“Hey,” I say with a smile.
He returns it. “Hey.”
“Look, I know this might seem out of the blue, but would you happen to know where I can get a little weed?”
He grins and lifts from his chair, his beer in hand, and walks the few feet over to get to me. “I may be able to help you,” he says, his eyes lighting as I scan his arm. No ink, and completely ignorant he’s just stepped in a ring of fire.
“Oh yeah? How much?”
“Free, if you smoke with me.”
I shake my head, regretting my decision to start the interaction. Ryan is right. I’m being stupid and reckless. But after today, I’m finding less and less fucks to give. It’s the look in the stranger’s eyes that has me on edge. “That’s not what I’m looking for.”
“It’s all good. I don’t bite.”
“Well, I do. And I’m saying no, thank you. Forget I asked. It was a bad idea.”
“Sounds like a good one to me.”
“Trust me. It’s not.”
He inches closer, his eyes roaming over me, and I know he hasn’t heard a word I’ve said.
“Seriously, never mind.” As he draws near, my sixth sense kicks in, and bells begin to ring in warning. “I mean it, stay away from me.”
“Don’t be like that,” he says, setting his beer on my table and leaning toward me with a clear look of intent. “We’re just getting to know each other.”
“Jack,” Eddie speaks up from where he stands behind the bar, “you don’t want to mess with that one.”
“Yeah, Jack,” I say, a faint if not imagined itch stirring on either side of my spine. “You should go.”
Jack eyes Eddie and then me before pulling back, contemplating the warning while picking up his beer, but he’s too late. Standing at the entrance of the seedy bar is the most lethal and beautiful of devils, and he’s brought hell with him, the summoned flames dancing in his eyes.
I slowly stand, the chair scraping the floor behind me as I prepare for war. “Jack, there’s an exit behind the bathroom,” I whisper hoarsely. “You better take it.”
Jack stands frozen as his threat sets into motion. Head dipped, an Armani tailored imp, he moves toward us in a cloud seeming to create a wind of his own, his powerful arms extended, his menacing movements barely traceable as cocktail tables start to fly and explode on either side of him.
Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip.
Tables somersault and burst into splinters as if willed so by some invisible force as he makes his way toward me, punishment promised in his eyes while he leaves nothing but destruction in his wake.
Oh, fuck!
I’ve never seen him so angry. Terrified, I turn to Jack. “Jesus! Go!”
Jack’s white as a sheet when he turns to haul ass toward the dark hall leading to the exit. I swallow as he draws near, thankful for the whiskey thrumming through me, steadying my shake. Tobias reaches me just as I lift the tumbler to my lips before he bats it out of my hand. The glass falls with the force of it, smacking the side of the table, the amber liquid splashing on my skirt before the tumbler shatters at my feet. It’s then I realized the bar has cleared and the music’s been cut off.
“I take it you aren’t in the mood to dance?”
“I told you to leave.”
“Come now. We should be celebrating. We’re business partners.”
“What the fuck, man,” Eddie says as he surveys his destroyed bar, righting a table.
Tobias glares down at me without an ounce of regard for Eddie and his horribly renovated bar. “You need to leave. I’m not asking anymore.”
“Or what?”
“Stop playing fucking games, Cecelia.”
“You’re the one acting like a child. I came here to have a few drinks.”
“What do you want?”
“The truth! I want the truth! I want to know what happened!”
His jaw ticks as his acidic glare cleaves me to pieces.
I lift the bottle in offering. “Sure you don’t want a drink?”
He slaps if from my hand, and it joins the pile of rubble on the floor.
“I mean, I know you’re more of a gin man, but that was uncalled for.” His face remains granite. “Jesus, Tobias. I just want to talk.”
Murderous eyes roam over me, and my body responds to every inch his gaze sears over. He’s so fucking beautiful, and his anger brings me back to the long nights we spent exorcising our hate for the other in much better ways. He’s aged incredibly, and I find myself aching to pull him closer, even in his furious state.
I lift my palms to his heaving chest and leave them there. His nostrils flare, but he allows it. “Do you ever think of me?”
“No.”
“Liar,” I drawl, with a watery smile. He grips one of my hands painfully and steps away from my touch.
“This is not a game.”
“I know,” I say softly. “There’s a death toll. What’s it up to now? Did you include me? Did you add us both in?”
My words seem to strike him where intended, and he darts his eyes away.
“Because I’ve been slowly dying every day since I left.”
His jaw flares, and my fingers itch to touch it, to soothe his anger. He reads my thoughts, sneering down at me.
“You’re drunk.”
“I just want to talk. Please, please, talk to me.”
He grabs my purse from the table and finds my keys before taking me by the arm like a child and making his way toward the back exit.
“Wait, please, Tobias, hold on.” I grab my purse from him and gather the envelope of cash I withdrew this morning and set it on the table before addressing Eddie who’s gazing around the bar with a helpless expression. “Sorry, Eddie. This should cover it.” The look in Eddie’s eyes tells me I won’t be welcome back.
Tobias doesn’t waste a second, dragging me past the bathroom before we burst through the back door. He unhands me as I stumble in my heels. The minute the night air hits me, I turn back toward the building and vomit.
“Putain.” Fuck. Tobias pulls my purse out of the line of fire and steps forward, gripping my hair.
“It’s just nerves,” I say through a dry heave.
Another curse as I wretch again, and he unhands me, disappearing behind the door before it slams next to me. Completely empty, I pant, disgusted with myself that I can’t keep it together. Being here, seeing him, his reaction to me, the emotions it’s stirring is too much. It’s like constantly being struck with a wrecking ball.
Tobias comes back a minute later with some bottled water, unscrewing the cap before he thrusts it toward me.
Humanity.
He’s still in there. Somewhere.
I take the water and sip, looking up at him.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he snaps, pulling his cell phone from his pocket.
“Like what?” I nod toward his cell. “What are you doing?”
“Getting you a ride home.”
“Why bother? I’m sure you would just love it if I disappeared over a cliff.”
“Always so dramatic.”
I tilt my head back against the brick and laugh. “You just destroyed a bar, and I’m dramatic?”