He tightens his hold as he places his mouth near my ear. “If I go inside, I don’t expect you to wait around for me.”
I shiver at the deepness of his voice as the anger from his words ignites my insides. “Don’t be an asshole.”
“I’m not being an asshole, sweetheart. I don’t want your world to stop turning, even if mine does.”
10
OLIVER
I didn’t thinkthings could go from bad to worse, but it all happened so fast, I don’t even have time to brace myself.
Lulu’s father slides into the booth next to her, ignoring me entirely. “What’s wrong? Vinnie called.”
Lulu turns her gaze toward her uncle, who’s sitting at the bar, looking in the other direction. He has to feel the daggers she is throwing in his direction with her eyes.
“Hey. I’m here, not there,” her dad says to her.
I shift, the pleather underneath my ass squeaking. “Sorry,” I mutter, but no one’s paying any attention to me.
“What happened?” he asks Lulu again when she doesn’t answer. “He said I needed to drop everything and bring my ass down here. So, I’m here, and I want to know what’s wrong.”
“Dad,” Lulu says softly. “Nothing’s wrong with me.”
“Well, there’s something.”
Lulu’s eyes move in my direction. “Oliver got in trouble for something we caused.”
“We?” he asks, skipping over the trouble bit.
“Me and…” Her eyes snap to his again, and she pinches her lips closed.
“Who?”
Lulu shakes her head.
“Lulu.”
“I promised I wouldn’t tell,” she whispers.
Her father grunts as his one hand that’s been resting on the table curls closed. “Fine,” he says, but his voice is tight and higher than before. “What kind of trouble are we talking about?”
“A small stint inside,” I answer, wanting to take the pressure off her.
His head turns toward me so slowly that if I were a kid, I would’ve shit my pants. “Jail?” he asks.
“Prison’s more likely,” Lulu says before slapping her hand over her mouth as her eyes widen.
“What in the hell did you do?” he asks me.
I lean back, sliding my arm across the top of the booth, and try to pretend to be relaxed. “I may have gotten carried away.”
He tilts his head as his jaw ticks upward. “You think?”
“I didn’t have a choice. Someone needed to learn a lesson, and I was the one to teach it.”
It is all as simple as that. Men like that deserve to be put down, and I got as close as I could without landing the final blow. Even if I didn’t end his life, I know two things for certain—he won’t talk to Zoey again, and he’ll think twice before doing that to anyone else.
Her dad, Lucio, a man I’ve met once, blows a long, deep breath as he glares at me. “And who decided it was your place?”
