Gifted, A Donovan Circus Novel (22 page)

“Probably because I would; after
he went after you last night, I’d love to see the look on his face if he saw us
together now.”

I scowled at him as I chewed.
“It was only a kiss. He didn’t go after me.”

“Sure he did. He wants to stake
a claim on you before anyone else can try.”

“Did you read his emotions or
something?”

“I don’t have to. It’s obvious
to everyone. I guarantee he wanted to make a move before Nikolas could.”

“Nikolas?” I scoffed. “That’s
ridiculous.”

“How blind are you exactly?” He
chuckled through his sandwich. “Nikolas is the best Firestarter
here—well, he was anyway, before you showed up. He’s also an alpha, which
means he has no qualms going after what he wants.”

“He and Keegan are best friends.
If Keegan’s shown interest in me, and he has, Nikolas will back off. Besides,
Nikolas doesn’t strike me as the relationship type.” I wolfed down my sandwich
and started in on my chips.

“Doesn’t matter. He’d go after
you because he wants you, to prove a point. You’re cute and all, but it’s
mostly for his own ego. He might use and lose you, but you’d be hands off to
Keegan after that fact. Why do you think he sat next to you at the bar that
night instead of Keegan? He was trying to stake his place out next to you.”

Ignoring that Gabriel had
branded me the dreaded “c” word on my appearance, I wrinkled my nose at him. I
was not a fan of man information if Gabriel spoke the truth.

“He didn’t hit on me at the bar
or ever for that matter.”

“He’ll try and sneak his way in
somehow. The best part about being alpha is that Keegan is probably used to it;
he’ll accept that his best friend wants the girl and back down.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway. I
would have to return his advances and I’m not interested,” I argued. “Nikolas
is nice and all, but he’s not really my type. I like brunettes anyhow and
Keegan is way more my speed.”

“Well, I’m not sure what that
says about you. And I am not dying my hair. You’ll have to like blondes
eventually.” He threw me a wink.

“Ugh, dream on. Why are we even
discussing this? Tell me what you know about our little…mission.” I dusted
crumbs off my shirt and jeans.

“I don’t know how reliable this
information is,” Gabriel warned me.

“At this point all of it is
useful. Even the gossip—there’s always a grain of truth where it
started.”

“How very thought-provoking of
you.”

I rolled my eyes. “So what did
you hear?”

“Two things: like I said, this
may be inaccurate, but I overheard some of the workers earlier today. They
don’t think there’s any way it could be you. Turns out Marty’s been acting
squirrelly long before we got here.”

“Did they happen to say how?”

“Jumpy, always keeping an eye
over his shoulder. The workers—well, Wilky told another guy that Marty
seemed overly concerned about strangers on the grounds outside of show times
and especially about accidents on grounds.”

“What kind of accidents?”

“I guess all of ‘em. Said Marty
tried to be first on scene to check it out, get anyone help. No one was
seriously hurt, though none of the incidents were like your little fire show
the other night.”

I ignored that dig. “Why would
he do that unless he suspected something bad would happen? That someone could
get really hurt?”

Gabriel shrugged, popped a chip
into his mouth instead.

“This means he probably knew his
killer. That he knew someone might get killed!”

He put a hand up and swallowed.
“Hold up there, detective. I think that’s a big assumption to make based on
talk of him being a nice guy who helped out with everything. There’s no proof.
This is talk that I overheard, I might add, so we’re not even supposed to know
this. You can’t repeat this, especially to Sheffield.”

“Why not? This is stuff he needs
to know.”

“I really doubt there’s anything
that goes on here Sheffield doesn’t already know. Besides, he seemed adamant
about none of us searching for Marty’s killer.”

“He did tell me last night
something along the lines of not looking for trouble.”

“You’re still poking around and
got me undercover after Sheffield specifically asked you not to?” He cocked an
eyebrow.

“Like you’ve never broken the
rules,” I grumbled. I pushed my paper plate away, cracked my knuckles before
crossing my arms.

“Nah.” He grinned at me. “Just
surprised
you’re
breaking them, to be
honest.”

“Well, when my reputation and
possibly my life are involved, I’ll do whatever I can.”

“Don’t get your panties in a
bunch.”

“My panties are just fine,” I
responded before I could stop myself. He smirked and I quickly plowed through.
“I’m not this giant goody two shoes that you think I am.”

Gabriel pushed his own plate
away, lit a cigarette and leaned against the tree behind him. “I sense a
monologue of your life story or an argument of some sort. So I’m gonna smoke.”

“You know what, never mind.
There was no monologue, but even if there were, I wouldn’t waste my time or
energy explaining myself to you. I was only trying to say that I’m not some
little angel who refuses to break rules. I haven’t had many opportunities to do
so.”

“And here I thought that fight
against the townies was your first.”

“Okay, it was.”

“Nooo.” He blew a few smoke
rings.

“What would you like me to say?”

“Nothing, geez. You need to
lighten up, I’m only teasing you. You know, joking around? You don’t always
have to be so defensive.”

“Gabriel, am I going to be in
debt to you forever?”

“For what?” He looked down at
his cigarette; leafy branches overhead created shadows that masked his face. I
couldn’t read his expression.

“You know.” I was tired of his
cavalier attitude; I wanted to know how long he planned to hang his life-saving
rescue over my head.

“For saving your life? For
keeping that guy from stealing your virtue?”

“Oh please, my virtue—” I
started in annoyance, but he talked over me.

“I get it. You’re upset you owe
someone. You never ask for help and now you feel like I’m gonna milk this until
I need something. Am I wrong?”

I chose instead to scowl at the
ground.

“Maybe I don’t need anything.
Did you ever think that perhaps I could do something nice for others?”

I opened and closed my mouth a
couple times. “Do you?”

“Oh, god no, absolutely not! I
don’t need anything from you right now,” he said, laughing slightly. “But I had
you going there for a minute, didn’t I?”

“You are exactly why I act the
way I do!” I gave him a light punch in the leg.

“It’ll be good for you to owe
me. ”

“Not sure how you figure,” I
muttered.

“I don’t typically condone it
myself, but every once in a while it’s okay to ask for help.”

“You ask for help like, what,
every six years?”

“Give or take. I guess it’s
coming up on that time again.” He gave me a sly smile.

“It depends on the favor you’re
asking, you know,” I reminded him. “You can’t guilt me into sleeping with you
because you kept my head from being bashed in.”

“First of all, I don’t need to
blackmail anyone to sleep with me.” He rolled his eyes. “And second, that’s
past even what I would do. I want her to enjoy it, not lie there and sulk.” He
said that last part with a very pointed look at my crossed arms and scowl.

“Great, I’m glad we’re clear on
that,” I said. “But I didn’t hope you would save my life just so I could have
sex with you.”

“Pity.”

“I don’t know why you think you
can dole out that advice of asking for help.”

“You’re probably right; I’ve
taken advantage of a lot of people. But as a direct result of my sins, I had to
sit through a very intense rehab to stand in front of you today.”

“You sat through rehab? Is that
a euphemism for something?” I didn’t know if he was trying to fool me again.

“I’m dead serious, actually. I
spent a year in rehab controlling my emotions, understanding others’ tantrums
and its effects on me, and as you can guess, no longer taking advantage of
people. But I had to fall a long way to get there. I hurt many souls.”

I tried to prevent gaping at
him. He looked at me and turned his face away from me. “I don’t talk about that
very much, so if you could just keep that to yourself, please.”

His story
sounded
real. Just like the mental ward where Brooklyn’s mother
stayed, Rehabilitation was a very serious situation. My father warned me of
people who used their gifts to hurt others. I knew lots of stories of those in
show business who caused chaos and destruction. Some got power hungry and
greedy, which naturally caused accidents, especially with the public.
Firestarters had a bad rap, but we weren’t always the worst ones there, either.

I didn’t know what to say. He
got quiet and ran a hand through his hair, looking anywhere but at me. I
couldn’t believe I actually made him uncomfortable; I’d almost be pleased were
it not for the discussion topic.

“Like I said. It’ll be good for
you to owe me,” he muttered.

“Well, use it wisely because
it’s only good once.”

We both sat there for a moment
in awkward silence. I changed the subject.

“So you think Marty had
something to be afraid of?”

“Good question.”

I scooted around to lean against
the tree. He and I were side by side now. I stretched my legs out and crossed
them at the ankles.

“I didn’t really know him,”
Gabriel said. “Like I told you, it was small talk. I do know he was a very good
friend of Sheffield’s. Sort of like a right hand man—he’d go talk to
members for Sheffield or run errands outside the lot.”

He pulled out his cigarettes and
offered me one. I hesitated, and then took one. Why the hell not. This whole
interaction seemed to validate one. He smiled, surprised, but took one for
himself and lit it. He offered me his lighter and I shrugged. I held out my
palm to produce a small flame.

“Why bother with lighters when
you are one?” I asked.

He chuckled and got comfortable
against the tree. I inhaled deeply. In addition to my occasional secret
training, I’d also snuck a smoke or two. I’d missed having my occasional vice.
Neither of us spoke, and it was nice for a moment, until:

“You didn’t ask what the second
part was of my information. I imagine the two pieces are closely related,” he
said.

“I got a little distracted.
What’s the second part?”

“Marty isn’t the first gifted to
be taken and killed.”

“What? Who else? Who took them?”

He shrugged. “There are always
rumors. They’re saying Marty was taken from the grounds somehow, the first one
of our group. The ones before that disappeared were in different areas, with
other groups or living on their own.”

“Do you think Sheffield knows?
Or that he can protect us from whoever it is?” I couldn’t begin to imagine who
would have enough power to take gifted for their own cruel amusement.

“Yes, I think Sheffield knows
much more than he lets on. Actually, I’ve wondered, how long have you known
him?” Gabriel asked.

“Pretty much my whole life. He
and my dad were always close, though I was only a kid so I didn’t really hang
out much with them. When my dad retired, Sheffield would visit maybe once a
year. Dad would go to him instead to consult and train the other Firestarters.
Of course, I hadn’t seen him after Dad’s funeral up until I came here.”

“Hunh. Did your dad train
Nikolas or Keegan?”

“I did ask them that my first
night here.” I inhaled another breath of nicotine. “They said they had barely
even met him though, much less trained with him. That was kinda strange.”

“What do you know about
Sheffield?”

“Why do you ask?”

He sighed. “C’mon, tell me.”

“I don’t know. He’s probably in
his late fifties by now, but he sure looks good for his age. My dad always
spoke highly of him and how good he was with other gifted. He thought Sheffield
was really smart to be able to run this place so well. I think Sheffield was
his best friend.”

“But your dad never said
anything about Sheffield’s gift?”

“No. It was weird—once I
asked Dad if Sheffield was gifted and he got this look on his face. He said
that Sheffield had a gift, but it wasn’t his secret to tell. Then he suddenly
had something to do and wandered off. The other night when I asked Delia, she
said no one here knows, either. I never thought about it much before, but it’s
strange, right?”

Gabriel grunted and got a
faraway look on his face. For a moment, I wasn’t sure he was even on this
planet.

“Tell me what information you’re
looking for,” I said.

“I don’t know much of anything,
honest,” he admitted. “I wanted to see if you’d tell me anything that would
make sense or give me insight, whatever.”

“Make sense out of what?”

“Like you said, no one knows
what his gift is and I don’t think he’s human. You just confirmed it—even
though your dad didn’t say what it was, he probably wouldn’t lie to you about
Sheffield being gifted, at least. But isn’t that weird—he’s run this show
for so long and yet no one else could confirm that he’s gifted? I think that’s
bizarre. Mostly, I think he’s like circus mafia.”

I carefully blew a smoke circle
that looked like a wrinkly half moon; I was never very good at those. I
laughed; surely he was joking? But when I looked up at Gabriel, I saw he was
serious.

“What the hell is circus mafia?”

“It’s not a real thing. It’s my
nickname for it,” he said. He exhaled one last breath of smoke before stumping
his cigarette on the tree root. I took another drag off mine.

“Lucy, you know there are people
out there who aren’t as kind as you when it comes to their gift. Some of us are
cruel just because we can be.” He paused and I didn’t miss his own inclusion. I
kept my poker face and looked at him. Where was this headed?