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“For touching you Haould go off the walls if someone touched you There is no way he would let any of us hire you to work there, Gracie But if you really want to get a job, why don’t you ask Uncle Jack? I’m sure he’d—”

I held up oing to ask Jack for anything I didn’t want anything to do with Raven’s honorary uncle and the randfather In my eyes he had been no better than my fath

er’s family He’d turned his back on my mother when she needed hiive that “Don’t,” I murmured softly, but it seemed to have the same effect on Raven as if I’d screamed it at her

She snapped her e to take out a carton of orange juice “Okay then If you are set on getting a job I have a few places we can check in on to see if they are hiring Let o”

“This early?” I asked, glancing out theto see that the sun had yet to rise It was barely six in theI’d been up since before three Surely no one ould be willing to hire me would be up this early?

“Aggie’s has already been open for a few hours,” Raven assured me “She always needs more waitresses It’s hard work and your feet will probably be throbbing by the end of the day, but she pays her girls well and the tips are a hell of a lot better than if you worked at the bar Plus, when school starts back she will be willing to ith you around your schedule”

I glanced down at my pajaet , I put down e”

“Jeans and a T-shirt will be fine And sneakers So comfortable,” Raven called after me as I rushed up the stairs to Hawk’s room

He was still sound asleep, lightly snoring My heart contracted at the sight of hily my body started to hum with a need I still wasn’t sure I understood I shouldn’t want hi raped by tistedly sick freaks Yet I did I wanted hi I’d ever wanted before in my entire life

Figures that the one man I’d ever wanted, ever cared about, wouldn’t want me back

Quietly Ia pair of jeans and the first T-shirt that wasthe top two drawers that Hawk had givenwith a pair of socks before going into the bathrooed I pulled ht ponytail and brushed my teeth

Haas still sound asleep in the same spot when I silently closed the door behind me

Raven was standing by the door when I caer already in her hand Those olive-green eyes scanned over rinned and nodded “You’ll do,” she assured me with a wink and opened the door

While I’d never been there ie’s on several occasions over the last two ht me lunch from there more than once It was possibly the best food I’d ever tasted in ourmet chefs and five-star restaurants, that said a lot When Raven pulled into the parking lot, which was al with a mixture of motorcycles and vehicles, I was left speechless from the outside look of the place It definitely wasn’t what I’d been expecting It looked like a truck stop, hteen-wheelers parked across the road in an even larger parking lot The outside of the building looked like an overly large shack with a sign on top ale as a billboard that proclaiie’s”

Honestly, it looked like you needed a shot of penicillin and an antacid just to enter the place

Raven smirked aton the inside than it is on the outside Aggie is a nut She likes scaring people off with the outside trappings that suggest that if you dare eat here you risk walking aith food poisoning or even a bullet lodged sohed, andthrough my head in horror when I’d first seen the place “Relax Neither of those will happen Not only is Aggie the best cook in all of Northern Cali, she also has one of the Angels as her short-order cook at all hours of the day No one ie’s It’s known to everyone that this place in under club protection”

“O-kay,” I ain As soon as my door was open I was overwhele, steak… It srowled almost painfully

Raven led the way into the restaurant As soon as the door opened and I stepped inside the shack I felt terrible about my earlier assu I’d been expecting since the parking lot was so full What I hadn’t been expecting was the overall cleanliness of the place It was so clean that I was sure even the floors were cleaner than some restaurants’ plates and utensils were

With everyone talking and laughing, the softly playing country h the speakers overhead and the sounds co from the kitchen, I couldn’t really hear n at the entrance that said for patrons to seat theht to the back where a booth was e out of a little basket where salt, pepper, ketchup, hot sauce, and packets of sweetener were stored