Head held up high, straight back and a blank look was all you got from Danielle as she walked over to table four, to serve the men that had asked for her. When Dave had informed her that they wanted her specifically to waiter their table she was a bit nervous and felt insecure because of the rumours, sure she had ignored them but it wasn’t until she actually had to face the five men that she believed them though she had no clue why. Danielle wanted to run but then she remembered how she merely ten minutes earlier would have laughed in their faces because of how they acted. That was when she decided to man up and not give them the satisfaction of her being a coward and scared, because of rumours.

If she was going to be scared of the five men, she would determine that herself after this night. She was going to base her feelings and thoughts about them after their actions and how they spoke to her when she served them. Though she had a feeling they were cocky and tough to break through if you wanted their genuine selves. When she was close to their table she reached into her back-pocket and pulling out the small notepad.

“Hi, what can I get you guys?” she asked when she reached the table. Their conversation seized and they all turned to look at her, the corners of their mouths twitching up to smirks.

A man with buzzed hair leaned forward and she couldn’t help but to notice how is muscular arms flexed as he did so. She gulped; he was looking pretty intimidating at the moment with the aviators covering his eyes and a bandana underneath his cap.

“How about you tell us your name first?” his voice was husky and dark, making the hairs on her neck rise.

She licked her lips and looked at the man. “Danielle.”

“Beautiful name for a beautiful woman,” one of the other men complimented her. He looked pretty classy dressed in a leather jacket, V-neck shirt but she knew he was anything but. The bad boy image reeked from him and his hairstyle spiky and all gelled proved her right.

1st person P.O.V

I awkwardly nodded, “So, can I get ya anything?”

“Bring us a few beers and yourself, then you can join us.” The buzzed hair man spoke. I nodded and turned around; rolling my eyes that he wanted me to join. He seemed way too confident I would follow his command; it wasn’t even if I wanted to join-- no it was you can join us.

I poured up five beers, ignoring his request to tap one of for me as well and then loaded them onto a tray. When I came back to the table they were all talking, barely paying attention to me and I put all of the glasses on the table.

“Anything else I can get for you?” I asked as put my hands on my hips. They stopped talking and the man with buzzed hair turned to me, licking his lips.

He slid in a bit further in the booth, patting the seat he had just sat on. “No, please join us.”

“Sorry, I’ve got to work but thank you for the offer.” I tried to reply politely, dismissing his offer.

His eyes hardened and his voice cut deep as he spoke. “No, please sit with us.”

The tone in his voice made sure that I knew there was no backing up, just doing as he said but I wasn’t going with that. I was about to shake my hand when I caught a glimpse of something shining. It took me only a moment to realise what shiny thing had caught my attention from his pants, his shirt had slightly ridden up to display a piece of the item. A gun.

Gulping I nodded nervously and carefully sat down, hunching my shoulders slightly—everything to feel a bit smaller because somehow it felt better like that. They all looked at me small smiles on their face, they looked like they were kids who were about to do something bad and that worried me. I fiddled with my hands that were placed in my lap, waiting for something to happen even if I didn’t want it too, since it felt quite uncomfortable knowing that the guy next to you has a gun.

“So Danielle, where are you from?” the man that asked had a nose piercing and spiky brown hair.

“Ohio.” I replied softly, biting my lips. “Oh, sorry I don’t know any of your names.”

“Beg our pardon, I’m Synyster but it’s Syn for you then we have Christ-” he pointed to a man with a nose ring and mowhawk. “-Vengeance-” he pointed to a man with black, back slicked hair and snakebites. “-Arin-” he looked the youngest out of them all with tousled hair and brown eyes. “- and Shadows.” That was the biggest and scariest guy out of them all, the one sitting next to me.

“What’s with the names?” I blurted out before my mind caught up with my mouth. My eyes widened and I sent them a slight, apologetic yet awkward shrug.

Syn laughed. “It’s our aliases that we use for business.”

Once again I spoke before I thought. “What business are you guys in?” I groaned. “Sorry.”

“Nothing a beautiful woman like you should be concerned by.” His gruff and husky voice startled me. I was not expecting him to answer me but when I heard his voice even more closely, it felt fitting to
his pseudo- Shadows.

I couldn’t hide the slight tinge of red that appeared on my face so I nodded, biting my lip as I did so.

“So Ohio you say?” Syn’s voice spoke up and he looked at me intensely as if he was trying to figure me out and dare me to lie. They all were intimidating in their own way but it wasn’t hard to notice that Syn and Shadows were the one that oozed most authority and created fear amongst people with their athletic builds. The other men seemed quieter as well as if they were observing things whilst Syn and Shadows kept the conversation going— being straightforward.

I nodded. “Uhm yeah, born and raised there actually.”

“Yeah, the accent’s still there.” Syn smirked at me. “So why’d you move here?”

I instantly started feeling uncomfortable and took deep, strained breaths as I thought of my reasons to which I moved here. Truth be told, it was an escape from everything that had happened in my life- my husband and baby boy that I had lost. I had only experienced true happiness for 2 years in my life everything else had been dragging me down, showing me the bad sides of life. Shaking my head I resumed back into the conversation, not wanting to dwell nor take too much time answering—that would probably get them suspicious.

“Personal reasons, I guess would be the best way to answer to that.”

This time Vengeance spoke, he had a surprisingly smooth and soft voice. “Would you like to share?”

I bit my lip once again, “It’s personal.”

“Boyfriend cheat on ya?” The short one, Christ I think his name was. These guys were really straight forward and right to the point of the matter.

“If only…”I sighed, slightly laughing then frowning. “…but as I said, it’s personal.”

I gulped feeling the sour and sad feelings bubble up as I thought about Josh and Kyle. Tears were threatening to appear and I felt myself getting more anxious to leave. I couldn’t stand to be here anymore.

“Excuse me, I just got to use the ladies room.” I excused myself, not even giving them time to reply as

I shot up from my seat and rushed over to the bathroom. Once I was inside I walked into one of the stalls, locked it and let the tears fall.

3rd person P.O.V

“So, background check?” Vengeance prepared himself to pull out his small hand-computer out of his pocket. This was their usual routine to check anyone who was new in town’s record and information—basically to see if they were any threat to the gang.

Shadows lifted his hand, signalling Vengeance to stop. “No. She seems like an interesting one and like a challenge…” he whispered the last words to himself.”…and boy do I love challenges.”