“I’ll take a water as well.” She tries to keep her voice calm but her tone all but says she is pissed. I unravel my napkin and settle it into my lap.
I feel Xander’s hand land on my thigh beneath the table, and I almost gasp at his touch. I peek a glance at him, and pleasure zings straight through me and into my core when I see the desire pooling in his gaze.
The hostess walks away, mumbling something about how our waitress will be with us shortly but no one says anything.
“Should I try and stab you again?” Keira growls, her hands balled into tiny little fists.
“Didn’t work out to well for you the first time, if I remember?” Xander doesn’t even blink.
Damon seems annoyed with both of them, a frustrated sigh expelling from his lungs. “Keira, you’re not stabbing my brother. Xander, you’re not going to hurt my wife. Can’t you two just get along?”
“Nope,” they both say in unison. Their sparring match is giving me whiplash. Our waitress shows up a moment later with our drinks sitting them in front of each of us. She starts rambling on about the daily specials, but I don’t think anybody is listening to a word she is saying. The tension is thick, and Damon reaches for his glass immediately, downing half of it within seconds.
“I’ll be needing at least five more of these,” he tells the waitress, who looks at him with wide eyes. Silence settles upon the table while Xander and Keira continue to stare at each other with anger resonating in their eyes.
“Are we ready to order?” The waitress somehow gets the words out, and I know I won’t get a chance to order, so instead, I reach for my glass of water, taking a small sip.
“I’ll take a King Prime Rib, and she’ll take a Queen,” Xander orders without even blinking, his gaze still firmly on Keira.
The waitress moves her eyes to Keira, who orders next, “I’ll take an order of pineapple, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a chicken breast smothered in onions and mushrooms.”
I blink at her order. It’s so bizarre, almost as if she’s…
“Don’t mind her, she’s pregnant.” Damon laughs, all but taking the words out of my mouth. “And I’ll have a King Prime Rib as well.”
The waitress scurries away, leaving us all alone once again. I smile and mouth a congratulations at Keira from across the table. I feel Xander pull his hand away and, out of the corner of my eye, I see him reach for something with that same hand in his suit pocket. I quickly realize it’s the pill bottle holding my antibiotics. He pops the top on the bottle and hands me one without saying a word. I take it from him without a word and put it into my mouth, swallowing it down with a sip of water.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Keira all but yells.
Damon leans into her and whispers something in her ear, but that only seems to make her more livid. “No, I will not stop. Do you not see what your brother is doing to that poor girl? Are you drugging her? Seriously, Xander? You’ve ruined a lot of people’s lives. Almost mine, and your brother’s, and now you want to ruin hers, too.”
My stomach clenches at her words. She doesn’t know Xander, not like I do, and maybe that’s half the problem.
My eyes move from Keira and back to Xander. His jaw is clenched, and he grips the glass of whiskey in his hands so tightly I worry the glass will crack. To most, he would seem unfazed by her words, but I know him better than that and there is no way I can just sit here and not stick up for him. Consequences be damned… I won’t let her think any worse of him than she already does. Yes, he’s an evil man, but there is goodness inside him. I know this because I am still alive.
“It’s not like that, Keira. He’s not drugging me.”
Keira laughs, but it’s not a funny kind of laugh. “Oh, joy, he’s convinced you that he’s not some sick son of a bitch that gets off on hurting others.”
“Keira,” Damon scolds, slamming his fist down on the table, startling both Keira and me. Tears begin to well in her brown eyes, and I want to reach out and hug her just like she did me the last time I was scared. Damon mutters, “Fuck,” under his breath before he pulls her chair across the floor, bringing her body closer to his.
“Don’t bother, brother. If she wants to think the worst of me, she can. She doesn’t know me. Not really. And I can’t really blame her for being angry. I did, after all, kill her brother and threaten to kill her as well, so she does have a right to think horribly of me.” The smile Xander gives his brother sends shivers down my spine. He’s only saying these things to play up the image he wants people to see. Anything less and he’d be considered weak.