Page 8 of The Devil After Dark
ten
LIANA
Unless I wantedto eat crackers, popcorn, or ice cream for dinner I either needed to go shopping or go out to eat. I checked the clock on my oven—shops would be closed so it was out to dinner then. I pulled up the number for the restaurant down the street and hit the call button. Alfonz—the maitre d’—answered after two rings. “Hey Alfonz, it is Liana.”
“Hi Liana, are you hoping to dine with us this evening?” Alfonz responded. I had been eating at this restaurant alone nearly once a week for the three years I had lived in my condo.
“Yes, I am, and it will just be me tonight. Can you accommodate a table for one?” It was always a table for one, but I found that being extra pleasant got me further with Alfonz. Not that I had a reason to be unpleasant. He was amazing, but calling last minute for a reservation was only the second worst thing for him—showing up without a reservation was the first.
“For you? Of course. Come at eight and I will have a table for you,” Alfonz replied. He always had a tablefor me.
“Thank you!” I hung up and looked at the clock. I had thirty minutes.
I quickly freshened up and grabbed my purse. I would take a quick walk around the block before dinner. The night was cool, but the fresh air felt wonderful. I had always hated eating alone, but Alfonz had made this restaurant so inviting that it became my comfort place. It did not hurt that everything on the menu was delicious.
I walked into the restaurant five minutes before eight and Alfonz greeted me with a smile. “Your table is ready, Liana.”
“Oh, wonderful. Thank you again for fitting me in,” I said as I followed him. The restaurant was packed tonight, but Alfonz led me to a small table in front of the window. There was not another open table in the place.
“Only the best for you,” he said as he handed me the menus. “Would you like a glass of the house sparkling wine?” he asked. I always started my meal with one. When I moved here, I quickly learned the restaurant servers treated you better if you ordered alcohol first. At the very least, ordering a bottle of sparkling water ensured better service.
“Please,” I responded and settled in to decide what to eat.
It had hardly been a couple of minutes and I was staring at the menu when I felt a large presence loom over my table. I turned to see Alfonz sliding around another patron.
“I am so sorry, miss,” Alfonz looked at me with wide eyed mortification before turning back to the man. “Please allow me to find you better accommodations, sir.”
I looked up at the muscular man standing next to Alfonz and down his wildly expensive suit jacket to the tattooed hand grasping the back of the empty chair at my table. A snake nestled within flowers inked the skin and extended under his shirt and suit jacket cuff. I glanced at his other hand as it reached forward to pull the chair back—was that a skull? It was most definitely a skull. “I think this table will suit us both just fine,” he said assertively. His clear blue eyes caught mine when I looked back up at his handsome face. His dark hair was slightly longer on top and my mind immediately wandered to running my fingers through it. He had facial hair that was trimmed short, framing his strongly defined bone structure. Those clear ice blue eyes were so at odds with his dark features.
“It is quite alright, Alfonz, we know each other. Please bring another place setting if it isn’t too much trouble,” I responded without breaking eye contact from Cassio.
Cassio slid the chair back and took a seat as Alfonz hurried away. “I’m surprised you invited me to join you, Liana.”
“You invited yourself. I thought about making a scene, but I figured I would get a free meal first,” I casually responded. The corner of his mouth turned up in a small smile.
The maitre d’ quickly set the place in front of Cassio. “Sir, is there anything I can get for you?” Alfonz asked as he handed Cassio the menus. He was bristling with annoyance. Cassio must have barged his way past Alfonz to have rattled the maitre d’ so much.
Cassio lifted my glass of sparkling wine and handed it to Alfonz as he ordered two bottles of wine. One was a different sparkling wine I recognized as something absurdly expensive, and the other was a bottle of red wine with a name I did not recognize, nor would remember. Alfonz’s facial expression changed from annoyance to something that resembled a pleasant look before he took his leave with my nearly full glass of house wine in hand.
Cassio was just staring at me with a small, triumphant smirk on his face. “How did you find out my name?” I asked after a few moments. It felt like a safe place to start with all the questions I had for him. We had never exchanged names the night we met. I had heard his name, but he never asked mine. Zac hadn’t even asked my name when he took my phone number.
“Rome got it for me,” Cassio responded as he leaned back casually in his chair.
Of course, the police officer. Was it even legal to give out someone’s name? I didn’t have time to respond as our waiter interrupted with the bottle of sparkling wine Cassio had ordered. With both our glasses filled I spoke again, “I never thought I would see you again.”
“Did you not want to see me again?” Cassio asked with a disarming smile. Gods, just his voice had my pulse quickening. It was familiar … but of course it was, he stayed to speak with me after the shooting. He had stayed to see if I was okay after his friends had been shot.
I smiled back. “I did not say that. So,Cassio, what do you do for a living?” I was trying desperately to start a normal conversation with the biker who just showed up in an absurdly expensive suit and demanded to interrupt my quiet dinner.
His eyes lit at my own use of his name. “I own a variety of businesses in the city along with a commercial building development company.” All things I had already learned and were public record. What continued to surprise me was the fact that his tattoos screamed street gang, not boardroom. My wariness must have shown on my face because Cassio chuckled. “And you, Liana Sutton, work for a small consulting firm outside the city.”
“See now this is just getting weird. You interrupt my dinner, know my name, know my occupation. What else do you know about me?” Damn, this man was charming. I loved someone who was rough around the edges and that would probably get me in trouble one day.
“If I wanted to be really creepy I could mention that I know where you live,” Cassio said.
I burst out laughing, “That would do it.” I could not tear my eyes away from him. Wait … he did know where I lived. Zac had taken me home. Was Cassio the masked man in my home? There was no way a fancy businessman was dressing up in a mask and breaking into my home. Right? I tried to remember the masked man’s voice and all that came to me was that I had been too scared and then too turned on to remember. I needed to not confuse a stalker with the fantasy that this absolutely gorgeous man in front of me could have been him.
Our waiter came and took our orders and the banter only continued through dinner and two bottles of wine. Cassio walked me home and as we stood outside of my complex’s gate he took my hand. “Thank you for letting me crash your dinner. And thank you for helping me and my friends. Jason is doing well. He’s out of the hospital already.”
