I wasn’t offended. I was used to it. Gage barely looked at any woman with any real interest. Sure, he’d fuck a club girl if the occasion arose, but he wasn’t really interested. Like the way a man might regard a freeze-dried meal when he had nothing else to eat—yeah he’d have it, but only out of need, not out of actual want.
“You were curious,” I probed.
“Yep,” he agreed. “’Course, I knew you’re prone to goin’ walkabout, but this time felt different. Had some time on my hands, checked out your place.” He gave me a look. “You did a good job of cleanin’ up, babe. Almost perfect. Most likely anyone else, save a cop with a black light, wouldn’t have noticed anything. I’m not anyone else.”
No, you’re not. A bitter taste of dread climbed up my throat. Not for me, of course. Gage would never say a word to a soul to rat me out. Definitely not to the cops, and it seemed not even to my brother. He was loyal. To family. To me. But not the cop who had spent the last decade trying to bring down the club.
I’d unwittingly handed him the evidence that would do what Cade had been wanting to do for the last decade.
Bring Luke down.
I struggled to keep my composure, watch Gage for any signs that he knew. But that asshole had the poker face to end all poker faces. We could’ve been talking about motorcycle parts for all he gave away.
“And you didn’t run to Cade,” I said, a statement, not a question.
He shook his head. “Not exactly my style. Would’ve, if I had any inkling you were in trouble. Well, a different kind than usual,” he added. “But had a pretty good idea you were alive.” He gave me a pointed look. “You are. Will say I’m impressed.”
I raised my brow. “Impressed?”
“Your current line of work.” He nodded to the bodies at my feet.
Of course he would be impressed with anything that had to do with blood and murder.
“Curiosity satisfied, and you’re not telling Cade?”
“You left for a reason. I’m guessing a good one?”
I nodded.
“Then no. I understand what you’re doin’. Maybe not the specifics, but enough to know that it was the only choice you had. Runnin’ away from demons is a hard job. I’m not the one who’s gonna make you face them. Doesn’t work that way. You gotta face ’em yourself.”
I tilted my head. “And you’ve faced yours?”
He laughed. A throw back your head, hold your belly kind of laugh. “Why do you think I chased you? Chase the blood? I’m the best runner there is, darlin’.”
I gaped. The small glimpse I had into Gage’s past, not exactly with the words but the way he said them, the way they sat heavy in the air. His thousand-yard stare. It was like staring directly into a black hole. My demons were infants compared to his, and I shivered at the thought of just what was chasing him. Despite the bitterness of the air, I wanted to know more, but the gun raised to Gage’s temple kind of stopped our heart-to-heart.
Gage didn’t move, didn’t flinch. He continued smoking his cigarette, slowly, casually, as if he didn’t have a worry in the world. “You may want to lower that, friend, in case you’re attached to your head.”
I glanced at the four men training semiautomatic weapons on Gage. They’d obviously noted that I’d neutralized any and all other threats.
“It’s okay, guys, he’s… a friend,” I said calmly. A woman always had to stay calm when in a room full of men with guns. They were children who just needed their mom to firmly tell them what to do. “Guns down.”
It took a second for the words to puncture, but they did. Three of them lowered their guns.
The handgun at Gage’s temple remained. Lucian eyed him with a thick and distrusting glare. He wasn’t an idiot, knew a threat when he saw one. Though he was stupid to think that he was going to come out on top, or even that his connection to me might stop Gage from killing him. Gage was loyal to an extremely small group of people. Everyone else was disposable.
“Lucian,” I warned.
His emerald eyes flickered to me, keeping the gun raised for a beat longer, like a petulant child might to remind the mother that it could, then lowered it. He didn’t even get it to the holster at his hip before Gage moved in a blur. When they both came into focus again, Gage was holding Lucian’s gun to his temple.
The rest of the team scrambled for their weapons, eyes panicked. I rolled mine and sighed audibly. Gage wasn’t even breathing heavily, his almost-finished smoke still hanging out of the corner of his mouth.
“I don’t like guns waved at my head by people who don’t know how to use them,” he said.