Page 86 of The Destruction You Desire

"I have once or twice."

"Sure you have." She rolls her eyes at me as she sips on her own coffee. "Anyway. They're due about six-thirty. She's planning on going back to work tomorrow night, and—"

"Like fuck she is," I bark. "She's not stepping foot back in that place."

"You can't stop her working, Luc. That's not fair."

"Do you even know where she works?"

"Waitress in some bar?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"Well…" Her eyes widen as she waits for me to elaborate.

"The Locker Room isn't just a bar, it's an exclusive gentleman sports bar."

"Exclusive…"

"The waitresses, the girls. They… uh… make really good tips for their… waitressing skills." My stomach turns over at just the thought of those guys mentally fucking my girl.

"Nooo." Letty's eyes almost pop out of her head.

"Peyton doesn't do any of that, but still. The kind of men who drink there aren't ones I want around her."

"How do you know all this? Is it somewhere you drink?" she asks with her brow cocked.

Lifting my hand, I scrub it over my face before dragging my hair back.

"Brett owns it."

"Fuck off. Fuck right off, Luc. Does she know?"

I shake my head.

"Why the fuck haven't you told her? She'd never work there if she knew."

And here lies an issue I've been battling with for some time now.

"She's only working there to pay for her mom and Kayden's medical bills. If I tried to stop her—which she never would have allowed—then all I'm doing is making the debt worse."

"So? Pay it off."

"I have," I confess, and she holds my stare, waiting for me to explain. "When we got to Atlanta, I sorted Libby's insurance, dealt with her coming back here and cleared everything Peyton owes."

"But you didn't tell her?" she guesses correctly.

"She knows about Libby, obviously. But she didn't want to accept that, so I figured I’d wait to tell her about the rest."

"You need to tell her before she turns up to work for that scumbag."

"I know. I will."

"I'll speak to my boss. One of our girls is about to go off to have a baby. Maybe she can come work with me."

"Sounds like a much better option.

"Brett Dunn's life is already balancing on a knife-edge, the cunts from that bar are right behind him."