Page 8

Sugar

I ’ve been avoiding Zeus. Hard to do when someone owns the house next to yours, but so far, I’ve been successful.

He didn’t get home until four, long after Jimmy had left me broken and bloody on the floor.

Zeus had knocked on my door, but I pretended to be asleep, and his heavy footsteps thudded on the stairs a few moments later.

I don’t know why I didn’t just open the door, throw myself into his arms and beg him to put me back together.

I’m ashamed of what I look like. I’m embarrassed I didn’t fight.

When I shower and get ready for work, all the cover up in the world can’t hide the mess Jimmy made of my face, but I still pack it on over bruised and split flesh, and after I’m done, I’m about as presentable as a walking corpse.

Daryl doesn’t say a word, Lydia, Misty, and Henry don’t either, but my best friend Harper pulls me into the restroom and makes me spill my guts.

I try not to cry and ruin my makeup, but she winds up pulling out her compact and fixing my face the way she’s done one hundred times before.

I make barely any tips that night, everyone who interacts with me gets one look at my face and is instantly uncomfortable.

The elderly woman who just sat down in my section gapes up at me in horror.

“Car accident,” I explain. I try to smile, but it just opens up the gash in my lip.

“Oh, sweetheart. That’s terrible.”

“Yeah, you should see the other guy.” I pull out my pad and pen. “What can I get you ma’am?”

I take her order and walk back to the kitchen, clipping the ticket to the order wheel.

I’m standing behind the counter when the roar of a motorcycle fills the street outside.

Cold dread snakes its way through my gut.

No. No. No. Not here. Not now when my face looks like this .

The bell above the door rings a beat later, and Zeus’s large frame fills the entryway.

His scowl is instantaneous and within seconds he’s crossed the room and is standing right in front of me.

“What the fuck happened?”

I wince. “Why don’t you go sit in my section and I’ll get right on taking your order?”

“It was Jimmy, wasn’t it?”

“Everything okay here, Sugar?” Harper says, sliding up beside me.

“It’s fine.”

Harper purses her lips. “Who’s your new friend?”

“Zeus. My landlord.”

Harper’s eyes bug out, because I may have mentioned him a time or two. “That’s your landlord? Honey, I am moving in.”

Zeus doesn’t even acknowledge her, he just continues to scowl at me.

“Go sit in my section and order something,” I say. “Now.”

He arches a brow, glares at me as if I’ve lost my ever-loving mind for telling him what to do, but he trudges over to a booth and sits heavily. His eyes never leave mine. I compose myself and walk over, poised with my pen and pad.

“What the fuck happened, Sugar?”

“Jimmy happened. Seems he didn’t appreciate being humiliated in front of everyone the other night. He was waiting for me when I got home.”

“Fuck!” He slams a fist on the table, causing the salt and pepper shakers to rattle against each other.

I dare a glance at Lydia—the owner—who is watching the two of us like a hawk, and then I whisper-hiss to Zeus, “If you can’t control yourself, I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

Zeus glares at me again. A muscle in his jaw ticks and his hands are balled into fists on the table. I’m afraid he’s going to get me fired, or at least a warning, so I lean in and say, “Order a slice of pie and a coffee, Zeus. I’ve already lost my dignity. I can’t afford to lose my job too.”

“Fine. Bring me a coffee.”

“And pie. I’m not walking my bruised ass over here for a shitty coffee tip.”

That muscle in his jaw sure is getting a workout tonight. “Fine. Pie too.”

“I’ll be right back.” It physically hurts to walk away from him, knowing how angry he is. If it’s one thing I know, it’s to never turn your back on an angry man. It never ends well. But Zeus isn’t angry with me. Zeus may want to murder Jimmy, but he’d never raise a hand to me.

A few minutes later, I return with his coffee and pie and set it down, then I slide into the booth opposite him.

“Why didn’t you come to me?”

I lean forward and hiss, “When should I have come to you, Zeus, while he was holding a knife to my throat, or when he was raping me on my living room floor?”

“Jesus, fuck.” Zeus’s hands ball into fists so tight his knuckles blanch.

His nostrils flare in anger, and his eyes are darker than I’ve ever seen them.

Zeus stands and pulls a money clip from his jeans.

He places several bills on the table. Too much for the shitty coffee and the pie he hasn’t even touched. “You still in love with him?”

I take a deep breath, fight back the tears that prick my eyes, and give an infinitesimal shake of my head. “I don’t know how to love someone who only knows how to hurt.”

That wasn’t true, but I had to tell myself I deserve better. I deserve more.

“You got a friend you can stay with?”

“Not really, no.”

“What about the brunette?” He nods to Harper, who’s watching this exchange along with everyone else.

I shrug. “Maybe. If she doesn’t already have other plans.”

“After work, you head over to your friend’s place, and you find a way to spend the night.”

“What are you going to do?”

He reaches out and tucks my hair behind my ear, and then he traces the bruise on my cheekbone with a feather-light touch that I never knew a biker could possess. “I’m gonna kill the son of a bitch for ever laying a hand on you.”

I suck in a sharp breath, and the words are on the tip of my tongue, but I don’t say them. I let a bead of silence fall between us, and then I watch him walk away, knowing I’ll never be able to undo this. I could go after Zeus, but I'd be lying if I said I didn’t want Jimmy dead.