Page 62 of The Vengeance You Crave

I tell myself this over and over as I make my way out to the bar, my skin prickling with awareness as I move.

"Whoa, girl. Someone is feeling better," Bry says, his eyes eating up my mostly exposed body.

"And on a mission," Helena mutters, also noticing me.

I just about manage to hold in my groan of frustration that she's on shift tonight.

Bry slides my water over before nodding over to my shoulder in the direction of a booth I avoided at all costs as I walked through.

"You'll be glad you put the extra effort in when you see who's waiting for you."

"What are they doing here?" I hiss. Tonight was already going to be bad, I really don't need Slick and Eyebrows here making it worse.

"Yeah, they're here but they're not the only ones."

I stare at Bry, thankful that Helena has walked off to thrust her fake tits at some guy, so she doesn't witness the panic that races through me.

Please God, tell me he's not here.

Sucking in a deep breath, I risk a glance over my shoulder at the farthest booth back. And sure as shit, there he is.

It might be dark, I might not even be able to see his face in the shadows, but I know it's him and I know he's watching me.

"Jesus fucking Christ, he needs to leave."

"Yeah, he does. If Julian finds out that you've got a boyfriend in here. A boyfriend who is Luca Dunn, I might add, then he's going to lose his shit."

"Luca isn't my boyfriend."

Bry raises a brow at me making me wonder just how much he knows. I sure as hell have never said anything to him about Luc. He figured there was once something between us from our first meeting here. The tension was palpable, Luca's blatant threat too loud for him to miss. But I shot him down every time he brought it up after and refused to talk about him ever since.

Apparently, none of that matters though, because, from the way he's looking at me, I'd say he's well aware of the situation. Well, as much as anyone on the outside can be. I'm in the middle of it and I have no freaking clue what's going on.

"Riiight," he sings with a smirk.

"If you've got something to say, just say it."

"He waits for you every night, Pey. He cares about you."

How the hell does he know that?

"Trust me, he really doesn't. He's just trying to make my life hard."

"By trying to protect you from those assholes?" Bry sends a look to my most dreaded table.

"He is the asshole."

"What happened between you?"

"Nothing," I snap. "Pass me my pad, I've got work to do."

"Want me to tell Helena to leave his table to you?"

"No," I shout a little too loudly. There's no way in hell I'm walking up to his table and taking his freaking order. "She can have him. I hope he enjoys her."

I'm gone the second I have my pad in hand and make my way over to my fan club.

"Well damn, looks like tonight was the right night, boys," Slick says, practically drooling as I come to a stop at their table.