Page 77 of Help Me Remember

“From what little I remember, you were pretty fond of screaming out Riley, so let’s stick with that,” I told him.

The good humor on Gabriel’s face flickered. “Watch yourself.”

“What’s the matter? Don’t want people to know? Yeah, I’m sure you don’t.”

“Dylan?” Eric called in confusion. “You know him?”

“I remember a little. Like he’s the head honcho’s son, and it’s a little hazy, but he was also in line to hit the whole ‘captain’ rank,” I said, looking at Gabriel in his expensive shirt and slacks. “Just like I was, apparently. Oh, and we were sleeping together, but we don’t talk about that. We might be in the twenty-first century, but a lot of these crime families aren’t so progressive when it comes to fucking around with other men.”

“Watch your mouth, Riley, or death will be the nicest thing I give to your little boy toy,” Gabriel warned in a voice brittle as ice.

“Fine,” I grunted. “Then tell me what you want. Maybe we can get this over with before it gets too dramatic.”

“You never did like to let me have fun,” Gabriel said with a shake of his head.

If the memories that had just come back to me were any indication, I’d let him have plenty of fun. I couldn’t precisely remember why I slept with him in the first place, let alone multiple times, but I remembered I hated it. I had gained something from the relationship, though I couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

“Gabriel, not to cut your little reunion short, but we’ll need to get moving. That’s three different gunshots,” Patterson warned, still holding Eric tightly.

Gabriel waved him off. “Tragically, all the scared people will have to wait. Crime is so high today they aren’t going to be able to send anyone out for a while. More than enough time to take care of things.”

“Jesus Christ, how many high-ranking cops are bought in this city?” Eric grunted.

“Now is not the time,” I told him, trying to decide if the delayed cops would work in our favor or spell greater trouble. If I could just remember what sort of person Gabriel was, I could probably figure out if I wanted him relaxed and cocky or irritated and stressed.

“Plus, I want to have a good long look at the dead man who came back, raised from the dead and reborn as…someone else,” Gabriel said, stepping closer. He stopped to look at the dead goon at his feet and then at the bleeding one and Patterson. “Well, maybe not a completely different person. You were always nasty in a fight.”

I narrowed my eyes as something fell into place. Not a memory, but just the simple act of putting together logical pieces. “You’re the one who tried to kill me…in that building.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “It was supposed to look like a deal that went wrong. You get offed, my men and I survive, you’re out of the picture, and I don’t have to deal with you constantly being a pain in my ass.”

“How does that work?” I asked, racing to put all this new information into slots where it belonged. “We were both nearly the same rank.”

“And anyone with a brain knows that every leader needs captains but also a trusty right hand. Everyone thought it was going to be you…including me,” Gabriel said, and beneath the veneer of lighthearted playfulness, I saw a spark of something ugly. “Which…is annoying. My father is a hard man to impress, I would know after all, and here you come, managing in a few short years to impress him more than I did in my entire life.”

“Right, so you tried to kill me because you have daddy issues,” I summarized, almost smiling when I heard Eric snort. It was such an absurd reaction on his part, I was beginning to wonder if he hadn’t started to lose his mind.

“You might not remember, but this is a cutthroat kind of life we lead,” Gabriel said with a shrug. “If you were stupid enough to trust me and get killed over it, then that’s just how life goes sometimes.”

“Except for the part where that didn’t happen,” I said slowly, making sense of things.

Everything that had happened, from waking up without a memory of who I was to the constant attempts on my life, had all been because of this man’s ambition. He had tried to kill me when my guard was down and only learned a few days later that he’d failed. The only reason that had happened was because I had put myself on Los Muertos’ radar without knowing what I was doing.

“And when you found out I was alive, you went into panicked cleanup duty,” I said with a chuckle. “You didn’t know that I didn’t know anything, so you were trying to put me down before…before I could get my revenge or, worse, tell your father what you tried to do behind his back.”

“He wouldn’t have been pleased if he’d heard,” Gabriel said in a tone I would have expected from someone who’d broken their mother’s vase.

“Only because you would have failed,” I said, the thought appearing in my head as I spoke it.

“Well, if you’re going to do something, even something you shouldn’t do, do it right first time,” Gabriel said, standing about ten feet from me, clasping his hands before him. “And if you don’t get it right the first time, don’t fuck it up a second time.”

“Considering how things have been going for you, I guess the jury’s still out on whether or not you’ve fucked things up a second time,” I said, realizing that other than Gabriel, no one else had moved.

It almost made me miss the memories I lacked. There was something charged in the air as the two of us faced each other down. The problem was he had full use of his faculties, and I was at a complete disadvantage.

“It’s a shame,” Gabriel said with a sigh. “When I heard you were still alive, part of me hoped to have a chance to meet you face-to-face. There was always a little twinge of regret that I never got the chance to really face you. How did you survive, by the way?”

I tightened my jaw, looking around once more, this time to see if there was something I might use to my advantage. I’d never been more glad I was so good at keeping my emotions in check than the moment my eyes fell on the spot where Ana’s body lay. Except there was no body, not even a bloodstain, only what looked like small pieces of something that glittered in the sunlight.

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