“I’ll be right there. Stay in the back closet. If they walk into the staff area or give you any sign they’re going to get aggressive, call the cops.”
“I don’t want to cause any hassle…”
“You’re not,” I snarl. “You don’t deserve to be treated this way.”
“Can you stay on the phone with me?” she murmurs. “Until you’re here?”
“Of course. Just keep talking to me. Tell me about your book.”
As Lorena talks to me in a shaky voice, I curse myself for ever putting her there. Sure, it helps with her studies, but a kind loving person like Lorena shouldn’t have to put up with dickheads like this.
They see her, with her warm smile and her loving eyes, and they think they can take advantage.
They’re wrong.
Chapter Nine
Lorena
“Are they still there?” Lukas asks.
I’m standing in the storage closet behind the counter, feeling like an idiot as I grip the edge of the door, ready to close it if they start to approach.
The two men are standing on the other side of the counter, grinning at me, making a big deal out of the fact they haven’t technically broken any rules. The shorter one is so drunk he has to lean against the counter to stand, but the other one looks more capable, as though he’s ready to throw himself at me at any second.
Or maybe that’s just me being melodramatic. Apart from their cruel comments, they haven’t done anything…
Yet.
“Yes. They’re just staring at me.”
“We’re waiting for our dance.” The smaller one – Charley, I remember from last time – laughs. “Don’t know who you’re calling. Police can’t arrest an innocent man.”
“Nah, she’s calling her college boyfriend or some shit. She reckons he’s going to scare us away,” says the other one.
“I’m pulling up now,” Lukas says. “I’ll be with you in a minute.”
I curl my hand around the phone, squeezing it hard as I stare at the men.
“Why can’t you just leave?” I say. “I haven’t done anything to you.”
“Darling, listen.” The bigger man leans forward. “We haven’t done anything wrong. We’re just trying to have a little fun with you, is all.”
“But you can clearly see I’m not interested in your fun.”
“How can you say that? You haven’t even tried,” he continues.
“Come on. Just shake those—”
The bell rings loudly as Lukas throws open the door.
He steps through the doorway, ducking his head and then rising to his full height. He’s wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt, pulled on in a hurry, the laces not even tied on his sneakers.
And he looks pissed.
If I thought he looked angry before, I didn’t know what I was dealing with. He looks like he’s ready to dismantle these two, to rip them to bloody pieces and leave them a mess on the floor. His eyes are burning pits of fire and his jaw twitches, visible even from here under the stark lights.
“What the fuck is this?” Lukas snarls, walking over to the men.
They turn to him. The bigger man is about to make a comment, but it dies when he takes in the sight of Lukas. He shifts from foot to foot. Like all the confidence has drained out of him.
“I…”
“You what?” Lukas looms over the men. “She said she didn’t want to play your fucking games.”
“We didn’t—”
“Don’t fucking lie to me,” Lukas snaps. “I’ve been listening for the last twenty minutes. She said several times she wanted you to leave. She said no when you asked her to dance for you… Fuck. The fact that you even asked her that, Jesus Christ, I should fuck you both up right now, for that alone. You’ve got no right to talk about her like that.”
I walk quietly out of the storage closet, my heart feeling like it’s getting lighter in my chest. My skin pricks warmly. It’s as though Lukas is wrapping an invisible protective blanket around me.
Suddenly, despite there being two of them against Lukas, I know everything’s going to be okay.
My man would never let anything happen to me.
“We were just having some fun.” The tall one whose name I don’t know rocks back and forth slightly as he stares up at Lukas. “There’s no need for the tough guy act.”
Charley touches his friend on the shoulder. “Shut up, man. Seriously.”
“What? You think I’m scared of this prick?”
“Shut the fuck up,” the smaller man snaps. “Listen, my friend’s drunk. He doesn’t know what he’s saying. We don’t want any trouble.”
“Neither did she.” Lukas takes another step forward, causing the men to shrink back on instinct. “She was just trying to do her job. She didn’t need you two jackasses making that more complicated. But that didn’t stop you. And if I wasn’t here right now, who knows how far you would’ve taken it?”
“I’m sorry,” the smaller man says, raising his hands as if he thinks Lukas is going to hit him.