Road from Ruin

Chapter Twenty Two

DELTA

I'm starting to get slightly suspicious of my waiter. He's just a little too attentive for my liking. It might just be the wine speaking though, since he keeps coming to refill my glass. I don't think I've ever had a day like today. I've done nothing but lay in the sun, drink cool wine, dip my toes in the pool and read a smutty romance novel. It feels good but it would feel better with a certain 6'5, tattooed hottie beside me.  Speaking of the large man, I check my phone and see he's been gone just under two hours. He has eight minutes until he is deemed late.

Six minutes go by in a flash before I see a very dirty very large pair of combat boots appear before me.

"Made yourself comfortable huh?" He asks with his classic smirk.

"I was told to relax." I gesture at my surroundings. "I am relaxing."

Red laughs before reaching back, pulling off his shirt and throwing himself down beside me. He grabs my full glass of wine and downs it in seconds.

"How'd it go?" I ask under my sunglasses.

"Good. They're gunna help us. Get their shit together and send a couple guys back out east with us when we leave." He explains. I instantly feel more at ease knowing that his business is done... for now. But I'm still curious.

"Help with what exactly?" I ask tentatively.

"Oh yeah... guess I never explained what's goin on, but you deserve to know if you're gunna be in it with me." He sighs signalling down the very attentive waiter.

"Can I get two bottles of corona please? And thanks for today." He asks while he hands him a 50$ bill. The waiter just nods and turns away.

"Thanks for today? And 50$ for two beers?" I ask accusingly.

"Asked him to keep an eye on my girl today, did a good job. Figured he deserved a bigger tip than the one I gave him this morning."

"I knew something was up!" I scream. The waiter turns from the bar to look at me, clearly hearing my outburst and just smiles.

"So even when you're not here, you've got eyes on me. Not sure how I feel about that but I guess I should be grateful. Got it. Anyways, continue what you were saying." I push, holding eye contact.

"Well angel, clubs got some issues. You know what we do as a club — but some bad people have brought some drugs on to our land that is killing people. Teens to be specific. And laced in a drug we don't fuck with. So we want to fix it because that what we do, cops don't handle this shit. But it's also personal because we made it very apparent that no drugs like that get pushed on our terf. So we went to check it out, seems their operation is bigger than expected. Needed some extra numbers so here we are in Cali."
Red finishes quickly as the waiter comes to drop of his beers. He grabs one and finishes half of it in seconds.

"So this all sounds good... someone's messing with you guys and hurting people but you're getting help and going to fix this so why are you chugging the drinks?" I ask playfully, trying to lighten the mood from the fact that he just told me he's about to enter some sort of drug war.

"Just catching up to you girl, and we're relaxin remember? Let's finish up these drinks, go up to the room and get nice and dressed up. I'm takin you on another date." He says with a wink, but I don't believe him. He's worried, I can tell.

—

We're sat down at the restaurant across the street, a nice steak house with an ambiance fancy enough trust I don't feel over dressed in my tight black cocktail dress. Something I bought a few years ago, but never had the nerve to wear in front of Dean in fear of judgment. Red sits across from me in a black button up and black jeans, looking like a walking GQ ad. I know our waitress has noticed just how beautiful he is, but his gruffness has slightly scared her off like it does most people. He orders a nice bottle of red wine with a few appetizers. Before the waitress turns to leave I ask "May we also get two shots of Patron please? We're celebrating."