––––––––
Gabriel rose from his seat. “I gotta go.”
Adrian got up to let him out. I stared helplessly at him, at a loss. Finally, I decided I should go with him.
“I’ll just...I’ll catch up with you later, okay?” I said.
Anna nodded.
Adrian stopped me before I rushed out the door. “Here’s my card if you need anything.”
“Thanks.” I slipped it into my pocket as I followed Gabriel’s retreating back up the stone steps. The skull on his back leered back at me, and Anna’s high, ironic laugh echoed in my head.
I burst out onto the sidewalk. Gabriel loped slowly, scanning the road for taxis.
“It’s got to be a brother from the Laughlin chapter. Who else could it have been?” I said.
“I know,” Gabriel said. His brow was furrowed against the sun, but he looked troubled nonetheless.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Gabriel exhaled loudly. “Fuck.”
I squeezed his arm.
“I can’t.” He shook his head. “I fucking can’t.”
“You can’t what?”
To my surprise, Gabriel grabbed me. He squeezed me to his chest so hard that I couldn’t breathe. I felt dizzy when he finally let me go. There was a wild confusion in his eyes when he looked at me again.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said.
* * *
We took a cab back to Sarah’s to pick up Gabriel’s ride. Then, having nowhere else to go, we just went to the Strip. There was something soothing about coming back here in the daytime, when the crowd was mostly soft grandmothers and families toting children with cameras hanging from their necks. I let Gabriel lead me by the hand to Bellagio, afraid to say anything.
Once inside, we silently contemplated the glass sculptures mounted to the ceiling in the main entryway. I stuck to Gabriel’s side when he wandered away into the casino.
“What are we doing?” I finally asked.
Gabriel spun around, the same confused look in his eyes. “I don’t know, Lisbeth. I...I...” He bit his lip. “I need a drink.”
He was scaring me. I followed him into an oaken lounge area and bought us a couple of double vodkas with lime.
“Is it what Anna said?” I finally asked.
“About the Kings? Pretty much.” He took a long drink. “Laughlin is my home chapter.”
I choked on a mouthful of vodka, sending a burning lick through my nose. “What?” I coughed.
“I’m originally from Laughlin,” he said. “Patched in by my brother.”
I got an uncomfortable, slimy feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Is your brother, by chance, Jameson?”
Gabriel only responded by taking another drink. “If you know my brother, you probably understand why I left to go nomad.”
I nodded. I did understand. I’d only encountered Jameson once, during the brief time the Laughlin Kings had been holding onto me while waiting for my brother to show up. He was tall and wide, built like a tank, with these crazy tattoos of spitting cobras on his arms. Unlike Canyon City’s own gentle giant Noah, the Laughlin club president was frighteningly intense, like a dictator. With him as the leader, it was no wonder they’d accepted True North’s invitation for an alliance.
The fact that Gabriel was his actual brother made me feel ill.
“This is one hell of a coincidence” I said. “The fact that we even crossed paths is amazing. You’re Jameson’s brother, you’re from Laughlin...” The people I hoped to avoid, I mentally added.
Gabriel made a fist and slammed it onto the table, alarming some nearby patrons. “I’m not like him,” he growled.
I finished my drink quickly. When I put my glass down, Gabriel grabbed for my hands. There was a pleading look in his eyes.
“I was afraid to tell you, Lisbeth. Especially when you told me that your brother is the VP of Canyon City.” He lowered his gaze. “I wanted you to trust me.”
“I did,” I said carefully. But did I trust him now?
Without another word, Gabriel pulled me against his body, almost knocking me off of my stool. I sat with my cheek against his shoulder, dazed. When he finally loosened his grip, I managed to pull away slightly.
That was when he kissed me.
It felt like kissing a wall at first. Gabriel was only a sensation against my lips, slightly cool and prickly. But then, he opened his mouth, and his hands floated down my arms toward my waist. I felt the first wave of something beginning to swell up inside of me, a tide of emotion and warmth.
He was the first to pull away. I blinked at him and suddenly realized that I’d drunk that vodka a little too fast.
“I think I should lie down.”
Gabriel seemed to agree. He pulled a huge wad of cash from one of the pockets of his cut. I had no idea where he’d gotten it.
“I’ll get us a room,” he said.
* * *
Our room was sumptuously decorated, with plush carpets and striped wallpaper. The two beds wore matching, thick duvet covers. I stretched out on one of them and almost fell asleep right then and there. It was like sinking into a cloud. But I had a perfect view of the marble tiled bathroom, and I knew that I needed a shower. Badly.
Gabriel fell onto the next bed and was completely silent.
“I’m going to shower, okay?”
When he didn’t answer, I got up and closed myself in the bathroom. Light glinted cleanly off of marble surfaces. A rectangular mirrored tray held some toiletries: tiny, fragrant bottles of shampoo, a decanter of cotton balls, a dry square of white soap that smelled of lavender. I held it up to my nose and inhaled. Lavender was supposed to be calming.
So why was my heart beating so fast?
I knew why, but I was afraid to go there.
Girls like me didn’t stay in high-end hotels. We got Paradise Motel, cracked walls, and furniture dusted with cigarette ash. We only stayed at the nicer places if there was a man paying us to go with him...
But I wasn’t that girl, anymore. I shook the memories out of my mind and undressed quickly. When I stepped into the spacious shower, I imagined all those men washing down the drain, riding lavender-scented bubbles.
I’d just finished rinsing out my hair when I finally heard the knocking on the door. I shut off the water. “Yeah?”
“Your phone was ringing,” Gabriel said, his voice slightly muffled.
I wrapped a towel around myself and tip-toed out. Steam gushed out of the bathroom when I cracked the door open. I could see a sliver of Gabriel’s face and opened the door a little wider.
“I think the caller left a voicemail,” he said. Then, his eyes fell off of my face to my body. I could see the change in his expression as his pupils widened, darkening his gaze. His Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed. Instinctively, I drew the towel tighter around my chest.
The air hung heavy, suspended between us like a thick curtain. I could anticipate him reaching for me at any moment, and I remained frozen there, afraid to step away. It had been moments before that I’d been thinking about all those men I’d been forced to sleep with to pay off a debt.
And moments before that when Gabriel kissed me.
The ghost of that kiss was still on my lips. My hand floated up to my mouth as I recalled it. I’d never been kissed like that before. Ever.
Gabriel coughed loudly and looked away. “I, uh, just wanted to let you know. In case you were expecting an important call or something.”
I couldn’t imagine who it could’ve been. “Thanks,” I said faintly.
I shut the door, erasing Gabriel from my view. What just happened? But before I even had a chance to answer the question for myself, Gabriel burst back into the bathroom.
“Lisbeth,” he said, urgency in his voice. He grabbed my waist and pulled me toward him.
Our lips crashed together, and my mind blanked out. All I could think about was how good it felt to be held, to be kissed by him. All I could hear was his breath, my breath. For just a few moments, it was just him and me. He was my world.
His tongue penetrated my lips but touched against mine tenderly. My whole body burned in his hands. Somehow, I kissed him back.
And just as quickly as it had started, it stopped. Gabriel was the first to pull away. There was a twisted, confused look on his face.
“I’m...I’m sorry,” he said. He walked out quickly, his loud exit echoing off of the walls.
I could only stand there, dazed, staring at the door and wondering what had made him stop.