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I WAS STUNNED. NEVER would I have guessed that Gavin, of all people, would have a home life like that. He seemed so confident, so put together. So perfect.
Of course, there had been signs. He had avoided talking about his family before in conversations. He had spent the holidays mostly on campus, to the point where he hung out with Star and me rather than go home. I probably should have picked up on him not going home as more than a choice of not really wanting to spend time with them like I didn’t want to spend time with my folks.
His reasons were much darker. Much more real. My desire not to get picked on because I wasn’t waifish thin or because I ate too much at dinner or because I was pursuing sports rather than something more ‘pragmatic’ seemed wildly childish. My parents didn’t accidentally send a biker gang after me to collect money they had blown.
“You said your dad spent it,” I said. “Is there any way to get that money back, maybe? Like sell the stuff he bought?”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “Even if I could get back home and try to sell or return some of it, I probably wouldn’t make enough to cover half of it by the end of the week. And that would be giving up the games and everything.”
“It’s just so unfair,” I muttered.
“It’s not the first time,” he grumbled. “He gambled for a long time. Had a really bad problem with it. Lost a bunch of money and borrowed it from a different biker gang. He used to box and ended up betting on himself and got knocked out. Two for one on that one.”
“Oh, shit,” I said. “That’s horrible.”
Gavin simply nodded, his eyes still on the door.
“I had to nurse him back to health with Mom after that fight. Busted eye, busted eardrum, busted brain for all that. He was groggy and clearly had a concussion. And then this dude bust through our door and said Dad owed him five K.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I was nine. I didn’t do shit,” he said. “Mom promised we would have it in two days. Then she kissed my head and said everything would be okay and that we needed to pack. We packed all our shit and left Dad there that night. I didn’t know what was happening, really, but a couple days later, Dad called us and he somehow worked it out with them. Of course, all our shit was gone in the house. Anything we didn’t take with us to the hotel was gone. My bed was gone. My video games. Everything.”
“Gavin, that’s horrible,” I said.
“It’s life,” he said, shrugging. “But then, that gang got busted for some dumb shit, and Dad started hanging out with a different one. These guys. They’re... different. Dad’s done boxing now, too old and beat up for it, so he was working on their bikes to get favors, you know? And they routed people to him since he was also doing other shit for them and fixing up their bikes for cheap.”
“That’s how he ended up dealing?”
“Yup,” he said. “He said he only did it occasionally, when they got a bunch of stuff in and needed extra hands to get rid of it. He said he only ever brought it to people who’d already paid, so he wasn’t ever in any danger, but he’s an idiot, as I have pointed out. He must have gotten popped by an undercover. Why they would let him out on parole, I don’t know, but my guess is he’s back in now for good. He won’t want to show his face to these guys, even if I clean up his mess.”
“You can’t, though,” I said. “You can’t just keep fixing things for him.”
“I have to,” he said. “He’s my dad. He’s family. I don’t have to like it.”
“But maybe you could just talk to these guys and explain,” I began.
“No,” he said, cutting me off. “You don’t get it. These guys, they aren’t like the other gang he hung out with. They don’t want shit they have to sell to get their money back. They want the cash. And they only understand one way of getting it. Violence. And knowing Mom, she said whatever she needed to keep them from getting her. That means she probably told them about my scholarship money.”
“Oh no,” I said, my hand going to my mouth instinctively. “No, she wouldn’t, would she?”
“She would,” he said. “She absolutely would if she thought it would buy her a little time. Besides, as far as she’s concerned, that’s just free money I get, and I can work to pay my college bills. She doesn’t get it. She’s just waiting around for me to cash a check from a major league team so I can take care of her and Dad for the rest of my life. Like I have ever since I brought home my first check from being a bag-boy at the grocery store.”
“What do we do?” I asked.
“We don’t do anything. You should go. Get out of here. Get somewhere safe. I’ll handle this.”
“No,” I said. “I already told you, I’m making sure you get safe too.”
“And that leads us right back to where do we go?” he said, frustrated. “I don’t have anywhere.”
“Well, the hotel has security guards,” I said. “If we can get back there, they can’t really do anything once you are on those grounds without getting police involved, right?”
“If they can do something to me to ‘convince me’ that I need to pay them before security can reach us, they will. They don’t care about getting popped and going to jail. One of the other ones will just bail them out, and they will start all over.”
“Still, the hotel is the safest place we can be,” I said. “Come on. Let’s get back there.”
“I guess,” he said. “If we sneak back this way, we can go around this restaurant and go down the other side of the street.” He glanced once more at the door. “Let’s go.”
Darting across the street, we went around another building and then appeared back on the strip a block later. The club was still visible in the distance, the door we had been watching a small dot on the side of it. Nothing seemed to be happening. Quietly, I wondered what was happening with Emma and Kevin, but figured that Kevin could handle himself, and Emma would have called me by now if something crazy had happened anyway.
Gavin took my hand, and despite everything, I felt a thrill run down my spine when his hand closed over mine. It was silly and stupid, but I liked holding his hand. I liked gripping him as we ran back across the road, only a block from the hotel. The parking lot was nearby, and if we could get into that, we would be in the view of cameras at least.
Just as we made it to the corner of the street, a giant blur nearly ran into us and stopped abruptly. I looked up into the giant face of Kevin, sweat pouring down his forehead and his shirt unbuttoned almost halfway. Emma was behind him, panting and also holding her own heels.
“Gavin, there you are,” Kevin said. “I thought you were getting the hell out of there and back to the hotel.”
“That’s what I’m doing right now,” he said. “We waited to see if you were coming with us.”
“Well,” he said, shrugging and the faintest hint of a smile on his face, “I’m here, boss. I just had a few words I needed to say to some rude fellas back there.”
“Oh shit, what did you do?” Gavin asked.
“Nothing,” Kevin said, raising his hands in innocence. “I just told them that they knocked into me and made me crush my lady-friend’s foot and that she deserved an apology.”
“You told them to apologize for you stepping on Emma’s foot?” I asked.
Kevin nodded, clearly pleased with himself.
“I did,” he said proudly. “And they did.”
“Wait, you got them to apologize?” Gavin asked.
“He did,” Emma said, curling up to Kevin’s arm. “It was very sweet. All three of them said they were sorry and asked to be let past him, but Kevin gave them a good talking to.”
“Kev, that has to be the single dumbest thing you have ever done,” Gavin said, shaking his head but laughing. “I swear, you are the bravest dummy to walk the planet.”
“Thank you,” Kevin said, seemingly perfectly fine with that assessment. “Now, do you want to tell me what the hell was going on with you and those terrible dancers?”
“Not particularly,” Gavin said.
“Gav, come on, boss,” Kevin said.
“It’s about Dad,” he said.
“Ah,” Kevin said, gritting his teeth and looking angrily at the sky as he took a deep breath.
I had seen Kevin put on an angry face on the field before. That was terrifying enough. But the look he was giving the universe in general at that moment was something I would never want me or anyone I cared about to be on the receiving end of. If Kevin had a chance to get to Gavin’s father at that moment, I had a feeling Kevin would rip him limb from limb and do it without much effort.
“All right. So you know I need to know exactly what’s going on if I can help you,” Kevin said. “But that can wait. For right now, we need to get you somewhere safe. Let’s get back into the hotel and figure out our options from there.”
“They know I’m staying there,” Gavin said.
“But there’s security and cameras and us,” Kevin said, the last of those bringing a warm feeling to my chest. At that moment, we were gathering around Gavin, probably the strongest and most talented person I had ever known, to help him in a moment of need. And Kevin and Emma were doing it without even knowing what was going on.
“That’s what I said,” I put in. “We were heading there for that reason already.”
“Well, good,” Kevin said. “At least someone on this team here is thinking. Let’s go, boss.”
With that, we checked the traffic and headed across the street. The hotel was in sight, and we were almost there. A feeling of safety was beginning to wash over me already as we made our way to the entrance of the parking lot. Then it hit me. When I thought I had seen Gavin in the parking lot before, that really was him. And it was them too. Which meant being on the grounds wasn’t a problem for them. We needed to make it inside to be safe.
As we passed under a tall streetlamp, yellow light shone down on our faces. Kevin was grinning, probably feeling safer now, but also probably enjoying the adventure of the night. Emma still had a bit of a glassy look in her eyes, but from what I knew of her, this kind of night was only going to act as lubricant. It was Gavin who didn’t look relieved. He knew as well as I did that we weren’t safe yet.
Kevin and Emma slowed as we crossed into the parking lot, and I turned to yell to them that we needed to keep up the pace until we were inside. The words were almost out of my mouth when they were stopped by a shove. It came from Gavin, pushing me back into Kevin, who caught me like a bear made of pillows and gently moved me aside.
As my eyes scanned the fast-moving parking lot in the motion of my spin, I saw the three men from the club standing in the shadows. Waiting.
“Gav, look out,” Kevin shouted.
Emma screamed.
