You'll Never Be Alone

Dinner With The Snakes

Dinner With The Snakes

I hated nice, expensive restaurants. They always cheated you out for more money than need be and the food doesn't always taste that good. Yet, here I was, finding myself in the middle of a nice, expensive restaurant with Seth by my side, waiting for Richie and Santanico.

"I still don't see why we're doing this?" Seth said, a sigh leaving his lips as we sat.

As much as I agreed, I had to say something positive, otherwise we'd both get up and walk out. "Because, your uncle said that if we make amends with them and work together then he'll give us a good case. Now, you do want a good case, right?"

Seth sighed, glancing at me before looking at the empty table. "Yeah, but I'd like Snake one and Snake two to not be a part of it."

"One dinner. And if things go south then we can leave," I said, taking his hand in mine and giving it a small squeeze. Seth looked at our hands, giving me one small squeeze before nodding.

His eyes moved back to me, "You owe me."

"I'll pay you when we get back," I said with a smirk, making Seth's grumpy face turn into a smile. Then, Santanico and Richie walked in, wiping his smile away.

As Santanico approached us with Richie, my hand left Seth's and focused on Santanico who looked pissed to be here. "Santanico, long time no see."

"Katherine. Somehow it doesn't surprise me that you stuck around with Seth," She said, giving me a small forced smile before sitting down across from me. Richie took the seat next to her, sitting across from Seth.

Before any of us could open our mouths, the waiter walked over with a smile. "Evening guys, welcome to Char. I'm Todd. Uh, any questions on the menu so far?"

"Nope. I'm gonna have the ribeye. Medium rare. Beefsteak tomato and onion to start. Garlic mash on the side," Seth said, setting down his menu and then pointing to me. "She's gonna have the petit filet with the pear and manchego salad."

My head turned to Seth, "I can order for myself you know."

"Okay," Seth says, gesturing for me to order something else.

I bite my lip, turning to the waiter. It then hit me that what I would have ordered was that anyways. A small sigh left my lips, "What he said." I don't have to look behind me to know that he's nodding and probable trying not to smile a little.

The waiter nods, writing it down before moving to Santanico and Richie. "What for you guys?"

"We'll split the Porterhouse. Rare. And, uh Lyonnaise potatoes," Richie says, setting down the menu.

"Salad with that?"

"Wine," Santanico said, grabbing the waiter's attention. "Your oldest red."

Smiling, the waiter nodded, "Right on. I will be back with you in a second." Just like that, he turned and left.

Richie let out a sigh, "Okay. Let's get down to it. Jacknife Jed's. It's a truck stop. It is also a front for a very large, very old outfit run by Amancio Malvado, who is, for lack of a better word, the mark. Why are we all here talking about it? Because if we want to use Uncle Eddie's intel, we need to work together. It's the Gecko Brothers and him, or it's nobody. We still have plenty of recon to do, but it's a safe bet that Malvado's got his loot underground, in some sort of ancient stash."

Santanico shook her head, looking at Richie frustrated, "This is pointless. Why are we even discussing this with them?"

Seth lightly glared at Santanico, "Because Eddie said we had to eat about it, all right? It's a thing he picked up, back in the day, when he was a roadie with Los Lobos. Any time the band would get stuck on a song, couldn't write a hook, or figure out a lyric, they'd have a meal. They'd figure it out. We used to do the same before every job," Seth gestured towards his brother.