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I paced in the back alleyway as I waited for the call to connect. Alone. For some reason, I’d wanted to be by myself when I called Carmen. Then, her voice answered after the fifth ring, and I knew why.
“Lizzie?”
“Car!” I couldn’t hold back the relief in my voice.
“What happened? Where are you?”
I smiled in spite of myself. I could just see Carmen with her hair pulled up into a messy bun, perhaps hunched over the table in the break room at Buddy’s Sports Bar. One difference I noted was that she didn’t sound perpetually exhausted. Ever since Logan had come into her life, things had been easier for her.
“I’m in Vegas,” I said. “Don’t ask me why. But I’m in a little bit of trouble.” Instantly, I sensed her going dark.
“True North?”
I sighed. “Yeah. And the Laughlin Skull Kings.”
“What?”
“Well, one of ‘em is here in the city, at least. And the True North presence is as strong as ever. They took my friend Anna, and they’re asking for me.”
“You want me to talk to your brother about this?”
“No. I need Logan.”
Carmen was quiet for a long time. “You sure?”
“Yeah.” And then, I explained everything that had happened, everything I knew so far. I told her that Anna had been working with some FBI agent, building a case. That she was in danger. That possibly, I was in danger too.
“I don’t know, Lizzie. Logan is working in a completely different department...”
“But he’s still got connections, right?”
Carmen sighed loudly. It was a familiar sound I’d heard many times ever since her babysitter days, when she babysat me. It meant, This is probably not a good idea, but I’ll let you do it anyway because I love you.
I smiled. God, I missed her so much. I missed everybody. A tiny seed of a thought formed in the back of my mind. What if leaving Canyon City was a mistake? But I didn’t have time to linger on it.
“I’ll talk to him and figure something out,” she said.
“Thank you!”
Before I got a chance to hang up, Carmen stopped me.
“You’re being careful, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Good. Then, take care. Talk to you soon.”
I felt guilty immediately after hanging up. I was being careful. Kind of. Normally, going with my gut was enough to survive. I’d gone with my gut when I accepted Gabriel’s invitation. He was a Skull King after all. But I’d had no idea that he was one of them. Sure, he was a good kisser and good everything else, but after seeing how he acted with Dash...
What kind of man was he, exactly? I thought I’d known all along, but it was clear that I didn’t know him at all.
The door in the alley wall opened, and Adrian poked his head out. “You all done? How’d it go?”
I took a deep breath, collecting my thoughts. “Pretty good, I think. Now, we just wait to hear back from them.”
* * *
Adrian left to run errands, leaving me and Gabriel alone in the mess of the tattoo parlor. Needing something to do with my hands, I began trying to clean up. A minute or two later, Gabriel joined me.
I kept getting text messages from Carmen as I cleaned, asking for more information. When my phone beeped for about the tenth time, Gabriel sighed loudly. I spun around to face him.
“You got a problem or something?” I asked.
Gabriel shoved down the torn poster in his hands. “Yeah, I do.” Evidently, he’d been waiting all day to say that to me.
I put my hands on my hips. “Well, I’m listening.”
Gabriel took a few steps closer. He raised his hand and parted his mouth, but nothing came out. He turned away for a second and closed his eyes. Finally, he looked back at me. “Don’t do this, Lisbeth.”
“Don’t do what?”
“This. Calling your FBI hook-up back in Canyon City, getting your gang all riled up. It’s too much, too soon. My brother and my Laughlin brothers are caught up in this, too. We need a way to get them out first before the Feds swoop in.”
“You’re talking about guys like Jameson and Dash here. What favors have they done for you?”
Gabriel shook his head, as if my words were flies buzzing in his ears. “They’re my family! They’re all I got!”
“Some family!” I spat back. “They hurt your ex, they kidnapped Anna, they kidnapped me. They’re nice and cozy with the same guys who held me down and gave me this.” I flashed him my tattoo, making him flinch. “You say you don’t trust Anna because she got me into this mess way back when. Well, what’s your excuse, huh? How do you vouch for Dash and Jameson’s actions?”
Gabriel began pacing slowly, cracking his knuckles. When he spoke, his nostrils flared. “I can’t betray my family.”
“They’re not your family.”
Suddenly, Gabriel spun on his heel and punched the wall, leaving a giant hole in the drywall the size of my head. Plaster crumbled to the ground when he pulled his fist out. There was blood on his knuckles.
“Oh, god,” I murmured. I rushed over to him with a tissue. It was all I could find.
He let me lead him to the bench in the waiting area and sat down. I told him I’d be right back and went into the back room where I remembered seeing a refrigerator. I hoped I’d find some ice in there, but the freezer was empty except for some frozen dinners and a frosty, half-empty bottle of Grey Goose. I grabbed the bottle.
“This was all they had,” I said, showing it to Gabriel.
“Nice. Just what I need.” He reached for it and grabbed it out of my hand. Then, using only his teeth, he unscrewed the cap and took a long swig.
I felt a laugh bubbling up in my stomach, but I choked it back down. I tried to frown disapprovingly. “It’s supposed to be for your hand. It’s already a little swollen.”
“Right, right,” Gabriel said, chuckling. He transferred the bottle to his bad hand and flexed his fingers around it.
I sat down next to him. It was almost like the past few minutes hadn’t even happened. Or maybe, we were just pretending.
Still, there was something I needed to tell him. I took a deep breath.
“They’re on their way,” I said. I put my hand on his knee, almost absent-mindedly. “Logan—that’s the guy who’s our hook-up. His old lady, Carmen. My brother and his old lady. And probably the rest of the club.”
Compared to his previous outburst, Gabriel took this especially well. He breathed out through his nose and sat back in his seat. The muscles in his jaw were working overtime as he gnashed his teeth behind his cheeks.
“Fine,” he finally said. “I’m good with that. But once they get here, I’m out.”
I felt numb with shock. “You promised you’d help me, though.”
“I know, and I’m shit for breaking it. But I gotta go with my gut here, Lisbeth. You need to help Anna, and the only way you can do that is to go to the FBI. I get that, but I can’t be a part of it.”
I nodded.
“Besides, what good am I compared to the big bad government, right?”
I laughed lightly along with him. “Right.” And I knew he was. But a small part of me wished that he wasn’t.