Page 45 of Framed

“No?” Ethel paused, her hand resting on the rag placed on top of the table I was just cleaning.

“She can’t work here,” Xavier said and my heart cracked a tiny fraction.He’sthe boss? I knew Mr. Adams, his father, had money but I would’ve never thought he would have allowed Xavier to do anything outside of football. His father was obsessed with Xavier maintaining a ‘media approved’ image as he used to call it. I doubted a bar was a match for the cookie-cutter image he wanted Xavier to uphold. I couldn’t imagine his expectations didn’t extend past high school.

“Why the hell not? She’s a great fit.” Eyebrows raised, Ethel’s hands were now on her hips like you would imagine a mother doing when she was scolding a child.

“Maybe we should discuss this privately.”

Ethel looked as if she wanted to protest but she turned her gaze to me, her brown eyes blazing with an apology.

“I’ll go; it was nice meeting you Ethel,” I said awkwardly, looking between the two.

She reached in her pocket and produced a folded-up piece of paper. With a glare pointed at Xavier, she directed her words at me. “This is your work schedule. It’s supposed to be dead this weekend so you can start on Monday. Make sure you bring two forms of I.D. I’ll see you then.”

chapter eighteen

Xavier

The girl I was supposed to be interviewing was late and to avoid Ethel’s impending wrath, I tried to wait as long as possible before I went to go train.

It was six-thirty when I finally decided I needed to get into fight mode. I was up against Witcher tonight and it wasn’t going to be an easy win. Ethel didn’t seem all that mad and even went as far as telling me she’d have the girl wait until after the fight to speak with me. Knowing the dark cloud that usually surrounded me after a fight, I wasn’t completely great with the idea.

Normally, I spent the night after a fight training.I know what you’re thinking. Why would you train more after exerting your body past its limit?The answer was simple. The only time I could say my brain was completely off, was when I was punchingsomeoneorsomething. If Ethel’s goal was not to scare the girl, talking to me after a fight would do the exact opposite. But she seemed determined to get the girl to agree and once she set her mind on something, it was useless to argue with the older lady.

“Heard you were fighting tonight.” Dressed in a white tee and blue jeans, Tucker walked to the other side of the punching bag and held it in place.

Not wanting to accidentally hit him, I paused my punching and allowed my arms to drop to my sides as I relaxed from my fighting stance. “Thought you were on call.”

“I was but after that fiasco from this morning, I traded shifts with another resident. You owe me one by the way. Poor girl was traumatized.”

“Poor girl knew what she was getting into.” I avoided pointing out that she signed a contract and knew the rules. He knew that already. And Janice knew fucking better than to spend the night and she did. I knew why she did it—it was like the rest of them, they desperately wanted to “change” me, to break through my cold exterior.

Guess no one had ever told them not to poke the bear.

He pursed his lips, and I knew from the look on his face that he disapproved of my method of handling the situation—or more specifically the lack thereof. I agreed I could’ve handled the situation better, with more tact, but I also knew Tucker as well as he knew me. This wasn’tjustabout the woman who occupied my bed last night.

“What is this really about? We both know you could give two fucks about Janice.”

“This is happening because of her.”Here we go.With him being busy on shifts,I’d successfully avoided the topic of Scarlett over the past few days whenever we spoke and I thought Tucker would for once in his life take the hint and let it the fuck go.

I should’ve known better.

Not wanting to hear this shit now of all times, I regained my fighting position and placed my arms back up above my face. I paused to give Tucker enough time to move back before I threw a punch but he just stood there.

Suit himself.

I threw a punch, two, until he halted the bag again. Stopping, I shot a glare his way. “It’s just a job.”Lie.

“You almost choked a girl to death this morning.”

“She’s normally into it.” His face morphed into one of profound disgust. Yeah, even I could admit that was a pretty fucked up thing to say.

“This is your fifth fight this month. You only do three.” He was right. I did everything in threes. No, I didn’t have ADHD. Three was just my lucky number. A number chosen by her.

I stepped sideways and took wide strides to my office. I could hear his footsteps trailing me but that still didn’t stop me from slamming the door shut in his face, locking it for extra measure.

Of course, being the motherfucker he was, he had a key and unlocked it with ease.

“You’ll have to face the fact that this is more than just an assignment soon enough.”

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