Stake You

Chapter Seven

When I left for work the next morning, I had that feeling. As though someone was staring at me from the distance, and it made me twitchy. But at least I would be home early enough. I fully planned on locking all of the windows and doors as soon as I got in.

Yet as I made my way to the pub, I wondered if I was being paranoid, if I had worked everything up in my head. Maybe my mother’s insecurities were hereditary or something. After all, Sully had pretty much left me alone. Only problem with that was him having a new target.

The weekend cleaner had already swept through the pub by the time I got there. With an evil smirk on her face, she warned me she had left the bathrooms for me. Lovely.

After scrubbing up vomit, blood, and God knew what off the bathroom floor, I pushed through the rest of the pub, attacking whatever the cleaner had started… but not finished. She did it every time she saw I had been rostered for the day because she knew she would get away with it. I would rather do her job than have the day start with a filthy pub.

Bitch.

After the cleanup, the only other floor staff for that afternoon turned up, and I moved into the kitchen to start the soup. The chef didn’t start early enough on a Sunday, at least in my opinion, and I had to prep for him. Which sucked. Every week.

By the time he turned up, I had already chopped up everything and started on the sandwiches. He hated when I did that.

“I told you I didn’t want to do sandwiches this week,” he roared at me from the kitchen door.

“Tough shit. It’s on the menu. You want to cut something out then turn up on fucking time for a change.”

“Uppity bitch,” he muttered, forcibly moving me away from the food.

“And don’t forget the dinner menu’s already up. Get it ready after lunch.”

I left the kitchen with a grin on my face. His slurs were worth it if it meant I had ruined his day. I hated lazy people, and he was part-sloth.

The afternoon passed by quietly. A few regulars, one or two families. I wasn’t rushed off my feet, and I got to play with a cute baby. The harried parents were so happy to eat their food without being hassled, they gave me a massive tip. Which only served to remind me of Sully’s excessive tip at the party. Which reminded me of the things he said about my mother.

I sat at the bar on my break, sipping on a cordial and emoing over Sully. If he hurt my mother, I would…

“Devlin, can I talk to you?”

“Shit.” I knocked my drink over as I swung around to see who was speaking. I couldn’t believe the relief that seeped through me when I saw it was Base. “It’s just you.”

“Who were you expecting?”

I shook my head as I cleaned up the spill. “Never mind. What are you doing here?”

“It’s about Aoife… and Sully.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah. Ah. Can we talk?”

“I have about ten minutes on my break left. Take a seat and be quick about it.”

“Still bossing me around.” But he smiled, and I was relieved we weren’t about to have a blazing row. Yet. He took a seat next to me, but he twisted a beermat into pieces, much to my silent annoyance.

“Why are you really here?”

“Sully came back, and now he’s latched on to Aoife.”

“And she’s lapping it up,” I said.