Page 9 of Defended By the Lumberjack
He takes a step just past the doorway and I see an older man with a slim build and thinning hair. A pot belly hangs over his belt and an unfriendly smile holds thin lips up at the corners.
I recognize him. This is the guy from that kept sending everything back last night. The guy that wasn't happy with anything that came out of my kitchen. The guy that's going to cost me my job.
"What do you want?" I clutch the towels and stand my ground, anger breaking through my initial fright.
"I was thinking we could make a deal," the guy tells me.
He says it casually, like he followed me in here to offer me a business opportunity. I laugh out loud, right in his face.
"You weren't satisfied with anything I served yesterday, I doubt there's any kind ofdealwe can make."
He takes a step further into the room with me and the hairs rise on the back of my neck.
The way he leers at me makes it pretty obvious what sort of "deal" he's talking about and the very thought makes bile rise in my throat.
"I think there's something you could serve to me that I'd be very satisfied with. If you let me put in a special order, I'll make sure to tell your boss that his new chef has thehighestof my compliments."
I can't believe what I'm hearing. Did this man intentionally sabotage my job just so he could stack the odds in his favor when he propositioned me?
"I'm not making any deals with you. Get out of my way, I need to get back to the kitchen."
But he's not budging and I'm cornered.
Levi
"She said leave. Her. Alone."
The guy damn near crumbles to the floor when I grab his shoulder, bending his knees as he tries to twist out of my grasp like the snake he is.
"I was just--"
"I heard what you were 'just.'"
Dragging the asshole out of the store room where I found him trying to blackmail my woman into letting him put his hands on her, he's lucky I haven't beaten him to a blood stain on the bottom of my boot.Yet.
I don't give a fuck what this shit stain for a human has to say as I drag his worthless ass through the big dining hall and toward the main lobby doors.
I don't give a fuck who sees me doing it, either. Far as I'm concerned, everyone in the resort needs to know the guy's a worthless predator.
"Levi!"
That voice is one of only two that would make me stop dead in my tracks at this moment. It's not July. My boss walks out of an office near the lobby's front desk, leveling a scowl at me that's a far cry from the man I was speaking with earlier today.
"What the hell is going on here?" Eddy Jones steps out of the office behind Clinton Murdock, both men making it clear that I'm the one they see as the problem here.
"This man accosted me, Mr. Jones, I demand that he be arrested immediately." The weasel weasels out of my grip, straightening his clothes and pointing back at me as he addresses Eddy directly.
July's hurried steps catch up to the group of men caught in a stand-off.
"Oh my God, thank you, Levi!" Her arms wrap around my waist, the desperate note of gratitude in her voice breaking me out of my rage.
"You okay, baby? Did he touch you?"
July shakes her head, letting me know she's unharmed, just scared.
"And that slut." The guy I'm still planning on flattening dares to point at July. I step forward, he steps behind Eddy Jones, Clinton steps between me and Eddy. "She propositioned me! Said she'd make it worth my while if I saved her job."
Eddy's pretty-boy features scrunch into confusion, but he doesn't argue with the man. Just looks my way, then at the employee whose back he oughta have. A quick glance passesbetween him and my boss and he turns his head to the woman at the front desk just a few feet from us.
