Wild Child: A Skull Kings MC Novella by Sage L. Morgan Read Free Book Online

Gabriel added.
    “Well, damn,” Anna said, smiling for some reason. “I have no problem telling Lisbeth and Adrian, but how do I know I can trust you?”
    Is she flirting with him? I wondered. She was using her syrupy seduction voice, the one she would use on potential Johns. Obviously we were far removed from the bars and hotel lobbies we’d been forced to patrol for our arm of the gang, but still. Couldn’t she turn that off, now that she wasn’t part of that life anymore?
    I brushed the annoyance away as Gabriel prepared his answer.
    “Lisbeth trusts me. That’s good enough.” We shared a private look. Then, Gabriel cleared his throat. “So, who shot Gloria, and why?”
    “Straight to the point. I like it,” Anna said. She crossed her arms. “It’s kind of a long story, okay?”
    “We have time,” I said. I put a hand on her knee. “Anna, Gloria recognized me when we’ve never met before, and Larry showed up at my motel room. He knew where I was. I haven’t been in touch with anybody since I left town. Somebody at True North is looking for me. Please, we have to know what’s going on.”
    Anna sighed and cast her eyes to her lap. She looked...guilty. But why?
    “It might be partly my fault,” she began. “When I left town, I was practically a sitting duck. Without True North, I had no protection. Plus I betrayed them, which probably meant they were coming after me. I went to the only people I thought who could help.”
    “Who?” I asked.
    “The FBI.”
    I frowned. “You’re ratting out the gang?”
    Anna shrugged helplessly.
    “The whole gang?” True North wasn’t just in Nevada and wasn’t just in drug and human trafficking. They were national, and they were plugged into all sorts of seediness all over the world. A single rat and the FBI simply weren’t enough. We’d need the whole fucking UN or something.
    “I didn’t know what I was getting into!” Anna said. “I was only thinking about myself at the time. But I went to the police who put me in contact with an agent. I told him everything I knew. After that, he said I should go stay with some family and keep a low profile. I came to stay with Adrian. Gloria knew people that Adrian’s customers were friends with. That’s how we met.” Anna’s voice broke. She paused to lick her lips. “I showed her a picture of you, so that’s how she knew who you were. She must’ve told Larry, who went looking for you on his own.”
    “So is True North looking for me?”
    Anna shook her head. “I don’t know.”
    We sat in still silence.
    “I didn’t know Gloria was part of all this...this gang stuff,” Gabriel said softly.
    Adrian spoke up. “That’s the thing. She wasn’t.”
    “True North didn’t want her dealing in Vegas unless they got a cut,” Anna said. “They were strong-arming her, and she couldn’t figure out how to say no. So I wanted her to go to the FBI like I did.”
    I squeezed Anna’s knee. The puzzles seemed to be falling together.
    “I went to Lip Service to talk to her last night, but she seemed spooked. She said she was being stalked,” Anna continued. “We fought, I’ll admit that. But I didn’t shoot her. ”
    She doesn’t know. She’d left before the shooter even came into the frame. “We know you didn’t. There was a surveillance camera outside,” I said.
    All of the tension in Anna’s forehead smoothed away. “Then, you saw the guy who did shoot her,” she said.
    “It wasn’t a clear image,” Gabriel said, “but it must’ve been her stalker. Did Gloria say anything else about him?”
    Anna smirked. “Oh, she did all right.” She began laughing.
    “What’s so funny?” Gabriel asked.
    Anna’s shoulders shook. Her blue eyes sparkled dangerously, like violent waves tossing in the sunlight. “Gloria got a look at her stalker once or twice. He rides a motorcycle...”
    My stomach did a flip inside of my body.
    “...and he wore a symbol on the back of a leather vest. The same symbol