Was I treating him like patient zero?
Crap.
I was.
Mostly because he was avoiding me.
Well, also because he was the snack to end all snacks. Nope, he was a seven-course meal.
And I was a starving woman who, even so, was on a diet.
However, Gabe should not be where this Confab started.
Luckily, Tex and Tito butted into our Confabs, and although Tito didn’t say much (he was a diminutive Santa Claus-looking guy, if Santa was on vacation in Hawaii, such was Tito’s daily uniform, and as if this didn’t give enough vacation vibe, his ever-present sunglasses did), Tex didn’t give much of a damn what anyone thought of what he had to say.
And Tex wasn’t about hashing out relationship stuff.
“This isn’t about Gabe,” he declared. “This about that honky ambushing Willow.”
Honky.
Oh yeah, Tex could sometimes be a hoot.
Still.
“Okay, let’s get this straight,” I stated. “I was not cornered or ambushed. I was surprised. Surprised. He was not a threat. He was here asking for help.”
“Oh my gawd,” Gemma breathed, her gaze aimed at Joey. “We’re finally in on a real, honest-to-goodness mission.”
“I know, right?” Joey replied, eyes gleaming with anticipation.
When Arthur had given indication we were supposed to recruit them (this being him sending their Andy Warhol-esque portraits to us at the storage units), we’d had one itty-bitty case we worked to break them in. It wasn’t that big of a deal, just proving some friend of Clarice’s boyfriend was cheating on her (he was, and it didn’t take long for us to figure that out).
But yeah, this was their first real, honest-to-goodness mission.
Luna ignored both of them and asked me, “Help with what?”
For the bazillionth time, I said, “I don’t know. He didn’t get a chance to say. But he was jittery as all get out. Every car that passed, he thought they were coming to get him. Shaw showed, and he took off, and I mean the man hoofed it. He said ‘they’ were watching him. He said ‘they’ couldn’t know he was coming to us.”
“Shit, did you notice if he was followed?” Jessie asked.
I shook my head. “No, but I asked him that, and he said he didn’t think so. I didn’t see anybody. Then again, once Mr. Shithead took off, I had to deal with the cavalry, so I didn’t get a good look.”
Jess nodded and Raye inquired, “Is that all he said?”
I shook my head again. “No. He said they have someone. A woman. He definitely said ‘her.’ He started to tell me more, and he was going to show me something on his phone, but that was when the cavalry arrived.”
“And that’s it?” Shanti asked.
“Mostly,” I told her. “Though he did say she was the only one who treated him decent, and it was abundantly clear he was worried about her, and as such, she meant something to him.”
We all sat with the knowledge this unknown woman was the only person to treat Mr. Shithead decently, until Harlow said, “I just knew we were being mean and he needs a friend.”
“He takes porn as payment for information,” Luna pointed out.
Gemma made a gagging noise.
Joey grinned.
