Chapter Sixteen
“Reyna!” His expression was a mixture of shock and confusion.
Reyna was shaking. She had to get away. She had to run. This was bad.
Everett had turned her in. Everett had lied. Everett had betrayed her. 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. 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 said.
His face crumpled. “Reyna, listen to me. I didn’t know.”
“How could you not know?”
He reached for her again, and she fell backward into a girl.
“I said stay away from me,” Reyna yelled.
They were drawing a crowd. Eyes were turning to them. People were memorizing their faces. She tugged the baseball cap down. Fuck.
“Please, you have to understand. I never wanted to hurt you,” Everett pleaded with her. “They had someone I cared about. I didn’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice.” Then she pushed people out of her way, looking over her shoulder, as she ran from Everett.
Her heart was in her throat. She suddenly remembered all too clearly why she was forever stuck inside, why she kept being passed from one prison to another. The outside world was dangerous, and she had treated danger like a lost companion beckoning her in from the cold.
A hand grasped her arm, and she screamed. Then another covered her mouth. She tried to protest, clawing at the hand and kicking at the assailant.
“Hey! Hey!” the person was yelling at her. “What are you doing?”
She twisted her head and realized her attacker was Gabe. He saw her recognition and dropped his hands.
“He’s here. He’s here,” Reyna gasped.
“Who? Who is here?”
Reyna whipped back around to accuse Everett—but no one was there. Her head swam as she craned her neck around to see where he’d run off to.
“Reyna,” Gabe said, drawing her attention back to him. “Are you sure you didn’t get dosed, too?”
“He was here,” she said again. 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. We need to get out of here. If a Visage plant is in my club, then it’s not safe. 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. He could tell someone. He might have seen you. We could all be compromised. This whole place could be.”
“Reyna, slow down. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Let’s take it a step at a time. Just focus on helping Jodie. Let me handle the rest.”
Reyna’s eyes continued to flit around the room.
She wondered if her mind had conjured Everett out of thin air or if he had really been there.
It seemed impossible. Even during 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 on the sidewalk next to Jodie, who was being held up by the bouncer.
“Another one?” the man grunted.
Gabe held up two fingers, and the man straightened and nodded. Reyna tried to follow the exchange but lost track of it when she bent over to catch Jodie again. Already the effects of the venom were wearing off, but the alcohol was holding on strong. Who even knew when Jodie had last had a drink?
“We should stay longer,” Jodie said, holding on to the brick wall for dear life. “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, though the drive took much longer than it had on the way out.
Gabe kept checking his rearview mirror, changing directions, backtracking, trying to make sure they weren’t being followed.
By the time they made it back into the underground parking lot, Reyna was exhausted from both the excitement of the evening and Jodie, who was crashing hard.
Unfortunately, that exhaustion would have to wait. A furious Meghan met 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.
“Oh my God, Gabriel,” she shrieked, running a hand down her face. “I’ve been pissed at you before. Compared to all the shit that you’ve put me through, that is nothing compared to this. This is the most irresponsible and reckless bullshit thing you have ever done in your worthless life.”
“Are you done, love?” he purred with a smirk.
“I am not done with you.”
“When are you ever?”
“Sydney is going to kill you for this. Literally blow your brains out.”
Gabe waved his hand nonchalantly and 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 happened.”
They entered 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 nice to know about earlier,” 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 the one taking the heat.
“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. Reyna looked out to see the same type of plain corridor as the one outside her room, empty and dimly lit with crappy carpet.
“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 he and Reyna exited the elevator. “Yeah, love?”
“Come see me after.” Her voice was menacing.
He shot her a two-finger salute as the elevator doors closed.
“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. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
Gabe knocked twice on the door, paused, then knocked three more times.
The door swung open. Gabe put a reassuring hand on her back as they both entered the same conference room Reyna had been in earlier this week only from the opposite side of the room.
Unlike last time, when Sydney and Washington had been the only other 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 sat on her left. There was an open seat next to him, then a handful of unfamiliar men and a few women seated the rest of the way around. Tye sat next to Xavier, who had 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.
Even 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 as always, in her customary 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.
“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 going on. 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 out of your nightclub.
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.
“Do you know how much we invested in getting Miss Carpenter back from Visage?” Sydney asked, dangerously low.