Unforgivably Broken (The Broken Series Book Two) (4 page)

I couldn’t have explained then why I went to her work that night. I didn’t understand the draw that I felt, the need to protect her, but it was there. It bugged me watching the way the older crowd got grabby with her but I stayed out of it. She seemed comfortable enough with herself and she handled it just fine. I knew she’d seen me
. I’d noticed her glancing my way occasionally and wondered if my being there was making her nervous. I had all but talked myself into leaving several times, but I couldn’t do it.

When the bar closed that night, I called a cab and waited in the alley. I wasn’t trying to stalk her, at least, that’s what I was trying to convince myself, I just wanted to make sure the few rowdy stragglers that were hanging out didn’t cause her problems. When she came out and managed to knock me on my ass while I was trying to help, I realized Tish had been right. This girl could handle herself.

That felt like ages ago.

So why was I here now?

I watched as the prick in a white baseball hat leaned over the counter to put his face close to Lili’s and nearly came out of my chair. He said something in her ear and as he spoke, her eyes found mine. She watched me as she laughed, not looking away until the prick dropped back to his feet. She poured them both a shot and they downed them together. I could see his arrogant fucking smile in the glass and my fingers mutilated the empty water bottle I had on the table as I watched their interaction. She knew what she was doing.

I wasn’t supposed to drink while taking pain medicine, I was well aware of this, but the second time the waitress came around to offer me more
water, I ordered a shot of tequila and a beer. I didn’t plan to drink much, just enough to take the edge off the rage trying to bubble up at the way the guys were ogling
my
girl.

Lili
made it a point to avoid looking in my direction again until the waitress walked back up to the bar. No doubt she’d called out my drink order to Lili. She glanced over at me briefly and her narrowed eyes told me she wasn’t happy. I didn’t really care. I was here to make sure Adam didn’t show up and she was making my life infinitely more difficult.

I downed the shot the second the waitress placed it on the table, the familiar burn of the alcohol making me smile.

“You need anything else?” the waitress asked. I glanced at her nametag for the first time and grinned.

She was tall, the perfect height for what I needed as I leaned over
in the same way the prick at the bar had toward Lili, slowly brushing a piece of Heaven’s wild curls back to whisper in her ear. “Heaven, huh? Well, I think I need a few more of these, Heaven.” I put the empty shot glass on her tray and leaned back.

She blushed, heading to finish taking orders as I took a long pull of my beer. I felt
Lili’s eyes on me and I looked at her over the bottle. She watched me for only a second before glancing away again but it was long enough for me to see the conflict in her eyes. I’d made my point.

It was only minutes later when Heaven came by with two more tequila shots, dropping them off and giggling, barely making eye contact.
Great. I felt like a dick for using her to make my point to Lili but there wasn’t anything I could do about it now. She seemed sweet, probably too sweet. I hoped Lili wouldn’t completely crush her for her unknowing involvement in my little scheme. I took one of the shots before picking up my beer again.

As I worried about Heaven’s fate, I watched
Lili expertly climb on top of the bar with Heaven right beside her. The whole bar erupted into cheers as Heaven blew the whistle and Lili held up a bottle of Cuervo. I took the last shot in front of me as I watched the line form in front of the girls. The alcohol felt heavy in my stomach but the nearly constant ache I’d grown used to in my chest was now nonexistent, replaced with the burning mixture of alcohol and jealousy.

Yeah, I could admit that I was jealous. I could also control it. I was a grown
fucking man for shit’s sake. I was convinced I’d made my point about her flirting to piss me off. I watched her carefully pour the liquor into the mouths of the people in the line as they shoved cash at Heaven who was trying desperately to keep up with the flow. It wasn’t until the prick in the white hat was up that I realized how wrong I was.

He stepped in front of
Lili and her eyes flicked up to mine. Her smile dripped with wickedness before she looked back down at him. She snatched his hat, causing the crowd to go crazy as she strutted along the bar seductively. Pulling it low over her eyes, shielding the light from her expression and leaving her face in shadow, she lifted her head toward me again. She sauntered back to the prick and bent down, grabbing his shoulders and turning him away from the bar before leaning him backwards against it. It wasn’t until she straddled his head, her spiky heels on either side of his face, giving him a clear view up her skirt, that I lost it.

The crowd was cheering as I pushed out of my chair, shoving through the mass of people as I watched
Lili hop down and disappear from my sight. When I finally got to the bar, she had her back to me. She was stretching, clearly scanning the crowd. She must have noticed I wasn’t at my table anymore. I leaned across the bar, reached a hand out, and slapped the brim of the hat, knocking it backward off her head before she could react.

“Hey!”
she squealed as she spun to face me. I didn’t watch the hat hit the floor, keeping my eyes on her instead.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” The alcohol was making me shake
. It was then that I realized it had been well over a month since I’d had anything to drink and I just inhaled three shots of tequila. At least, I was trying to convince myself it was the alcohol causing me to shake.

“What the fuck, Zane? This is my
job
,” she hissed at me, crossing her arms over her chest. I glanced at the tattoos automatically but I held on to my anger.

“It’s your
job
? I’m sorry, when did you become a stripper? I thought you were a bartender.”

She narrowed her eyes and I glanced over as Heaven approached cautiously. “Is everything okay over here? Do I need to call Donovan?”

Lili huffed a breath and the anger I’d thought was sexy earlier was now infuriating. She had
no
room to be pissed at me anymore.

“Sorry. It’s fine. I’m her boyfriend,” I said, apologizing and introducing myself to Heaven at the same time.
“Zane.”

“He’s my
roommate
,” Lili countered and my eyes refocused on hers. The word and the inflection behind it tore through me. I stared in silence, shocked that she was still pushing.

I had two choices in that moment and I could see them both clearly,
even though everything else seemed to be blurred due to the tequila.

I could swallow my pride, remind myself that
Lili was stubborn but she was mine, and step back to let us both cool off… or I could lose more than my temper.

She didn’t back down or waiver as I tried to clear my head. I finally nodded
, slowly. “Roommate. Have it your way.” I backed away a step before turning toward my table again, still unable to leave her here alone.

I watched Zane until he was back at the table, swallowing down the sick feeling in my stomach. It wasn’t enough that he came to my
job
to babysit me, now he was staking claim on me like some kind of fucking caveman?

I snatched the hat off the floor, turning it backwards on my head as I gave Heaven a fake smile. “You can run along now.” She looked like she might cry as she grabbed her tray, scurrying back out to the floor.

“If I bought you another shot, would you give my hat back?” Taylor’s voice caught my attention and I rolled my head sideways to look at him.

“Probably not, but it’s worth a try,” I smirked, grabbing the vodka and pouring us both a shot, purposefully keeping my eyes away from Zane as I slammed it
back. Taylor and his buddies had been tipping high since I got here and I was lucky. He must’ve just missed the argument between Zane and I, or he just didn’t care. Either way, I needed the money.

The hat was pulled from my head again and I turned, expecting to find Zane
. Instead, Shannon’s dark eyes were narrowed as she tossed the hat across the bar toward Taylor. “I need to borrow her for a minute,” she said with a smile for Taylor before she led me to the backside of the bar. I tried to pretend I wasn’t worried as I winked at Taylor and followed.

“You need to get your shit taken care of
before
you come in to work,” Shannon said once we were out of earshot. “Take Zane and go home. I don’t want you back until whatever this is, is taken care of. I can’t have him going off on customers and I can’t have
you
traipsing around like you’re a shot away from taking your clothes off on my bar.”

I dropped my head, scowling at the ugly black rubber mat on the floor behind the bar. I could feel my face flushing as the anger built up and I knew it would look like I was blushing. “Sorry,” I muttered, lifting my eyes. “I promise to stop but I really need
—”

“Not tonight. Go home,
Lili. You two seriously need to talk about this before either of you come back here.” Shannon’s expression was firm but her eyes were understanding. “I know this is new territory for you two but it can’t affect my business. This is the only warning I’ll give you.”

“I know. Sorry.”

She patted my shoulder before heading out to take my spot at the bar. I took a deep breath to steady myself before snatching my purse from its spot under the bar and sliding out. I glanced toward Zane, who was watching me carefully, and narrowed my eyes before turning to the door. I was sure he would follow.

As I stepped past Donovan, he gave me a full smile. I tried my best to return it before stomping toward the street. I glanced at my phone. Fuck. It wasn’t even seven. I could feel someone following me and I wanted to turn around to scream at Zane but I wasn’t about to cause a scene on The Strip. God knows enough people did on a regular basis but I refused to be one of them.

When I flagged down a cab, I slid in and tried to slam the door but it wouldn’t budge. I looked up, rolling my eyes at Zane’s pissy expression before sliding over. It wasn’t worth arguing the fact that I really didn’t want to be trapped in a cab with him while I was this angry. The tension between us felt like a bomb, building with every minute that we fumed about what we would say first.

The ride home was silent except for the annoying music the driver had pounding from the speakers. I pulled the cash from my bra as we approached the house, making the anger radiating from Zane even more prominent. I tossed the fare to the driver before stomping up the driveway, fully aware that once we were inside, there would be no escaping the massive explosion that was coming
. To top it off, we would have no privacy.

I childishly swung the door hard behind me, hearing Zane’s irritated huff as he caught it before it hit him but I kept walking. I ignored everyone in the living room, trying to put as much distance
as possible between them and the blast about to happen.

“I swear to God,
Lili!” Zane lost his hold on his temper as I heard the front door slam. I rounded the corner to the hallway. “Stay the fuck out of it, Tish!”