Freeks(68)
Della Jane frowned. “Your father was really hoping that you would help him at the restaurant tonight. Things have been busy, and you really haven’t been helping him much this past week.”
“If Dad’s short-staffed, Selena can step up,” Gabe suggested, with a bit of irritation in his voice.
“Selena didn’t want to be a part of the business. You’re the one that said you could handle the responsibility,” Della Jane lectured.
Gabe grimaced and shoved his hands in his back pockets as he stared off at some point above her head. “No, I said I might as well have something to do since you keep insisting that I put off NYU for another year,” he corrected her.
Della Jane sighed. “Family comes first.”
“I’m taking tonight off to help Mara,” Gabe replied with a finality that made his mom’s shoulders sag. “The restaurant will be fine without me until Sunday.”
Della Jane took a deep breath and crossed her arms over her chest, deciding on a whole new tactic to get her son to leave with her. “Gabriel, there is an animal on the loose. I just want you to be safe.”
Something passed across Gabe’s expression—something I couldn’t quite read, but it was dark and shadowy, taking all the light from his eyes.
“If it’s safe enough for them, it’s safe enough for me,” he said, meeting his mom’s hard gaze with his own.
Since there didn’t seem to be any room for her to argue, Della Jane only nodded. Her smile returned, though it wasn’t nearly as cheerful as it had been moments ago. She kissed Gabe on the cheek and made him promise that he’d be safe.
As she walked away, she cast a look back at me over her shoulder, and it sent a chill down my spine. I’d never seen another person look at me that way, but it was a look I recognized immediately. It was the same look I’d seen in the abused tiger Mahilā’s eyes whenever she saw someone she didn’t trust—terrified, angry, and eerily primal.
41. the star
“Step right up to the greatest show on earth!” Gabe called out to passersby.
From where I stood outside the Terrifying Curiosities & Oddities of Past & Present museum, I had the perfect vantage point to watch Gabe outside the big tent, trying to drum up business for Gideon’s magician act.
Gabe had taken one of Gideon’s old top hats and placed it carefully on his coiffed hair, and he’d gotten his hands on Luka’s devil sticks. He tossed the baton between two other sticks, bouncing them off one another and pinwheeling it about.
After he did an especially impressive trick—tossing the baton in a spiral up through the air before nimbly catching it with the sticks—the small audience around him began to applaud. Gabe bowed, then immediately began upselling them on a ticket to the show where he promised them that the real magic happened.
Roxie wandered over from the tent where she performed and leaned on the trailer beside me. Most of the time, she’d hang out with me on her breaks between shows. She took a long drag from her cigarette on a break, and when she exhaled, she left a bright red ring of her lipstick on the butt of the cigarette.
Based on the black headband and fingerless lace gloves, I guessed that it was Madonna night. Roxie liked to mix up her dancing act with celebrity theme nights, usually using whatever clothes she had around, but she’d gone so far as to make a silver faux–chain mail costume to go as Aunty Entity from Beyond Thunderdome.
I leaned on the podium, turning my attention back to the spectacle that was Gabe instead of trying to attract my own customers. But, really, there was no need to even try. Gabe would’ve stolen any customers I tried to hook.
“He’s like an old pro,” Roxie commented.
“Yeah, he told me he did some juggling when he was younger, but I had no idea he’d be this good,” I admitted.
“I don’t know if I should be telling you this, but I like him,” Roxie said, and I looked back over my shoulder at her. “Not, like, like him. But he’s a good guy. And he’s quite the showman.”
“Why shouldn’t you tell me that?” I asked.
Roxie shrugged a shoulder. “Because you don’t wanna get attached.”
“And you think your approval will cause me to get too attached?” I teased.
“Hey, a guy isn’t worth his salt unless he’s got Roxie’s Stamp of Approval.” She raised her fist and motioned like she was stamping it down on a paper. “Don’t you forget it.”
“I’ll try not to,” I replied with a laugh.
“So, that Della Jane chick is his mom?” Roxie asked. It would be impossible to keep that connection under wraps when everyone had seen the way Gabe interacted with her today.
My smile fell away and I turned back to watch Gabe. “Yeah, she’s his mom.”
“It’s great that she’s championing our cause or whatever, but…” Roxie trailed off. “It doesn’t all seem strange to you? Her fervor about keeping us?”
“Everything about Caudry is strange. Why should she be any different?” I asked, but I was really just avoiding the same question I’d been asking myself.
“I would just keep my distance from her, if I were you.” Roxie tossed her cigarette down and stomped it out in the gravel. “Anyway, I should get back to work.”