Challenging Gabriel (Knight Security 2)

by Carole Mortimer

  She stood abruptly. “I shouldn’t have involved any of you in this. It’s too dangerous. I-I can’t be responsible for anyone else being hurt or…or killed.”

  Gabriel flicked a glance in his brother’s direction. “Care to give us some privacy, Ash?”

  “No problem.” Asher rose to his feet. “I’m your third bodyguard for today, so I’ll be in your study looking for your porn magazines until it’s time to leave.”

  “Good luck with that,” Gabriel scoffed.

  His brother sighed his disappointment. “I’m guessing you don’t keep them in there after all.”

  “I don’t keep them anywhere. Now bugger off and give Angel and me some time to talk. Alone,” he added pointedly.

  “Yes, sir.” Ash gave him a mock salute before leaving.

  “Is he always like that?”

  Gabriel still had a slight smile on his lips when he turned back to Angel. “Irreverent and crude?” He nodded in answer to his own question. “Ask his wife, Lissa, sometime about the night the two of them met. She threw a glass of champagne in his face for talking to her so graphically,” he supplied at Angel’s questioning look.

  Her brows rose. “But she married him anyway?”

  “Over a year later, so he had to work for it.”

  Angel avoided meeting his gaze. “I meant what I said, Gabriel. I shouldn’t have involved you or your family in this. I’ll never forgive myself if anything happens to any of you.”

  Gabriel could see by the dark circles under those luminous gray eyes and the pallor of her face that she had probably spent the rest of the night thinking rather than sleeping. Much as he had spent the rest of the night drinking. Not for the same reasons, though. Angel was worried about everyone but herself. Gabriel had spent the same hours fighting the demon on his shoulder urging him to go to her bedroom and make love to her.

  None of that agonizing showed in his relaxed demeanor as he leaned back against one of the kitchen units. “So what are you going to do? Give Sinclair the evidence you have and meekly go back to being his wife as if none of this had ever happened? How long do you think you would survive?” he added harshly as her guilty blush answered that question. “A week, a month, before he decides it’s too much of a risk to allow wife number three to continue living, knowing what you do about him? To cut his losses and arrange for you to have a convenient accident? And what about Daniel, Angel? If you think I’m leaving my son with that bastard a moment longer than absolutely necessary, then you don’t know me at all.”

  Angel didn’t know this cool stranger in his dark tailored suits, his silk shirts and ties, and his handmade black Italian leather shoes. A man of wealth and style, so unlike the warrior and renegade she had known eight years ago, or the demanding savage who had almost made love to her last night.

  “They’re all one and the same man, Angel,” he admitted as he seemed to guess her thoughts. “Businessman. Soldier. Lover. All of them capable of killing if they have to.”

  She moistened her dry lips with the tip of her tongue. “And have you…had to…often?”

  “Enough.” His tone warned her against questioning him further on the subject. “Go and get changed, Angel. The sooner we get that information to our tech guy, the sooner he’ll have the answers we need to proceed.”

  “How are we going to do that?”

  “Exactly how Ethan suggested I should.”

  Angel thought back to their previous conversation regarding his brother’s comments, her eyes widening as she recalled Ethan’s. “You can’t just telephone Clive and ask him to return Daniel!”

  “Why can’t I?”

  “Because—because—” The reasons were so numerous, Angel didn’t know where to start.

  Gabriel shrugged. “Sinclair has something I want, and once we’ve been to the bank I’ll have something he wants. As far as I’m concerned, that means we have equal bargaining chips.”

  “Not once he realizes you’re Daniel’s father!” Angel felt panicked at the mere idea of Gabriel attempting to negotiate with Clive. Not that she thought for a moment Gabriel would emerge the loser but because she now knew Clive didn’t play by any rules but his own. Twisted, disgusting rules that could result in Gabriel ending up dead. Her heart clenched just thinking of that possibility.

  His eyes glowed deeply green. “The similarity is that obvious?”

  “Oh yes.” Clive had never asked her for the name of Daniel’s real father, and Angel had never offered it, but he would only have to look at Gabriel to know exactly what his relationship was to Daniel. “The two brothers of yours I’ve seen would also be recognizable as being related to Daniel.”

  “So would Ethan.” Gabriel shrugged. “I’d rather do it myself, but Jonas has already offered to do any face-to-face negotiating.”

  She shot him a worried glance. “I doubt your sister would like Jonas being so deeply involved.”

  “Lily knew exactly who and what she was marrying when she fell in love with Jonas. He’s part Apache Indian, and he has the stealth to go with it, and he likes what he does,” Gabriel explained at Angel’s questioning look. “Besides, I’ve already spoken to Lily. She’s fine with it.”

  No doubt that one-for-all-and-all-for-one attitude of the Knight family. “You didn’t spend all your night drinking whisky…”

  “Obviously not. Besides”—a smile curved his lips—“Lily was up feeding Amelia anyway.” His smile faded. “Go and change, Angel. It’s the last time I’m going to ask before I throw you over my shoulder again and carry you to your bedroom,” he warned in a hard tone as she still didn’t move. “I can’t guarantee, once we get there, that dressing you will be the first thing on my mind. Unless that’s what you want?” He eyed her mockingly.

  “In your dreams,” Angel challenged as she turned to leave, bright wings of color in her cheeks at the thought of what would be the first thing on his mind.

  His eyes narrowed. “I would have to sleep to dream, and that’s something I’m not going to do until we have Daniel back where he belongs.”

  Angel could tell that he meant every word.

  Making her wonder, and not for the first time, exactly what sort of soldier Gabriel had been.

  And still was at the heart of him?

  Chapter 5

  “Why do I feel as if everyone is watching us?” Angel spoke to Gabriel out of the side of her mouth as the two were shown into the private room where she was going to open her safe deposit box.

  “Watching you,” he corrected. “Probably because they are. You’re easily the most beautiful and sexy woman they’ll be seeing in their stodgy bank today.”

  She felt the color warm her cheeks. Not because Gabriel had complimented the way she looked in a fitted navy knee-length dress and matching shoes and handbag, her hair washed and blow-dried in its wispy style, but because she had never thought about herself in that way. As Clive’s wife she had always been the perfect corporate wife, the well-dressed hostess, the gracious female partner on Clive’s arm socially. Nor did she feel particularly beautiful or sexy today.

  Besides, she was pretty sure that every pair of female eyes in the building was fixated on Gabriel. He really was impressively handsome at six feet five inches tall and dressed in his tailored suit and silk shirt and tie.

  She shook her head, silky wisps of hair caressing her bare throat. “I hate what’s in there.” She nodded at the unlocked box she hadn’t actually opened yet.

  “You hate what those contents represent, which is why you have to concentrate on what they will give you in return.”

  “Daniel and Lena.”

  “Yes.”

  She straightened her shoulders and approached the safe deposit box before lifting the lid, half expecting Clive’s sins to burst out, as in the story of Pandora’s box. Instead, it contained only the small, innocuous padded envelope in which she had placed the four memory sticks.

  “Word of advice if you ever have to do something like this again,” Gabriel said
as he watched her put the padded envelope into her shoulder bag. “It’s an amateur’s mistake to put all your bargaining chips in the same location. I’ll be separating them as soon as we join up with my brothers.”

  Angel flushed at the rebuke. At the time, she had just wanted the evidence out of her possession, felt tainted just knowing what was on there. Except she hadn’t, not completely, until Gabriel had told her the truth last night. It still made her feel ill to contemplate how many deaths Clive’s illegal arms dealing was responsible for.

  “What now?” she prompted nervously as they made their way back to the doors exiting the bank. Even Gabriel’s reassuring hand on her arm and the presence of Asher and the other two bodyguards weren’t enough to take away that hunted feeling she’d had ever since they left Gabriel’s apartment earlier.

  “Now we give one copy to my tech guy and the others to each of my three brothers—it’s better if you and I don’t have a copy on us,” he explained as she glanced at him. “We have no idea yet what—Fuck!”

  “Gabriel?” Angel gasped. His fingers tightened about her arm before he pushed her roughly to the ground and threw his heavy body over her, rolling them both behind the protection of a parked car. “What—”

  “Someone just shot at us.” Gabriel snarled the warning in Angel’s ear.

  “Are you sure?” Angel was having trouble breathing beneath his heavy weight, and they were attracting a considerable amount of attention where they were. Considerable? People were openly gawking at their strange behavior.

  “Of course I’m— Where the fuck are Asher and my men?” Gabriel’s narrowed gaze searched the crowded sidewalk as the pedestrians gave them a wide berth.

  He had barely registered the whistling sound of a bullet before reacting instinctively, throwing Angel to the floor and protecting her with his own body. Which meant he was probably squashing her. Well, he couldn’t help that. He wasn’t moving until he knew a second bullet wasn’t coming their way.

  “The bullet was fired from the top of a building across the street.” A breathless Ash arrived and crouched down beside them. “Ian has gone to investigate, but the shooter will probably be long gone by the time he gets up there.”

  “Let’s get Angel out of here for now.” Gabriel’s heart was still beating in double time from the near miss they’d just had.

  Ash nodded. “Zander is bringing the car round now.”

  Angel looked at them both. “Shouldn’t we call the police—”

  “We’re getting you out of here now,” Gabriel told her firmly. “I’ll deal with any fallout from the police later.”

  “But—”

  “Now is not the time to be a concerned citizen, Angel,” he snapped. “Now get in the damn car,” he barked as she was surrounded by the two Knight brothers before being bundled into the back of a black SUV. Gabriel climbed in beside the driver, leaving Ash standing on the pavement as the vehicle sped off into traffic.

  Someone had actually shot at them? At her? In the street, in broad daylight?

  Unbelievable.

  Like something out of one of those thrillers her father used to so enjoy reading.

  She hadn’t been aware of the shot at all, with the noise of the traffic and people milling around them. Not that she doubted Gabriel for a moment. He had far more experience with this sort of thing than she did, and if he said someone had shot at them, then she believed him. Besides, Ash agreed with him. As did Zander, the man driving the SUV.

  Several minutes of speeding through the streets later, and her hands were still shaking, badly, but at least her heart had stopped racing. She distracted herself further by glancing curiously at the man sitting behind the wheel.

  Gabriel was big, but this man was huge. His shoulders were so wide, he must have trouble getting through doorways without turning sideways, all the defined muscles, across those shoulders and his arms, visible beneath the short sleeves of his black T-shirt. He had overlong, messy dark blond hair, chopped untidily, as if he cut it himself when it became too long rather than visit a barber. She couldn’t see all of his face from this angle, but what she could see looked chiseled and hard as he stared alertly at the road and traffic ahead.

  “Angel, meet Zander. Zander, this is Angel,” Gabriel introduced dryly, obviously having noticed her curious glance in the other man’s direction.

  “Zander,” Angel acknowledged.

  He nodded briefly in acknowledgment but kept his attention on driving through the heavy traffic.

  “Zander is a man of few words.” Gabriel grinned, causing the other man to scowl.

  “And I can still beat you to a pulp if I have to, Major,” Zander rumbled.

  “That’s why I prefer having you on my side,” Gabriel mused.

  “Always.” Zander nodded.

  Major? Gabriel hadn’t only been in the army, he’d been an officer? Something else Angel didn’t know about him. They really should have spent more time talking to each other eight years ago!

  Their desire for each other had just been so all-consuming, there had never seemed to be the time to actually talk to each other. Maybe if they had, Gabriel might have felt more inclined to confide in her as to where he was actually going and why on that last mission? Maybe. But it really was too late for maybes or what-ifs for them. Their past was, as Gabriel had already stated, history.

  “Okay now?”

  She forced herself to focus on Gabriel as he half turned in his seat to look at her. The concern in his gaze caused her to realize his lighthearted bantering with Zander—even if it was mainly one-sided—had been meant as a diversion. To soothe her nerves after what had happened.

  As if that was going to happen any time soon. Gabriel might be used to being shot at on a daily basis but she certainly wasn’t. “Do you think Clive sent someone to shoot me?”

  “Unless you know of anyone else who wants you dead?”

  “Gabe!” Zander rebuked quietly after giving Angel’s pale face a glance in the rearview mirror.

  He sighed. “Sorry. We won’t know for certain until Ian reports in after checking out the roof. I was more interested in getting you away from there than in who was responsible.”

  There could be no doubt, really, could there? Clive obviously wanted her dead. Less messy for him. No divorce. No dispute over custody of Daniel. No— “I still have the evidence against him…”

  Gabriel shrugged. “I’m guessing the plan was for the shooter to take us both out and for his accomplice to pick up the envelope in the mayhem that would have ensued, before going merrily on his way.”

  Her eyes widened. “There was someone else involved? Down on the street with us?” Somehow, that seemed even worse than a shooter on one of the London rooftops.

  “That’s how I would have arranged it, yes.” Gabriel nodded.

  How he would have arranged it?

  “Ash is looking for him now,” he added.

  God, this really was like some bad gangster movie. Except it was all too real, and Angel appeared to be the rabbit caught in the crosshairs. Or, possibly, as far as Clive was concerned, the rebellious ex-wife needing a short, sharp lesson as to who was in control of this situation.

  He obviously hadn’t taken into consideration the experience and skills of Gabriel and his men when he thought of that plan.

  “Where are we going?” They didn’t appear to be going in the direction of Gabriel’s apartment, as they had originally planned to do after visiting the bank.

  Gabriel gave her a brief glance. “Sinclair’s men are in disarray at the moment. The shooter is running; his accomplice is hoping to make himself invisible, part of the shopping crowd. It gives the two of us a chance to hide out somewhere else until the jet is ready to take off, and hopefully avoid detection until we’re well on our way to Majorca.”

  “But where are we going?”

  “My place,” Zander answered her gruffly.

  “Why Zander’s place?” Angel eyed the two men curiously.

 
; “Because he has enough security there to stop a small army,” Gabriel answered with satisfaction.

  “You do?” She looked at the bigger man.

  He shifted uncomfortably. “I have expensive equipment installed in there.”

  “He’s also slightly paranoid,” Gabriel taunted.

  The other man growled. “You’ve been grateful enough for that in the past.”

  “I’m grateful for it now too.”

  “It isn’t much, but it’s home,” Zander rumbled as he let them into his apartment fifteen minutes later.

  Which wasn’t actually an apartment at all but a converted loft space over what had once been an industrial building on the outskirts of London. Much as Angel looked, she couldn’t see any of the security the two men had talked about, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

  She had never seen or been anywhere like Zander’s loft conversion before.

  From the outside, it looked like an abandoned industrial building, slightly derelict and more in need of pulling down than for living in. Inside, it was totally different. It was completely open plan, apart from the bathroom and some stairs leading up into the attic space. The wooden floors were of a dark oak, the furnishings surprisingly all warm tones: burnished copper, greens, browns, with faint touches of gold.

  Angel loved it at first sight. “It’s beautiful,” she complimented the huge hulk of a man who lived here.

  Once he unfolded that bulk from behind the wheel of the SUV, Angel was able to see that he was probably a couple of years younger than Gabriel, but an inch or so taller. Tattoos were visible on his arms, and he had incredible muscle definition all over his body. Despite his size, the tattoos, and those muscles, Zander had warm blue eyes in his ruggedly handsome face.

  He seemed uncomfortable at her compliment. “Make yourself at home,” he invited. “If you could give me one of the memory sticks?” His palm was the size of a dinner plate as he held out his hand.

  “What’s up there?” Angel prompted Gabriel a few seconds later as Zander disappeared up into the attic space, memory stick in hand.