Page 37 of Sweet Vengeance
“Did you want to take me on a date first?”
He opens his mouth, then closes it again before sputtering, “No…am I supposed to?”
I laugh. “Give me the fucking money, dude bro.” He does, and I slip the coke out of my backpack, glad I brought it out here with me. I’m not surprised I’ve already gotten hit up. The best place to sell is a college campus.
I stay out there a while longer, getting a few more people coming up to me and buying some more shit, but eventually my stomach feels like it’s going to eat itself, and I figure Olliemust be the same. It’s getting close to dinnertime, and if he sleeps too long now, he might not sleep well tonight.
There’s not a chance in hell I’m leaving this bench, though, so I pull up a food-delivery app, hoping he likes burgers and fries, then head over to the stairs leading into the dorm building to wait for them to bring it to me.
It takes half an hour for them to get there, but then I go straight for the elevator and up to Ollie’s floor. My stomach growls, the scent of fries making me salivate nearly as hard as I do over Ollie.
I unlock the door to his room and push it open. The second I do, something swings at my head, and I have to jump backward not to get knocked the hell out.
“Ouch! Shit.” Ollie clutches his side.
“I’m the one who almost just got my head taken off.”
His pupils blow wide as if he just realized what he almost did. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I…” He looks down, then away, still holding on to his hurt rib. “I thought you left and they…”
“I did, but I was coming back. I stayed right outside so I could watch your building.” I set the food on the counter. “I left you a note.”
“I didn’t see it.”
His hand is shaking. He has a tremble in his voice too. Jesus, he’s scared as shit. I forget that things like this aren’t normal for everyone. He was attacked last night, and now he doesn’t know if people are after him. I left him alone on his first day back in his dorm, while he was sleeping. Of course he would wake up and be afraid. “Jesus, Kitten. Come here.”
“I’m fine.” He shakes his head.
“There go those claws again.” I reach for him, but he sidesteps me.
“I can take care of myself.”
“I know. You almost bludgeoned me to death with a broom.”
He wrinkles his nose, squinting at me in his cute, annoyed way that definitely shouldn’t be making me hard in this situation, but it is.
“I got you dinner,” I add, wondering why in the hell I’ve suddenly become such a caretaker with this guy.
“Oh.” His gaze darts to the bag of food and then back to me. “That was nice. You didn’t have to do that.”
It’s clear he thinks that was the sole reason I left, and maybe I should be okay with it, but the last thing I want is Ollie thinking I’m anything other than who I am. “Well, I was hungry, and I was already out there selling. The people who share your building are good customers.” I wink, and he scowls.
“You havedrugsin my dorm. You can’t have those here, Cillian. You need to take them back home. Now.”
“Fine. Then you need to come back and stay there with me. I have shit to do, and that doesn’t change while I’m here with you.” The words might sound harsh, but they’re true.
There’s no hiding Ollie’s slight shudder, the fear he’s trying to hide. Still, he squares his shoulders and says, “Selling drugs is wrong.”
“I know. It’s still my job. But I’m also the man who won’t let anyone fucking touch you, and I’m not the kind of man who would do what those guys did to you last night. Maybe you still don’t see it, maybe it will never matter to you, but there’s honor in who I am and how I do things—just not in the way you’re used to or one you can accept.” I pick up the bag of food and set it on the small, two-person table. “Now, are we eating dinner or what? You need food in your stomach, or you’ll make yourself sick.”
I feel his eyes on me, feel them heat my skin in a way I’mcompletely unfamiliar with. When I glance over my shoulder, Ollie nods, then joins me at the table.
I get rid of my backpack, and pull our food out, setting his in front of one chair and mine in front of the other, before going to his small fridge and pulling out a bottle of water for each of us. Neither of us talks at first, Ollie picking at his food while I dive in, fucking starving.
“I still don’t want you to kill them,” he finally says.
“I already said I wouldn’t.” It’s still a lie. Maybe one day he’ll find out and hate me for it, which honestly is probably for the best.
“I’ll pay you back…for dinner. They left the cash in my wallet.”
