Chapter 20 Matthew
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 and take 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 watched me 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.
“Hey, Trent, Chase, appreciate you all dealing with this,” I tell them by way of greeting.
“Hey, Matthew, Jude, Jagger. Sucks like hell with this going on and around town, no less, but especially to one of ours,” Trent states, shaking our hands.
“Happy I could help,” Jude says with smugness. Fucker deserves it, making the world a better place in one form or another. Nobody talks about what Jude has and hasn’t done. His sneaky ways are slowly working for the people we love, including his sister, Rory.
“Yeah, yeah. Do us a favor, though, and don’t intervene.” Chase and his rational side.
“Where’s the fun in that?” Jagger says what we’re all thinking.
“Get a badge, then we’ll talk.” Trent shakes his head at Chase’s remark. He should know by now that saying something like that to Jagger is like waving a red flag in a crowd of bulls.
“Might just do that.” Trent looks over his shoulder, then at our table. He doesn’t say much. Jagger will do what Jagger does best: pester you until he gets his way. And there aren’t a whole hell of a lot of people who are immune to his way of thinking.
“Alright, sit tight. We’re going to head on over.
Hopefully, he won’t resist arrest and Letty will be none the wiser.
We’ll conduct as much as we can, do a sweep of his car while the others are tossing the place he’s staying at.
A pay-by-the-day situation, if you catch my drift.
” Trent doesn’t give any of us time to respond, which is probably for the better, too, since Letty rounds the corner.
She stops short with a look of confusion written on her face, then shakes her head, clearing whatever thought she had, and moves toward us.
A to-go bag for Jagger and a tray of drinks for Jude, me, and Letty in her hands.
“What’s that all about?” She places the bag, along with our drinks, on the table and slides back into her place beside me, where she always fucking belongs.
Not in front of me or behind me, my kitten more than deserves to stand right beside me, with her head held high, not looking over her goddamn shoulder.
“Trent and Chase are taking out the trash. Apparently, he’s got a violation of probation and a slew of other shit going on,” Jude eludes.
“Oh, well, okay. Jagger, your food is ready. I asked the chef to put a rush order on it. Perks of the job, well, last day of the job.” The bill is noticeably left off his to-go purchase, and Jagger notices it, too.
“Letty, are you forgetting something?” he asks.
“Nope. Don’t even think about giving me your money.
Twisted Oak gives me credits each shift I work.
Matthew’s been feeding me morning, noon, and night, meaning I haven’t used any recently.
Therefore, all our meals are free. If you feel the need to spend money, leave a tip for the bussers.
They work tirelessly and get zero recognition. ”
“Alright, I can do that. Thanks, Letty. Guys, I’ll see you around.” Jagger tosses four twenties on the table, sends a wink my woman’s way, and excuses himself.
Jude lets out a whistle. “The bussers are going to be happy, happy, happy,” he says as he adds his own stack to the table, and I do the same.
“That they will,” I reply. This place isn’t cheap, though it’s not outrageous, either, but Jagger essentially covered his and Lyric’s bill with a good twenty-five-dollar tip. Jude does the same, as do I.
“Okay, I’ll give this to them at the end of my shift.” Letty gathers the bills, puts them in her pocket, not in her apron, and then says, “Our food should be ready. Should I ask Trent if he wants anything to go?”
“No.” My tone comes out sharper than I mean it to. The last thing I want is Letty near that piece of shit. “Sorry, kitten. Trent and Chase are good. They’ll be dealing with that for a while, and they don’t like to be interrupted.”
“Oh, well, that makes sense. No need to apologize. Be right back.” She starts to move, but my hand comes down on her thigh, holding her in place.
“I love you, Letty.”
“I love you, Matthew.” She rewards me with a smile, and I can’t hold back the need to kiss my kitten. I press my lips to hers. It’s short and sweet, still, it holds the promise of more, once we’re home. Letty goes about leaving when she gets her bearings again.
“Happy for you, man. Even happier that Trent and Chase are heading out with zero problems. Think the man knows he’s cooked,” Jude says as Trent and Chase walk the fucker out, each of them holding the guy by the back of an arm. We get a nod from our friend, and the ordeal is over, just like that.
“Me too, bud. Me fucking too.”