From The Shadows (From The Shadows #1) by Line F. Nielsen Read Free Book Online Page A

kind of strange, it being a Monday and all. But I suppose it was because kids were finally out of school for the summer and that meant lots of families had vacation as well. Plus I think I heard something about there being a very important conference happening in our fair town as well.
    But well that meant we were going to be busy most of the day and that was just fine with me. It meant less time to think and more tips... oh yes and no being bored today!
    I always preferred the lunch shift because it often brought a nicer crowd; families, women on lunch dates with their friends and young couples. No drunks. Well, not most of the time anyway. Actually in general we didn’t get many drunks at the evenings either, but it happened. How could it not when we were serving pizza; the cure for hangovers? We also did have a little bar.
    I was on a break when my boss Mr. Leban came in to ask me if I would be up for taking the dinner shift as well. Of course I was, I needed the extra money, I knew I wouldn’t have to be heading home alone in the dark, now that Nathan had insisted to pick me up, and I had kind of suspected that I would be asked to take the shift now with Sasha sick and all. Mr. Leban was a really nice older man whom I almost thought of as a father figure, and I was really glad to be working for him. He was a pretty small man both of height and frame, and he had a heavy Italian accent, which I had had my trouble understanding at first.
    “Bella what did you do for fine settimana?” He asked.
    And because I didn’t want to drag him into my drama I simply told him. “I spent the weekend at my mate Nathan’s place just chilling out and went to Hard Rock Café for a bit of dancing. How was your weekend?”
    “I had la mia famiglia on una visita. My mamma, my sorella Lisa…” He stopped talking mid phrase because we heard something not quite right coming from the dining room and both decided to go figure out what was happening when I heard a voice I knew a little too well..
    “GET ME NIKKI! I KNOW she is here!” an angry, roaring voice nearly yelled. Shit, I was right; Mike had come to look for me and he was drunk. Nothing new there.
    Mr. Leban looked over his shoulder at me and I looked at him with eyes I think said it all because he told me to go back to the break room and that he would try to get Mike out of here. He already had seen Mike on a few of his less bad days and he had tried to tell me multiple times that I deserved better and asked if I really was sure I wanted a guy that bad in my life. He had even helped Nathan “save” me one or two times. So I told him I was going to call Nathan and he just nodded and went on to the dining room.
    “Nikki what’s wrong?” Nathan answered on the second ring probably because he knew that I in no way could be off from work already. I had only been in the restaurant for 4 hours.
    “Mike’s here… Mr. Leban went to try to get him out of here but he sounds really drunk Nate… and I don’t think I am up for facing that right now... he sounds REALLY pissed too”
    “Okay I’ll be there in five minutes, stay where you are”
    “Nate don’t drive too fast okay?!”
    I could hear Nathan swearing under his breath and I knew, because he wanted to kill Mike right now, it really pissed him off that I was thinking about his safety more than my own at this moment.
    “Yea yea.. BUT YOU STAY WHERE YOU ARE! I MEAN IT” And then he ended the call.
    So typical men, I thought. But I liked that Nathan wanted to protect me, but seriously did he really think I would just jump in there when I knew it would only be to receive verbally punishment. I was not that stupid.
    It didn’t matter though because a few minutes later I heard heavy footsteps coming down the hall followed by Mr. Leban’s voice “Tu cannot go in there, È per il personale”.
    “I don’t give a damn” It came from Mike as the door to the break room was slammed open and I looked around for a place to