to shake, but I ignored it. There were times I’d push myself to touch someone, but Curtis wasn’t worth the trouble. “My friend over there is Brick. And you are…?”

“Not interested in being your friend,” I said tightly.

“Oh, ouch!” He dropped his hand, giving up on the handshake. “You’re cold, man. We’re here, trying to help you out before you get scammed or robbed. I’d save you from being catfished, but it looks like that ship has sailed.”

He and Brick laughed, even though it wasn’t funny. I ground my teeth.

“Please leave us alone,” Shiloh said. “I don’t have your money.”

“That’s not what Jimmie said,” Brick countered.

“He gave you the money, and you’ve been lying to us all this time.” Curtis tsked. “That’s not very nice. We don’t like liars.”

“I’m not lying.”

“The hell you’re not,” Brick growled. “You’ve always been an uppity bitch. Think you can just walk away with what’s ours?”

Curtis’s eyes went flinty. “Maybe we’ll just rent your ass out to desperate men like this one—” He nodded his head in my direction. “—to get what we’re owed. You’re a whore on camera, so it’s not much different, right?”

I shoved my chair back and stood, anger pulsing through me. “Don’t talk to him that way.”

Curtis stood up too. “You going to stop me?”

Shiloh pushed away from the table. “Let’s just go, Holden. You shouldn’t have to listen to this.”

Neither shouldhe.I wanted to make Curtis and Brick eat their ugly words. I wasn’t violent. How could I be when I was so averse to touch? When violence had shaped my trauma? But right now, anger was overtaking anxiety.

Shiloh was right, though. The situation was escalating, and we needed to leave before it got truly ugly.

“Fine. Let’s go.”