Free Wild Child: A Skull Kings MC Novella by Sage L. Morgan Page A

a counter. “Oh, god...my sister! ”
    “Quiet,” I said, lifting a hand. “Give me time to think.”
    “What, do you know something we don’t?” Adrian asked sarcastically.
    “Shh!”
    “Or maybe you have an FBI agent of your very own, like hidden away in your back pocket or something?”
    I brightened. “Actually, I do. Thanks for the idea.” It was a long shot, but it was the best shot we had.
    Gabriel and Adrian only regarded me with confused expressions. I turned around to fish my phone out of my backpack. The missed call from Carmen was still blinking on the screen.

Chapter 11
    ––––––––
    I paced in the back alleyway as I waited for the call to connect. Alone. For some reason, I’d wanted to be by myself when I called Carmen. Then, her voice answered after the fifth ring, and I knew why.
    “Lizzie?”
    “Car!” I couldn’t hold back the relief in my voice.
    “What happened? Where are you?”
    I smiled in spite of myself. I could just see Carmen with her hair pulled up into a messy bun, perhaps hunched over the table in the break room at Buddy’s Sports Bar. One difference I noted was that she didn’t sound perpetually exhausted. Ever since Logan had come into her life, things had been easier for her.
    “I’m in Vegas,” I said. “Don’t ask me why. But I’m in a little bit of trouble.” Instantly, I sensed her going dark.
    “True North?”
    I sighed. “Yeah. And the Laughlin Skull Kings.”
    “What?”
    “Well, one of ‘em is here in the city, at least. And the True North presence is as strong as ever. They took my friend Anna, and they’re asking for me.”
    “You want me to talk to your brother about this?”
    “No. I need Logan.”
    Carmen was quiet for a long time. “You sure?”
    “Yeah.” And then, I explained everything that had happened, everything I knew so far. I told her that Anna had been working with some FBI agent, building a case. That she was in danger. That possibly, I was in danger too.
    “I don’t know, Lizzie. Logan is working in a completely different department...”
    “But he’s still got connections, right?”
    Carmen sighed loudly. It was a familiar sound I’d heard many times ever since her babysitter days, when she babysat me. It meant, This is probably not a good idea, but I’ll let you do it anyway because I love you.
    I smiled. God, I missed her so much. I missed everybody. A tiny seed of a thought formed in the back of my mind. What if leaving Canyon City was a mistake? But I didn’t have time to linger on it.
    “I’ll talk to him and figure something out,” she said.
    “Thank you!”
    Before I got a chance to hang up, Carmen stopped me.
    “You’re being careful, right?”
    “Yes, of course.”
    “Good. Then, take care. Talk to you soon.”
    I felt guilty immediately after hanging up. I was being careful. Kind of. Normally, going with my gut was enough to survive. I’d gone with my gut when I accepted Gabriel’s invitation. He was a Skull King after all. But I’d had no idea that he was one of them. Sure, he was a good kisser and good everything else, but after seeing how he acted with Dash...
    What kind of man was he, exactly? I thought I’d known all along, but it was clear that I didn’t know him at all.
    The door in the alley wall opened, and Adrian poked his head out. “You all done? How’d it go?”
    I took a deep breath, collecting my thoughts. “Pretty good, I think. Now, we just wait to hear back from them.”
    * * *
    A drian left to run errands, leaving me and Gabriel alone in the mess of the tattoo parlor. Needing something to do with my hands, I began trying to clean up. A minute or two later, Gabriel joined me.
    I kept getting text messages from Carmen as I cleaned, asking for more information. When my phone beeped for about the tenth time, Gabriel sighed loudly. I spun around to face him.
    “You got a problem or something?” I asked.
    Gabriel shoved down the torn poster in his hands. “Yeah, I