Page 29 of Kingston (Savage Dragons #2)

Raven loved her job. She’d been working in the fast food restaurant for the past five years since turning sixteen and needing some extra cash for a car that she wanted to purchase.

Since then, she’d not just gotten her a second or third-hand car, but she’d been promoted to head cashier, too.

It paid a little more than she’d been making, and she got to be the one in charge while they were all busy at the cash register.

But today, sadly, was her last day. She was going to finish her college education and become a lawyer.

Taking night classes all this time had suited her needs well, but now that she was having to intern and go to classes, it had become a bit too much for her.

She’d been able to secure enough grants to not have to work, but she was going to have to pinch her pennies until they screamed for mercy.

“What are you going to do with all your free time?” So many customers thought that she was just quitting so as not to have to work anymore.

“I bet you have a list a mile long to do when you’re off.

” “I’m betting that in a month you’ll be back like nothing happened.

” “You’re too good a worker not to have a job.

” Her favorite one, people said to her, was “So you’ve won the lottery, have you?

” She could only wish that the last one was true.

But the people that she worked with knew what she was doing. Not all of them understood her need for higher education, but she didn’t care. It had been a dream of hers to be a lawyer since she’d been to her first court hearing at six years old.

Her parents were divorced. And they both wanted her to live with them.

Not because they loved her. No, her parents only wanted the child support the other would have to pay.

She knew this the day she was seated in the big chair by the judge and asked what her opinion was about living with one or the other of them.

She looked at the older man and told him she didn’t want to live with either of them, but would very much like to live with her grannie, who had been raising her since she could walk.

That threw a big bomb on the way things went after that.

So at age six, she moved in with her grannie permanently, and both parents had to pay the dreaded child support to her mother’s mom. They didn’t want her anyway, and with them having to pay support, they didn’t feel as if they had to visit her either. Fine by her, she loved her grannie very much.

“It’s time for your break.” She nodded at the assistant manager and grabbed her drink.

She got a free meal daily, but had long since gotten tired of the same food daily and brought herself in something to eat now.

As she was eating her PB&J, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, she tried to ignore the man whose office was right next to the breakroom.

“You know there’s a fat bonus for any one of us who can talk you into staying just where you are.

You should think of the people you’re leaving behind. They’re going to miss you.”

“I’m leaving here, not dying. They can visit if they want.

” The fact was that no one knew where she lived, and she liked that just fine, too.

She loved her job and only somewhat liked the people that she worked with.

“I’m going to school and I won’t have time to work a full-time schedule. Not even a part-time one.”

She didn’t point out to him either that if she stayed, she wouldn’t be leaving anyone behind.

Sometimes Daniel didn’t think before he spoke, and it made him sound stupid.

Or maybe he was. She didn’t really care.

He kept at her during her break about leaving and the bonus so much that she took the last fifteen minutes of her break outside in the cold.

Her classes started next week, and she was looking forward to studying a bit more.

She didn’t own a television or even a radio, but she could travel a bit, and she was going to see her grannie and hang out with her for a couple of days.

Then she was going to get her apartment in order before everything started happening.

When her break was over, she went back in to clock in and start on the register again.

While she’d been gone, they had put someone else on her line, and she decided to clean up the lobby.

It was a mess since kids were off school today, and it took her an hour to get things back to looking good.

One of the other people she worked with said they’d take out the trash, and she was all for that.

It had been cold standing out there, and she was glad that she didn’t have to go back out.

At the end of her shift, she was standing to clock out when Daniel started harassing her again.

It really was getting old the way he kept at her all the time.

She thought because she was older than him, it was what made him think that bossing her around was fun, but she just wanted to do her job and go home.

He was making it so that she didn’t enjoy coming to work as much with him always on her about something.

“Can you stay over?” She told him no, she already had plans. “Just for an hour. I need someone to watch the lobby for me while I run to the bank. It won’t be that bad.”

“No. I want to go home. You should have asked me before I made plans and clocked out.” He followed her out to her car. “Just leave me alone. As of ten minutes ago, I no longer work here. I want to go home.”

“Damn it, why do you have to be such a stubborn bitch all the time about everything? It’s just an hour or two.

I have to run to the bank, and you can keep an eye on things while I’m gone.

” She told him that it wasn’t her job that he should have gone earlier when there were more people there.

“Well, I didn’t, did I, and now I’m telling you that you’re going to get your ass back in there and wait for me to return.

I won’t be but a couple of hours, as I have shit I have to do. ”

“I’m not going back in there.” The slap to her face startled her so much that she fell against her car. “What do you think you’re doing? You hit me.”

“I know what I did, and now you’re going to do what I say and get your ass back in there so I can run some errands.

I’m sick of you thinking that you’re better than anyone else who works here, and now you’re going to do what I tell you.

I’m your boss.” She shook her head, still holding onto her face.

When he hit her again, she felt her head hit her car, and the pain was blinding for a second.

Just long enough for him to start dragging her by the hair back into the building. This was going too far.

Fighting him to get away from him, she hurt her arm and ribs.

The man was tossing her to the cold pavement even as she was trying to catch her breath.

He was really hurting her the way he was beating on her, and she knew that she was bleeding from her mouth and nose.

There was no telling where else she was bleeding by the time she was inside the building.

“I’ve called the police.” She didn’t know who was speaking, but they said that they were recording it too.

Daniel didn’t seem to mind what they were saying, since she was in the building again, he was leaving.

He told her she’d better be there when he returned, too, or he was going to give her worse than he had already.

“They’re on their way, Raven. I’ve told them that he’s hurting you. ”

Daniel was going toward the door when he suddenly turned and came back to her. With a punch to her face, she fell backwards and hit the lobby floor. While there, he drew back his leg and kicked her in the ribs. Everything blacked out from that point on.

Waking up, she knew that she was in the emergency room. Moving her body around so that she could see if someone was with her, she cried out in pain. Every part of her body hurt, and she was sure that when she sat up, she was going to be sick too. What had been wrong with him?

“I’m here.” She looked in the direction of the voice. “My name is Cassian Savage. I was in the restaurant when you were dragged in.”

“He hurt me because he wanted me to stay while he left for a couple of hours.” Thinking hurt as well as her jaw, and she asked for something to drink. When she was given a sip of water, she tried to focus on the man in front of her. “I can’t make you out. It’s like you’re a blurry blob.”

“Gee, thanks.” He laughed, and she decided that he had a good laugh.

“Anyway, Daniel was arrested, and your friends turned over the recording of him following you out of the building and to your car. I’m afraid that I arrived too late to stop him from kicking you—you have two broken ribs in addition to other injuries.

But he’s claiming that since you’re his employee, you should have just done what he said, and that wouldn’t have had him hurting you. He blamed it all on you.”

“Of course he did. He leaves like that every day and is gone for a few hours. No one ever said anything because he usually leaves someone in charge, and it’s good to get away from him.

Today he decided that I was going to watch things while he was gone.

It’s my last day, and I’d already clocked out for good.

” She wondered why she was telling this man what had happened when all she wanted to do was beg someone for something for the pain. “Who are you again?”

“Cassian Savage. You have a concussion as well. This is the third time we’ve talked. They said you might have a raging headache, too. Did you want me to call someone for something for pain?”

“Yes, please. I’m sure you have better things to do than to wait around here for me to get meds.” He said that he was enjoying himself. “Good for you. I don’t know if you know this or not, but it’s not terribly romantic to enjoy a woman who is in pain right now.”