Wild Child: A Skull Kings MC Novella (8 page)

Adrian drove us through the parking structure to where Gabriel had left his bike. I made sure to sit in the middle, between the two guys. Adrian waited in the driver’s seat and let the engine idle, leaving me and Gabriel to try and heave the bike into his truck bed.

“What now?” Gabriel asked after we slammed the tailgate shut.

I wiped a bit of sweat off of my forehead and put my hands on my hips. “Are you going to be nice now?”

Gabriel made a face. “Don’t do this. I’m sorry if I was an asshole earlier. It’s just that...”

Something tightened in my chest. I was reminded again of last night, and I was afraid he’d bring it up. But when he didn’t, I realized that I wasn’t afraid at all. I was actually disappointed.

“”I made a promise that I’d help you.” He lifted his chin to look me square in the face. “And I don’t break my promises. I’ll see things through ‘til the end.”

There was something temporary about his tone, like he was telling me that after “the end,” he’d be gone for good. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, so I could only nod along with him.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s get going.”

* * *

T
he ride back to the tattoo shop was mostly silent. Adrian kept the radio tuned to an alternative rock station, which we all pretended to listen to. I spent the time imagining that I could read the guys’ thoughts.

Gabriel was probably regretting the moment he befriended me. I glanced sidelong at him. He leaned against the window on an elbow, picking at his lips. I noticed his fingernails were a little ragged, like he had a habit of chewing them off.

Slowly, I turned my head toward Adrian at my left. His eyes were narrowed and focused on the road, but they seemed troubled. I didn’t know much about him, but I did know that he cared about his sister. Of course, Anna was in the middle of all this. She probably enjoyed everyone crowding around her, worried for her safety.

After all we’d been through, I felt like I owed Anna something. I couldn’t just ditch her in Vegas after fate worked so hard to make our paths cross.
But this is the last time,
I promised myself. And with a start, I realized that that was probably exactly how Gabriel felt about me.

We drove past the shop so Adrian could park in a side alley.

“You guys can chit-chat with Anna or whatever,” he said. “I think I have a mechanic I can call about the motorcycle.”

The three of us shuffled down the stairs to the basement entrance. That was when Adrian stopped suddenly, almost causing me and Gabriel to collide into him.

“What’s up?” Gabriel asked.

Adrian was frozen, staring at the door. He reached out and pulled it open about an inch before letting it fall shut again. “I could’ve sworn I locked up before I left.”

The tone in his voice made my blood freeze. Gabriel and I exchanged troubled glances. Then, with a curt nod, Gabriel shouldered past Adrian and tried the door. Without even looking, I knew he was reaching for his hidden blade. I just hoped it would be enough for whatever was waiting for us inside.

Gabriel swiftly opened the door and brandished his knife. Adrian and I followed him in.

“What the fuck?” Adrian cried.

It took a moment for me to realize what I was looking at. The entire place was trashed. Workstations were overturned, posters were torn off walls, and to top it all off, the register was still in the process of being raided. I blinked a few times, unable to believe who I was seeing.

“Larry?”

Larry jumped back from the register, his face pale. There was a wad of cash in his hands. Adrian made a strangled, outraged noise and lunged forward. I grabbed him by the back of his sweater, merely on instinct. And fortunately, my instinct was right on point. After the initial shock of being caught, Larry smirked and lifted his shirt to stuff his cash in his pocket, flashing the pistol tucked into his belt.

“What are you doing here, Larry?” Gabriel asked, lowering his knife.

Larry snickered. “I should ask you the same thing. I came by with a bunch of your cohorts to pick up something...or
someone
that our boss happens to be interested in.”

Adrian gasped sharply. “Anna!”

Gabriel growled. “Then, why are you
still
here?”

“To deliver a message.” His black, beady little eyes turned onto me. “To you, Lisbeth.”

I caught the generic, pre-paid phone he tossed at me.

Larry kept the end of his shirt hooked on his thumb so we could all see the heat he was packing. “There’s just one contact number in that phone. I’m going to walk out that door, and you are going to start counting to thirty. When you get to thirty, you hit ‘call.’ You got that, Lisbeth?”

My hands were shaking. I wrapped my fingers so tight around the phone that my fingerpads turned white. I swallowed. “Got it.”

Larry narrowed his eyes, scanning us as he backed away toward the door. He kicked it open with one foot. Then, Adrian said, “One,” and Larry turned tail and scurried up the steps. We listened to him disappearing into Las Vegas traffic.

“Call that number
right
.
Now
,” Gabriel ordered.

My fingers shook. I jabbed at the little green button and held the phone to my ear. The air stilled around me. It was as if all three of us had stopped breathing. The phone rang three times before somebody picked up.

“Li-Lisbeth?” Anna’s voice crackled through the speaker.

My gut wrenched. “Anna! Where are you?”

I thought I heard a muffled sob followed by some heavy breathing. Then, Anna half-whispered, “I’m with him!”

I heard the fear in her voice and I knew exactly who she was talking about. My eyes turned wide. The first person I looked at was Adrian. I watched him bite his lip and shake his head. Things weren’t looking very good for any of us.

“How did he find you?” I asked.

“Somebody followed you to the shop,” Anna whispered. “But that’s not important. Listen to me, Lisbeth. The Boss, he wants
you.
He won’t let me go unless you’re the one who comes to get me.”

“How? Am I just supposed to show up by myself?”

“Remember that story I told you yesterday?”

“What?” I frowned. Her voice sounded funny.

“The
story
I told you about what I’d been up to.”

I struggled to think faster.
The FBI.
There had been an agent working with Anna.

“I have to go now, Lisbeth—”

“Wait—”

I stared at the phone after she hung up. It wasn’t enough.

“What did she say?” Adrian asked urgently.

I righted an upturned chair and sank down into it. “We need to find the FBI agent who was working with Anna.”

“Pft,”
Gabriel snorted. “Well, our only other lead is Gloria, who’s dead. Unless she told
you
anything.” He looked hopefully to Adrian, who shook his head.

“I don’t know any more info than you guys,” he said, his voice quivering. He fell back against a counter. “Oh, god...my
sister!
”

“Quiet,” I said, lifting a hand. “Give me time to think.”

“What, do you know something we don’t?” Adrian asked sarcastically.

“Shh!”

“Or maybe you have an FBI agent of your very own, like hidden away in your back pocket or something?”

I brightened. “Actually, I do. Thanks for the idea.” It was a long shot, but it was the best shot we had.

Gabriel and Adrian only regarded me with confused expressions. I turned around to fish my phone out of my backpack. The missed call from Carmen was still blinking on the screen.

––––––––

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.”

* * *

A
drian 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.