Page 20 of Bitter Spirits

When she gave him nothing more, he prompted, “People or trouble?”

“Probably both,” she said, torn between the knowledge that he needed to hear her story and her reluctance to share the painful details with someone who saw the world in black and white. After shifting uncomfortably in her seat until she was facing him, she fisted her hand in her lap and dove in. “Have you heard of the Idyl Devils?”

Light and shadows danced over his face as he frowned. “Sounds familiar, but I’m not making a connection.”

“About fifteen years ago, they were just one of many neighborhood gangs in the West Valley. Over the years, they morphed from a group of rebellious teens with a bent for petty crimes to questionable businessmen managing sophisticated criminal enterprises.”

“By ‘sophisticated,’ you mean…?”

“Extensive distribution channels for designer drugs.” She watched the muscle in his jaw jump. “In the last few years, there have even been rumors of arms dealing and human trafficking.”

“Any truth to those?”

“Not that I know of, but that doesn’t mean much.”

“So the Den is what? A front for one of these businesses?”

She rolled her shoulders. “My guess? At least one business, if not more.”

“And the cops haven’t come down on this group why?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” But she had some ideas. Knowing Angel and how far his sticky hands could reach, he had an in with the department. “What I do know is that the current head of Idyl Devils is using the Den to reel in new recruits to expand their business.”

“And you think Leo was one of them?”

She couldn’t shake the scattered snapshots dominating Leo’s fear-soaked flashbacks. “Yes, and I think he met Isaiah at one of the Den’s incarnations.”

“But you’re not sure.”

“No,” she admitted. “Because Leo’s memories were pretty ripped up, and I could be filling the blanks in with the wrong information.”

He took a moment. “You said the location changes?”

“It does.”

“But not always?”

“Certain sites are repeats.”

“Like tonight?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“But you didn’t know that when we were talking to Leo, right?”

“What?”

“It wasn’t until after you started questioning Leo that something tripped for you, right?” Locke didn’t wait for her answer. “Which means it wasn’t the location you recognized, was it?”

She swallowed. “No, it wasn’t the location.”

Quiet stretched between them. She kept her attention on the blur of lights as Locke continued down the highway. She tried not to feel or think, but the tension inside her coiled tighter and tighter with each passing moment.

Finally, he broke the silence. “You said this gang is known for dealing.”

There was nothing in his voice to give away what he was thinking, so she responded in kind. “That’s what I’ve heard.”

“So it’s likely Leo picked up the pills from someone there,” he said, almost to himself.