Forgotten Dawn (Forgotten Book 2)

Chapter 18

Chad took one of the remaining three seats at the two tables that had been pushed together for the group to have lunch. Anna was sitting in the seat farthest from Chad on the opposite side of the table. To Chad's disappointment, Clint sat beside her. The food was lukewarm, having been used for the photo shoot, but still tasted great. He had gone with the smothered pork chop, asparagus, and potatoes au gratin.

"What do you think?" asked Chef as he took the seat opposite Chad with his sous chef beside him. Chef was a large man whose biceps were bigger than the waists of the girls at the table. He had thick black hair streaked with silver, and there was a small tattoo at the corner of his left eye.

"It's amazing. You have a real talent for cooking. You could be the chef of any fancy restaurant you wanted. Why are you here?" Chad shoved a bite of potatoes in his mouth.

"It's the only place that would hire a felon. They train you up to be a contributing member of society, and then prevent you from actually being able to do anything with that training. I was lucky Jerry gave me a chance," Chef explained in his thick Spanish accent.

"How long have you worked here?"

"I've been here about three years, and Dante came on last year. He was my cellmate before I got released," Chef nodded his head toward the thin man to his right.

Dante gave Chad a nod of acknowledgment before turning back to his food. During the entire photo shoot, the man had said nothing. He had busied himself in the back of the kitchen prepping food.

"If you don't mind me asking, how much time did you serve?"

"15 years for robbery. Dante did twelve."

Chad wasn't sure what to say to that, but thankfully he was spared from responding when Jerry addressed him. "How's the hotel?"

"It's not terrible, but I really want to get out of there," he answered honestly.

"That reminds me," Jerry addressed the girls, "any of your places have any empty units, let us know. Chad needs a place to stay."

Carly shook her head, "Sorry. Kandy and I are at the same place. I know there aren't any vacancies. Sunny?"

"No, we haven't had a vacancy for a couple months."

Clint held up his hands. "Don't look at me. I rent a house with three other guys."

"Chef?" Jerry asked.

"Dante and I are renting a place where Sunny is."

Anna looked up shocked, "Really? I didn't know that."

"Yeah, we are in the building on the opposite side of the complex. I only realized you were there too a few months ago. We happened to be driving by when you were taking out your trash," Chef added.

Chad looked from Chef to Dante and then to Anna. She was living in the same complex as two felons, one of which was just released from prison a few months ago. He had a million questions for Anna, Chef, Dante, and Jerry, but took a deep breath to calm himself. It wouldn't do any good to spook the bastard who had been stalking her if it was someone sitting at the table.

He turned his attention back to his food and polished it off before standing as the conversations around him continued on. "Thanks for dinner. I'm going to go through the shots we took today. Jerry, do you have a place for me to set up?"

"Sure. There's an extra office back behind the dressing room. It's mostly used for storage, but you should still be able to get to the desk. There's an extra key in my office hanging behind my desk."

"Thanks. Do you need me to do anything else before my shift?"

"No, no, you go ahead and get started on those pictures. I'll send Rico back when it's time to open. He'll help you get clocked in. Just make sure to get me a price for the photography stuff."