Page 50 of Hidden Monsters

Even with Luke’s attention on the commotion, his arm was still firmly around her, and Orly loved that. Her gaze drifted to a man sitting at the bar, except instead of watching one of the televisions like everyone else at the bar was doing, his eyes seemed to be watching this table.

She followed the man’s gaze to see what could be so interesting and saw he was actually staring at Caden, who was just sitting there talking to Tanner right now. She looked back at the man at the bar who hadn’t so much as moved a muscle. Orly shifted in her chair. His gaze was far from friendly, more menacing and even downright mean. “What’s up with that guy?” She asked Luke quietly, nodding toward the guy at the bar.

Luke followed her gaze to the man who was still intently staring at Caden, and Luke’s expression darkened. “Asshole,” Luke muttered under his breath. “There’s at least one in every crowd.”

“One what?” Orly asked.

“Racist,” Luke said, keeping his gaze on the man. “His only problem with Caden is the color of his skin. I hate fuckers like that.” Blake and Tanner must’ve heard Luke because they both turned their attention to the man at the bar, and proceeded to stare him down, too. Martin and Garrett did the same.

Orly’s heart broke, both for Caden who had to experience such blatant hatred from complete strangers, and for Luke and their friends, who had to watch their friend go through something so awful.

When the man at the bar finally turned to watch one of the televisions, likely because everyone at her table had stared him down, Orly breathed a sigh of relief. She glanced over to Caden who at first didn’t seem bothered by what had just occurred, but then a shadow crossed his eyes and she knew it had hurt him. When his gaze caught hers, she mouthed, “are you okay?”

Caden offered her a weak smile, but said nothing in return. She chastised herself for asking such a dumb question. Of course he wasn’t okay. She’d just wanted to say something to him, and the first thing that came to mind was likely the absolute wrong thing to say. She shook her head and let out a ragged breath.

Luke leaned toward her and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “Everything okay?” He asked.

It really wasn’t. She was seething at the injustice of it all, but Orly nodded and took a long chug of her beer. Martin let out a laugh and Luke turned to see what it was about. Still lost in her own thoughts, Orly watched as the man at the bar turned his attention back to their table and his gaze landed on Caden, again. The man’s eyes were emotionless holes in his head that made her skin crawl. She had to do something. Caden had been going out of his way to help her. There was no way she was going to sit back and let some creep stare at him like that when he’d done absolutely nothing to deserve it. With Luke’s attention still on his friends, she slipped out of her chair, prepared to give that guy a taste of his own medicine.

“Where are you going?” Luke asked, as she passed behind him.

“I’ll be right back,” she said.

Orly made her way to the bar and sat in a newly vacated stool next to the creep. He reeked of cigars and sweat, and she wanted to hurl, but he took one look at her and he must’ve liked what he saw because he shifted his entire body to face her. “Hello there,” he grinned, revealing a missing front tooth. “I’m Neil, what’s your name, Beautiful?”

Orly wanted to gag and rush back to Luke, but she was determined to make this guy see the error of his ways. She’d been on the receiving end of too many mean and menacing stares all throughout her childhood and adolescent years. She hadn’t deserved it then and Caden sure as hell didn’t deserve it now.

Orly, what are you doing? Luke’s voice boomed in her mind.

Don’t worry. Just give me five minutes. And don’t come for me. I’ll be fine. Trust me.

“So, Neil,” she said, ignoring his question about her name. There was no way she’d ever tell him anything about herself. “How about you buy a lady something to drink?” She smiled sweetly at him and the bastard ate it up just as she’d hoped.

“Sure. Anything you want. It’s on me.” He gave her what he must’ve thought was his million dollar smile, but all Orly could see was his thick neck bulging with excess fat, and the way the bridge of his nose curved a bit to the left. Someone had already broken this guy’s nose, probably for staring at them for no damn reason.

“Great,” Orly said, and flagged down the bartender with a smile, and a quick glance in his direction. The bar erupted with hoots and hollers and screams at that moment with something happening on one of the televisions. Orly took that opportunity to order a top shelf whiskey from a beautiful ornate bottle for everyone at her table. She asked the bartender to put it on Neil’s tab, and deliver all the drinks to her friends except for hers, not wanting Neil to catch on too quickly. She had no idea if the whiskey she ordered was any good, but just from looking at the bottle, Orly knew it was going to be pricey.

When the crowd finally quieted, she turned back to Neil whose attention was once again solely on her. She inwardly squirmed at the way he was looking at her, but pressed on. This was for Caden, after all. “So, what do you do, Neil?” She asked.

“I’m a long distance trucker,” he said proudly. “Wanna go for a ride?”

Orly wanted to gag at the mere thought of spending two more minutes in this asshat’s company, but she kept her smile plastered on her face. When the bartender brought over her drink, Neil’s eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets. “It’s my favorite,” she smiled, sheepishly. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Do you have any idea how much that’s gonna cost me?” He asked. “You’re going to owe me a whole heck of a lot more than a joyride, Little Princess.”

Orly swallowed at his use of the word ‘little.” Russell called her a “little witch,” and he didn’t mean it in a cute way.

Orly? What’s wrong? Do I need to come over there?

She sat up straighter, mentally brushing Neil’s comment away. No. I’m good. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Just have to teach this jerk a lesson he won’t soon forget.

She turned her attention back to Neil and took a long slow sip of her drink. It burned going down, but Orly smiled. She honestly didn’t care much for whiskey, but she'd heard Caden talking about saving a top shelf whiskey for a special occasion, and after this creep made him feel like shit, Orly decided he deserved a little pick me up. “So, Neil, is that really your name? Because I like it.” She flashed him a smile, but he just huffed out a breath, still fuming about the price of her drink.

“It’s the name my mama gave me, and don’t think you’re getting out of this. That drink is gonna cost me more than two nights at a good motel.”

“Oh no, really?” She feigned shock as she put her hand up to her mouth just in time to watch over Neil’s shoulder as Luke and the others got their drinks delivered to them.

She couldn’t see all the guy’s reactions since Martin and Blake had their backs to her and were blocking Tanner and Caden from view, but she heard and felt Luke’s booming laughter as he realized what she’d done.

---