Watercolour Smile by Jane Washington Page B

guy who looks like that.”
    The older brothers mumbled their agreement and I obediently sat back, sinking closer to the younger boy beside me as Hunter stormed past. I sat up on my knees to look over the booth as she made her way to the car. She glanced around upon realising that I wasn’t there, and then shrugged and got in, speeding away in a cloud of gravel. Well, there went that plan.
    “Great,” I mumbled, as the phone in my pocket vibrated with a missed call.
    Silas had turned back to the bar, but he seemed to be doubly as tense as he had been when I had snuck in. I pressed a button to return Quillan’s call and climbed over the boy next to me, settling myself into the corner of the booth as the dial tone sounded in my ear. Strangely, the family didn’t seem to mind me inserting myself into their group, though the boy’s eyes had grown wide as saucers. The brother on my right side shuffled a little closer, leaning forward on the table like he was shielding me from the rest of the bar.
    “Hello?” I whispered as someone picked up.
    “Talk to me,” Quillan said. “I’ve got you on speaker.”
    “You didn’t tell me Hunter was… whatever. It would have been nice to know exactly how she calms him down, prior to watching what I just had to watch.”
    “She was supposed to keep you in the car.” Quillan sounded angry.
    “Well he pushed her off a bar stool, and she just sped away in a storm of gravel. So what the hell do I do now?”
    “Where are you?”
    “In the bar.”
    “Of course you are.”
    “I’m fine,” I grumbled. “I found some friends.”
    “What friends?” Noah spoke up for the first time, sounding apprehensive.
    I sighed, rubbing my temple. “Please just tell me what to do.”
    “Get the hell out of that bar before he sets his sights on someone,” Cabe said.
    “What do you mean sets his sights on someone ?”
    “He’s getting drunk so that his senses are dulled and his reflexes are hampered,” Quillan answered.
    “Why would he do that?”
    “So that fighting will be more of a challenge.”
    “So he’s going to wait until he’s drunk enough that he won’t kill someone and then he’ll get into a fight?”
    “Most likely he’ll pick a group of friends and then try to piss them all off. It won’t matter how drunk he is if the guy he picks doesn’t have any backup. They’ll still end up dead.”
    “Okay, well, great. This is fantastic. I’m going to go do something stupid now.”
    They all started speaking at the same time, but I ignored them. I hung up the phone and climbed back over the boy. I started to move off, and then paused, quickly pulling off the button-up I wore over my camisole . It wasn’t exactly Hunter-level, but it was… well, it was still just me. I tossed the shirt onto the table and walked to the stool that Hunter had ungraciously vacated. Silas’s shoulders slumped the second I sat down. He didn’t turn his head.
    “Angel…” he murmured, dropping his head to the bar. “I thought I was going crazy. I’ve been smelling your damned shampoo for the last five minutes.”
    My shampoo ?
    I thought about touching his back, to soothe him, but the memory of Hunter’s pale hand gliding over the stiff muscles stopped me. I clutched my hands in my lap, squeezing them between my thighs.
    “I’m here,” I said.
    He straightened, moving for his glass. I shot out a hand and snatched it up first, tipping it to my lips and finishing all of it. The vodka burned down my throat and made my eyes water. I coughed once before setting it back down in front of him before the bartender saw me holding it. He regarded me with the same animalistic expression in his eyes, the usual darkness deepening into something that twitched with restless premeditation.
    “I need you to leave,” he said levelly.
    “No,” I replied, slipping off the stool and standing before him, my hands landing hesitantly on his out-turned knee.
    I was simply using his body to hide from the