by Linde, K. A.
Hips against hips.
Gyrating movements.
Heated skin.
Touching, teasing, tempting.
The temperature spiked and Reyna slid Gabe’s leather jacket off of her shoulders. She tied it low around her waist while Jodie threw his long-sleeve shirt over Reyna’s head and used it to drag her in closer.
“This is the best,” Jodie cried.
And it was. Now that her limbs awakened and her brain quieted to the techno beat, she remembered what it was like to be young and carefree.
One of the guys Jodie had been dancing with disappeared for a minute and then returned with a tray of shots. He tried to pass one to Reyna, but she shook her head. No way was she going to drink during all of this madness.
“Oh, come on, Rey,” Jodie grumbled, shoving the shot in her hand. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
“We already know the answer to that.” Reyna placed her shot back on the tray.
But Jodie tipped the shot back and shook her head as the heat of the drink seemed to burn through her. Then she grabbed Reyna’s shot and hit that one back too.
The guys around her cheered and called her a champ. She flashed them her teeth as she took in their hungry expressions. Maybe Reyna was being a prude about all of this. Gabe would be back any minute. One drink wouldn’t kill her.
Then she saw the way Jodie tilted wildly one direction and decided she better not.
“Hey. Hey,” Reyna said, reaching out for her. “Are you okay?”
“I feel fucking amazing.”
But when Reyna looked into her friend’s eyes, her pupils were dilated and she sure didn’t look fine. “What was that shot?” Reyna asked the nearest guy.
“It’s a new shot! Like a Hot Damn, but we call it an Oh Shit!” the guy said.
“Great…what the hell was in it?”
“Whiskey, rum, vodka, and orange juice,” the guy said.
“And a dropper of that new vamp drug,” another guy said with a laugh.
Reyna’s stomach dropped out. “What vamp drug?”
“Don’t worry, baby. It’s not dangerous. It comes from their bite or something. It loosens you right up.”
Venom. Fucking fantastic.
And venom was addictive in most people. The more a person had had, the worse it got. Reyna may not have succumbed to it completely, but Jodie it seemed definitely had.
“We need to get you home,” Reyna said.
Reyna tried to corral Jodie away from the dancefloor, but she couldn’t seem to even drag her away. She knew what the venom felt like. The doses she was used to getting knocked her on her ass, but just a touch of the venom made you feel like you were on cloud nine. Like the world was at your feet. It lowered inhibitions and boosted the endorphins in the body. Usually it was because it was kicking the flight or fight signals in your body, telling you to get the fuck out of there. But right now, all Jodie wanted to do was live up the night.
Fuck.
Reyna reached for Jodie. She was feeling frantic. Where the hell was Gabe? This was a bad situation. The guys were still leering at them. They’d known what they were doing when they had given them those shots.
“Come on, baby,” one of the guys said.
Reyna shot him a threatening glare. “No.”
Adrenaline flooded her system for all new reasons as she held her ground. She latched onto Jodie’s arm and all but dragged her back toward the bar.
Luckily, the guys didn’t follow. Maybe they were really just out here to have a good time. If that drink was on the menu, then it could even be a regular. She had reacted on instinct. Save Jodie, get the hell out of there.
She shoved Jodie onto the first available bar stool and flagged down Sonya. She sauntered down to them. “What’ll ya have?” she asked in a thick northern accent. “She needs a water. Have you heard from Gabe?”
“Here you go, honey.” Sonya filled a glass with ice water and then slid it over to Jodie. “He’s still upstairs. You can go on up with your friend, if she can walk.”
Reyna looked Jodie over. She couldn’t.
Jodie brought the water to her lips. Reyna wanted to go upstairs and find out what was taking Gabe so long, but she wouldn’t leave Jodie’s side. Especially not with those guys still leering at her nearby. She would just have to wait.
A full thirty minutes later, Gabe came racing out of the door he’d wandered into. He found them at the bar. “Come on. Got to go.”
“I need your help. Jodie,” she said, gesturing to her friend. “Some guys dosed her with vamp venom.”
“Venom?” Gabe asked.
“That new drug that they drop into drinks,” Reyna explained.
Gabe growled under his breath and then slipped an arm around Jodie’s shoulders. She sagged into him. He nodded his head at the exit for Reyna to follow.
They staggered together through the crowd. About halfway through, Gabe gritted his teeth in frustration and lifted Jodie into his arms as if she weighed nothing at all. Reyna wondered what the hell he’d been doing upstairs for so long and who the contact was that he’d met with. Had something gone wrong? Were they now in danger?
Reyna kept glancing over her shoulder wondering if they were being followed. She tilted her baseball cap up a smidge so that she could check one more time before they left the dancefloor.
No one.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
They weren’t being followed. At least not yet. Maybe Gabe was equally paranoid.
When she turned around to try to keep up with Gabe, she careened right into a guy. She put her hands out to stop herself from falling.
“Sorry,” she said. She tried to move around him but his hand was still on the leather jacket she’d slipped back onto her shoulders.
“I thought that was you.”
Reyna’s eyes slowly dragged up to the guy she had given no thought to whatsoever. Her stomach hit the floor. She froze.
“Everett?”
Chapter 16
“Reyna!” His expression was a mixture of shock and confusion.
Reyna was shaking. She had to get away. She had to run. This was…this was bad.
Everett had turned her in. Everett had lied. Everett had betrayed her.
And if he was here, then Visage would know she was here.
No, no, no. This couldn’t be happening.
“Hey, can we talk?”
He reached for her, but she scurried backward, knocking into people along the way. She heard their furious shouts but couldn’t process them. All she saw was Everett’s face, the people in masks bursting through the door, the darkness, the needles. She saw prison in his eyes.
“Stay away from me,” she hissed.
His face crumpled. “Reyna, listen to me. I didn’t know.”
“How could you not know?” she hissed.
He reached for her again and she fell backward into a girl who bitched her out.
“I said stay away from me!” she yelled.
By then they were drawing a crowd. Eyes were turning to them. Memorizing their features. She tugged the baseball cap down. Fuck. Oh God!
“Please, you have to understand. I never wanted to hurt you,” Everett pleaded with her. “They had someone that I cared about. I didn’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”
Her heart was in her throat. She remembered all too clearly in that moment why she was stuck inside. Why she was being passed from one form of prison to another. The outside world was dangerous, and she treated danger like a lost companion beckoning them in from the cold.
A hand grasped her arm and she screamed. Then it covered her mouth. She tried to protest, clawing at the hand and kicking at the assailant.
“Hey! Hey!” the person was yelling out
to her. “What are you doing?”
Her eyes lifted and she realized her attacker was actually Gabe. “He’s here. He’s here.”
“Who? Who is here?”
Reyna whipped back around to accuse Everett. But no one was there.
He was gone. Just poof.
Her head swam as she craned her neck around to look where he had run off to. One minute he had been there and the next he was gone. This was bad. So bad.
“Reyna,” Gabe said, drawing her attention back to him. “Are you sure you didn’t get dosed too?”
“He was here,” she said. She hadn’t imagined it. He’d touched her. He’d tried to apologize.
“Who?”
“Everett.”
“The guy who turned you in?” Gabe asked.
She nodded. “He found me. He was trying to talk to me.”
“Shit. And I thought I was trouble. Look, we have to get back to Jodie. I’ll have some guys scour the place for him and they’ll report back to me if they see him.”
“I’m screwed. I’m so screwed,” she muttered as she followed him to the entrance. “He saw me. Which means he could tell someone. He might have seen you. We could all be compromised. This whole place could.”
“Reyna, slow down. We don’t know what is going to happen. Let’s take it a step at a time. Just focus on helping Jodie. Let me handle the rest.”
Reyna nodded numbly. But her eyes continued to flit around the room, wondering if her mind had conjured Everett out of thin air or if he had really been there. It seemed impossible. Even all those weeks in isolation, she had never done something so outrageous as to picture him in front of her. Beckham, of course. But Everett? No.
Gabe hauled her out of the club and deposited her next to Jodie, who was flirting shamelessly with the bouncer.
“Another one?” the man grunted.
Gabe held up two fingers and the man straightened and nodded. Reyna watched the exchange in confusion before bending over to help Jodie, who had fallen over. Already the effects of the venom were wearing off, but the alcohol was holding on strong. Who even knew when the last time Jodie had had a drink was?
“So, you live around here?” Jodie asked the bouncer with a wink.
He grunted again and turned away from her.
Reyna shook her head. “You are ridiculous.”
“We should stay longer. I could use another drink.”
“You could use a kick in the ass.”
It was another ten minutes before Gabe came back. “Did a quick sweep and didn’t see anyone that matched his description. I have my guys on it. Let’s get back. I’ll have a report within the hour.”
They retreated to his SUV in silence with a drunk Jodie between them. Neither spoke on the ride back to Elle headquarters. But it took much longer than it had to get there. Gabe kept checking his rearview mirror, changing directions, backtracking, and generally trying to make sure they weren’t being followed. By the time they made it back into the underground parking lot, Reyna was exhausted. Both from the excitement of the evening and from Jodie, who was crashing hard.
Unfortunately, that exhaustion would have to hold off. A furious Meghan was waiting for them as soon as they entered through the steel door.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” she screamed, not at Jodie or Reyna…but Gabe.
“Hey, Megs. Good to see you. How you doin’?” Gabe said.
“I…I…oh my God, Gabriel!” she shrieked, running a hand through her red hair. “I’ve been pissed at you before. Compared to all the shit that you’ve put me through, that is nothing compared to this. Nothing! This is the most irresponsible and reckless bullshit thing you have ever done in your stupid worthless life!”
“Are you done, love?” he asked.
“I am not done with you!”
“When are you ever?”
“Sydney is going to kill you for this. Literally blow your brains out, you fucking idiot.”
Gabe waved his hand as if he didn’t fear that in the least and then hoisted Jodie in his arms. “This one needs medical attention. Know any nurses around here?”
“What’s wrong with her?”
“Got dosed with vamp saliva and…she’s kind of drunk.”
Meghan grumbled angrily under her breath. “Let’s take her to the medical wing. Tell me exactly what the fuck happened.”
They exited into the stairwell and instead of trekking back down five flights of stairs, Meghan pressed a nearly invisible button for an elevator that dinged open on command.
“Well, that would have been easier,” Reyna said.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten you,” Meghan hissed.
Reyna leaned against the elevator wall and kept her mouth shut. It was definitely better when Gabe was getting yelled at.
“Well?” Meghan asked.
“I had business tonight. I brought them along. Thought we’d be there and back before anyone even noticed,” Gabe told her.
“You were so far from right.”
“I’m getting that from your visceral anger. But you know it’s kind of hot.”
“Don’t start with me.”
The elevator stopped abruptly and Reyna looked out to see the same plain corridor as outside of her room. Empty, with dim lighting and crappy carpet. Not much to look at.
“You and Reyna go to Sydney. She’s waiting for you. I’ll take Jodie the rest of the way to medical,” she said in a huff. Gabe had the good sense not to argue with her. He put Jodie on her feet and Meghan wrapped an arm around her shoulders to keep her steady.
“Is she going to be okay?”
“She’ll be fine,” Meghan assured her. “And Gabe…”
He turned to face her as they exited. “Yeah, love?”
“Come see me after this.” Her voice was menacing.
He shot her a two-finger salute as the elevator doors closed in her face.
“This is going to be bad, isn’t it?” Reyna asked.
“Not going to be good.”
He held out his hand and stopped them in front of a closed door. Now or never.
“You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
Gabe knocked twice on the door, paused, and then knocked three more times. The door swung open. Gabe put a reassuring hand on Reyna’s back before they both entered the conference room she had been in earlier this week. But unlike last time, where Sydney and Washington were the only people in attendance, the table was nearly full.
Sydney stood with her hands on the back of the chair at the head of the table. Washington was on her left. There was an open seat, then a handful of men and a few women that Reyna had never seen before sat around the rest of the way. Tye sat on the opposite side next to Xavier with an open seat next to him.
Reyna’s stomach, which was already in knots, nearly dropped out of her body when she saw the person to the left of that empty seat. None other than Penelope Sky herself. She was dressed in a simple black pantsuit with her dark hair falling dramatically around her face. Her makeup was carefully done and she sat straight-backed and regal. This was closer than Reyna had ever wanted to get to her again.
But what was worse…was the person on Penelope’s left, who was staring daggers at her. Beckham. Her heart lurched in his direction and she took an involuntary step forward. Their eyes connected and everything slowed to a crawl. He was here.
“Nice of you to join us,” Sydney’s crisp voice cut through the tension.
Reyna broke eye contact to glance up at Sydney. She looked formidable in all black with her hair slicked back. Her nails dug into the chair when neither Gabe nor Reyna said anything.
“Care to explain what happened this evening?” she asked.
Reyna turned to look at Gabe, but his attention was on the group ahead of him.
“Made contact with our supplier,” Gabe said. “He gave me a few leads on the shit that’s going down. He put our order in for what we need though. The asshole tried to shortchange me. Didn’t know who he was dealing with. Don’t worry, I let him know. But his boss showed up. Looks like they’re moving their shit now because the big V knows what’s up. He thinks we’re to blame.”
Sydney tilted her chin up. “That is what you would like to report?”
“That was the job.”
“You’re right. That was your job tonight. Get us any information you can about the supplier selling diseased blood and make sure we continue to get what we need from the black-market business you somehow manage. I never could understand how someone so incompetent could be one of the biggest Irish mob bosses in the city.”
Gabe grinned as if she hadn’t given him a backhanded compliment. “Runs in the family.”
Well, at least that explained a lot. Why he wasn’t worried that Sydney would actually shoot him. How he had so many contacts. Why everyone at the club seemed to know him. Though it didn’t explain why Sydney trusted him.
“Do you know how much we invested in getting Miss Carpenter back from Visage?” Sydney asked in a dangerously low voice.
“I remember the meetings. But look, she was fine with me the whole time. You think she’s going to get fucked with in my own establishment.”
Reyna’s eyes rounded. He owned Ferrier House? Jesus, how many people knew that? He acted like any other patron. She’d even seen him fight there. How the hell did he get away with it?
“You do not get to make decisions where her safety is concerned,” Beckham growled, his eyes darting dangerously to Gabe.
“And you did so well?” Gabe spat back.
Beckham flew out of his chair. He moved so fast that he was already across the room in the time it took Reyna to blink. Beckham shoved Gabe back against the wall with his hand around Gabe’s throat. Gabe stared back at him in amusement, but Reyna could see fiery hatred buried deep underneath it all.