Gabriel - Jessie Cooke Page 0,42
way, but suddenly the “Open” sign was turned to face the street and the blinds were opened. He couldn’t see who was inside, but he stood up, tossed a few twenties down on the table, and left the restaurant with Lowlife and Le Pirate quietly following him. He was climbing onto his bike when a little blue car pulled in next to him. The look on Gabe’s face through the window told him the kid knew how much shit he was stepping in, without saying a word.
Patrice stepped out of the driver’s side before Gabe even opened his door and Blackheart focused his eyes, and his anger, on her. “What are you doing here?”
“This is about me, right? One might think you would have at least let me know you were coming here.”
Blackheart chuckled and his eyes went to Gabe as he got out of the car. The kid looked like he might have shit out a brick in his drawers. He looked at Patrice again and said, “Young lady, I don’t run my agenda by no one, and if you...and this one,” he said, looking back at Gabe, “intend to carry on while he’s still a part of this club, then he better start telling you how it works.”
Patrice didn’t flinch and Blackheart was oddly proud of her. He knew he was scary and nine out of ten times he used that “intimidation factor” to get people to do what he wanted. The other 1% of the time, he used his charm, but he didn’t have as much faith in that, especially where this little girl was concerned. “I don’t care how you play your games in your little clubhouse,” she said. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Gabe swallow hard. It was almost funny seeing the kid be so uncomfortable. Blackheart wondered for just about half a second, if he made him choose right then and there, which side Gabe would take. “I won’t get in your way,” she said. “I asked for your help, sort of, by telling you about all of this. But I won’t be left out of the loop either.”
Blackheart sighed as he caught sight of a car driving up in front of the real estate firm. The man who stepped out of the black BMW was tall and had light brown hair with gray at the temples. He was dressed in a nice suit and wearing sunglasses so Blackheart couldn’t see his eyes...but he looked like he could be Paul Grossman from the old DMV picture he’d seen of the man. Focusing on Gabe then he said, “Take your girlfriend in the restaurant there and buy her some breakfast...” She started to speak and that time a look from Blackheart did shut her down. Back to Gabe he said, “I’m going into that building across the street, and I’m saying this in front of your girlfriend so she understands what’s at stake here. If she follows me or in any way interferes with what I need to do in there, you’ll be handing me that kutte.” Gabe swallowed again, hard. But instead of acknowledging what Blackheart had just said, he looked at Patrice. For the first time, Blackheart paid attention to the look that passed between them. Long ago, when his sisters came of age, he’d warned every man in the club off them, and he’d ran off a few others. His youngest sister constantly blamed him for none of them being married or even making a long-term relationship last. He could see that Patrice cared a great deal about Gabe just by that one look, and it suddenly dawned on him that his little cub was having sex with...his daughter, maybe. He felt a roll of his stomach, the same one he got when he thought about any of the guys messing with his sisters, and he had to tell himself he had enough problems without worrying about who a woman he wasn’t even sure was his daughter was sleeping with.
“Fine,” Patrice said, causing the tension to almost dissolve from Gabe’s muscles. “I’ll stay out of it, for now. But you promise you’ll keep me in the loop, right? Tell me what you want in that office, or who?”
He chuckled again, looked at Gabe, and said, “Buy her the lobster and make sure her coffee is decaf.”
Blackheart left Lowlife and Le Pirate outside. He pulled off his skullcap before walking into the small office, but apparently that hadn’t done