Gabriel - Jessie Cooke Page 0,58

tricked...and he’d be the object of her anger. He didn’t say any of that out loud, though. He just nodded and said, “Okay, boss.” He was cursing his luck all the way back to his room, and even more so when he opened the door and found Patrice sitting up on the bed, fully dressed. “Good morning.”

She narrowed her pretty eyes at him. “Good morning. Where were you?”

“Meeting with Blackheart and the guys,” he said. “We’re headed out this morning, back to Louisiana.” There, that wasn’t exactly a lie...

“And?” she asked.

“He said you and I should go by and rent a truck or trailer and get your mom’s things out of the storage container. Other than that, I guess we’ll know when we get there,” he said, still trying hard not to lie. He’d been told many times in his life that he was a terrible liar. His face always gave him away, and somehow he always got caught.

“That was the entire meeting?” she said, cocking an eyebrow.

“Pretty much,” he said.

She folded her arms. “He didn’t mention a guy named Bernard Hebert?”

Gabe swallowed hard and said, “Yeah, he said that was the name y’all saw on the register that he recognized. I guess the guy was part of the club a long time before I came along.”

“And that was it? He didn’t say anything about looking for him?”

“No.” He didn’t mention “looking” for him, but Gabe knew that meant he’d already made some phone calls and pinpointed the man’s exact location. He waited for another question and was surprised when it didn’t come. Instead Patrice stood up and said:

“Okay, I guess when we get back to Louisiana, Blackheart will let me know where we go from here. I’m going downstairs to grab some coffee. You want anything?” She seemed way too calm, and he didn’t like it, but he smiled and said:

“Sure, coffee sounds good. I’ll get us packed up. We should take off soon.”

When Patrice got downstairs, she ducked out the back way and took out her phone. She went online and looked up “Hebert” in Shreveport, Louisiana. There were no “Bernard Heberts” but there were two others, one named Ella and the other George. She saved both addresses before calling the airport and buying two tickets to Shreveport Regional. Once that was done, she went back inside and grabbed two cups of coffee off the little guest kiosk. She heard the Harleys start up as she started back up the stairs. She stopped outside the door of the room she had shared with Gabe and did her best to manage a neutral expression, even though she was feeling thoroughly pissed off inside. He’d told her he loved her, and she’d almost said it back...but now he was already lying to her, at the behest of his president, whom she feared he adored even more than he could ever possibly love her.

She took a deep breath, pasted a smile on her face, and walked into the room. “Okay, coffee’s here,” she said, handing one of the Styrofoam cups to him. “Whenever you’re ready, we can hit the road.”

He took a sip of his coffee and smiled up at her. “I’m ready,” he said. He took a few more gulps of the coffee and set it down before picking up his crutches. “I was thinking, we can probably just rent a little trailer and hitch it to the back of the rental car. We can drive back...you still have a week off, right?” She nodded and he said, “We shouldn’t need much room to get your mom’s stuff, so that should work. It’ll just take us a couple of days to get home if we don’t stop too much.” Patrice smiled at him but didn’t say anything. Her mom’s stuff wasn’t going anywhere. She’d make sure and come back to it later...once she figured out who killed her mother, and why.

21

Gabe sat in his aisle seat on the airplane, wondering if Patrice would ever speak to him again. He’d been confused when she drove past the storage facility, but he’d gotten really worried when he realized they were headed toward Portland, and the airport. He tried asking questions at that point, but she wasn’t answering them. It wasn’t until she parked the car in the rental return space that she finally turned to him and said, “I’m going to Shreveport. I will not be left out of my own life by a man who believes he should be in control