He holds his hand out for me to take, and when I do, he lifts me up for him to sit down, then pulls me in his lap. “You good, kitten?” he whispers in my ear, and I shiver.
“Yes.” I clear my throat when it comes out as more of a moan than I intended to.
“Then we’re staying, I take it?” He knew all along I’d like the people he surrounds himself with.
“I’m not leaving. We’re talking about starting a book club.” I settle back on his chest, closing my eyes for a moment, and listen to the noise around me. This is what it’s like to have friends, and I know the more I’m around them, the more these people will become like the family I’ve never had.
20
MATTHEW
“Is this seat taken?” I look up from my laptop, where I’m seated at Twisted Oak. Letty picked up a few shifts before she knew about her inheritance, and since she’s working at Ophelia’s and waitressing here, this is where I’ll be in order to spend any amount of time with her.
“Jesus, you two are a pain in my ass.” Jagger and Jude slide into the booth in front of me. I close my laptop and sit back in my seat, looking at the two. I’d been waiting for Letty to have her break to eat dinner with her, and now it looks like I’m sharing it with these two boneheads.
“I could have brought in the whole gang but then thought better of it. You’d be pissed for putting Letty to work, and if we gave our business to someone else, then we’d be assholes.” Jude shrugs his shoulders.
“Plus, with the news this guy is bringing to the table, you’ll need backup. Trent will be here in a few minutes andtake out the trash.” Jagger looks from me to a guy sitting at the bar.
“Care to elaborate?” I look from one to the other.
“The guy who slashed and dashed Letty’s tires is sitting at the bar. He’s some new guy in town. Something didn’t sit right with me when shit for all came back from the cameras Twisted Oak uses. Fuckers are grainier than hell. So, with the make and models I wrote down that came in and out, I did what I do best: hacked into the Department of Transportation’s cameras. Those damn things are constantly picking up tags. Several days later, I finally got a hit.” I clench my teeth, ball my fists, and am itching to punch his face in and knock his dick in the dirt.
“Well, this is a pleasant surprise. What brings you all to Twisted Oak tonight?” Letty walks up to the table. I scoot over, and she slides in beside me. My hand instantly goes to her thigh, fingers pressing in and holding her to me. My mouth finds hers to give her a soft kiss. Fuck, my kitten, she’s everything, and truth be told, she’s probably the only reason I’m able to keep my cool.
“Ronnie’s working tonight, and Rory has an online class and told me to make myself scarce. Apparently, it’s some kind of group thing where they’re all on the Zoom call. I’ll eat here with these guys, then bring food to my Foxy,” explains, cool as a cucumber, without giving anything away. I’d rather keep this away from Letty. She’s had too much on her mind lately. I’ll end up talking to her about this and every other thing when the fucking dust settles.
“I’m here because Lyric doesn’t want to cook. Told her I’d bring dinner home, she told me to take my time. Apparently,she’s researching books to kickstart the women's folk book club.” Letty claps her hands together and lets out a little squeal of excitement.
“Okay, give me your orders. I’ll go put them in. Jude, you’re eating here. Jagger, yours and Lyrics to go?” She pulls out her notepad, and it’s then I realize this will give us ample time to deal with the shit for brains at the bar. Once she puts our orders in, Letty will work her tables until the food is ready, and then she’ll take a break.
“Yep,” Jude replies. “I’ll take the ribeye, medium rare, mashed potatoes, and house salad with a Coke, please. Do you want Ronnie’s order now, too?”
“Yes, please. I’ll tell the chef to hold it back until I process the ticket.” Letty is gorgeous every day of the week, but when she’s working and in charge, she’s fucking dynamite. “That’s cool. She’ll take the parmesan crusted chicken, loaded baked potato, and strawberry salad.”
“You and Lyric?” she asks Jagger.
“Ribeye as well, same as Jude’s, medium rare, mac and cheese, and asparagus. Lyric wants the sirloin with fries and brussels sprouts.” Jagger shakes his head. “Her food choices are weird, but I’m not questioning them.”
“I wouldn’t either. When a woman is hungry, you don’t get in her way,” Letty murmurs.
“Fucking A, you are right,” Jude acknowledges.
“What do you want?” Letty looks at me. I quirk an eyebrow and watch as she realizes what her question could refer to, it’s loaded as hell. “Food, Matthew, food.”
I lean into her, my mouth hovering near Letty’s ear. “The meal you cooked back when it all started, when you watchedme jack my cock. And, kitten, I’d much rather eat you, but this will do until we get home.” My woman gets flustered, furiously writing shit down at a pace that’s wild even for her. The tip of her tongue slides along her lower lip, and once she’s done writing, she closes her notepad, slides out of the seat, and stands up.
“I’ll get your orders in and bring your drinks around, too. It might be a few minutes since I have other tables, but I’ll join you once the food is ready.” She’s talking to the whole table, yet her eyes don’t leave mine.
“Sounds good,” Jagger says, clearing his throat. I send a wink Letty’s way, and then she’s off.
“Perfect timing. Trent just pulled up and is making his way inside now. I went ahead and sent the pictures Colt took to him. He ran some kind of test, figured out the type of knife, and gave him the make and model of the vehicle. He ran the tag himself to make it all look kosher before all of this and found out the dude has warrants. They aren’t for a simple failure to appear, either, a violation of probation situation.”
“Fucking fuck.” This is not going to go well. I can already feel it.
“Oh, it gets better. Letty was one of the three women he did what he did to. One from Twisted Oak, along with your woman, the other from Oak & Brew. Trent found out that little tidbit once he started digging some more and found the police report,” Jude finishes the story.
“And here’s our guy now,” Jagger says when he notices Trent and his partner walking toward us.
