Page 30 of Run
At the sound of Vincent’s voice, a shiver of fear slid through me, and though I kept my eyes on Gage, I could sense the tension in the room ratchet up, knew that everyone else felt it too.
Still, Gage couldn’t allow himself to lose face so he turned his attention to Vincent, glared at him in a way that I guessed was supposed to be intimidating.
Vincent didn’t even blink.
Gage didn’t know how to respond. I saw him falter, could almost hear the wheels in his brain turning as he evaluated what to do next. His men could see his struggle too, and I knew that Gage knew they were evaluating him, judging him. Finding him lacking. Something I knew Gage wouldn’t be able to accept, something I knew would push him to prove himself.
“What’s this about?” I asked, keeping my voice calm, desperate to grasp for anything that might salvage the peace, though my hope for doing so was rapidly fading.
My question gave Gage an excuse to look away from Vincent, one he took with no hesitation.
I kept my gaze firmly fixed on Gage, but from the corner of my eye, I could see the tic that jumped in Vincent’s jaw, knew exactly what it meant. But he could be as angry as he wanted to be. This situation was spiraling toward disaster, and I’d done what needed to be done to get it back.
Gage, showing wisdom I hadn’t thought him capable of, followed my lead.
“Kelly, I like you, but you’re a little too friendly, especially with strangers,” he said.
“Did you go to my house?” I replied, hoping to keep Gage focused on me and not Vincent, thinking I could still turn this around.
He huffed, his nostrils flaring with his exhaled breath.
“After last night, it seemed like a smart thing to do,” he said.
“Last night?” I responded.
Gage laughed out loud. “Gonna play the dumb innocent, huh?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I responded.
“Sure. Why weren’t you home last night, Kelly? I was real eager to talk,” he said.
The implication was impossible to miss. I’d been right not to take that ride from him last night, but I’d still managed to underestimate him. I shivered, grateful that I hadn’t gone back to my apartment without Vincent.
“I didn’t realize I was on call twenty-four-seven,” I said, adding in a quick smile.
“Cute,” he said, smiling before he twisted his face in a deep grimace. “But don’t fuck with me. You left early, and then Tony sees you with this asshole. Mighty suspicious, don’t you think?”
“Having a conversation is suspicious?” I said, feigning ignorance. Not even Gage would believe Vincent was just some random visitor to the bar, but I’d make him spell his suspicions out.
“Kelly,” Gage said, moving so close that I could feel his hot breath against my face, “do you work for him? If you’re trying to make a move on my business…”
“Is that what you think?” I asked, my mind spinning as I tried to think of something to say that might salvage the situation, but at the same time wondering if that was even possible. “I don’t care about your business. I’m just a bartender.”
“A popular one. I see new faces around now that you’ve shown up,” he said.
“Look, Gage, I—”
I cut off when he grabbed my face, squeezing my jaw with his thick fingers.
“You don’t want to do that,” Vincent said. To them, he probably sounded as he had before, calm, with barely even a ripple in his voice.
But I heard the undercurrent in his words, knew that Gage and the rest would not live through this day.
Gage dropped his hand and then looked to Vincent. I did the same. The expression I saw on his face confirmed my thoughts, and I shivered when I saw the intensity of his anger. I had seldom seen this part of him, but I knew what it meant. Too bad for Gage he didn’t seem to.
He moved away from me, and the space allowed me to breathe deep, though it did nothing to calm my rapidly beating heart.
“You seem pretty serious,” Gage said, showing insight that had been absent before, insight that had come far too late to make a difference. “How do you know my friend Kelly?”