CHAPTER EIGHT

DRACO

Draco woke up with a jolt, he hurriedly got into his clothes he'd scattered around the previous night while he was trying to get into Stacey's panties. He needed to be home before Tyler got up, if not he wouldn't hear the end of the teasing. He laughed to himself, here he was a grown ass man, sneaking around to go be with his girl. He looked over at Stacey, she appeared really knocked out, they'd gone another round later in the night, him entering her from the side, both of them barely awake. He tiptoed, around the room, trying not to get her awake as he fished for his belt. After a minute or two of searching, he finally found it. He dropped a light kiss on Stacey's forehead, followed by a barely audible 'good morning' as he gathered the rest of his belongings and made a trail to the window he'd gotten in from.

Tyler wouldn't stop talking about the lady saw at the airport. He'd explained her physique to him more than times than he could count in the past forty-eight hours. At this point, he felt like he could draw her if asked. Tyler wasn't the type to get worked up over a girl, getting women was always an easy task for him, so its either this woman was some hot shot or Tyler was crazy and he suspected the later. Tyler could be delusional sometimes, he swore he felt some type of chemistry immediately he neared her. Well in Tyler's defense, he'd felt the same way about Stacey too, but Tyler always swore he felt something whenever he was with a girl with the right size of ass and tits, so taking him serious wasn't relatively easy.

They'd been trying to track the number that had called him for the job all morning, but all their attempts just kept on leading to a dead end. Tyler had brought all his work tools and they had set to work immediately after breakfast.

"Its a deserted number, a dead end. I've tried calling and tracking it, no leads. Whoever has this number probably changed it, maybe he sensed danger." Tyler offered after several trials to no avail. "We'll need to involve your girl at this point, we need a list of all her possible enemies to narrow down our search. My server keeps picking up a wide area transmission and its difficult to track that way." Tyler said some more mumbo jumbo he didn't understand, but at the end they concluded they'll have to involve Stacey. If they could get a list of people that she probably had beef with, Tyler assured that his job would be easier. They agreed to drive around the town for some sight seeing. He also made arrangements to have dinner later with the girls (Stacey and her best friend) hopefully Tyler would have enough distraction and his mysterious 'airport girl' would all be forgotten.

They circled round the town, got some groceries, apparently Tyler still ate like an elephant and had exhausted nearly everything edible in his house in less than forty-eight hours, he bought the stuff they'd use to prepare for dinner also and they took the trail home.

"We're being followed man, avert" Tyler spoke in his lowest voice. Avert was their code word for 'loose the enemy'. They were halfway home and he'd been too in his head preparing for dinner that he hadn't noticed the two bikes on their tail for two turns now. He did a false stop and watched them hold their brakes too from the rearview. The key of 'avert' was to act as natural as possible while attempting to make your enemy to loose trail. He looked around the road, it wasn't busy today thank heavens, there were only a few cars. Loosing this guys wouldn't be too hard. He revved the car and increased his speed.

"Any weapons here? Just Incase" Tyler looked around, blowing on his gum, clearly unfazed. This wasn't the first time they had been in a chase, people were always trying to get them killed as far back as he could remember. Unfortunately he had no weapons here. He didn't keep weapons in Lucy, she was an exotic car and he only took her on trips, nothing strenuous, she wasn't built for strenuous activity, but she could go real fast, they only had one option and it was loosing this guys, he really wasn't in the mood to fight.

"Cooperate Lucy" he whispered as he kissed the dashboard and picked up speed. He swerved through the cars on the road with ease. The bikers were fast, but clearly not fast enough, they were far behind.

There was a crowded mall up front, he decided he'll have to loose them by camouflaging with the other cars, Lucy was black so it would be a workover. He picked up pace some more and took a sharp turn, adrenaline pumping through his veins. The bikers were nowhere in sight as they approached the mall, but he knew they must have seen him take the turn and he wasn't prepared to take chances. He moved through the crowded mall, looking for a free space that would give them cover. He finally decided on squeezing between two black Vans, it required expert care to park without giving Lucy a scratch as ordinarily the space could barely fit a car that size. The two vans towered over them, providing cover. It was impossible to notice they were hiding there unless one looked carefully. Him and Tyler lay low waiting for the bikers.

Moments later, after what seemed like an hour but was actually just three minutes, the bikers came breezing in too. Luckily for them it was a no bike parking supermarket. Their pursuers scanned the area confused, of course there was no way they were going to find them. He watched them from his rearview looking confusedly around the parking lot and murmuring inaudible words to themselves. He watched them scan the area some more before they finally gave up and sped off on their bikes.

"Whew" Tyler breathed out after a few more minutes of silence "thought you said here was safe, didn't think I'd still have to run from bad guys here too. Seems like a brother can never catch a break sigh". Well apparently he thought here was a safe place too, he didn't belong to any mafia gangs and nobody here actually knew him, so why would he or even Tyler be a target. There was also another hypothesis that the he thought of "what if whoever was on Stacey's tail had sensed what we were up to and decided to strike first? That's the only logical explanation for this attack, because as far as I can recall, I've not entered into anybody's bad graces since I've arrived. No fallouts, no nothing. Just me minding my business."

"I don't know man, and we didn't get plate numbers or anything, so we currently have zero leads. We need to come up with a plan and double our security. This adrenaline rush was good for me tho, was starting to get bored" Yeah no sweat, the rush of adrenaline did wonders for him as well and not just Tyler.

They waited blindly for nearly an hour more mainly to be sure the bikers wouldn't be waiting around before they finally decided it was okay to leave. Even at that, they still kept watch throughout the ride home, occasionally glancing around to make sure they weren't followed.

Draco looked around the house making mental notes and last minute preparation for dinner, while trying to make sure Tyler didn't get half the food into his stomach before the guests even arrive. He had always loved cooking even as a young boy. His grandma had thought him everything he knew about the art of preparing food, she shared all her secret recipes with him and they bonded over meals. He really missed her, funny how she was the reason he was in this mess in the first place. Maybe it was his greed or he just loved the danger, but deep down he knew this was just a way of trying to atone for what had transpired at San Francisco. He had submitted himself to this cause, living in exile and wishing death on himself in the worst way possible, but instead of the universe granting him his silent wish, he was granted something far better, the universe had given him Stacey in exchange for the havoc he wrecked on it and sometimes inside his head, he wondered if it was just another trick the universe was tempted to play on his conscience. Maybe he was going to be hurt in one way, but his was willing to accept the predicament, after all he had earned it. There was no way the universe was going to push love his way after what he'd done. At times he wanted to tell her about his nightmares, but his subconscious had warned him, she definitely wouldn't want to be with him if she found out about his mistake, so he kept it inside and watched her believe he was some good and noble man, she saw the good in him instead of actually seeing him for the impostor that he was.

The sound of the doorbell brought him out from his reverie. He rushed to get the door, their long awaited guests had arrived.

Stacey looked ethereal, she had let her down this night and it floated around her, helping to accentuate her curves. She wore a long sleeved body con dress that barely exposed any skin but somehow still made her look really alluring. The emerald color of the dress, stood in contrast to her brown eyes highlighting its captivating beauty. It took him a minute to realize he had somehow left his mouth open while he was trying to take in her appearance and he quickly shut it on noticing her guest staring at him in bewilderment. Standing next to Stacey was who he presumed to be her best friend Tessa. She somewhat had a menacing look on her face, her jet black hair was pinned atop her head, she wore dark makeup, a black dress and boots to follow, either ways she looked really attractive as well. He opened the door wider to let them in and lead them to where dinner was set with Tyler waiting.

Dinner kicked off with a rough start but started going smoothly much later on. Apparently Stacey's friend was the same person that had piqued Tyler's interest at the airport. Him and Stacey tried not to laugh as their friends exchanged banters back and forth, Tessa refusing to seat anywhere near Tyler, and a visibly annoyed Tyler motioning her to seat somewhere else feigning indifference. They had both finally come to a compromise after nearly thirty minutes of arguing, agreeing to seat opposite each other. They tried to get to know each other over his homemade chicken stir fry pasta, eventually warming up to each other.

He received compliments from everyone at the table regarding his culinary prowess. He and Tyler narrated the chase from earlier to the women over dessert and white wine. Him and Stacey stole glances over dinner while both their friends tried to bond and get to know each other. They even seemed to be enjoying each other's company at one point. They eventually warmed up to each other before the end of dinner.

He asked Tessa some questions of his own too in a bid to know her better and Stacey did the same with Tyler. Tessa appeared to be in love with her job as she dedicated nearly an hour to talk about it boring everyone out at the table. Well almost everyone because Tyler seemed to hang on to her every word and follow through with questions of his own too.

They finally changed the subject, talking about culture instead, apparently Tessa was an African American just like him and they were of similar descent.

Before dinner was finally over, they had all exchanged numbers, they had also been able to get a list of potential persons that could want to harm Stacey. Most of them were in one way or the other connected to her family's rival gang. They talked some more into the night before both parties decided it was time to say their goodbyes. Tyler had finally been able to secure a date with Tessa, it was cute watching them both try to fight their insane attraction to each other, Tessa visibly trying to ignore it more than Tyler.

He kissed Stacey goodbye outside the prying eyes of their friends, wishing it didn't have to end there, but of course they had to leave their selfish desires for another time and tend to their guests. He kissed her some more, willing her to stay, but she wouldn't compromise, she assured him they would get to spend more time together soonest.

Long after, the bustle of the town had died down and he had settled in for the night, he secretly wondered what other surprises the universe had for him as he tried to fall asleep.