Page 10 of Zeus's Ruin

I shake my head adamantly.“No.That’s the drugs talking.Let’s just go and sit down and we can discuss this calmly.”

“I don’t wanna talk.I wanna hold you.I wanna fuck you.”He takes a step toward me, and I take another back, but with the counter behind me, I have nowhere else to go.I make out like I’m just steadying myself with my hand, but I reach for one of the steak knives and drive it into his forearm.Jimmy screams, and I use the surprise to run, but he thunders after me and yanks me back by the hair, tossing me to the ground as if I’m a ragdoll.

On hands and knees, I scramble away from him on the worn carpet, but Jimmy has always been too fast, too strong, and too mean.He shoves me down, pinning me beneath him.At first, I fight.And then I realize he’ll go easier on me if I don’t.He’s been humiliated, and the only way for him to recover is to debase me, to take my power ...so I let him.I let him beat me, I let him use me, and when he’s done, I let him walk away because it means I might get to live.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Sugar

I’ve been avoidingZeus.Hard to do when someone owns the house next to yours, but so far, I’ve been successful.He didn’t get home until four, long after Jimmy had left me broken and bloody on the floor.Zeus had knocked on my door, but I pretended to be asleep, and his heavy footsteps thudded on the stairs a few moments later.I don’t know why I didn’t just open the door, throw myself into his arms and beg him to put me back together.I’m ashamed of what I look like.I’m embarrassed I didn’t fight.

When I shower and get ready for work, all the cover up in the world can’t hide the mess Jimmy made of my face, but I still pack it on over bruised and split flesh, and after I’m done, I’m about as presentable as a walking corpse.Daryl doesn’t say a word, Lydia, Misty, and Henry don’t either, but my best friend Harper pulls me into the restroom and makes me spill my guts.I try not to cry and ruin my makeup, but she winds up pulling out her compact and fixing my face the way she’s done one hundred times before.

I make barely any tips that night, everyone who interacts with me gets one look at my face and is instantly uncomfortable.

The elderly woman who just sat down in my section gapes up at me in horror.

“Car accident,” I explain.I try to smile, but it just opens up the gash in my lip.

“Oh, sweetheart.That’s terrible.”

“Yeah, you should see the other guy.”I pull out my pad and pen.“What can I get you ma’am?”

I take her order and walk back to the kitchen, clipping the ticket to the order wheel.I’m standing behind the counter when the roar of a motorcycle fills the street outside.Cold dread snakes its way through my gut.No.No.No.Not here.Not now when my face looks like this.The bell above the door rings a beat later, and Zeus’s large frame fills the entryway.His scowl is instantaneous and within seconds he’s crossed the room and is standing right in front of me.

“What the fuck happened?”

I wince.“Why don’t you go sit in my section and I’ll get right on taking your order?”

“It was Jimmy, wasn’t it?”

“Everything okay here, Sugar?”Harper says, sliding up beside me.

“It’s fine.”

Harper purses her lips.“Who’s your new friend?”

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