Witness Protection: Moving Target

by Jet MacLeod

“Delia, it is okay. That is why I brought the jacket,” Angie said taking it off. “You can wear it if you’d like. It will cover your scars.”

  “Thank you,” Del stated taking the jacket and shrugging it on. “Now, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

  Cole and Sanchez were waiting near the maître d’. Cole smiled at them. Sanchez’s mouth hit the floor as they walked over to join them. Cole had to reach over and close it for him. He smiled bigger when Angie and Del returned his smile. He knew that Del had finally found someone that mad her happy and could love her for being her. He just hoped that Del didn’t walk away from it because she let her emotions get in the way.

  “Delia,” Cole greeted her reaching out for her hand.

  “Cole,” she replied taking his hand.

  She was surprised when he kissed it instead of shaking it. She eyed him in question but kept the words to herself. Sanchez looked her up and down before he extended his hand.

  “I don’t think…just…wow,” Sanchez told her.

  “I know,” Del replied.

  “Who would have ever thought that you would pull off the LBD and be…”

  “Watch where you are going with that statement, Sanchez,” Cole warned.

  “I was just going to say that she was…is…Hell, Del, you are sexy in that. Damn, girl, that little black dress hugs you in all the right places. We are going to have beat the guys off you with a stick tonight. When the Hell did you get that?”

  “It isn’t mine.”

  “Yours?” Cole asked Angie.

  “Yes, though after seeing her in Gucci, I might let her keep it,” Angie replied.

  Cole smiled. He nodded at the maître d’. Cole took Del’s hand while Angie took Sanchez’s. The maître d’ lead them to their table. It was just as Cole requested. The table was near an exit with a full view of the room. Cole was even nice enough to put Del in the corner so she could survey the entire restaurant and every situation as it arrived.

  “I just don’t know what to say,” Del said sitting down.

  “Don’t worry about a thing,” Angie said, sitting down to her left and almost in the corner, too.

  Cole and Sanchez took the outer seats. Cole was worried that he would be taken off guard in this situation, but then he saw the reflection of the room in the large windows facing the mountains. Sanchez smiled at the women and let his Latin Lover-side be seen as he flirted with them both mercilessly when anyone was in earshot.

  Del turned and studied the vest on Angie. It fit her perfectly. It definitely made her more feminine without the jacket. It was definitely a power suit and the thought of her in it and in court did plenty for Del’s imagination. It also didn’t help that Angie left that royal blue blouse unbuttoned down to the vest. It gave just a hint of cleavage without being over the top.

  “Del?” Angie asked bringing her back to the conversation at the table.

  “Hmm?”

  “What are you going to get for dinner?” Angie questioned her again.

  “Oh, I don’t know. A burger probably, I really don’t want anything heavy. What about you?”

  “I was thinking that I would get the poached sea bass with a salad. What about you, Cole? Are you going to get a burger, too?”

  “Nope, I’m eyeing the prime rib with the bleu cheese au-gratin potatoes and a salad.”

  “That sounds delicious. I would get a steak, but I like the way a good chef can prepare fish. What about you, Sanchez? What are you going to get?”

  “I am going to get the chicken piccata and the soup.”

  “Fine, I won’t get the burger. You’ve all convinced me. I’ll get something else,” Del stated.

  “Get whatever you want, Lewey. We are out to have fun tonight. Don’t let our choices influence you tonight. Just let loose and be free,” Sanchez told her.

  “Listen, Girlie, if you want the burger, get the burger. I am sure that the burger here is up to your specifications. This is nice place. Just get what you want. I know you can cook and really well at that, but tonight we relax. Get the burger,” Cole stated.

  Angie reached under the table and touched her knee. She gave Del a loving look. She leaned over to whisper in Del’s ear, but caught the look that Cole was giving her. She kissed Del, pulled back and then told her.

  “Go with your gut, dear. It’s never stirred you wrong. But, I would try the yam tempura with it. It will give it an interesting flair. Just get what you want. If you wanted something expensive, I know that you would just make it yourself, right?” Angie asked her.

  “I would.”

  “Then you can treat me to some lovely fish dish later,” Angie told her.

  “Whatever you wish, but I will wait to cook for you until we are something a little more permanent. I’ll find whatever you want. Fish is easy if you know what you are doing.”

  “And fortunately for me, you do. Who would have thought that I would be guarded by a top notch chef that graduated from the Cordon Bleu? I mean what kind of assassin does that make you? Who decided to cook while looking through the crosshairs at someone?” Angie asked.

  “A well rounded one,” Del answered.

  Cole and Sanchez laughed at her joke. Angie smiled as the waiter came over. They all ordered their meals and decided to forgo an appetizer. They were all surprised when Angie decided to order bottles of wine to complement their meal. She ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir by Golden Eye and a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Ladera. The waiter nodded and walked away.

  “Angie, you realize how expensive those wines are, right?” Cole asked.

  “I do.”

  “Okay…”

  “Don’t worry about the wines, Cole. I’ve told you that I will pay for this meal. Gregor was nice enough to move a healthy amount of money into my accounts that you’ve created. This meal is the least I can do for you all for everything that you’ve done for me,” Angie explained.

  “You don’t have to pay for it, Girlie. I can put it on the Alphabet’s tab. You don’t owe us a thing. We do our job because it protects the country. Right now, you just happen to be our job.”

  “What Sarge is trying to say, Alejandra, is that you decided to take on some of the biggest cartels that are working in the country. It is an honor for us to protect you and take care of you. There is nothing that you need to do except nail their asses to the wall when you get back to court,” Sanchez told her with a smile and pride in his voice.

  “Well, my dear, when you put it like that, I am still happy to buy the wine, but I’ll let you both deal with the meal,” Angie said cocking her eyebrow at them.

  Del sat back and smiled. She wasn’t surprised to see Angie in this manner, but she seemed to be more in her element. She could handle it because Angie looked like she owned the table, the room, and the restaurant at the same time. Her smile would disarm the best of men and Del knew its power. She also knew the taste of her lips.

  They ate in peace. No one seemed to want to spoil their night out. They talked of trivial things outside their respective careers. Sanchez spoke of the web based security firm that he was running with his brothers back in Chicago. Cole talked about his horses. Angie talked about summers at the Cape and winters in the City. Del just sat there and soaked it up. She couldn’t wait for the day when she would be able to join a conversation like that.

  “So, dinner was wonderful. The wine was superb. But, there is a casino over there that I want to try. We are supposed to be out and having fun. Who’s with me?” Cole asked the group.

  “Sounds like fun, Sarge. Let’s go. I have a few dollars to spare,” Del said standing up from the table.

  All three stood with her and followed her into the casino. She exchanged some funds for some chips and headed to a table. Angie stopped at the bar to get two beers and watched the men watching the room. She knew that they were always watching but it was different when she could sit back and see it from a distance. Cole got some chips. He and Sanchez found a Texas Hold ‘Em table near enough to the black jack ta
ble that Del was playing at. They cold survey the room and make sure that Del and Angie weren’t in trouble.

  Cole knew that Del had her pistol in the clutch that Angie was letting her borrow. He had to admit that he was wondering where she would have hidden it otherwise because the dress left little to the imagination of the shape of her body. He nodded at Angie as she started to head towards the table with Del. He watched her wait at the bar for a second when an unknown gentleman took the seat next to her instead.

  A lot of thoughts ran through both Cole and Angie’s mind in the short seconds, but it was Cole’s face that told Angie to stay put. She held one beer in her left hand for Del and sipped out of the one on her right. She leaned back against the bar and watched the scene before her. And, she was trying her damnedest to keep herself in check and not let the green eyed monster out.

  The gentleman sat down next to Delia. At first he didn’t say anything. He just asked for chips and then placed the ante into the pot. He smiled at Del when she turned to look at him, to size him up, to wonder why he was sitting beside her.

  “Come here often?” he finally asked after a few minutes.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Do you come here often?” he asked again.

  “No, this is my first time.”

  “I thought so. I would remember your face. It is breathtaking. I call,” he replied.

  She checked her cards. She had a king showing and two. She tapped the table for a hit. It was two. She smiled and through some chips at the pot.

  “I call,” the gentle man stated as he leaned closer to her.

  She tapped the table again and moved away from him. She hoped that he would get the point and move back, but he didn’t. He watched her as she received the second hit of a four.

  “You’re showing sixteen, little lady. What you got hidden in there anyway? I bet it’s an ace.”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Del answered him, turning to give a cold stare.

  He leaned closer so that he was whispering in her ear. Angie came off the bar and started towards the table. She didn’t realize that Cole had grabbed her and pulled her in different directions until she was seated next to Cole and Sanchez. They were watching and waiting. Sanchez had even tucked his hand down and had it sitting on his pistol. His eyes told Angie where to look. They had their back. They were going to protect them. They were just waiting to see how far Del was going to let it go before she snapped the man’s head off.

  “I really would,” the man whispered in her ear.

  Del leaned back in the chair. Her fingers motioned to the dealer to hit again. All the while she was watching the prick with no clue sitting beside, she pushed her pot to the middle.

  “Well, ante up and we’ll see what we can do about that,” she told him.

  “Yes, ma’am,” the man replied.

  He didn’t notice the three on her cards. If he had maybe he wouldn’t have been so foolish as to go all in on the hand. But, he was too lost in a dream that would never be and he didn’t even know it.

  “The lady wins, twenty-one, nicely done, ma’am,” the dealer told them table.

  The man turned around to see that his nineteen had indeed been beating by her five card twenty-one. He looked at the pot and back at her. He stared at her in disbelief as the dealer stacked the pot and pushed it towards her. Del just grinned as she pulled the chips closer to the rail of the table before grabbing a few to toss in for the ante for another hand.

  “Care to go again?” she asked him.

  “Sure, little lady.”

  The cards were dealt. He was showing a jack. She had a nine. He threw some chips in the pot. Del called. The rest of the table watched, wondering what was really going on between them and folded. They were more interesting than losing money to the house.

  Cole and Sanchez sat in awe that the man wasn’t dead yet. He hadn’t overstepped any real boundaries except sitting so close to her and whispering in her ear. He hadn’t touched her yet and that is what they were really waiting on. Angie didn’t know how much longer she could sit idly by and not do anything on her own. Cole must have sense this because his hand landed on her knee and squeezed, lightly.

  “Wait for her to tell you,” he stated out of the side of his mouth, still playing cards at the table.

  He didn’t notice Del hold and call. He asked for another card. They were staring at each other.

  “All called, please show your cards,” the dealer stated.

  They turned over their card slowly. Neither of them looking at the table, they didn’t need to when the dealer was going to tell them the outcome. The collective gasps from their table audience was also an added bonus.

  “Nineteen for the lady, twenty-two for the gentleman and the lady wins.”

  Cole could feel Angie stirring beneath his hand. He turned to look her eye. He saw the jealousy building and he knew that he had to dampen it down.

  “She will let us know if she needs help,” he told her.

  “He is too close to her,” Angie stated through clenched teeth.

  “She is fine. She is handling him and he doesn’t even know it. Let her play.”

  Angie’s eyes softened. She was toying with man? Del was teasing him into losing? She knew that Del could read people, but this was a whole other level. She didn’t know what to do. So, she sat and waited.

  Del anted up again. So did the gentleman. Del was still watching him and not the table. When he turned to look at his cards, she did as well. Twenty-one, a perfect black jack is what she had. The ace of hearts was showing. She gave a small bet. He took the bait with his king showing and raised the bet. She called. The dealer called.

  “Show me your cards,” the dealer told them.

  Del picked up the ace and used it to turn over the jack of hearts. The man’s eyes nearly came out of his head. The dealer turned their cards for an eighteen.

  “Blackjack, the lady wins, again.”

  The other people at the table went wild. She took her winnings. She was about to get up and cash out, figuring that winning three times in a row was pushing her luck, when the man’s arm shot out and grabbed hers.

  The look she gave him should have been enough to warn him away, but it wasn’t. He was angry for losing so much so fast, but that is what happens when one gambles. She made a slight nod with her head at Cole, but he didn’t move. He waited to see what she was going to do. When she nodded a second time, he leaned over to Angie.

  “Feel like playing a game?”

  “What kinda game?”

  “How are you at pretending?” Cole asked her.

  “Very good, I would think.”

  “Well, ma’am,” he started with a mocking salute, raising his voice as he did, catching the attentions of not only his dealer and Sanchez, but a pit security man as well. “It seems your wife has hit a bit of luck over at the blackjack table. You might want to get a kiss from her before playing another hand. It might help your chances if you know what I mean.”

  Sanchez had already started clearing their chips. Angie nodded, not sure if she understood what she was to do, but she stood up anyway. She walked over to Del and stood beside her but slightly behind the man.

  “Honey, you okay?” she asked her.

  Del’s eyes turned immediately to her. Sapphire was burning with rage as she still saw the man’s hand on Del’s arm. Del gave her a trademark megawatt smile. She didn’t seem to be in any distress. Angie caught her glancing around for Sanchez and Cole, and she caught the slight smirk that Del gave them when they moved into range.

  “I’m fine, darling. Just gathering my winnings up and was going to head to cash out. I think I have had enough fun for the evening,” Del told her.

  “You aren’t going anywhere until I win my money back,” the man told them.

  “Excuse me, sir, and you are?”

  “The names Tobias, James Tobias.”

  “Well, James, my wife and I are going to leave. What you do with your money is your
problem, but I would kindly like it if you would unhand my wife so that she may leave the table in peace. We aren’t looking for any trouble,” Angie told him.

  “Well, too bad, trouble found you.”

  “What is your problem?” Angie asked him.

  “She took over thirty thousand dollars from me.”

  “Now, honey, you didn’t tell me you were playing at the high stakes tables,” Angie stated.

  “Sorry, I wanted a challenge. But, it’s no matter. I won. I don’t know how much, but that is why I was going to cash it out,” Del told her, sounding more and more like a damsel.

  Angie grinned from ear to ear. She stepped in between them and kissed Del. It didn’t matter how much she won and Del knew it. Angie was just happy to playing with the man. She knew that Del hadn’t cheated and the dealer didn’t seem to mind when she was trying to leave. Angie saw security starting to inch their way towards the table. Del gave her a smile and a nod. They would try to break away without incident, but she knew that man behind her was going to make it hard. She kissed Delia again.

  The man had evidently become impatient with waiting for an answer to his claim. He let go of Del only to grab Angie. When Angie broke the kiss with Del upon feeling his hand on her arm, she stepped back into him just enough to see the red flash in Del’s normally mocha eyes. Before anyone could react, Angie turned, swung, hit her target and he hit the ground.

  Cole and Sanchez were beside them at the ready while the casino security was picking the man up off the floor. Cole gave her a lopsided grin. Sanchez gave her a pat on the back. Del was just staring at her in disbelief that she had actually laid the man out.

  A security officer approached them and they all went rigid except for Angie and asked, “Are you all okay? Is there anything that we can do for you? Would you like to press charges?”

  Angie turned to the security officer and told him, “We are fine. Thank you for asking. I think my wife, her brother, and my father are going to cash out for the evening. It was a lovely night. I hope to come back her soon. Don’t you, Love?”

  “I sure do,” Del stated just watching Angie work the room.

  “Do we need to file anything?” Angie asked the officer.