AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Finally, the door cracked open, its chain snapping taut, and one golden eye peered out at me intently. I noticed he leaned back slightly, hand resting on his hip. I had no doubt he had a weapon.
“What do you want?”
“Not here for trouble, I just wondered if you know Vex,” I said, forcing myself to relax.
His gaze darted behind me, and I hoped the others weren’t crowding the hall.
“Yeh… I knew her.”
“We think she was taken from her room. Did you… see anything?” I asked.
There was a long pause. “Why do you care?”
“She’s important to us.”
Again, a pause. Then finally, the door shut. I heard the sliding metal, and then he opened it properly, glancing from me to the others.
“She wasn’t lying, then?” he asked. “About matching? She told me it happened, but didn’t say how.”
“She knew you well?”
“I mean… kind of.” He shrugged. “She always had good drugs.”
“What?” Rook asked, surprised.
“Heat drugs and shit. I don’t know who her dealer was, but they were clean as they come. She got extras and shared them with me. I appreciated that. Can’t be too careful.”
“I’m Drake,” I said, holding my hand out.
“Yeh…” He trailed off, a frown on his face that told me he knew exactly who I was. He took my hand though.
“Gambit.”
“We’re trying to find her. Did you see anything?”
“I don’t know. Maybe? There was some weird shit that whole week, but I was…” He winced. “I wasn’t all… here.” His eyes darted down the hall, and his voice dropped. “I had a bad heat cycle right before. Was out of it for ages.”
“But you did see something?” I asked.
He shrugged, eyes snagging on something behind me. “Is she uh… going to need that if she has you lot?”
I turned to find him eyeing the pouch of heat meds that was still intact in Ebony’s hand.
“They expired last month,” Ebony said.
“Mine expired half a year ago.” Gambit shrugged. “I could do with it.”
“We’re not giving you drugs like that—” Love cut off as I backed toward Ebony and grabbed it from him, then crossed back toward Gambit.
He took it from me gratefully.
Then I stood back, letting Ebony fire off a few questions. Gambit seemed willing to answer them well enough, but I still wasn’t sure how any of this would help us find her.
“I don’t get it,” Rook said. “If you live across the hall from each other, why not just help each other through it? Then you could use the safer drugs.”
Gambit snorted, looking between us like Rook had made a joke. “You don’t tellanyoneif you’re in heat. Never. Doesn’t matter how much you think you can trust them. You know how much money someone can make, ratting out a drugged up omega halfway in? Enough for better drugs for the next few years. Nah, Vex wasn’t stupid.”
My stomach twisted in discomfort. I’d grown up in the Gritch District, but this? This was layers and layers more desperate of a place than anything I’d experienced.
