Still a Bad Boy: A New Adult Romantic Suspense Read Online Free Page A

laid my hands flat on the table to keep them steady while I braced myself to pour on whatever charm I could muster.
    The young couple who had been at the front desk walked between the tables, led by a waiter, talking loudly and all puffed up with self-importance.  They both looked a little on the merry side and the woman stumbled on her high heels as she was passing our table.
    Her thigh bumped the edge and my glass of wine toppled straight into my lap.  I yelped at the sudden cold on my thighs and scrambled for a napkin.
    The woman regained her balance and brought her hand to her mouth, looking like she was going to say sorry for a second.  Then she looked me up and down, and seemed to decide that you don’t need to apologize to people below your station or something.
    “Be careful!” I said.
    Well, she didn’t like that.  “What’s your problem?”
    “What do you think? You just spilled my drink all over my skirt!”
    She laughed.  “Well, it’s not like it was a very nice skirt.  It looks like it came out of some bargain bin.”
    I could feel all eyes on me, but not in a good way like when Jace looked at me.  All that attention drawn to my cheap clothes.  I had got the skirt from a bargain bin.
    “It was a nice skirt,” I murmured, already certain of defeat.
    “Hey, don’t disrespect my fiancé,” said the man with her.
    I looked up at him and then between the two of them.  I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, the shame of it all.  All around me, people were watching, some of them looked uncomfortable, some of them merely interested.  A few seemed to be enjoying the way the riff-raff was being put in her place.
    I was going to flirt with the hottest guy I’d ever seen in real life.  I was going to have fun, let myself pretend he really wanted me, and get the interview of the century all at the same time.
    Instead, I thought I was probably about five seconds away from running out that front door sobbing.

Chapter 6
    Jace
    I was going to fucking detonate .  Three guys dead and Santino escaped? Since when did he turn into a fucking ninja?
    Lorenzo called from the warehouse.  Apparently he and Roydon arrived just in time for Santino to catch Roydon with a lucky headshot from long range as he was getting out of the car.
    Lorenzo shot back, but Santino managed to get to a car and got away.  Unbelievable.  Now, instead of information and one more dead Picolli, I had to send a clean-up crew in to take care of the mess.
    That was a damn shame about Roydon.  He was a tough kid and I had the feeling he hated the Picollis almost as much as I did.  Fuckin’ shot.
    When I came inside out of the cool air, I was just in time to see Coralie leaving her front desk and rushing into the restaurant.  I was close behind and my brow furrowed when I saw that it was our table that seemed to be the center of attention.
    Some loudmouth asshole and his whore girlfriend were standing over Kendall, with a waiter nearby.  They were all talking at once, pointing fingers.  The guy was talking about respect and was getting more and more in Kendall’s face even as Coralie arrived and tried to pull him back.
    “I didn’t pay five hundred dollars a seat to reserve a table just so I would have to look at the damn help eating in the same room.  I didn’t know Luc Monette’s was giving out coupons now.”
    Kendall looked terrified, like she was reliving some schoolyard bullying memory.  Worst of all, there was this… acceptance on her face, in the near-sobbing quiver of her lip.  It was almost as if life dished up this kind of shame to her all the time and nothing ever changed.  Nobody ever helped.
    A sexy girl like her should have had the world eating out of the palm of her hand.  That light I saw in her eyes when she noticed me checking her out shouldn’t be extinguishable by the likes of these people.
    I was surprised at how much that affected me.  I wasn’t surprised at how murderously fucking