Chapter 18 You In?
EIGHTEEN
YOU IN?
“So, Gabe paid me a visit this afternoon,” I shared with Shanti and Raye as we walked down the alley behind the Sun Valley Motor Lodge.
I was carrying a bag that had a box of six cupcakes in it for Duane (the other six in the batch were at home, waiting for Gabe as a bonus to him for asking for a cookie (and, who was I kidding? they were also waiting for me)).
Shanti and Raye were carrying their Tasers at the ready.
Joey had texted she was in the room, but the back window was slatted, so we had to sneak around the front.
We weren’t thrilled with this change in plan, but we had no choice but to roll with it.
As for me, naturally, I was also still freaking about Gabe’s visit earlier.
“And he lost his shit about all that crap that happened to me in high school,” I finished.
“You told him?” Shanti asked.
“No. He found out from the Nightingale computer guru, Brody,” I answered. “Warning, Gabe told me this Brody guy has done deep dives on all of us.”
“Those boys are so weird about everything,” Shanti muttered. “God, I suppose I’m gonna need to break down and read those Rock Chick books.”
It wasn’t anybody else’s story I wanted to know, it was Gabe’s.
“He lost it, you guys,” I told them.
They both stopped and looked at me.
“Lost it?” Shanti asked. “How?”
“How, as in, it was ages ago, the memory isn’t fun, and I can’t deny it still bothers me, but he went gonzo like it was currently happening.
He said he’s going to find out who started it, look into my ex-high school boyfriend, and if he isn’t toeing the good-guy line, he’s gonna pay him a visit and shake his shit. ”
“Wow,” Shanti said.
“I guess I’m not surprised,” Raye said. “Cap told me Gabe lost it on Kevin.”
As Gabe would say…
Say again?
“Lost it on him?” I asked.
“That gonzo?” she asked back. When I nodded, she said, “When they were interrogating him, they had to pull Gabe out of the room. There are things Cap doesn’t share, and what they did with Kevin in the end, he hasn’t shared.
But even before that was over, Cap told me no way in fuck would Kevin get anywhere near you, Gabe lost it so bad. Kevin was scared shitless.”
Part of me thought that was awesome. Especially the part where, obviously, Gabe was feeling that vibe between us well before there was an us, just like I did. And I liked that.
Though, the other part of that part was the fact he had no patience for the kind of man Kevin was, and no compunction with sharing it with him.
I wasn’t worried about the “lost it” part.
I knew to the depths of my soul Gabe probably did scare the shit out of Kevin, but I also knew he had enough training and control not to take it too far.
Though, I figured there were many shades of what “too far” was. However, in Kevin’s case, I wasn’t sure there was a far enough.
The second part of me was now even more concerned.
Yes, Kevin was a jerk, he used me, and when I was done with him, he refused to leave me alone.
And yes, Christian, my high school boyfriend, made my life a living hell for months because he couldn’t take no for an answer without getting his feelers all in a bunch.
But Gabe’s reaction seemed extreme.
“Apparently, gonzo runs in the Stark family,” Raye shared. “When Cap told me that, he said it was a mild reaction compared to how Luke lost it when some bad shit happened to Ava back in the day.”
I wasn’t surprised the overprotective streak ran in the family.
“You seem freaked,” Raye said.
“That’s because I am,” I admitted. “What happened to me was really bad at the time. But first, it was a while ago, and for the most part, I’m over it, or as over it as you can get when something like that happens to you.
Second, I’m far from the first girl some dick did something like that too. And sadly, I won’t be the last.”
“That makes it okay?” Shanti asked.
“No, definitely not,” I answered. “But it’s the way of the world until that world can be changed.”
Raye set us to walking again and said, “Yeah, and the world is not gonna be changed by women putting their foot down about this kind of crap, seeing as a lot of us have been trying to do that for forever. It’s going to take men realizing it’s total crap, and them doing their part to put a stop to it too.
If one guy said, ‘dude, you’re such a tool,’ that would all have ended, because he was a tool, and he was performing for other men.
Instead, a bunch of other guys piled on, again, performing for each other.
It’s not all on us to break a cycle. It’s also on them.
Actually, it’s mostly on them. And I’m down with the way a man like Gabe would break that cycle. ”
I couldn’t say she was wrong.
But it was still thirteen years ago.
As important as it was, our discussion couldn’t carry on because we’d made it to the murky west side of the hotel, hunkering out of sight beside the ancient ice machine.
Even though we didn’t think the motel was being watched (and if it was, they were watching Duane), we still needed to get around it and to Joey’s room without being seen.
Raye had her phone out and was sending a text.
We waited.
When she got a return text, she said, “Joey confirms the door’s open. Let’s move.”
We skedaddled out of our hiding place, rounded the building, hoofed it down the walk and went right into Joey’s room.
We shut the door behind us.
The vinyl curtains were firmly closed.
And Joey was in a black, micro-mini, pleather skirt, a tight white tank with the outline of a sexy red bra easily seen under it, and she was wearing the red St. Laurent high-heeled boots she’d saved for then splurged on last winter that, fortunately, your average dude who bought sex wouldn’t know cost nearly two thousand dollars.
She had chestnut hair out to there, a lot of red lipstick, an eyeliner wing that was to die for, and truth told, if I leaned that way, I’d do her.
“Shit, bitch, Richard Gere would have driven right by La Julia to get to you,” Shanti praised with a wide grin on her face.
Joey hitched a rounded hip. “I try.”
A knock came at the door.
“Well, Duane isn’t fucking around,” Raye murmured as she looked out the peephole. She turned back to us. “It isn’t Duane, it’s Jinx.”
She then opened the door and Jinx surged through.
We all surged back to give her space because she gave us no choice.
Raye closed the door and asked, “Is everything all right?”
“Gringas!” Jinx exclaimed.
Then said nothing.
We all waited.
She again said nothing, but she did it going to the bed, turning her back to it and collapsing on it.
Since this was not normal Jinx behavior (as far as I knew), we all approached cautiously.
“We’re in the middle of a mission, and you’re freaking out, so you need to talk fast, Jinx,” Raye demanded.
“He wants me to quit the life and move in with him,” Jinx said to the ceiling.
The room went wired.
It did because we knew what this was about.
Jinx had a regular. He was an accountant. We’d seen him. He looked like Clark Kent, suit, glasses, tall, built, dazzling, the whole shebang.
On their “dates,” he brought her gifts, flowers, and according to Jinx, tipped well.
All of that was why Raye asked, “Is this about Clark?”
Jinx lifted her head. “Clark? His name is Noah.”
“Great name,” Shanti said.
Shanti barely got that out before Jinx jumped up from the bed and started pacing.
No, not pacing. It wasn’t in a line.
She was so agitated, she was prowling every inch of the room.
And she did this blathering.
“He says he’ll take care of me. I said I don’t need no hombre to take care of me. He says if that’s the case, I can get a job. I can contribute to our household.” She threw up her hands, still prowling, and shouted, “Our household!”
I thought that was sweet.
Apparently, Jinx didn’t.
She stopped shouting, but she didn’t stop prowling.
“I said I couldn’t afford to contribute much to whatever household he might have because I know he’s loaded.
And he knows I’m not. He says he doesn’t care.
Whatever I feel I need to do, I can do. I said I wasn’t gonna change my whole life for some güey who’d eventually kick my ho ass out when he got tired of me.
He said I wasn’t a ho. I said, you think I’d suck your cock for free? ”
The four other women in the room emitted various versions of pained, girl-you-so-fucked-up-with-that moans.
She stopped pacing and looked among us.
“What? Am I wrong?” she demanded.
Not a one of us was going there.
But Shanti asked, “What’d he do after you said that?”
“That’s when he got mad, threw money at me, and I hadn’t even fucked him yet, and he stormed out,” Jinx answered.
“The fuck of that was, I’ve never seen the man mad, and it was hot as infierno, and he’s generally hot as infierno when he’s doing his mild-mannered shit, so him mad was actually hot-ter than infierno. ”
I was pressing my lips together.
Shanti was now studying her booties.
Joey was chewing the side of her thumbnail and looking anywhere but at Jinx.
So it was Raye who had to wade in.
“Um…Jinx, this isn’t the first time we’ve tried to get it through to you that this guy is totally into you. And this proves it. He wants to take your relationship to the next level.”
“He’s a client,” Jinx spat.
“He’s in love with you, babe,” Raye said gently.
For a beat, Jinx glared at her.
Then her face started crumbling.
Shanti was closest so she caught Jinx in her arms when Jinx lost it.
None of us had time to freak out that hard-as-nails Jinx was sobbing, because there was another knock on the door.
“Shit,” Raye muttered, went to it, looked through the peephole, then opened it.
Duane scuttled in.
His eyes went straight to Jinx.
“The fight,” he said.
“You heard it?” Raye asked while closing the door.
“Saw him take off after he wasn’t in her room for more than fifteen minutes,” Duane said. “He never just takes off. He always leaves like he doesn’t want to go.”
On that morsel, Jinx wailed.