Thorn
Gabi walked into the new place in a breeze of confidence that left most people staring at her, myself included, if I was being honest. I shook my head, though, wiping off the look on my face. “The packages are upstairs,” I told her in an undertone.
I escorted her, as though she were my lover or something like that, a hand at her elbow. She let me do it. I imagined that what I had said to her on the phone about Katia's gunman had her on her best behavior, and I was glad that at least some good had come out of it.
I still couldn't believe that they had come after Jess like that, and I was going to make sure that someone paid for it. As soon as I washed my hands clean of the rest of this dirty business.
“I'm sure they can't have moved your sister far,” I told Gabi under my breath as we rode up the elevator.
She gave me a look, half frank disbelief and half exasperation. “You don't think so?” she asked. “This is the head of the Sigma Saints that we're talking about. She could have my sister moved to anywhere in the world that she wanted, in the blink of an eye.”
I shook my head. “It doesn't work that way,” I argued. “She would need to—”
“I know how she operates, all right?” Gabi interrupted. “Better than you do. So please don't bother with your platitudes.”
There was nothing I could say in response to that.
When we entered the suite, I was glad to see that Jess had moved to someplace out of sight, just as I had suggested. I didn't really think Gabi would be so bold as to attack her, especially not now we seemed to somehow all be on the same side. But that didn't mean I wanted to take the risk.
“Your pet is hiding,” Gabi said, sniffing a little. She shook her head but she looked amused as she rounded on me, her hands on her hips. “I'm hardly the one you need to watch out for, Thorn.”
“I know,” I responded honestly. “But that doesn't change the fact that you'd like to see Jess dead.”
“Plans change,” Gabi said, shrugging her shoulders a little.
I didn't know what to say in response to that, although I knew that the last thing I needed was to hedge my bets with someone as mercurial as she seemed to be. But I would never be so bold as to say that to her face.
“I think we need to come up with a different plan,” Gabi said, turning to me with her hands on her hips. “Entirely.”
I frowned at her. “You heard me on the phone, though. Katia wants nothing to do with—”
“Katia wants the packages delivered to her,” Gabi interrupted. “She doesn't really care how that happens, she just wants them done.” She cocked her head to the side. “And if you're not going to do it, I suppose it falls to me to deliver them.”
I frowned at her. “That's what I was trying to get you to do before,” I reminded her. “So I don't believe you're doing this just for–“
“Of course I'm not doing it for free,” Gabi scoffed. She eyed me keenly. “I expect you to figure out where my sister is being hidden now, and I expect you to ensure that she'll be freed once the packages are delivered to Katia, just as we had originally bargained. It's your fault that things are changing now.”
I could feel my frown deepen. “There's not much that I can do,” I said. “Katia would never let me anywhere near her plans, and especially not after I showed up at the prison and told her that I wasn't going to deliver the packages.”
“I need to get my sister free,” Gabi said, a scowl on her face. “With every new day, all I can think is of all the new tortures that the Sigma Saints must have come up with for her.” She shuddered a little. “She's my little sister, the baby of my family. I can't let her...”
“I don't know that I can help her,” I repeated. “Katia wouldn't let me near her. I doubt I could even figure out where Katia has hidden her, not without help. I'm too recognizable, too—”
“I could help.”
I whipped around towards the doorway, staring in surprise at Jess, who was standing there. She fidgeted with her fingers as though realizing that her appearance was….
Well, I could never say that her appearance was unwanted, but that said, I really didn't expect to see her there, and she was supposed to be hidden someplace. I frowned at her, but that didn't seem to dissuade her. Instead, she strode boldly into the room. “Look, Thorn, we should be working together, shouldn't we?” she asked, tossing her hair a little. “You and Gabi and I, we all have things that we want. And at this point, I think the best bet for all of us is to work together.”
I scowled at her. “You should just stay out of this.”
She rolled her eyes. “Thorn, I'd love to, but there is no staying out of this at this point. You've got me involved in this, remember? There was someone who already wanted to take me out down in the lobby of our motel—remember?” She strode into the room, staring at Gabi. Finally, she came to a stop, her hands on her hips. “Look, I know you don't want to hear anything that I have to say, but just hear me out, okay?”
Gabi stared back at her, her lips pursed. “Fine,” she finally said, glancing over at me. There was something in her expression that I couldn't read, but I suddenly realized that she wasn't angry, wasn't gunning for Jess's life like she had been. Instead, she almost seemed to have a look of respect on her face.
I frowned at the two of them, wondering how this would play out, but only time would tell.
“I need to find my sister,” Gabi said, staring at Jess. “Because of whatever Thorn did at the prison—”
“You know it's more than that,” Jess interrupted. When Gabi started to say something, she rolled her eyes. “Come on. You strike me as someone who's intelligent. Did you really think Katia was going to give your sister back that easily? You struck a bargain with the devil himself; of course things weren't going to go according to plan.”
Gabi paused for a moment and then inclined her head in acknowledgement of Jess's words. “That said—”
“You'll need to disguise me,” Jess said. She fixed her challenging eyes on me, staring me down. “Look, I know I'm in enough danger as it is, but I'm ready to strike a new bargain with you. I need you to look out for Brent.”
I frowned at her. “I'm not sure—”
“Yes, you are,” she interrupted. With her hands on her hips, she was a force to be reckoned with, and I wasn't sure what I could do to dissuade her from her current feelings. “You wouldn't have taken this job if you didn't think that you had backups,” she pointed out. “And if you didn't have Dorian and his people, this mission would have probably failed already.”
“Dorian hasn't—”
“He hasn't helped you yet,” she agreed, nodding her head. “But that doesn't mean that he couldn't help you.” Her eyes were blazing with a clear challenge, and even though my first instinct was to dissuade her from all of this, I couldn't help but think…
Gabi laughed a little, the sound loud and ringing in the small room. “Wow, Thorn,” she said. “I knew that you cared about the bitch, but I didn't realize you were this far gone for her. No wonder Katia targeted her. You're a sitting duck; don't you realize that?”
Jess turned her fiery gaze on Gabi. “What you don't seem to realize,” she said, “is that I could be the only hope that you have. If you want to see your sister alive again, that is.”
Gabi made a scoffing noise, rolling her eyes again. “What do you really think you're going to do?” she asked.
Jess gave her a gleaming grin, though. “Well, I could probably figure out where your sister is being held, at least,” she said. “I'm not saying that I could rescue her or anything like that, but...”
“How do you think you're going to figure out where she's being held?” Gabi asked suspiciously. “You might be implicated in all of this now, but that doesn't mean you're a member of the Sigma Saints. And it would take years before anyone of Katia's people would deign to talk to you.”
“You think so?” Jess asked, her eyes narrowing as she took a few steps closer to Gabi. She grinned a little, a lethal little grin that I had never seen on her before. “All I have to do is remind them how much they want to accept me into their fold. All I have to do is remind them what could happen if I felt like an outsider. They don't want to kill me or they would have done so already. What they would rather do is keep me as one of theirs, but an obedient servant for them. And I can do that.”
Gabi still looked unsure. Jess sneered at her this time. “Do you really not think that I could help you out?” she asked. “What you don't realize is that I've been cataloguing everything you've done for the whole time I've known you.” Her eyes narrowed further. “I could go to the authorities, and I could destroy you, Gabi Gonzalez, if I really wanted to, that is. But I don't really want to.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“You're going to need to disguise me,” Jess said. “As someone that the Sigma Saints would talk to, if it weren't for...” She gestured between all of them. “I think the best way is going to be to find other Sigma Saints operatives. We know there have to be quite a few of them scattered around the city, right? They'd have information on where your sister is.”
“And what, you think they're just going to tell you all about it?” Gabi asked, rolling her eyes a little. “They're not stupid.”
“No, they're not,” Jess agreed. “But they probably don't realize that that's classified information. As long as I can convince them to talk to me...” She trailed off, frowning a little. “It would have to be someone who isn't very high up in Katia's organization.”
“A prostitute, maybe?” I suggested. “We know she has Sigma Saints recruited from all walks of the city. And whores can be chatty if they think they're amongst friends. And they see a lot of secrets...”
“Right,” Jess said, nodding her head. “So you'll have to dress me up as a prostitute. And then...” She snapped her fingers. “I'll pretend I'm one of the Sigma Saints and that Katia has sent me to...” She frowned. “Well, I'll figure it out as I go.”
“That'll never work,” Gabi said, shaking her head.
Jess shrugged. “If it doesn't work, what does it matter?” she asked. “We might as well try it.”
Gabi stared at Jess for a long moment, lips pursed. Finally, she shrugged as well. “It's your skin. But even though I know you're just a goody-goody, I know you wouldn't be agreeing to do this just for free. What are your terms?”
“In return...” Jess fixed Gabi with a look. “You're going to owe me one. You can't just kill me off when your sister is free, or when you're done with this whole thing. What's more, you're going to have to smuggle the packages into the prison yourself. Katia will be expecting this.” She fixed me with a look as well. “And you're going to owe me one as well, Thorn. You're going to use everyone that you know. You're going to contact Dorian and have him use everyone that he knows. And you're going to make sure that Brent doesn't get hurt in all of this.”
I stared at her, suddenly seeing her in a new light. She had seemed like a weak, female interloper for the whole time that I had known her, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that she had been calling the shots all along. I never should have kept her alive to start with, but from the time that we had helped her brother change his tire, I realized that she had been in charge of everything, for all that I had tried to deny it.
She would have made a great member of the Sigma Saints, if she had just been able to get over her personal qualms about the organization.
I grinned a little at her and was surprised to see that Gabi was grinning at her as well, albeit more dangerously. “All right,” Gabi agreed. “We'll dress you up in a disguise. But if your plan doesn't work...”
“It will,” Jess said confidently. She narrowed her eyes at Gabi and held out her hand for a handshake. “It's nice to have you one our team.”
Gabi was clearly surprised but reached out to shake Jess's hand without comment.