Page 30 of Cinderella and Her Vampires (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 5)

Never mind I had absolutely no idea why I suddenly cared.

Because I didn’t.

“Look, guy,” the patron said. “If you’re going to sit at the bar, at least have a drink. You don’t have one, and you’ve been sitting here long enough. Now give it up.”

Silas smirked at the guy.

That wasn’t good.

I quickly made a pint of our cheapest beer and slapped it on the bar in front of Silas. The patron finally settled his glare on me. I nodded toward the rest of the bar. “Go have a seat somewhere else. Stop bothering my customers or you’ll be asked to leave.”

The patron glared at me. He seemed rather disgruntled and even looked around to see if anyone else saw the exchange. He was the only one who cared. He groaned and walked off, like the good little human who could take a hint.

Silas said, “Thank you.”

I glared at him again. “I didn’t do it for you.”

I meant it too. I had seen the smirk Silas gave the man and that sent all kinds of alarms blaring through my mind. I wanted to avoid another scene in my bar. At the very least a blood bath. I did it for the stranger, and I did it for myself.

I did it for everyone but him.

Still… that didn’t seem to stop Silas from believing otherwise and had gone the extra mile to smile at me, fangs, and all.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head before I resumed ignoring him and giving my customers my attention. Once again, I fell into the chaos of the night. And despite the fact Silas was low on my priority list, I felt his eyes on me. It was almost as though his gaze came with a weight. One that I constantly felt pressing on my shoulders.

His presence started to become distracting, and I stumbled through a drink order, spilling alcohol and ice on the floor. The glass the drink was supposed to go in shattered on the floor.

“Shit,” I muttered to myself.

Bobby approached me and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to look at him, sucking in a breath for the next thing I needed to deal with. But the second my eyes met his, I was taken aback by the level of concern in them. A pinch formed in the center of my forehead.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“You okay, Boss?” he asked.

“Yeah, why?” I said and continued cleaning up the mess I had made.

He huffed and knelt to the floor, gripping the dustpan and holding it firmly against the floor while I swept up the bits and pieces of glass. “How long have you and I been friends?”

I shrugged. “Years. I lost track of how many. Again, why?”

“So, then it goes without saying I know you better than you know yourself at times,” he said.

“Okay, but what does that have to do with anything?” I asked as I replaced the broom into the corner I took it from.

Bobby emptied the dustpan into the garbage can before clipping it to the broom handle. “I can tell something is bothering you. Half the bar is starting to see it too. And you’ve been off the last couple of days.”

I sighed and gestured toward where Silas was sitting. “Him. Are ya happy now?”

Bobby glared in his direction. “Want me to take care of him?”

I put a hand on his chest and shook my head. “No need. I have everything covered. But if that changes, you will be the first I tell.”

Shouts erupted behind me. Bobby took off, heading in a beeline for the location of a small brawl that had broken out in the corner of my bar. Seconds later, the fight was broken up and he started escorting the offenders out the front door. I headed toward the corner to help one of the waitresses with the cleanup.

Ten minutes later, I returned to the bar. I almost instantly noticed Silas had decided to slip out when I wasn’t paying attention, which irritated me more than him sitting at my bar had. He had some explaining to do. I wasn’t going to deal with him making random appearances and even more random disappearing acts.

I needed to catch up to him before it was too late. Not that I had to guess where he was heading. It wasn’t all that hard to figure out.

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