It was a week after the meeting in his mother’s living room that Chance got word someone finally had intel on Gabe. Or, rather, they found the slobbering mess that was him in a back alley downtown. They’d lost sight of him. But now there was a clear bread trail to follow. Evidently he’d been high, incredibly high, to the point where they almost didn’t recognize him. The only way anyone knew it was him was the t-shirt he was wearing, apparently it had Hannah’s school crest on it. The following night, Chance himself went to that part of town to find out what he could for himself. He didn’t tell Hannah. He couldn’t until he was sure.
He took Moose with him that night, following the lead some anonymous source had dropped them. Gabe had been spotted in an alleyway by the Triple G strip club. Chance fully intended on beating every cent out of him that he had left if he found out the imbecile was blowing all the cash he owed them on cheap strippers and lap dances.
They pulled into the gas station across the street and made their way into the convenience store, pretending to look at bags of chips and sodas, all the while keeping one eye trained on the strip club. It opened its doors at eight pm, they had five minutes. There was already a lineup forming outside where men were smoking, laughing, and throwing back drinks from flasks in an effort to prepare to gawk at women and imagine being inside of them instead of their wives. Chance never liked strip clubs. Ben went to them often and took the Knights will him. Chance never went. He didn’t need to pay a girl to moan his name and take her clothes off in front of him.
He kept an eye on the line, not seeing anyone who looked like Gabe Bremer. The clock hit 8pm, the line disappeared inside the building, still no sign of the kid. A few more minutes passed with random stragglers finding their way inside the building, none of them the one they were looking for.
“Buying something gentlemen?” asked the clerk behind the cash register.
He was staring at them with an unkind eye, letting his gaze go up and down over their forms. He thought they were stealing and Chance tried not to roll his eyes too hard at the thought. He shrugged to the man before grabbing a bottle of soda and Moose grabbed a bag of chips. They walked to the front made their movement to pull out payment and bag their goods take as long as possible, keeping eyes on the strip club across the street.
“You know you can go over there, boys,” the cashier. “You don’t have to just sit here and stare at the building, won’t see anything that way.”
Chance gave the cashier a tight-lipped smile before grabbing his tings and going outside.
“We need a better plan than this,” Moose said as they walked over to sit on their bikes.
“I don’t want to risk spooking this kid,” Chance said. “He’s proven able to disappear pretty easy, I’m not letting him slip by again, especially if this little asshole has been blowing the money he owes us on strippers.”
“I say we take an up close look,” Moose said. “I’ll go, check it out. It’s less suspicious if we separate.”
“And be easier to pick off,” Chance said.
“What kind of bodyguard would I be to you if I can’t even protect myself, huh?”
Moose gave him a cheeky smile before shoving his hands into his pockets and walking across the street. He stepped around the entrance and into the alleyway around the back, lighting a cigarette and blowing out smoke. Chance watched as he casually turned his head about, looking around for signs of anything while taking a long drag of the cigarette in his mouth.
His search was fruitful. His eyes caught something and he turned back to Chance, waving frantically for him to come over. Chance ran over from their parking spot with the bikes and met him at the mouth of the alley, turning to look down.
What he saw was not the Hannahe man he met the day he pulled Hannah from Ben’s clutches and put her on the back of his bike. This man was smaller, skinnier, any muscle he’d tried to put on before was gone completely, skin and bones and what resilient fat was clinging to his frame. He was pale all over and his hair was a mess on top of his head, thin and looking frayed. The man was stumbling, completely unsure of his own two feet like he was standing on quicksand and the rest of the world was built on solid rock.
“Holy fuck,” Chance whispered.
“Yeah,” Moose said. “That’s something we’re going to have to deal with.”
“What the hell happened?” he demanded.
“No clue, we’re going to find out though.”
Gabe Bremer had gone from irresponsible college kid living off his sister’s good graces to a complete junkie mess since last they saw him. It alarmed Chance. Something about this was very, very wrong. The kid had been gambler and an idiot but he hadn’t been a druggie. Of all the places Chance was worried the kid would blow the money he owed, he hadn’t expected it to be on drugs.
“What do you think he’s on?” Chance asked as they crossed back over to the other side of the street.
“That looked like H, boss,” Moose said.
“Jesus fuck.”
Heroin was an unbreakable addiction. It could be fought, it could be surprised, but the body would always crave it once it had been introduced to the system. If Gabe was on this stuff, Chance was willing to bet he did not get on it willingly or by accident. Someone had handed it to him as a means of control. But it would take more recon work to figure out exactly who, what, and why.
“That’s twice now he’s been spotted at the strip club,” Moose said. “Guarantee he’ll be back tomorrow.”
“We go back, we need to sort this before we give Hannah any information on it,” Chance said.
Moose nodded in agreement and they didn’t say anymore as they both got into their bikes, flipped off the store cashier when he yelled at them from inside the convenience store, and sped off into the night. They needed to regroup and try to get the bottom of the mystery tomorrow.
***
Chance once again took only Moose with him back to the strip club the following night. Waiting to find the buzzed out Gabe. It was clear he did not go into the club for entertainment. He was not in the lineup outside nor was he in the building when they did a quick scan of the interior as far as the host would let them without paying a cover. He was in the alleyway though. He seemed to be a little more coherent than before, standing with help of the wall but managing to stand at all. They stayed out of sight, watching him smoke cigarette after cigarette.
“I got some intel on the situation,” Moose said to chance in hushed tones.
“Lay it on me,” Chance said.
“He fell in with a rough crowd,” he said. “He works for some pimps, takes girls and delivers them. He’s doing it to pay off debt he’s got to The Black Death.”
“He’s got debt with everyone, doesn’t he?”
“Well here’s the part you’re not going to like,” Moose said carefully. “Turns out he sold your girl off to the Death and they knew all about the whole situation. He told them we’d pay through the nose to get her back. Basically they were doing him the favor. Hence the debt. Now they’ve got him hooked on H to keep him a docile little pet for their operation.”
“Fuck.”
He’d lost track of how many times he said fuck over the course of the past few days. Everything was pissing him off and nothing seemed to be the news he wanted to hear. So Gabe had not only sold her, he’d covered his bases. They had no way of getting her back without a fight at this point. And he was grabbing more girls and selling them off as well. There would be no convincing him to back off of the situation now that he was on heroin. There was no rationalizing there, only addiction.
“Alright,” Chance said, backing up. “This is beyond what we can do on our own. I know I said secrecy was number one but if the Death knows about the whole situation then there’s no reason to not bring in everyone we can. Call up the gang. I want a meeting. Now.”
“You got it captain.”