"I can't take him to a grease-filled garage. I'm probably going to be under a car most of the night. That's not exactly a safe place for a baby."
Tristy sniffed and turned away, dismissing me. I was tempted to invite her along so she wouldn't feel left out. But the last thing I wanted to do was let her and Eva mingle. Resigned, I repeated, "I'll see you later."
After blowing a kiss toward the baby, I was free and jogging down the stairs toward the front exit of the building. When my phone rang as soon as I started my engine, I groaned. Someone sure wanted to delay me from seeing my Tinker Bell, didn't they? When I saw it was Ten, I answered with a growl, "What?"
"Man, we need your help. Big time."
Fuck. "No," I said instantly. "I'm not working your shift for you tonight."
"Then swing by my place and check on Gamble, will you? Hamilton and I are worried shitless about him. This thing he's going through with his girl really has him messed up, and both Hamilton and I have to bartend tonight, otherwise we'd stay with him."
I didn't answer immediately. My conscience warred with itself. I wanted to see Tinker Bell so bad my pulse wouldn't slow down. But the very fact that Ten had called me with his concern said a lot. Worried about Gamble, I cursed under my breath.
"Just how bad off is he? Like . . . homicidal? Suicidal? Or just ready to kill you?"
"Hardy, har, har." Ten sniffed. "I'd say he's definitely something, though. He wouldn't think twice about participating in an extreme act of crazy right now."
"Shit," I ground my teeth in frustration.
"Hey, if you're that busy, I can call Lowe and ask him."
"No," I muttered. "It was Lowe's place I was headed to."
"Really? So you're all close and shit with Lowe but you never hang out with me after hours? Dude, how insulting."
"He wanted me to look at his girlfriend's engine."
Immature Ten snickered. "I would've checked out his woman's engine, no problem."
"Her car engine, you moron."
"Well, whatever," he muttered back. "Take Gam with you. That way both you and Lowe can keep an eye on him."
I couldn't think up a reason why that would be a bad idea, so I agreed and using Ten's half-assed instructions of how to get there, I started toward his and Gamble's place.
Gam answered his door, looking like complete shit. I could understand why Ten and Hamilton were so worried about him. He was never this out of sorts.
It was surprisingly easy to talk him into coming along with me, which was a plus, but the whole detour set me back almost an hour from seeing Eva.
I tapped my fingers impatiently on the steering wheel of my Barracuda as we neared Mason's place. But the closer we got, the further away she felt.
Needing a distraction, I glanced over at Gamble who was staring blankly out his side of the car with his elbow resting on the window frame and his forehead buried in his palm.
"So what's up with you and Professor Girlfriend?" I asked. "I'm guessing you guys split since we've all had to rearrange our schedules for you and now I'm stuck on suicide watch."
Noel glanced over at me and scowled. "You're not on-look, I'm not going to do anything to myself. I'm fine. But yes, we're . . . " He had to pause as his face drained of color. "Over. It's been a week, but I'm past it."
Yeah, right. He was past it, my ass. "Then why are Larry and Curly still worried about you?"
"Because they're pussies?" He lifted his hands and shrugged. "How the hell should I know?"
I rolled my eyes. It was harder to get information out of him than it was to draw blood from a stone. "Well, what happened?"
He began to tap his fingers against his knee, much as I'd been tapping mine against the steering wheel. Must be some kind of chick-induced habit. When he turned to stare out the passenger side window again, I groaned. He was not helping me with my own distraction in the least.
"Might as well tell me," I said. "I'm going to bug the piss out of you until you do."
He let out a belly sigh and glared over at me. "Some anonymous person sent a picture of us together to my coach, and she got axed."
"Well, fuck," I breathed quietly. "Why didn't you get into trouble, too?" When his face paled even more, I swallowed. "Or did you?"
Bleakness filled his eyes. "The picture only revealed her face. Mine was cropped off."
I frowned, instantly confused. "Wait. Then how did they even know it was a student she was banging? If they couldn't see you, she could've been fucking anyone."
Noel pushed up the sleeve of his shirt to show me a tattoo I didn't even realize he had. "Back in October, about a dozen of us got these the night before our big national championship game. It was the only clear thing you could see of me in the shot."
I glanced at the tat, read it carefully, and snorted out a laugh. "National champs? Didn't you guys lose that game?"
"And didn't I say we got them the night before?" he growled, shoving his sleeve back down to cover the mark.
I stopped razzing him since he seemed so miserable. But I still wasn't happy about what I'd just learned. "So, the girl got stuck with all the heat, and you just . . . let her take the fall . . . by herself?"
"No." He slammed a frustrated fist against my dashboard. On any other day, I would've called the prick out for that. No one treated my ride with such disrespect, but he was having a bad day, so I let it slide this time.
"I did not just let her take the fall," he said. "By the time I'd found out what had happened, she was already gone. Ten and Hamilton managed to talk me out of confessing to Coach. But that's what I should've done. Damn it. Instead, I went to Aspen's boss and tried to talk him into bringing her back. Big fucking mistake. Let me tell you. Coach would've just kicked my ass off the team and pulled my scholarship."
A bad feeling dropped into my stomach. "But not this prick?"
Gamble shook his head, looking a lot more homicidal than suicidal. "Nope, not this prick. When he learned I was the guy in the picture, not only did he refuse to reinstate her, but he refused to reprimand me. He's a big football fan, you see. So I threatened to leave school and drop out of the team if he didn't bring her back, to which he in turn threatened to go public if I even acted like I was going to leave. So now she's gone, and I'm stuck here in order to save her reputation and make sure she doesn't lose all chances of getting a job anywhere else in the country. But in the meantime, yeah, I look like a complete bastard for letting her take all the heat for our relationship."
"Man." I shook my head and blew out a low whistle. "That's harsh. Sucks to be you right now."
"Yep." Once again, he turned to stare out the side window.
"And you haven't heard from her at all since that went down?"
He sniffed as if trying to hold in some tears. "No. I'm pretty sure she left town. She won't answer her door, and her mail has been piling up."
"You don't think she would hurt herself, do you?"
Noel glanced slowly at me, giving me a hard stare. "Well, I hadn't until now. Jesus, she wouldn't-wait. No. Her car's gone too. If she were in the house, her car would still be there. She's okay."
I wasn't so sure. "Unless-"
"Jesus, Pick," he snapped. "Stop freaking me out. She's okay. She just needs some time."
"Well, if you ever need to get into her place, just to check and make sure, I know how to jimmy a lock."
Gamble shook his head. "God, man. Where'd you learn a handy trick like that? The state pen?"
Wow, let a guy know you'd done a little time and he immediately thought you were some hardcore ex-con. I guess that's what I got for beating the piss out of one of Tristy's tormentors.
"I never went to the pen, ass wipe. It was county lockup for, like, two weeks. And, no, I didn't learn how to break and enter in jail. You meet all kinds of interesting kids when you grow up in the foster care system."
His eyebrows lifted. "I didn't know you grew up in foster care."
"Yep. From birth until I graduated out of it at eighteen." And that was exactly why I never, ever, not even for one night, wanted Julian put into foster care. I knew exactly what kind of shit he could face.
Spotting the address Lowe had given me for his place, I pulled to the curb, my stomach jumping with excitement. "Here we are."
My adrenal glands spiked. I felt so hyped and alive, ready to see her, a person might've thought I was ready to race in an Olympic competition.
I almost forgot about Gamble as I climbed out of my car and strode toward the open bay door of a garage attached to a decent split-level apartment complex.
She was here, somewhere in this building. I couldn't wait to see her again.