I’m completely out of my depth. I have absolutely no idea how I’m supposed to react to everything I just witnessed. All I want to do is make it go away, which is why I offered up the money. Sure, a million and a half isn’t exactly chump change, but to protect Gabriel and Bump? I’d gladly hand it over.
But I can’t bring it up now, especially considering the way Gabriel is white-knuckling the steering wheel. He won’t be receptive to the idea . . . which is probably fair, because Moses already said he wouldn’t take my money for the debt.
Still, I’d pay a fortune to find out what’s going through Gabriel’s head right now.
Five
Legend
Moses came back.
And in keeping with his style, he didn’t do it the way I expected.
No, what I expected was a bullet to the head with no warning. Just like Jorie. But, no, he wants to make me play his game and exact his own special twisted fucking revenge.
He wasn’t fucking Jorie. There’s no goddamned way. She never would have touched him.
But, still, my brain goes back to fifteen years ago, and how fucking reluctant she was to leave town. How strangely she’d acted for months. How it had been weeks since we’d touched each other before that awful fucking day.
Did I miss it? Was her hesitation because she didn’t want to leave Moses behind? And how the fuck could his crew have killed her if she was fucking him? Not a goddamned bit of it makes sense.
I slow for a red light, grateful for the silence in the Bronco. The last thing I want to do right now is talk. Every part of me has drawn inward, until I feel like I’m suffocating on the questions running rampant through my brain.
When I finally pull up in front of the service station, Hal parks across the driveway, sideways, blocking us in. Good. If I know him, he’s got a shotgun in his SUV, and he’s not afraid to use it.
I open my door, climb out, and push the seat back to make room for Bump and Roux. I’m strangely fucking thankful that my dog apparently sneaked out of the office while Bump was watching TV. If she’d seen Moses and gone at him with those big teeth of hers, he would have shot her without blinking.
Scarlett meets me around the front of the Bronco, and I hand her the keys.
“Will you get him settled? I need to talk to Hal before I come up.”
Scarlett’s pale, drawn face guts me all over again. She shouldn’t have experienced what happened tonight. None of this ever should have touched her. I should have killed Moses years ago.
This is all my fucking fault.
I stole that truck. Sold the shit. Got Jorie killed and Bump shot.
I might as well be a fucking wrecking ball, and now Scarlett’s life is becoming unrecognizable because of my destruction.
“Of course. Whatever you need, cowboy.”
Her nickname for me is a balm. But no matter how much I want to let it soothe me, I can’t. There are way too fucking many sins I’m answering for tonight. I’ve earned the pain clawing me apart, and haven’t suffered enough for the chaos I’ve caused.
“I’ll be up soon.”
I don’t lean in to kiss her, but she presses her lips to mine anyway.
I don’t deserve her.
As soon as she’s gone, I walk over to the SUV. Hal is at the tailgate, unearthing something from beneath the carpet. As I expected, it’s a small arsenal.
“No one will get through me tonight, Legend. You have my word.”
“Or me.”
The voice comes from the darkness, and both Hal and I tense as footsteps crunch in the gravel.
“Who is that?” Hal asks, reaching for a gun.
I put my hand on his to stop him from grabbing it.
Big Mike steps into the pool of light. “This is my property. My people. And no one, not even some gangster from Mississippi, is going to come up here and cause trouble in my house.”
“Big Mike, meet Hal, Scarlett’s new full-time security. Hal, this is Big Mike, Q’s dad and the craziest Puerto Rican I’ve ever known.”
Big Mike lifts his chin at Hal. “Damn right. I’ll pull up a chair and sit here all night if I need to.”
“What about Joanie?”
“She’s staying with Melanie tonight at Dani and Tony’s while they’re out on the town. I’m at your disposal.”
I walk over to Big Mike. “I appreciate it, but Hal’s got it covered. No need for you to sit out here all night.”
“Q called and told me everything. I think there’s plenty of reason to.” He glances at the chairs he and Bump leave out front so they can shoot the shit. “I’ll take one of those. No arguing with me, Gabe. You’re family. We take care of our own.”
A wave of gratitude that again, I do not fucking deserve, washes over me. “Thank you. No arguing tonight.”
“Good. Now, you go on about your night. We got this down here.”
I reach out to shake his hand, but he wraps his big beefy arms around me instead and claps my back hard.
“Go get some sleep. Q says we’re talking shit through in the morning.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him that Q isn’t calling the shots on this, but I’m too fucking beat.
“I’ll see you in the morning. Both of you.” I shake Hal’s hand, and then I head for the door into the service station and lock the dead bolt behind me.
As I take the stairs, I can’t help but replay what the hell happened tonight. Moses at my desk. Bump with a gun to his head. Seeing the barrel pointed at Scarlett.
Fuck. I’ve dreamed it before. And in my nightmares, it ended in a bloodbath. I should at least be grateful that my worst fears didn’t come true.
I stop outside Bump’s apartment, but his voice is coming from my place, so I move down the hall. When I open my door, I find both him and Scarlett in the middle of the living room, surrounded by pillows, blankets, and couch cushions.
Bump built a fort out of two cushions and a blanket, and he’s tucked inside with his long legs sticking out. He’s smiling from ear to ear, and it stops me in my tracks.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Scarlett says from her position on the floor next to a blanket pile. “I told Bump we could have a sleepover.”
“Isn’t this awesome, Gabe? I made a cave! I’m gonna sleep in it. And you and Scarlett can have the air mattress. I just don’t know where it is. You still have it, right? From that time I slept on your floor?”
I meet Scarlett’s warm gray gaze with more fucking gratitude. “Good idea, ladybug. A sleepover is exactly what we need.”
She rises and comes to me as Bump lowers the blanket to hide himself in his cave. Scarlett wraps her arms around my sides. “I thought it’d be better if we were all together tonight,” she whispers.
The warmth of her body against mine settles some of the chaos in my mind. I could have lost her tonight. I breathe in the scent of her skin and hair, and close my eyes. “You were right. Thank you.”
She shifts, and my lids lift to see her staring up at me. “We’re going to figure this out. We’re a team. You’re not going to push me away and give me some bullshit excuse that it’s to keep me safe. I’m part of this, whether you want me to be or not. Okay?”