28. Gabriel #3
She shakes her head. "No. But I wasn't about to let it come to that either." The determination I've come to know so well about her returns to her features. Her chin juts out.
"That wasn't the first time something felt… off," she continues. "But it was the first time I realized just how bad it could get." Her voice stays steady. But there's something under it now. Something colder.
My attention sharpens as if I already sense that her next words will tilt my world on its axis.
"Two nights before that." She turns away from the sight of Vegas and faces me directly. "There was a woman."
Her brows pull together, like she's trying to place the memory exactly. "Older. At least… I thought she was older back then." A faint, almost disbelieving breath leaves her. "She was probably in her mid-forties."
I say nothing. Let her talk.
"She was…" Audra pauses, searching. "Beautiful, yes, but there was more to her.
Like she didn't belong there. She seemed powerful, enigmatic.
There was something about her that even made Razor shut up.
Like a legend had just walked in." She shakes her head, "You know, one of your men reminds me of her. "
That lands wrong.
"Which one?" I furrow my brows. Why would a woman with the MC remind Audra of one of my men?
"The one at the warehouse," Audra narrows it down. "When you… stopped them from killing me." My mind runs through the room instantly. Positions. Faces. Blood. Movement.
"Which one?" I repeat, slower now.
Controlled again, but not enough, she studies me for a second, as if she can sense that we are about to enter a pivotal moment.
"The one with those crystal blue eyes."
Everything in me stills. That can't be.
"That woman had the same eyes," she adds with a curious note in her voice as she studies me.
There's only one man I know with eyes like that. Not just blue. Unforgettable. Icy. Like a glacier with a darker ring cutting through the iris: Alessio.
Whose mother disappeared eighteen years ago. A dark feeling settles low in my gut. Slow. Unwelcome. I mull over how much I should tell her. Trust should go both ways. That's just not how I operate. But nothing about Audra and me has followed the rules so far. So why start now?
"She could be Alessio's mom." I allow.
Audra doesn't react right away. She just watches me, quiet, patient. Waiting. She knows there's more and doesn't push. She's a smart woman. And my downfall.
"She left without a trace eighteen years ago," I finally fill her in.
Her brows draw together. "She went missing?"
I shake my head. "Not exactly. Alessio's father claims she walked out on both of them. Never came back. Never reached out." I rub the back of my neck and tighten my jaw. I shouldn't say the next part. I do anyway. "Alessio never bought it."
Her eyes flicker. "No?"
"His father isn't the type to let people leave."
I let that sit between us. Heavy.
"Alessio's been looking for her ever since."
Audra exhales slowly, processing. I give her the time. Don't fill the silence.
"But he didn't kill her," she says. "If I saw her six years ago…"
I nod once. "Which makes what you saw… important."
More than important. Potentially explosive. I study her for a beat. "I'll get a picture," I promise. "You tell me if it's her."
Her expression shifts as it sinks in what this could mean. For Alessio.
"What happened that night?" I glance past her. Far below, an ambulance cuts through traffic, sirens wailing as it tears down the Strip. Tourists, most likely. Overdoses. Alcohol poisoning. Bad decisions catching up too late.
Numbers. Always numbers. But tonight… I find myself watching it a second longer than I should. Not thinking about statistics. Thinking about how easy it is for someone to disappear in this city. And how sometimes… they don't stay gone.
"She looked different than the other girls and women I saw before.
" Audra's eyes follow the ambulance too, but I don't think she's seeing it.
She seems to have gone back to that day.
"It wasn't just the age difference that stood out to me.
" From the little I know about Razor's MC, women over thirty are hardly ever seen there; they like their girls younger. Audra must have known that, too.
"She carried herself with an aura of importance, and the men, even Razor, deferred to her.
" Her gaze turns to me, and an involuntary shudder moves through her, enough for me to want and pull her into my arms. "What stood with me were her eyes, those incredible, cold eyes.
I was reminded of them two days later, in the desert.
The Mexican looked at me the same way. Like I was something to be evaluated.
Something to be priced. Something to be… bought."
Another shiver runs through her, and this time, I can't resist and pull her closer. She leans in. I'm not sure she realizes what we're doing, but a small sigh escapes her. The sigh goes straight to my cock.
Together we stand like that for what seems like minutes, but isn't nearly long enough, then my traitorous dick twitches and Audra pushes away, a blush creeping up on her cheeks, coloring them an enticing shade of pink. "I'm sorry, I…"
She breaks off.
I grin, unapologetically and dangerously. "Nothing to be sorry for."
Her mouth opens in a retort, but nothing comes out. She makes as if to flee back inside, but I can't bear the thought of this night ending. So I come back to the question that led us down this path, "How did you escape?"
I'm not asking out of idle curiosity. Nobody leaves the MC. Not for good. Not alive. Not after spending a couple of years with them.
"It wasn't that hard." Audra sighs, settling her weight against the railing, content now to stay outside with me again, although an occasional glimpse at me through her lashes tells me she's expecting me to pounce on her, give in to the desire my cock announced without question.
I won't, but I won't lie either by saying I'm not enjoying watching her squirm, torn between running inside and staying.
"Razor never knew where I lived," she picks her story up, "at least not that I knew of. He might have followed me. But it was always me who came to him."
I frown. "He never drove you home?"
She lets out a humorless snort. "No."
Fuck. I run an exasperated hand through my hair, pulling a few hairs out with my Rolex by accident, but the pain feels good, grounding in a way I need right now.
I don't want a repeat of what happened earlier.
I don't want her to think that I hold any of this against her in any way.
But the thought of that asshole allowing a girl like Audra to walk alone through the city…
I don't want her to see how fucking furious I am right now, just thinking about all the shit that could have happened to her.
I must be masking my emotions well, because after a quick scrutinizing look, she continues, "Anyway, I just decided I wasn't going back there.
And I didn't. I was paranoid, of course.
Paranoid, he would come after me. Every time I heard a bike, my heart jumped out of my chest. I…
dyed my hair. I changed the way I dressed… "
She drifts off for a moment, caught up in her past. I wonder where her mother had been in all that.
She must have noticed the changes. Hell, even she couldn't have missed Audra coloring her beautiful red hair.
Hair, that right now is caught in the lights of one of the ever-present laser beams, which only intensifies the impression of fiery flames.
As if reading my mind, Audra lets out a quiet chuckle, "Mom noticed the bad job I did with my hair and took me to a real hairdresser to fix the damage. Which ended in me losing ten inches, which… honestly, in my mind, helped with the whole new persona, new identity thing."
I tilt my head. "Something tells me that's not the whole story."
The look she gives me pushes the stiffness in my dick to a painful level. If she had squeezed my balls right now, the effect would have been pretty much the same.
"Oh yeah?" she replies, almost flirtatiously.
Fuck. What would it be like to really have her flirt with me? I don't dare to imagine.
"Yeah," I lean against the railing too, closer to her now, resting my chin on my fist.
A mischievous grin lifts the corners of her lips. "You want the whole story?"
"I want to know everything about you, Audra.
I already know you sleep on your right side," I say quietly.
"And that you ruin your coffee with an ungodly amount of sugar and creamer.
That you make this… sound right before you fall asleep.
" My gaze drops to her mouth. "And that your smile makes me want to kill anyone who takes it away.
" I lean in even closer. "Audra… there's nothing about you I don't want to know.
I want to know if you prefer showers or baths.
If you'd rather go on vacation somewhere in the snow or by the ocean.
" I pause. "I want to know how you look when you stop trying.
I want all of it. The small things. The things you don't think matter.
And I want the time it takes to learn them. "