Chapter 88

Erin’s POV

My heart was racing, and my body was growing warm to the point where I knew my face was probably cherry red. There was broken glass lingering on the ground around me. I watched as some blood from the palm of my hand began to pool together and mix in with the broken glass.

I stared at the cut on my hand with a frown and watched as my wolf healed it right away. Soon, it was like there was never a cut there. I carefully stood to my feet, trying to not get cut again, and stepped away from the broken dishes.

I stared up at the woman who had tripped me and tried to not snarl at her.

Her icy blue eyes poured into me as she laughed.

“Oops,” she sneered. “My apologies.”

She began to walk away and toward the front of the restaurant. I clenched my fists together; it was taking everything I had not to lose control and retaliate. But I had to keep calm and stay in character.

To everyone here, I was just the weak waitress; I had to keep up the act.

“What happened?” Kelsey asked as she came into the backroom. She paused when she saw the broken glass and the blood on the ground. “Oh, my goddess. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I tell her, trying to keep the annoyance off my face. “I just tripped.”

She frowned and stared around my face for a moment. I knew she wasn’t believing me.

“I’ll clean this up,” I tell her, rushing to get the broom and dustpan. “I feel so embarrassed.”

“Don’t be embarrassed,” she said, still with a small frown on her face. “Are you sure you’re feeling well enough to return to work?”

“Yes,” I answered a little too quickly. “I’m honestly fine.”

I wasn’t going to throw my coworker under the bus, and I’d prefer to just pretend this never happened. I grabbed the broom and dustpan and cleaned the broken dishes off the ground.

I managed to save a few dishes and wash them just in time for the restaurant to open. As I reached the front of the restaurant, I saw the coworker that tripped me chuckling with a couple of other coworkers.

They were looking over in my direction and whispering. I rolled my eyes and kept my focus on my work tasks.

They were acting like we were in high school, and I couldn’t help but be annoyed by it. But I wasn’t going to say anything to them.

“I heard her husband left her because she’s in love with Gavin Pierce,” I heard one of them whispering to the other.

My face warmed at their words, but I still paid them no attention.

“Do you honestly think Gavin Pierce would ever go for someone like that? Besides he has a girlfriend,” the other coworker said.

“He broke up with Susanna.”

“Not Susanna. He was spotted with a pretty redhead going into a hotel room the other day,” she said, lowering her tone even more.

My heart fell into my stomach at their words.

A pretty redhead?

I don’t remember ever seeing a pretty redhead around Gavin.

Unless I was missing something.

“They are just trying to get a rise out of us,” Emily reassured me. “Gavin isn’t seeing anyone. He’s our mate. He loves us and always will.”

Even though I knew Emily was speaking the truth, I still felt a little uneasy hearing that Gavin was with another woman.

Especially considering he just recently proposed to me.

“Maybe that’s why she’s been out for more than a week; because she was absolutely sick over the fact that she let Gavin slip through her fingers,” one of my coworkers laughed, causing the others to laugh as well.

At this point, I stopped cleaning the tables and turned to face them.

“Don’t you ladies have something else to do other than stand around and gossip?” I asked, folding my arms across my chest.

This only made them laugh even harder.

“It’s true, isn’t it? You’re heartbroken that Gavin Pierce chose someone else over you? You lost your chances with him… and you lost your husband. How pathetic for you.”

“I’m still very much married and my husband and I are just fine,” I answered. “But that’s none of your concern. As for Gavin, I don’t care who he sleeps with. We are just friends… nothing more.”

I turned away and continued to clean the tables.

“Is that why you spent the night at his packhouse?” One of them asked, folding her arms across her chest and raising her brows at me. “You forget how small this part of the kingdom is and there’s eyes and ears everywhere. You can’t keep something like that a secret. You were caught going into his packhouse and then not leaving until days later. You can’t deny it.”

“I can promise you that Gavin is just a friend,” I muttered, not looking in their direction.

“So, you weren’t hiding there because your husband kicked you out of your house?”

I snapped a look at them; how could they possibly know this information? It wasn’t disclosed to anybody.

She was bluffing; I could tell on her face that she was bluffing. I wasn’t going to fall for her tricks.

Just as I was about to say something, the door chime went off and a couple of customers walked into the restaurant.

I breathed relief knowing I didn’t need to speak about this anymore.

I seat the customers and took their orders.

The restaurant started to get busy, which preoccupied my coworkers as well. But even as busy as I was, I couldn’t help but think about Gavin and that supposed pretty red-headed woman he was with.

I had no idea there was another woman, besides Susanna, in his life. The thought left an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach.

But I tried not to show it as I worked.

I kept my focus and tried to focus on my main mission with Henry. Tonight, we agreed that we were going to do a little research and find out more about the vessels the Slayers had created. What is making it so Gavin’s powers don’t work on them?

It would be a lot easier if Gavin knew the truth and worked with us to figure this out. Theo was right when he suggested that we should try to recruit him for this mission. But I wasn’t sure if telling Gavin the truth about me was a good idea.

Henry didn’t seem to be all that on board with it either.

Plus, the last time I went to see Gavin, it was like he was rushing me away. He wanted nothing to do with me, that much was clear.

But maybe it was because I just showed up to his house unannounced.

That’s never bothered him before though.

Or maybe because that redheaded woman was there. But wouldn’t Tyler have said something if Gavin was with another woman?

My mind was whirling, and I just wanted it to stop.

I didn’t realize that it was already sundown, and the dinner rush was complete. Per usual, I took half the tips and left the other half for Kelsey before heading into the backroom to collect my things.

Thankfully, I was able to avoid my coworkers while grabbing my stuff and leaving the restaurant. The first thing I did was grab my phone and call Gavin. I wanted to ask him if we could meet up and talk; maybe if we have an actual conversation and lay everything on the table, I can decide whether or not I want to recruit him or not.

I waited for what felt like an eternity while his phone rang, and then it stopped ringing.

“Hello?” Said an unfamiliar voice.

My heart fell deep into the pit of my stomach.

It was a woman’s voice.