She waved a hand. “Gross. I don’t want to know anymore.”
“I had to throw a couple of way because, you know . . .”
Liv faked a gag. “Teenage boys are so gross.”
“It ain’t easy. One day you’ve got this interesting thing hanging between your legs that lets you piss outside and write your name in the snow, and the next it’s controlling your every thought.”
“Yes, poor men, can’t use their brains because all the blood goes straight to their dicks.”
He peered at her through narrowed eyes. “Do you really hate men?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“No. But I should. I’ve never met one worth trusting.”
He tilted his head. “Not even Gavin?”
“Gavin might be the only one. And maybe Hop. But that’s it.”
“What about your father?”
Liv smiled. “Your turn.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Subtle.”
She took a sip of her coffee. “How’d you get the money to open a club so young?”
“Dang, that’s personal.”
“You just told me that you used to jerk off to romance novels as a teenager.”
“True.” He leaned back in his chair. “I got lucky, basically.”
“Win the lottery or something?”
“Sort of. I was working as a bouncer for an older man. He was looking to retire, didn’t have any kids of his own, decided to help me out.”
“And you turned that into four major nightclubs?”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t sound like luck. That sounds like hard work and smart management.”
“Did you just compliment me again?”
Liv stood with an annoyed groan. “And now I regret it.”
Mack made a big play of patting his pockets. “I need a pen. I need to document this moment.”
The door swung open again, and Liv sucked in a breath. Jessica. She looked like every other college girl in the place in her yoga pants and oversize sweatshirt. The one main difference was the haunted look in her eyes. Her shoulders literally hunched under the weight of her backpack and, probably, the secret she was carrying.
Mack followed her gaze. “That’s her?”
Liv nodded.
Mack’s fingers tightened on his cup. “Christ, she’s young.”
They watched silently as Jessica approached the counter to order. She hoisted her backpack higher on one shoulder, and as she did, her eyes scanned the coffee shop, presumably for an open table. Liv tensed in anticipation of the moment Jessica spotted her, but the girl’s eyes scanned over her as if she didn’t notice or didn’t recognize Liv.
Probably the latter. It was amazing how many people didn’t recognize her when she put on her chef’s hat, so it only made sense that Jessica wouldn’t recognize her out of it. The barista called her name, and Jessica picked up her coffee. There was an open table toward the back by the hallway to the bathrooms.
Liv watched for another minute as Jessica got settled at the table, pulled out her laptop and a notebook, and took a sip of her coffee.
“How are we going to do this?” Mack asked.
“Let me talk to her first. I’ll wave at you when you can come over.”
She set her coffee down and stood. A sudden wave of nerves brought a shaky breath from her chest. Mack reached over and gripped her hand. “You okay?”
“Fine.” She pulled her hand back, not so much because she disliked the feel of his fingers on hers but because she liked it too much.
She was nearly all the way to Jessica’s table before the girl noticed. Up close, recognition came fast. Jessica’s eyes widened. “What are you doing here?”
“Can I sit down?” Liv asked, motioning to the open chair.
Jessica’s eyes darted about. “I can’t talk to you.”
“No one knows I’m here.”
“How’d you find me?”
“I just want to talk,” Liv said.
“What do you want?” Jessica’s tone was frantic, not rude.
“To make sure you’re all right.”
Jessica’s eyes sparked.
“You’re right,” Liv said, claiming the chair. “Stupid thing to say.”
“I have to study,” Jessica complained.
“I want to help you.”
“There’s nothing to help with. I told you there was nothing going on.” The tremble in her fingers as she clutched her pen said otherwise.
“I know what I heard and what I saw. I also know that you’re terrified.”
“I just want you to leave me alone.”
“I can’t. Not until I make Royce pay for what he did. What he has probably done before.”
Jessica’s eyes widened, her earlier suspicion replaced by outright panic. “How?”
Good question. “I’m working on it.”
Jessica shook her head and started packing up her things. “Just leave it alone.”
“I’m going to protect you. I promise. I just want you to know that you don’t have to put up with this.”
Jessica’s lip trembled. “My mom is so proud that I work there. I-I’m the first person in my family to go to college, and when I got this job, my mom told everyone. I can’t tell her about this. If I quit, she’ll want to know why, and—”
“Your mother would not want you to have to endure what Royce is doing to you.”
Jessica bit her lip again as if to stave off tears. “Please. Just leave me alone.”
She stood. Liv reached out and grasped her wrist. “Wait.”
Jessica stopped but refused to look at Liv.
“What if you had another job to go to? Would you at least consider leaving?”
“I don’t know.”
“You see that man over there?” Liv turned and pointed at Mack. He lifted a hand in a casual, friendly wave and then stood. “He’s a friend. If you’re worried about money, he will give you a job.”
Jessica sat back down as Mack approached. He stopped a respectful distance away and extended his hand. “Braden Mack.”
Jessica’s hand trembled as she placed it in his.
“Nice to meet you. Can I sit down?” He pointed at the other empty chair.
She nodded. Mack met Liv’s eyes as he rounded the table and gave her a small smile. “Liv told me a little about what happened,” he said quietly, sitting.
Jessica shot a betrayed glare in Liv’s direction.
“No one else knows,” he said reassuringly. “You can trust me.”
“Mack owns a whole bunch of nightclubs and bars in the area,” Liv said.
Mack dug a business card from his wallet and slid it across the table. “My main office is at Temple. It’s one of my nightclubs.”
Jessica nodded. “I know that one.”
“I also own several other smaller clubs.”
Jessica bit her lip. “What kind of jobs do you have?”
“I’ll make one up for you, if necessary.”
“You’d do that for me?” Her voice held the awestruck tone of a girl who’d just met a superhero. Liv sort of understood because, in that moment, she sort of felt the same.
“You can start today if you want. You never have to go back to Royce Preston.”
And just like that, the spell was broken. The utterance of Royce’s name seemed to break something inside her. Jessica shook her head and shoved Mack’s card in her pocket. “I need this job. The pay is better than anywhere else I can find, and the connections . . .”
“I know,” Liv said. “It’s the same reason I started working there too. You think your career is golden if you work for the great Royce Preston. But look at what it’s costing you. No job is worth that.”
Jessica’s lips pinched together in a tight line. “Or maybe you just want revenge. You want to use me to get back at him for firing you. He said you would try it.”
“Are you defending him right now?” At that, Mack reached over and squeezed Liv’s knee.
“Do you know what he could do to me?” Jessica fired back. “All I want is to be a chef, like you. He’ll ruin me.”
“Not if we ruin him first.”
“See? You just want to hurt him. I used to hear you talking in the kitchen. You hate Royce. You always have.”
“Trust me, Jessica. The easiest thing I could’ve done that night is walk away. I got absolutely nothing out of defending you.” Mack’s fingers dug into her knee. She glared at him, and he responded with a tiny shake of his head.
Jessica snapped her laptop shut. “I wish you had just walked away.” She hauled her backpack onto her lap and started shoving things inside.
Liv leaned toward her. “Jessica, he can’t be allowed to get away with this. Who knows how many other women he has done this to? Doesn’t that matter at all to you?”
“That’s not my problem.” She rose from her chair.
“Let us help you,” Mack said calmly.
“You want to help me?” Jessica slung her backpack over one shoulder. “Leave me the hell alone.”
“Jessica—” Liv said.
Mack squeezed her knee again. “Let her go. We can’t force her.”
Liv rubbed her eyes. “Now what?”
Mack stood. “Now I get you some barbecue.”
CHAPTER NINE
An hour later, Liv took out her frustrations on an unsuspecting pulled pork sandwich while sitting in Mack’s office. The thud-thud-thud of the base from the live band made her insides shake and her glass of lemonade ripple.
“I don’t get it,” she said, mouth full. “Why won’t she leave? What possible reason would someone have to want to let him get away with it?”
Mack dipped a fry in ketchup. “Fear is a powerful motivator.”
“But we’re giving her a way out. What’s there to be afraid of?”