Page 54 of Promised To A Menace

She didn't give me shit else after that. She just kept eating like I wasn't sitting there, so I let her have her little attitude while I finished my food.

“So, shorty, let me ask you something.”

“What?”

“If you go back to work, can I trust you to stay with the security I put on you and not try to ditch his ass?”

Her eyes lifted to mine. “I don't know. Can you?”

I chuckled. “If you asking me, hell nah.”

She rolled her eyes again, but I kept talking.

“Look, I know yo' ass wanna work, and I'm not trying to have you lose your job behind some shit you didn't ask to be involved in. So, I'm willing to make sure you can get there and back safely.”

“Willing?” Her eyebrows went up. “I'm grown, Cassian.”

“I'm aware.” I held her stare. “But you also got a nigga you don't know asking questions about you and somebody following you in a black truck. So right now, I don't give a fuck about you reminding me you're grown. I care about keeping yo' ass safe.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it again.

“You can go to work,” I continued. “But security goes with you. You don't leave without him, you don't send his ass away, and you damn sure don't try no slick shit thinking you can lose him somewhere. If you need to go somewhere, you tell him. That's all I'm asking.”

“And if I don't?”

I looked at her over my glass. “Then we're gonna have another problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

The corner of my mouth lifted. “That little room downstairs still available.”

Her fork slowly lowered to her plate.

“Cassian, I swear to God.”

“What?” I shrugged, enjoying the look she was giving me. “You asked.”

“You fucking crazy.”

“Probably.” I picked my fork back up. “But I bet yo' ass don't wanna sleep down there again.”

“Fuck you.”

“There you go with that shit again.” I shook my head, laughing. “Keep offering, shorty. One day I might take you up on it.”

She sucked her teeth and went back to her food, but not before giving me another one of those looks.

I wasn’t expecting her to suddenly start listening to every damn thing I said. She had a job, a sister, and a life outside my house. I just needed to know she was protected when she went back to it.

She could cuss me out and call me every crazy motherfucker in the book. That wasn't changing how I handled her safety.

“I guess,” she finally said, pushing the last of her food around her plate. “But I'll think about it.”

“Bet.” I nodded. “Let me know what you decide, and I'll get everything set up.”

She didn't say anything else. Once she finished eating, she got up from the island, carried her plate over to the sink, and started washing her dishes.

After Shakaylen finished washing her dishes, she headed back upstairs to her room. I thought about giving her phone back, but I wasn’t too sure about that shit just yet. After everything she’d pulled, I didn’t trust her ass not to get on the phone and come up with another way to leave. She was going to have to earn some of that trust back first.