But I wasn't that girl, the one who'd excuse the inexcusable just because the skeletons in some guy's past were rattling too hard for him to handle.
"We weren't screwing," Keith said. "And besides, I'm on break." He stuck out his chin. "What I do on my own time is my own business."
Keith was almost always on break. Restaurant management was an incredibly hard job, but somehow Keith managed to log a lot of hours without actually working. We all figured he had naked goat pictures of the owner or something.
"Really?" I crossed my arms. "You do realize you'll be on a permanent break if this gets out?" Was it true? Hard to say. But I was desperate. It was worth a shot, right?
Keith narrowed his eyes. "Are you threatening me?"
"I dunno," I said. "Areyouthreateningme?"
His gaze slid to Brittney, and then back to me. "You know the rules," he said. "No exceptions."
I gave him a hard look. "Is that so?"
"It wouldn't be fair to the other girls," he said.
I let my gaze drift downward. When it reached the land of Squidville, I gave him a long, slow nod. "Uh-huh."
With one hand, he reached up to straighten his tie. He stopped in mid-gesture when he discovered no shirt-collar to secure it to. A trickle of sweat inched down his brow. "Go ahead," he said. "Tell someone. You can't prove anything." He gave me a nasty smile. "It's your word against mine."
"Yeah," Brittney said. "Who's gonna believe a ditz like you, anyway?"
I stared at her. A ditz? Sure, I played one at work, but in real life, I was anything but ditzy. If nothing else, I was smart enough to know I couldn’t afford to lose my job.
I had too many bills and an accounting degree that was getting me nowhere. Waitressing was the closest thing to a career I had.
Pathetic, I know.
Thinking about everything – the stalled career, the bills I couldn’t pay, and the obligations that were piling up – I felt my hands tighten into fists. That's when I realized something. My hands weren't exactly empty. In one hand, I had my purse. In the other, I still held my phone. That phone had a camera.
I looked at Keith, naked except for the necktie. I looked at Brittney, not naked, but decidedly disheveled. I looked down to my phone.
I shouldn’t.
But I did.
Chapter 3
Josie lowered her voice. "Watch out for Keith tonight. There's something funny going on."
Absently, I nodded. If she only knew the half of it.
We were standing at the waitress station. She was throwing together a couple of salads while I topped a tray of sundaes with whipped cream and cherries.
I gave Josie a sideways glance. Her auburn hair was way too big, her tight white blouse showed too much cleavage, and her flared pink skirt was a couple inches too short to be considered decent. Or maybe it just seemed that way because of those little bobby socks that, if anything, made the rest of her getup seem that much more obscene.
But who was I to judge? I was dressed exactly the same way. Except tonight, I wore clunky red bracelets on each wrist. The bracelets clashed with the rest of the outfit, but I couldn't afford to care. It was either that, or explain away the red, raw skin where the handcuffs had been not so long ago.
Maybe I shouldn't have tugged so hard against them. It's not like it had done any good. If Lawton hadn't finally unlocked them after realizing his epic screw-up, I'd probably still be trapped in his basement, watching him watch me.
In my mind's eye, I could still see him standing there, his eyes flat and his jaw set. The way he looked at me, I'd never forget. It was burned into my brain like the time my Mom called me a slut in fifth grade for holding hands with Shawn Proctor.
Like she was in any position to judge.
"We were taking bets," Josie was saying. "Odds of you getting fired were running five to one."
I tried to smile. "Which way didyoubet?"
