Bad Company (Seven Deadly Sins #1) ✅ Completed

Chapter Thirty-Four: Hot Date

Chase agreed to meet just outside of Lucky’s. It was the only bar in town, but it was also the only place I was sure other people would be around. Dante was pretty sure Chase wouldn’t willingly come back to the store by the time he got off work. He’d try to get me to meet him somewhere where he could get me alone and away from other people. Dante had seen it happen more than once if his certainty was any indication. So, the plan was to meet him somewhere public, somewhere I could feel relatively safe. From there, I had to get him back to the shop without actually getting inside his vehicle. This was where a little quick thinking would have to come into play on my part.

How did I convince a red-blooded Mid-western kid with a license and a car to walk somewhere?

Still, if I wanted to help Chase, I had to figure out a way to make it happen. I grabbed the door handle inside Dante’s truck, feeling more than a little nauseous. My enthusiastic bravado from earlier had quickly given way to almost paralyzing fear of what I was about to do. I really liked Chase, and no one deserved what Aunt Celeste had planned for him, but trying to stop something so totally crazy would give anybody a bad case of performance anxiety.

Sure enough, as we pulled up to the bar there were plenty of people outside hanging out. Some were drinking and chatting with old friends, others were just out for a summer ride, admiring each other’s Harleys. I didn’t care. I was just glad to see them.

Dante turned in his seat to look at me one last time. “Whatever happens, Eliza, don’t let him get you alone. Don’t get in his car for any reason whatsoever. Lust has had plenty of time to work on him now, he will follow you. Just get to the shop. I’ll be there waiting.”

“Right. Anything else?” I asked, feeling all my normal sarcasm and hostility towards Dante evaporate in light of the fact that he was really helping me. I had hoped he would, but actually seeing him now, going through this with me was a little mind blowing.

Dante nodded. “Yeah, don’t piss him off. Right now he’s like a bomb ready to blow. Don’t go opening that mouth of yours and setting him off.”

I gave him a weak grin, “Got it. In other words, don’t be you.”   

He frowned a little but didn’t say anything. If I hadn’t known better I would’ve thought that look in his eyes was actually something close to worry. Good thing I knew better than that. I mean, this was Dante we were talking about.

He closed his eyes and blinked for a long second. When Dante opened them back up, he nodded once. “Ok, he’s leaving the hardware store.”

“How do you know that?” I asked, still freaked out when he went and did stuff like that. But he didn’t bother answering me. Instead he unlocked the doors and threw me out of his truck.

“Remember, don’t get in his car and stay where I can see you. I’ll knock him out the minute you get him inside the shop.”

I just stood on the sidewalk staring back at him. I only hoped I didn’t mess anything up. I had a way of running certain trains off their tracks.

Before he drove away, Dante gave me one final look out of his passenger side window. “Relax. You can do this. I’ll be watching the whole time.”

“Dante…just don’t let him kill me in some Lust-filled Hulk-like meltdown, ok?” I asked, feeling both scared and highly unprepared. The combination was really rather nauseating.

He nodded again not didn't say anything. Still it actually made me feel a little better.  

“Oh! And when you knock him out, try to do it without knocking out any of his teeth, please. That’s just wrong, you know.”