He quietly searched for her over the next week, along the Boardwalk, down on the Cliffs, hell, he even went to her work looking for her, but she proved more elusive than he'd anticipated, and it was making him irritated and considerably less tolerant than usual. He'd been smoking like a train, both ciggys and pot, and they were just about out which had him on edge too.
'What is with you?' Marko finally confronted him after another unnecessary outburst from his elder brother.
'Nothing.' David spat, fucked off he didn't know where else to go to look for her and feeling like he'd exhausted all avenues.
'Dude, you have been shitty for days, what the fuck?' Paul backed Marko's sentiment.
'Just leave it. Have you located Ben yet?' He growled.
'Nah, he's gone AWOL. Fuck knows where he is.' Paul said, rolling the last of the smoke into a couple of fat joints.
'Fuck.' David swore. 'Let's get a drink.' He said, grabbing his jacket and leaving their rocky home without a pause for the others.
He rode fast out of Santa Carla and headed south east and inland, pulling up outside an old wooden box of a bar out in the desert. David was pleased as he climbed off his bike.
'Where are we?' Dwayne asked once the noise of the bikes had died. 'Have we been here before?'
'You tell me.' David said back and cocked his eyebrow as he looked at him. Dwayne was now fascinated and almost excited to get inside, Marko, however, looked at the place with an evident reservation plastered across his face as he watched the first two walk in the old doors. Paul surveyed the parking lot and spotted a car he recognised down the end of the lot, which perked him up no end, before he looked over at Marko and laughed at his expression.
'What the fuck man? What a hole, this place looks like it's stuck in 1860.' Marko complained.
'Oh, don't worry bro, I'll soon have something to take your mind off it.' Marko looked at him skeptically and Paul put his arm around Marko's shoulder and laughed again. He then guided him into the dusty, smoke filled room and up to the wooden bar when David ordered, and actually paid, for some drinks and they made their way to a booth near the window. Dwayne looked around the place filled with brown leather and cowboy boots and the air of familiarity about the place got stronger. He felt like he was having deja vu. He looked back at David to find him staring back at him, his grin widening.
'Remember?' David said to him and suddenly it hit Dwayne like a bullet and he was legitimately shocked and couldn't believe he hadn't clicked as soon as he had pulled up outside.
'Holy Shit!' He exclaimed, looking around again with almost a fresh set of eyes.
'What?' Marko said glancing from Dwayne to David and back again.
'This is where I met David, and consequently Max.' Dwayne explained, analyzing the chattels of the structure.
'Told you this place was from the dark ages,' Marko said to Paul, throwing a round paper coaster at him but Paul's attention was elsewhere.
'They've done some cosmetic work but the skeleton is basically still the same eh?' Dwayne mentioned and David nodded looking around.
'Yeah, shame they got rid of those massive chandeliers though.' David agreed.
'Remember those antlers they had over there? And the mirror the size of the wall behind the bar?' Dwayne asked and David began laughing.
'You mean the one I broke?'
'Fuck, you did too.' They both laughed and Marko screwed up his nose.
'Still a shit hole.' He said to his drink and David and Dwayne sat there and laughed at him. David then noticed Paul's absence from their conversation and he looked at him, seeing his nervous knee shaking tick going on.
'What's up with you?' David asked but Paul was miles away. 'Hey.' David slapped his arm and Paul's head turned.
'Huh? I gotta take a piss.' Paul said looking anxious and he got up and walked the long way around the bar to the bathroom. As he exited and walked back towards the bar, he saw Ben, Carl and two others walk in the rear entrance, stinking of weed, and they went and sat in the back area around the corner next to the pool table and Paul bounced back to the booth where the boys were seated. 'Come on, I wanna play pool.' He punched Marko's shoulder and Marko slowly looked up at him.
'You wanna lose again?' Marko joked, a sly grin creeping across his face.
'Yeah, whatever...' Paul dismissed his comment and walked off, almost excitedly.
'The dude is fucking bi polar.' Marko said to the remaining two at the table, downing his drink and getting up to follow him.
'Alright,' Dwayne said once the other two had left. 'You gonna tell me what's going on?' His question elicited a sideways glance from his oldest brother. David had come to the conclusion that if he couldn't find the girl, he was going to have to enlist the help of his Indian sibling so he was going to have to divulge his vulnerable desire for a female but he was struggling with his own reasoning as to why it had to be her. He nursed his drink for a minute before he answered him.
'I've found something I want.' David said, carefully and took a sip of his drink, it was strong.
'So? You find something you want every night.'
'Yeah, well this is something I actually want to keep... and now I can't find it anymore.' David was being cryptic and Dwayne looked at him with a furrowed brow.
'What is it?' Dwayne asked suspecting he knew what or who it was but before David answered, he heard Paul laughing and he looked over to see Paul playing pool with Ben and David instantly got up and walked over to join them. Dwayne followed and they positioned themselves at a leaner along the wall next to the table so David could scan the area for that which he was seeking but to his disappointment, she wasn't there. He stood and watched Paul charm and coerce the dealer to get what he wanted out of him, no wonder Paul had perked up, he was just as eager to catch up with Ben as David was to see Star and now he was struggling with how he was going to find out where she was without just coming out and asking Ben and he figured he was going to have to get him alone and compel the information out of him. About an hour of superficial conversation later, David wanted to leave , he'd decided for himself that Carl was a dick and getting Ben alone wasn't proving as easy as he'd thought it would be either. Now he knew he was back in town , he would wait a few days and watch him and eventually he'd get the desired information out of him, even if he'd have to kill him to get it.
'Paul, get your shit and let's go.' David projected to him, stubbing out his cigarette and Paul got up from the table and walked over to his brother.
'We're just gonna have this first, then I'll go see what else he's got and we'll bounce.' David's eyes glazed over and Paul smiled. He followed the men outside onto the old decking surrounding the place, leaned over the railing and looked out into the dark desert while Paul lit up the joint and got nicely stoned out in the parking lot with the others but David remained on the deck alone, he'd had enough and really wasn't interested in prolonging being here if Star wasn't there, he was feeling edgy again and needed to feed. They were out there longer than David wanted to be but he had to admit, the product was worth the extra wait so he accepted it. Paul and Marko went back inside while Dwayne came and stood with David for a post joint cigarette. They spoke about the past, about old memories that this place brought back for them and David recognised a hint of sadness his unusually chatty, old friend's eyes. Dwayne had been through a lot before David had met him and Max had inducted him, and in the age they were living in and the state Dwayne was in at the time, David could only imagine what that entailed.
'Go in and find out what's taking him so long, would you?' David sent Dwayne back in when Paul hadn't reappeared in half an hour. David stood there impatiently, waiting for Paul and wanting his feed, when he heard movement around behind the bar and the hunter in him came alive. The looked around and contemplated the feasibility of making a kill right here. He was reckless at the best of times, but once he'd had a few drinks and he was a bit fucked up, there was no telling what he'd do. His boots clicked on the wooden floor as he slowly looked around, it was dark enough for no one to see what he was doing and he prepared himself for a quick attack as he walked around the corner but he was surprised with what he saw.
