Oh shit. All thoughts of painting him flew from my mind as he slid the phone so I couldn’t see the message anymore.
I backed up one step, then another. “I’ll— I’ll be over here if you need anything else.”
“Thanks.”
Dark and Dangerous’s phone chirped behind me as I walked to the kitchen. I couldn’t hear most of his conversation but one word caught my attention once again.
Kendrick.
Shit, shit, shit.
I took out my phone and texted my brother Finn.
Stranger just came in diner. He got a text with word Mosaic, and is talking to someone about Kendrick.
Finn’s response was immediate.
Get out.
No. I wasn’t going to leave like some ninny. I peeked out the kitchen window to see the guy still sitting in the booth. If Linear could get information from him, maybe it would help put those Mosaic criminal people behind bars. Human traffickers were the scum of the earth, and I wanted to do my part to take them down.
But damn it, why did the first guy I’d been attracted to in…way too long have to be a bad guy?
I looked over at Nolan, but the cook had his headphones on. I didn’t want to involve him in all this if I didn’t have to. In a physical altercation, Dark and Dangerous would win. Nolan would be no match. Neither would Matthew, the teenage dishwasher.
I’d have to keep the guy here myself until help arrived. I shot off another text to Finn.
I’ll keep him here, you send someone as backup.
Again, his response was immediate. No. Get out.
Damn it, I was going to do my part. You better hurry.
I slipped my phone back into my apron pocket, ignoring it when it started buzzing a few seconds later, Finn calling rather than texting.
The guy looked like he was fishing for his wallet, so I loaded a tray full of slices of the diner’s different pies and walked it over to him.
I forced myself to smile. “Hi. I know you said you only wanted coffee, but we’re about to close, and I’ve still got all these pies. I’d hate for them to go to waste. We’ll just have to throw them out.” My brothers would have a heart attack if I ever once threw away extra pie from the Frontier. “Can I offer you a free slice?”
The guy was going to turn me down. I could already see it.
So I did what anybody would do—I tripped and dumped the tray in his lap.
“Oh my God! I’m so clumsy. I’m so sorry.” I set down my tray and immediately started wiping at huge chunks of pie flowing all down his front. Chocolate smeared into apple, and lemon meringue covered it all.
It kept him in the booth. So I kept wiping.
But oh God, had I just brushed his crotch? Now my mortification wasn’t acting.
He grabbed my hands, more gently than I would’ve expected given the current circumstances. “I’ve got it.” He set me away from him. “You have a bathroom?”
I pointed to the hall near the back corner. He stood and began walking in that direction. Finn better hurry up. Short of undressing the guy, I was out of ways to keep him here.
Dark and Dangerous’s phone rang again right as he got to the hallway.
“Where the hell are you? I’m going to put a fucking cap in your ass myself. This town is already on my last nerve.”
I was pretty sure my eyes were bugging out of my head. Maybe I should’ve gotten out when Finn told me to.
I pretended to wipe down the table so I could watch him go into the bathroom. I needed to call in more backup while he was in there. But instead of going into the bathroom, he went through the door that led to the side alley outside.
Damn it. That was where some of the customers went when they needed a smoke. It didn’t really lead anywhere, but you could get out if you wound around the side and went through the back.
If I didn’t stop him, he was going to get away.
Knowing I was all sorts of stupid, especially since he’d threatened to put a cap in someone’s ass, I ran for the side employee door. I would cut him off and crack him on the head with my tray. He wouldn’t be expecting anyone coming at him from the opposite direction.
I hoped.
I rushed toward the back door through the kitchen. Nolan saw me, but I didn’t have time to explain.
Out back, the guy was still on the phone, talking about taking whatever opportunity presented itself. He ended the call and muttered something about fucking pie.
He was getting closer. I backed myself against the darkened wall, waiting for him to come around the corner. When he did, I brought my tray down on the side of his head as hard as I could.
He let out a roar. “Mother fuc—”
I moved backward, then brought the tray back up to hit him again, was swinging back down when someone caught it from the side.
“Sorry, lady, I can’t let you beat up my boss, even if he did threaten to put a cap in my ass. Seriously, who says that?”
I waited for a blow or to be shoved to the ground, but it didn’t happen.
Should I scream? Hope that Nolan and Matthew could hear me inside.
Dark and Dangerous turned to me. “What the hell is wrong with you, lady?”
“I don’t like human traffickers. That’s what’s wrong with me.”
“What are you talking about?” The guy was covered in pie and rubbing the side of his head, glaring at me. Now I really expected some sort of violence.
I can take a hit. I grew up with two brothers who roughhoused all the time.
“I’m gonna have to ask you to step away from my sister.”
Baby. Thank God.
My younger brother walked farther into the back alley, the moonlight gleaming off the gun he was pointing at the two men. Dark and Dangerous and the other guy backed up, holding their hands up near their heads.
“Your sister has assaulted me with both pie and her tray in the past three minutes.”
“Yeah, she’s a sassy one,” Baby said. “And although she and I are going to have words about her wasting pie like that, I’m still going to need you to move farther away from her.”
Baby stepped into the light, and both men took another step back.
“Look, I think there is some mistake here,” said the man who’d stopped me from getting my second thwack in. “We don’t mean any harm.”
Dark and Dangerous glared at me and muttered, “Speak for yourself.”
“Waverly doesn’t generally attack her customers without due cause,” Baby said. “Bad for tips.”
I turned to Baby. “This guy was talking about Mosaic and Kendrick. That was enough for me to let Finn know there was trouble.”
“And Finn told you to attack him?” Baby cocked his head. “Using pie?”
I shrugged. “More or less.”
“Can I join the party back here?” Zac Mackay, one of the Linear Tactical guys, came through the same entrance I had used. “Finn called. Asked me to stop by since I was already in town.”
He was slightly breathless. Zac might be acting cool, but he’d rushed to get here.
“Wavy might have caught a couple members of Mosaic,” Baby said.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Dark and Dangerous said. “I’m not—” I held up the tray like I was going to hit him again. He rolled his eyes and turned to Zac. “You going to tell them or let me be assaulted by Killer Waitress again?”