KING
“No,” Abbie snapped. “Absolutely not.”
“Come on, Abbie,” I said. “It's not that bad. You won't even notice them. I swear it.”
“King, give me a break,” she said. “You won't even tell me what's going on, you're freaking out, and now you're having two of your guys babysit me? No. Nuh uh.”
The truth of the matter was no, I didn't want to tell Abbie what was going on. The less she knew, the better. Not only did I not want to panic her about the threat to her safety, but, selfishly, I also didn't want her to know too much about my business dealings. I'd worked hard to overcome her initial misgivings and preconceived notions about me; the last thing I wanted to do was validate them by telling her I was in bed with a brutal gang who wanted me to run heroin for them.
To say that wouldn't go over well would be the understatement of the century.
At the same time, though, I needed to give her something. I was realizing I couldn't ask her to accept my guys babysitting her and not tell her why. Truthfully, she had a right to know. Hell, I would certainly want to know if somebody was threatening my life. I had to give her something and not leave her completely in the dark about it. But I also needed to walk the line between telling her too little and telling her too much, very carefully.
I sighed. “Look, there is a rival club out there,” I said, “and they're talking some serious madness right now – ”
“About what? What's going on?”
I shook my head. “I really don't know what their beef is. But they've been talking tough and making some threats,” I said. “I doubt anything will really happen, but I want to be safe and smart about it. Especially when it comes to you.”
“Am I in danger here?” she asked.
“I doubt it, Abbie. I just don't know these guys and don't really know what they're all about. I just – ”
She looked at me, her eyes wide but her expression angry. “Did they threaten you? Me? King, you're not giving me anything here. What in the hell is going on?”
I sighed again. “They didn't make any specific threats,” I said.
“Then why do you feel the need to stick me with a couple of your goons for the day?”
I was growing frustrated but knew it wasn't going to make anything better if I let myself explode. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself before responding.
“Duke and El are good men,” I said. “And I'm just being cautious. There's a lot of shit going on and I don't want you caught up in it. Better safe than sorry, right?”
Abbie looked at me, her expression one of worry mixed with irritation. “What kind of shit, King? What is going on? I need you to tell me.”
This was where I had to tread the line carefully. I didn't want to scare her, but she did have a right to know what was going on – at least, some of it. “Okay look,” I said, choosing my words carefully. “We think the Incas grabbed one of our guys – ”
Abbie let out a small gasp and her look of concern intensified. “Grabbed one of your guys? For what?”
“We don't know for sure that they did,” I said evenly. “But I haven't been able to contact one of my guys in the last couple of days and we got a…weird message from them. I'm not entirely sure what it means, but I need to find out.”
“What kind of message? What did they say?”
I sometimes forgot that Abbie could be a bulldog when she got her teeth into something. She wasn't one who was going to let it go now that I'd opened up that can of worms. But I couldn't give her all of the details. I wouldn't. It wouldn't do either of us any good.
“Just a picture of a hand with our club's insignia,” I said. “It's no big deal and, like I said, I don't know what it means. But I need to go find out.”
“Are these guys dangerous, King?” she asked. “Don't lie to me.”
I shrugged. “Honestly, I don't know. I don't know a whole lot about them – ”
“You knew enough about them to do a business deal with them,” she reminded me. “That was how we met, remember?”
I nodded. “I do remember. But that was business, not some sort of lifelong commitment. It was supposed to be a one off sort of thing.”
“So why are they grabbing your guys off the street now?”
I felt the explosion of frustration coming too late and I couldn't stop myself from erupting. “I don't know, Abbie. I don't have any goddamn answers for you right now. All I know is that I need to go talk to these assholes and figure some shit out. But I can't do that if I'm worried that something is happening to you. Got it? Now, I need you to deal with the fact that El and Duke are going to be here looking after you for a little bit so I can do what I need to do.”
She looked as startled as I felt. And when I saw the shimmer of tears in her eyes, I felt like an absolute jackass. I didn't mean to yell at her but the stress was getting to me and I just sort of snapped.
“Abbie look, I'm sorry,” I said. “I didn't mean to blow up like that. I'm just under a lot of pressure right now and it just got away from me. I'm sorry.”
“You're an asshole,” she sniffed loudly.
I nodded. “I know I am. And I'm sorry, Abbie. I didn't mean to snap on you like that. I'm just trying to make you understand how important this is.”
“Fine,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Go do whatever it is you think you have to do.”
I sighed. She didn't understand. But I was out of time and had to go. I stepped forward to give her a hug and a kiss but she recoiled from me. Disheartened, I stepped back.
“I'm sorry, Abbie,” I said. “We'll talk more about this later. I promise.”
She turned and walked into the living room and dropped down on the couch without a word. Without even looking at me. I didn't know how, but I was going to have to smooth this over. Somehow.
Walking outside, I nodded to El and Duke, then watched them disappear into Abbie's apartment. Nodding to Drew, we climbed onto our bikes and rode off into the belly of the beast.