She walked through a huge room filled with costumes, then pushed open the back door and looked out into the night. “Jeff?”
“Over here.” He waved her over to a Ford battered Thunderbird parked in the shadows, and she raced across the lot to join him.
“I’ve been so worried.” She wrapped him in a hug. “After what happened at the vacant lot … I didn’t know if you’d be okay.” And then she pulled away and her bottom lip trembled, loving and hating him at the same time. “How could you, Jeff? He was an innocent man. You’re lucky he didn’t die.”
“He didn’t die?” Jeff gaped and took a step back under the parking lot light, brushing away the lank, dirty blond hair that perpetually hung over his face. Arianne caught a glimpse of his eyes, usually a brilliant blue, but now dull and filled with shadows. Fair where Viper was dark. Small where Viper was big. Weak where Viper was strong. Jeff was the opposite of Viper in every way.
“He’ll be okay. I checked with the hospital.”
Jeff wrapped his arms around himself and his voice wavered. “It was killing me, Ari. Every moment of every day, I thought about him. He wasn’t an innocent man like you said. He was a small-time dealer who tried to cheat Viper on a cut and then shot one of the Jacks when he tried to escape. But the idea I’d taken a life was too much for me. I loaded my apartment with crank and went on a binge to end all binges just so I could forget the pain. It was good, so good. But I’ve run out, and now that the ice house is gone, I can’t get a new supply. I haven’t slept for days.”
Arianne leaned closer and studied his face. The waver in his voice and the inability to sleep usually indicated he’d entered the tweaking phase of his addiction, and if that was the case, she needed to get away from him. Fast. Tweaking made him unpredictable, delusional, and violent. But he didn’t display the quick, jerky movements he always had when he tweaked. And for the first time, she wasn’t sure what to do.
“What about the guy at the Sinner clubhouse?” he asked. “I shot him in the leg. Is he okay? He came out with an automatic weapon, and if I hadn’t slowed him down, he would have killed us all.”
“Gunner? Yes, he’s fine. But Cole, the other guy you shot—”
“I didn’t shoot him,” Jeff said quickly. “My job was to get the guns. The other guys were responsible for torching the clubhouse and taking out anyone who saw us. I’m not sure which of them took that guy out or knocked you off your bike. They didn’t know it was you, and I couldn’t go to you because that guy I shot kept firing at us. We had to get out of there.”
He hadn’t shot them. Jeff was still her Jeff. She hadn’t totally lost him to Viper. And yet, he’d left her for the Sinners to find, and it was only luck that the man from the vacant lot survived.
She looked back over her shoulder at the door. Jagger would have sent someone looking for her by now. Time to do what she had come to do. She had to find out if this was really good-bye. “Are you sure you want to stay?”
Something moved in the shadows, and she stilled, staring into the darkness. But it was gone so quickly, she wondered if she’d imagined it. “We could still go together. You could get help for your problem. Be free of Viper. You would never have to face a situation like that again.”
He gave his head a violent shake. “I was in a bad place, Ari. Viper caught me and beat me for not getting all the weapons. I hadn’t had a hit in days. My head was spinning. I couldn’t think. And he just went on and on and on about killing that guy. He wouldn’t stop talking. I just wanted him to stop talking. But it’s all okay now. I’ve almost got the guns. I’ll get my patch. He’ll be proud of me the way he’s proud of you.”
Proud of her? Jeff had to be tweaking. She needed to leave.
“Do you have the passports?”
A pained expression crossed his face. “Well … there’s a slight problem. I did a deal with the guy Bunny recommended, but I didn’t have enough cash to pay for the weapons, so I tried to short him. I figured by the time he found out, me ’n’ the weapons would be safe at the Black Jack clubhouse. But he caught me on the road, and said if I didn’t pay him tonight, he’d kill me. So I gave him the passports to cover some of the shortfall and then I remembered I was meeting you, so I told him you were good for the rest.”
“What?” Her voice rose to a shriek. “I worked two jobs for a year to pay for those passports. An entire year. And you just gave them away?”
Jeff scratched himself over and over as if he had bugs crawling under his skin. “He’s in the car, Ari. If you’ve got enough to cover me, then he’ll give us the passports back. But at the very least, you have to make up the difference. If I don’t get those weapons, Viper will kill me. You don’t want that on your conscience.”
“Where is he?” She opened her purse and pulled out her .22.