Page 23 of Vandal Unbound

You’re okay, Daisy. Get up.

I wince, lifting my hands off the floor, when the man takes a step toward me.

Dark boots and jeans with frayed hems appear in front of me. “Take another step forward, and it’ll be the last one you take.”

Vandal.

He turns to face me, puts his hands beneath my arms, and lifts me to my feet like I weigh nothing. “You okay, Daisy?” he asks. His pupils are blown wide, and I have a feeling he’s on something.

“I’m good.” I peer around Vandal. “I really am sorry, sir. I’ll get you some cloths and water, and I’ll pay for your next round myself to apologize.”

Annie chooses that moment to arrive with some supplies. Cloths for him, and a mop and bucket for me.

“You need to hire better staff,” the man says. “She’s incompetent and gonna cost you customers.”

Annie looks around the full bar. “It’s one thirty on a Wednesday. Bar’s doing fine with her in it. Maybe it’s different customers I need.”

“Oh no,” I say, panic rising in my throat. I need this job. I don’t want to cost her customers. “You don’t need to?—”

“Kick him out, Vandal,” Annie says.

I try to step by Vandal to make this right, but he puts his arm out to stop me without even looking. “You heard the lady. You got three seconds to walk out of here under your own steam, or I’ll be happy to break both your legs and carry you out.”

Havoc comes to stand on the other side of me but doesn’t say anything. He simply looms.

“We already ordered our food,” the man says.

Which makes me feel a million times worse.

Even more waste.

Even more money lost.

“I’ll pay for it,” Vandal says.

“No, I’ll?—”

“Easy,” Havoc mutters beside me. “Let him.”

“One,” Vandal says. “Two…”

He doesn’t have to saythree. They are up and out of the bar as if it were on fire.

He turns to face me, but Havoc squeezes his shoulder. “Come sit, the food’s out.”

“One second,” Vandal says. “You go ahead.” He waits for Havoc to leave us, then trails me to the bar. “You okay, Daisy? That must have hurt.”

Emotions snowball. The remaining ache from the fall, the humiliation of everyone watching, the fear I felt on the floor as the man stepped toward me, and the panic at the scene and inconvenience I just caused Annie.

I can’t seem to get a grip on the rational feelings that it was an accident.

That everyone just supported me.

I shrug out of his hold. “I’m fine. And I don’t need to you making a scene where I work.”

8

VANDAL