Chapter 54: x4 Return For Payback[3 Dragon Bonus]
The café music had been playing the same ambient loop since they sat down. Adrian hadn’t even noticed until now.
Drew was talking. Marianne was responding. Whatever the conversation was about, they seemed to be having it successfully.
Adrian had caught maybe one sentence in the last five minutes. Dina sitting beside him was making concentrating harder than it had any right to be.
He hadn’t looked at her again after she’d picked up the menu. Instead, he’d spent the last few minutes trying to figure out how to get through the date without making things worse.
"Adrian." Drew called out, snapping him away from his thoughts.
He blinked. Drew was looking at him with the patience of someone who’d already said his name twice.
"Sorry. What?"
"I asked what you wanted."
Adrian looked up. The waiter stood there with his notepad. Four sets of eyes were already on him.
"Coffee," Adrian said. "Black."
The waiter wrote it down and moved on. Adrian straightened and put the menu down. His mind returned to its search for a possible way out. Nothing came.
Jenna, visibly holding in her chuckle, straightened up.
"I’m gonna help with the orders." She smiled at the waiter. "Looks like you’ve got enough for a minute."
Adrian paused. Meet the waiter. Perfect. An excuse to leave the table. He started to push back his chair.
She put her hand down on his arm without looking at him. "Don’t worry. I’ve got this."
He stopped.
She stood, walked off with the waiter, leaving Adrian behind with Dina. Traitor.
He was making something out of nothing. Dina had given him no reason to worry; no lingering look, no pointed comment, nothing.
She’d said clothing store and left it there. He was building a problem out of a situation that might not even be one.
He turned back toward the table.
Dina was already looking at him, her glass turning slowly beneath her fingers. "You okay?"
"Me?" Adrian forced a smile. "Yeah. I’m good."
She didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t push it. "I’m not."
He paused. Hmm?
So she was actually willing to talk to him.
Maybe she’d forgotten about last night. Or maybe she just didn’t care. Either way, he wasn’t about to ruin it by bringing it up.
"What’s wrong?"
"I’m bored." She replied immediately.
Adrian looked at Drew and Marianne, who were now deep in a genuine conversation about campus parking. Then he looked at Dina. "We just got here."
"We just got here."
"I know. It’s still boring."
Adrian turned away, hoping to end the conversation. "Oh. Well... Too bad."
Dina let the silence sit for a moment. Then she tapped a finger against her glass. Her mouth curved slightly.
"I’ve got an idea." She paused. "Let’s play a game."
Adrian’s brows furrowed. "A game?"
"Hear me out. It has the funniest title." She leaned closer, the faint scent of mint conditioner reached him. "Okay. Here it is..."
His attention sharpened before he could stop it.
"’What body part do you like the most in a stranger?’ " she whispered near his ear. "I think your friends are gonna love your answer."
Adrian’s shoulder instantly tensed up. He looked at her and caught the smug little smile she was trying not to show.
Yeah. He was fucked. But at least he could still save his dignity. Unless...
He straightened and set down his menu. "I need some air."
Dina’s eye brow lifted. "What?"
"You. Me. Outside." He gestured toward the door. "For a minute."
He pushed back his chair. Dina stood a moment later.
The café door swung open, and warmer air hit him. Adrian realized he’d completely lost track of the morning.
He stopped near a planter at the side of the entrance. Dina stopped beside him.
"Okay," Adrian said.
She waited.
He’d planned to keep it short. Apologize. Make it clear he understood the line he’d crossed. Then let her decide what came next. He started. "About what happened at the bar..."
His phone buzzed against his thigh. He ignored it.
"The bar," he repeated. "What I did at the bar... I crossed a line. I know that."
Dina looked at him, arms crossed, her expression back to unreadable.
"Okay..." she said, her gaze still on his.
His phone buzzed again. He kept his hand in his pocket.
"I’m not going to make excuses. I was drunk, and that’s not..."
"Adrian, right?"
He stopped. "Yeah."
"I’m not planning to do anything about it." Dina said.
"You were drunk. And for what it’s worth , I’ve had some Krav Maga lessons." She gave him a flat look. "So you weren’t going to get very far."
He opened his mouth. Closed it. Fair enough.
"I’m not saying it was fine," she added. "It wasn’t. But I handled it. Besides, you’re clearly not..." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Whatever I thought you were."
If she meant scumbag, she wasn’t exactly wrong.
"Right." Adrian nodded. "I’ll take that as progress."
"You’re still a scumbag, though." She shrugged. "But you don’t need to worry about it. I won’t reveal your secret."
His shoulders finally loosened.
"Well..." Dina’s mouth twitched. "Maybe."
Bzzzzt~Bzzzzt
His phone vibrated again, this time louder than before. Her eyes flickered toward the phone in his pocket.
"I think you should get that." Dina added as she turned towards the café and started back toward the door.
Adrian pulled out his phone.
The notification sat at the top of the screen, clean-edged and waiting.
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◆ REGRET INVESTMENT MODULE INITIATED ◆
INITIAL INVESTMENT TARGET GENERATED.
Target: Dina Castillo
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Huh? You’ve got to be kidding me.
His eyes roamed lower.
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Connection Tier: Peripheral: Maya Link Active
Investment Potential: 40%
Projected Return: ×4 Current Reserve
Current Reserve: $20,000
Projected Return: $80,000
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
He read through it.
Maya Link Active.
That explained it. Dina wasn’t just another random target. Apparently there was a connection to his ex, and somehow the system knew before he did.
That was the part that caught him. Dina wasn’t just another target, so somehow he’d been linked to another close companion of Maya.
His eyes lowered to the reward.
Forty percent. Four times his current reserve. Eighty thousand dollars. That was a lot of money. A lot more than he’d even expected.
He stared at the number for a second before he locked the screen, putting the phone away.
Dina had stopped a few feet from the door, glancing back. "You coming?"
He looked at her, proceeding forward. "Right behind you."
She stared for a moment, then turned. Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
He’d seen the System attach rewards to people before. But a multiplier this high attached to someone who wasn’t even a target? That was new.
But this wasn’t a coincidence.
The System clearly thought there was something here. And that something was worth eighty grand.
Was it worth the risk?
Definitely.
"Wait,"
Dina turned. "Yeah?"
He looked at her for a moment as he straightened. "Can I get to know you?"