haven

Chapter 1 - The Silver Fork and the Burning Skin

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The fork was less than an inch from Vincent Hale’s mouth when Molly Harper grabbed his wrist.

Not brushed it. Not bumped the table by accident. Grabbed him.

In the middle of one of Chicago’s most expensive dining rooms, with thirty wealthy guests watching and four men employed to keep strangers from getting within arm’s reach of Vincent Hale, the plus-size waitress closed both hands around the wrist of the most feared man in the room and stopped him from taking a bite.

For half a second, nobody understood what they were seeing. Then crystal shattered. A chair scraped backward. One of Vincent’s security men reached inside his jacket.

And Molly ripped the silver fork from Vincent’s fingers.

The bite of filet landed in the middle of the white tablecloth. Dark sauce splashed across Molly’s wrist. Pain shot up her arm so violently that her knees nearly folded. Still, she did not move away.

“Don’t eat that,” she gasped.

Vincent Hale looked at the red-faced waitress standing between him and his dinner. He was forty-one, broad-shouldered, controlled, and dressed in a charcoal suit that probably cost more than Molly’s used Honda. He had the kind of face people remembered even when they desperately wished they could forget it—dark hair brushed back, a hard jaw, pale gray eyes, and the unsettling stillness of a man who had learned years ago that raising his voice was rarely necessary.

Behind him, his head of security, Grant Mercer, had already drawn his weapon.

“Molly,” whispered another server from across the room. “Oh my God.”

Grant stepped closer. “Move away from him.”

Molly heard him. She also heard her own heartbeat. But what held her attention was the burning patch spreading across her wrist where the sauce had touched her skin. That was all the confirmation she needed.

“No.”

Grant’s expression hardened. “That wasn’t a request.”

“And if I move,” Molly said, breathing through the pain, “he might touch the plate.”

Vincent’s eyes dropped to her wrist. A patch of skin was already swelling into an angry, blistered crimson. Then his gaze returned to Molly.

“What is on my food?”

Before she could answer, the kitchen doors burst open. Executive chef Arthur Bell strode into the dining room with fury painted across his face. Arthur was tall, narrow, impeccably groomed, and famous in Chicago restaurant circles for two things—his talent and his cruelty. Tonight, the second one arrived first.

“What have you done?” His voice cracked through the room.

Molly turned. Arthur saw the ruined plate, the fallen fork, and Vincent Hale sitting perfectly still. His anger instantly became something closer to panic.

“You unbelievable idiot,” Arthur snapped at Molly. “Do you have any idea whose table this is?”

“Yes.”

“You just assaulted a guest!”

“I stopped him from eating.”

Arthur rushed toward the table. “Mr. Hale, I sincerely apologize. This woman has been a problem since the day she arrived. She’s clumsy, unstable, and clearly—”

His hand reached toward the plate. Molly moved faster. She caught Arthur by the wrist and slammed his hand flat against the table. The sound echoed across the silent restaurant. Arthur screamed.

Molly leaned her weight forward and held him there. The edge of his index finger stopped less than an inch from the dark sauce.

“You want to clear the plate?” she asked.

“Get off me!”

“Then taste it.”

Arthur froze. Molly stared directly into his eyes.

“You said I ruined a perfectly good dinner. So prove it.”

“Molly,” Grant warned.

She ignored him. Arthur’s face had gone strangely pale. Molly pressed his hand a fraction closer to the sauce.

“Dip your finger in it.”

“You’re insane.”

“Then this should be easy.”

May you like

Arthur stopped struggling. That was when Vincent Hale leaned back in his chair. And smiled without amusement.

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