Page 62 of Driftwood Daffodil

“Umm… it’s called a job?” Maybe he was the mispeller?

When he just stared back, I let out a sigh. “You see, there’s this thing called money that most people need for stuff like food and shelter – which I know is a foreign concept for you, Mr. I have a money tree in my backyard – but you know… everybody’s gotta eat… but don’t eat here.”

Seriously. No one should ever eat here. Under any circumstances. If someone was starving with minutes to live, it would be worth it to risk a trip to the food truck.

The muscle in Gio’s jaw tensed. “I don’t appreciate the attitude.”

“Well, I don’t appreciate you, so it looks like we’re both gonna be disappointed today.”

Apparently he didn’t like that comment either. His hands balled into fists, drawing my attention to his forearms. There was no denying the power in those muscles. I doubt if he’d even break a sweat snapping my neck. Who was that stacked? Really. What did he do, bench press cars in his spare time?

Great, now that image was stuck in my head.

Asshole.

Fingers snapped in front of my face, “pay attention when I’m talking to you.”

Okay, that was too far. I’d already had a hard day – what with almost getting killed and all – I was not going to put up with anymore of his shit.

“Listen here, you tiny little man…” not that Gio was tiny by any means, but that wasn’t the point. “I’ve had just about…”

My lecture was cut off by the sound of the sugar container hitting the floor. Little paper packets rained down around my feet as I glared back at the smirk on Gio’s face.

“Oops.”

Son of a…

Sucking back my anger, I forced a smile on my face.

“It’s okay,” I said and crouched down to sweep packets back in the holder. “Accidents happen.”

Now I sounded like Sutton. Fantastic. Though I guess that wasn’t all bad. The girl did put up a better fight than I did.

Next to fall off the table were the napkins.

I tried my hardest to ignore Gio, but chanting don’t kill him silently in my head only worked for so long. When a mug landed on the floor, I had to grit my teeth to stop myself from saying something. I was not going to play in to his game. Instead I’d spit in his food. It seemed like a fair trade to me. Never piss off the cook or the waitress.

As I was about to stand back up, a hand pressed down on my shoulder, forcing me back on my knees.

“Stay down there. That’s where you belong.”

There were moments in life when something sent a shiver up your spine. See a spider, get a weird sense or hear a creepy story. But nothing made me shudder like I did when I rolled my eyes up to the piercing green stare glaring down at me.

“Are you gonna tell me to suck your dick next?” There were also moments in life when one wished they could take back something they said.

It took everything I had to stay where I was when Gio slid to the edge of the booth. He seemed so much bigger from down here. The light literally disappeared when he bent down to growl in my ear.

“You should show me some respect, little girl…”

Hey, I resented that comment. Just because I was wearing cookie monster underwear, didn’t mean…wait a minute.

“I could easily turn my attention to other members of your family. Say your sister… or better yet your brother.”

A tide of anger boiled through my veins and it took everything I had to keep it from pouring over into my expression.

Especially when he added, “Kato hasn’t had a good beatdown in a while.”

I lost count of how many times my brother wound up in the infirmary because of a broken bone or mysterious stab wound that no one apparently inflicted.

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