Page 11 of In the Shadows

Chapter

Three

Cruising along I-5 heading south, we stopped in Stockton, California for the night. Everyone was tired of being cooped up inside and were hungry. Plus Jamie and Dex were bitching about getting back in their own rig. In my opinion, they had no reason to complain. The two of them playedXboxnon-stop so it wasn’t like we had them duct taped to the chairs and hovered over them the whole time they were with us.

Both groups exited their vehicles, stretching their legs before walking across the street to grab some grub. As we entered the restaurant, all heads turned our way. The decor was eclectic, as were the clientele and I wasn’t quite sure how the presence of the eight of us plus Rob and Easton would be perceived. Most of us wore jeans with the knees blown out of them, concert shirts – some of which had the sleeves and sides cut out. Checking out our crew, all with dark sunglasses covering our faces plus, looking like we needed to run a brush through our hair I guess I could see where the uncertain looks on the diners’ faces were coming from.

“How many,” the hostess said to us, sizing each of us up in turn.

Did she think we were going to rob the place or something?

“Ten,” I told her, “If you have a couple booths together that would be ideal.”

She nodded. “Wait here and let me check.”

Joey looked at me, clearly giving me his,Here we go again glare.

It was about that time, another group of guys walked in behind us. I turned, spotting one of them wearing a Social Sinners tee and I had to say something.

“Hey man, nice shirt.” I smiled and pointed.

“Holy fuck, dude,” he exclaimed excitedly, “you’re Stoli Branson!”

I had to laugh, it’s the first time someone had addressed me using my nickname with my given surname.

“Ha, yeah.” I extended my hand to him.

“I’m Tom. Dude this is fucking awesome!” he said as his friends began introducing themselves to our group.

At some point, the waitress had returned while we were chatting it up. She cleared her throat loudly, but when we turned to face her we found she no longer harbored the scowl she’d previously worn when we first walked in.

That’ll teach her to profile patrons, I thought to myself.Never judge a book by its cover, or a rockstar for that matter. The snide grin on my face spoke those words loud and clear for me.

She blushed when I caught her eye before she walked us over to our seats. Booths in the corner, perfect. The eyes of the surrounding tables tracked us all the way back.

“I bet you guys get that a lot,” Rob said, taking the seat at the front of the booth. Joey and I slid back to share the middle.

“Not so much anymore,” Diamond answered.

“Looks like that might be changing for us,” Joey said, wearing the biggest fucking grin.

“You guys are really from Social Sinners?” the waitress asked, handing each of us a menu.

“That we are,” Diamond flirted, winking at her.

She blushed, but didn’t take her eyes off him.

I laughed until I spotted the deadly glare Easton shot them.

“Dude,” I whispered, patting Joey’s leg and nodding toward Easton.

“Hmm, not our problem, babe,” he warned.

Still.I knew I needed to have a chat with Diamond as the unofficial road dad. If he was aware of this, he needed to end it before hurting Easton and in turn risking our relationship with Sal. If he didn’t know about Easton’s feelings before then, he would when I told him. Hopefully he could let the poor guy down easily before things got too deep.

When she returned with glasses of water, we placed our orders. As soon as she walked away, Tom reappeared.

“Hey, so um, I know you guys are chilling and probably don’t want to be bugged, but when you’re done, do you think we could take some selfies and get your autographs?”

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