Wild Child: A Skull Kings MC Novella (3 page)

“You okay?” Gabriel asked.

I shook my head. “I’m sure I locked the door when I left,” I whispered, pointing.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes into a scowl. It looked almost sexy, if the situation weren’t so serious. He kicked himself off of his bike and threw an arm out in front of me. “Hang back, I’ll check this out.”

My heart pounded as I watched him disappear into the darkness of my room. The skull on his back gave one last leer before it was swallowed up by the shadows.

What am I doing?
I suddenly thought. I wasn’t some dainty princess. I made to march in after him when a strangled yelp and a thud stopped me in my tracks.

“Gabriel?” I called.

My heart pounded even harder. I froze in suspense for three long seconds before I finally entered my room. When I switched on the light, I saw an interesting sight. My room was a mess, mattress upturned, knapsack contents all over the floor, and drawers pulled out. Gabriel stood framed against the bathroom light, and struggling in his hands was—

“Larry,” I said.

Gabriel glanced up at me, caught off-guard. Sensing his opportunity, Larry tore himself from Gabriel’s grip and straightened out his twisted hoodie.

“Told you she knew me,” he said. Then, he smiled, showing off his crooked, corn-yellow teeth. Gabriel’s eyes went straight to the unregistered gun tucked into Larry’s belt, but my only concern was Larry’s big, suffocating ego.

“You haven’t changed a bit,” I said.

“Thanks. You’ve gained some weight, though.” He howled when Gabriel kicked him in his shin.

I crossed my arms. Sure, Larry wasn’t exactly the welcome wagon lady, but I was strangely relieved. He had a thin face like a shaved rat and there were twelve year olds smarter than him, but he was harmless. Worse things could’ve shown up on my doorstep.

“Can you tell me what exactly you think you’re doing? How did you know I was here?”

Larry raised his thin black eyebrows. “Gloria,” he said simply.

I frowned at the unfamiliar name.
Another True North recruit?
I couldn’t remember ever knowing her. I was about to ask for more information when, to my surprise, Gabriel beat me to it.

“How do you know Gloria?”

Larry jumped, seeming to really notice Gabriel for the first time. “How do
you
know Gloria?”

“I asked you first.”

Larry widened his stance and put his hands on his hips, probably trying to make himself look big and intimidating. It didn’t help much; he still stood a head shorter than Gabriel. “She happens to be an
associate
in an
industry
—”

“Oh, of course,” Gabriel interrupted, speaking in an it-all-makes-sense tone. “You’re a drug dealer, too.”

For some reason, Larry looked relieved. “Yeah, man. Hey, if you’re interested in buying, I got some sweet—”

“Shut the fuck up, Larry,” I said. “Who the hell is Gloria and how did
she
know I was in town?”

“You ran into her at my work, remember?” Gabriel said. He gave me an imploring look. “Right before we met.”

At first, I merely stared. Then, I remembered.
Are you lookin’ for a good time?
That voice gave me chills. I remembered the cowboy hat, the straw-like braided hair. She’d been a drug dealer just like Larry, which meant she was a True Norther.

But how had she known who I was? Especially enough to recognize me in a random Las Vegas lesbian bar?

“Turn out your pockets,” Gabriel said suddenly, shoving Larry toward the bed.

Larry threw up his hands in surrender. “Relax, dude. I didn’t steal anything. I was only looking for clues.”

I had to laugh. “Clues? Who are you, Sherlock Holmes?”

“Clues looking for
you
,” Larry said. He shot me a glare. “Word on the street is that the dynamic duo is back in town.”

The dynamic duo.
For some reason, my mind lingered on those words. “Anna?” I didn’t even realize I’d said the name out loud until Larry started laughing.

“Personally, I was just curious,” Larry continued on, “but once the boss hears you two are back...” He made a violent gesture with his hands.

I choked on my silence. This was too much, too soon. Anna, was she back in town, too? And what did Larry mean about the boss hearing we’d come back?

Larry kept glancing from me to Gabriel and back again. “Well...I’m out,” he said, making his way toward the open door.

Gabriel and I looked at each other, perhaps waiting to see if the other would stop him from leaving. Neither of us moved until Larry was out the door, his sneakered footsteps on the sidewalk fading into the distance. Then, I released what felt like the first breath of the decade.

“Hey,” Gabrel said softly. There was a hardness in his eyes. I knew what was coming, and I stared at the ground as I prepared myself.
Are you a drug dealer, too?
I imagined him asking.
Are you going to get me in trouble?

But his next words weren’t what I expected at all.

“Right before you walked in, that guy,” he said sternly, his face impassive, “called you Lisbeth.”

Shame bloomed bitterly in the pit of my stomach. I felt naked and exposed. I stared at the floor, the walls, anything but Gabriel’s face as I sank down onto the end of the bed. “You wanna sit down?”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “No, I’m okay right here.”

“Okay.”

After a few beats of tense silence, Gabriel sighed loudly. “So, what is it? Are you Lucy? Or are you Lisbeth?”

I closed my eyes. “My name’s Lisbeth.”

“And you’re not just some wide-eyed, innocent girl from out of town are you?”

I couldn’t think of anything to say. Luckily, Gabriel wasn’t finished yet.

“I spent a whole evening with you. I helped you out with a job. The least you can do is explain what’s going on.”

“Fi—”

“Actually, forget it. It’s none of my business. Good luck with everything, Lisbeth.”

Gabriel began stalking toward the door, and I was going to let him at first. But when he crossed in front of me, I caught a glimpse of that backpatch, and something inside of me prodded me into action.

“Wait!”

“What?” Gabriel snapped.

I stood up. “It kind of is your business.” I swallowed. “The mess I’m caught up in, the Skull Kings MC is involved.”

Gabriel’s lips twitched as he stood there, dumbfounded, struggling to find something to say. “How do you know about the Skull Kings?”

“My older brother is the VP of the Canyon City chapter,” I said. My gaze slid sideways as I chose my next words. “I recognized your backpatch on the street that day we met. That’s why I walked into Lip Service. I followed you in.”

Gabriel’s hands rose. He tried to grip handfuls of his hair, but the short length kept making his fingers slip as they closed on his dark strands. “Fuck,” he muttered.

“I’m sorry.”

“But why were you so interested in me the first place? I’m obviously not the first biker you’ve ever seen in your life.”

“Well...just before I left Canyon City, my brother’s club had a little beef with the Laughlin chapter. I thought you might’ve been with them.” His looks had done a little convincing, too. My cheeks grew warm as I considered telling him that part, but thought myself out of it.

“You know I got nothing to do with them. I’m a nomad, remember?”

“Yeah. I just didn’t know at the time,” I said pathetically.

Gabriel released a frustrated growl and shrugged, shaking his head. “Well, you feel like telling me a little more about that beef?”

I smiled at the floor in spite of myself. “I
could.
It’s a long story, though. You really might want to sit down for this.”

––––––––

“I
was involved with a gang called True North about a year ago when I was living here,” I began. I rolled up my right sleeve to show Gabriel the tattoo on my forearm. “I got suckered into this support group scam. One of the girls there got me into an expensive habit. It got to the point where I owed a True North dealer a lot of money. To pay it off, I was forced to join them.”

Gabriel nodded, touching his fingers lightly to my tattoo. It was rather plain and non-suspect, the lines of a compass over a gray and black outline of a rose. The design was specific enough to be recognizable, but generic and dismissible to anybody who wasn’t part of the gang. I watched his face carefully as he studied it, wondering when he was going to ask about
what
I had to do to pay off that debt. Thankfully, he never did.

“Anyway,” I continued quickly, rolling my sleeve back down, “some scary gang shit went down, and I ran away back home. The gang tracked me down, though. I got ambushed and shoved into a van in downtown Phoenix. Somehow, my brother’s club figured out we were headed for the Nevada border and reached out to Laughlin. Laughlin caught up to
us,
but the True Northers sweet-talked them into a distribution deal—”

“Whoa, wait a second,” Gabriel said. “The Laughlin chapter did
what
?”

I stared back at his wide eyes, shaping my words carefully. “The True Northers convinced Laughlin to strike up a partnership. The Laughlin president made it seem like it was to get me back, but really it was just for the money.”

“And now they’re dealing drugs over there?”

I shrugged. “As far as I know. I’ve been out of the loop for a few days now.”

Gabriel knitted his dark brows together, scrutinizing me. “So, why are you in Vegas, then? After going through so much trouble to run away in the first place?”

I looked down and fingered the pattern of my bedspread. Who knew? Even I didn’t. My returning to Vegas defied all logic. Still, my gut told me it was the right thing to do. Maybe it was because it was all my fault. If it weren’t for me, the Laughlin Skull Kings and True North never would’ve crossed paths.

But there was another reason, too. It was one I hadn’t even realized until just before Larry walked out the door.

I exhaled slowly. “Anna,” I said simply.

“Anna?”

“She was my best friend when I was living here. I lost track of her, and I’ve been looking for her ever since.”

I spread my hand flat against the bedspread. My fingers looked almost infantile, short and thin, beside Gabriel’s wide, weathered hands. I dared to peek at his face and saw his jaw muscles clenching.

“Larry kind of alluded that Anna might be back in town, right?” he said.

“Yeah.”

“Kind of a weird coincidence, right?”

I laughed, surprised. “Yeah. Weird. But I believe that things happen for a reason. Maybe I ended up here so I could find her again.”

Gabriel nodded stiffly. His eyes were fixed at the wall in front of us. He hadn’t looked at me the whole time since he’d sat down. “I believe things happen for a reason, too.”

What are you saying?
I thought at him. I watched his profile until I forgot to feel self-conscious about looking at him. I didn’t have time to glance away when he finally turned to face me. His eyes were startling in their earnest brownness.

“I’m a Skull King, and somehow we met in this big ol’ city. I don’t believe in coincidences, Lisbeth. Whatever it is you have to do here, I’m going to help you.”

* * *

A
lthough I paid for a week’s stay, Gabriel made me pack up my belongings, saying we could worry about finding me a place later. It was in case what Larry said about the gang looking for me was true.

“In the meantime,” he said, “let’s go talk to Gloria.”

We rode back to Lip Service. By then, the nightlife crowd was in full swing. The warbling jukebox tunes were replaced by a DJ spinning electronic dance music, and go-go dancers in shiny silver bikinis danced on top of tables. Gabriel had told me earlier that Gloria was their unofficial official cocaine dealer. Everybody knew to look for the woman in the cowboy hat.

I followed Gabriel as he weaved through the crowd, keeping an eye out for that hat and that crazy face of hers. We ended up at the bar, and Gabriel signaled to the bartender, this time a tall, modelesque woman with teased black hair and winged eyeliner.

“You seen Gloria?” I heard him yell over the music.

“She went out back with a customer,” the bartender yelled back.

Gabriel nodded once in thanks and grabbed my hand. I grew warm from the sudden, unexpected contact, but he didn’t seem to notice. I bit my lip as he pulled me through the crowd, hoping that my blush would fade away soon. The crowd thinned out by the time we drew close to the bathrooms, and he finally let go.

“This way,” he said, jerking his head toward a back exit. He put both hands on the door and pushed, letting in a rush of cold night air.

I walked slowly out into the damp, empty alleyway. There was nothing but a brick wall, a single light, and a pile of empty boxes by a dumpster.

“Gloria?” Gabriel called. His boots echoed against the walls as he walked off in one direction.

“Uh...Gabriel?” I said.

“Go look for her over there.”

“I think I already found her.”

I stared at the pile of boxes, afraid to get any closer. I could see two splayed legs, the rest of the body obscured by the pile. There was a shadowy lump just a few feet away, shaped suspiciously like a cowboy hat. I heard Gabriel’s footsteps bounding closer to me. I hugged myself, shaking.

He stood over the body and released a low whistle. “Yeah, that’s her all right. You wanna see?”

“No.”

He leaned over and put his hands on his knees. “Looks like she took a shot to the chest. At least she died quickly.”

“At least.”

Gabriel turned toward me. “Are you okay?” he asked.

I took a few steps back, feeling faint. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

Gabriel hurried forward. He grabbed my arms to hold me steady, even though I was okay on my own. There was a soft look of concern on his face, as if at that very moment, nothing else existed in the world but me.

“Take a few deep breaths. Like this.”

I mimicked the shape of his pursed lips and inhaled, exhaled, inhaled along with him. His eyes were concentrated on mine for a few moments. Then, they lowered to my mouth.