Now she had to eat crow and accept Gabriel’s offer to stay at the hotel. She didn’t have a choice in the matter. She wasn’t stupid enough to insist on staying here with a broken window and busted alarm system allowing easy entry into her house. She shuddered and closed her eyes.
She had to face the facts. Something was going on, she was somehow involved, and she needed answers. And after her intruder’s warning, there was no longer any doubt in her mind that Gabriel could offer some insight.
She held off asking for it just then, selfishly afraid of what the truth might mean. Was it business related? Something about her job? Or was it personal?
At least one thing she was certain of, even though he’d lied to her, Gabriel wasn’t out to physically harm her. And while his deception still stung, it was getting harder and harder to hold a grudge when he was here seeing to her safety. Making it so she didn’t feel so damn alone in the world.
“Eva. You’ll come to the hotel with me because it’s the safest place for you. You see that, right?”
She raised her head from where she’d rested it on her folded forearms. “Yeah. Okay.”
“There just isn’t—What?”
She hid a smile. “I said okay. I’m not an idiot. And I’m not going to endanger myself by being stubborn. Since Nika isn’t picking up, and I’m certainly not going to panic my mom’s friends by calling them and telling them about this. I could always get a room at another hotel, but I’d just stay up all night, shitting my pants over every sound. So…you’re it.” She dragged herself to her tender feet and laughed in a tight burst. “God, that’s pathetic, isn’t it?”
Both men stood, Gabriel coming to her while Quan went to the cabinet under the sink to take out the dustpan before leaving the room. Sweet guy.
“If we were in New York, would you have more options?” Gabriel asked as he skimmed his thumb over her mildly throbbing cheekbone.
She nodded. “Sure. I’d call Caleb. If for some reason he wasn’t around, I’d call one of my friends from school.”
“Then you know it’s all in the circumstances. You’ve been back in Seattle for days, after being gone years. It isn’t surprising your ties here have weakened.” His voice was careful and softer than she’d ever heard it, and needing that, she put up no fight whatsoever when he drew her against his wide chest and slowly rubbed her back. “Will you tell me what happened earlier?”
“Can we leave? I want to get out of here. I’ll tell you at the hotel, okay? Where I want my own room, by the way,” she added, taking one more weak stab at being independent. She felt the loss when she regretfully pulled out of his comforting embrace.
“You’ll sleep in my bed.”
Okay!
She cringed. “Listen—”
He came down, grasping her chin and invading her personal space as if it were an extension of his own. “No. You listen to me. I’ve allowed you more concessions than I’ve ever allowed another. You’ve refused my offer of help, talked back to me like no one has since I was a fuckin’ teenager, walked out on me, interrupted me too many times to count. All of that ends now. You’re gonna do as I say until this shit is over. And you’ll do it from my fuckin’ suite where I can guarantee your safety. You understand me?”
He really was from Queens, she thought as she looked into his blazing eyes and felt the scorch of them on her skin. She tenderly cupped his face and did what she’d been dying to do all day. She kissed the man who’d just made her feel safe and protected in a way no one had since her mom was alive.
“Thank you,” she whispered against his lips. “For caring enough to be concerned about me. I’m not sure how partial I am to your methods, but it’s still really nice to have again.”
TWELVE
Gabriel’s ringing cell had Eva drawing away from him with an understanding smile. He released her with an obvious reluctance she found way too flattering.
“I’ll go up and pack a bag while you get that.”
He snagged her wrist, holding her in place while shaking his head. “It’s already done.” Before she could do anything more than frown, he plucked his phone from his pocket and answered with a rude, “Yeah.”
Weird. He was using a Blackberry. She was sure he’d had an iPhone at the office today.
Shrugging it off because she wasn’t positive, and who really cared, she went back to that bag she didn’t need to pack. Had he done it for her? If so, he’d been in her room. Gone through her things.
The intimacy of that made her belly tighten.
“Goddamn. Nice fuckin’ work.”
She looked up at the rare praise someone had just received from their boss.
Gabriel’s satisfied look had a dark edge to it. “Gimme a few and I’ll get back to you.”
And he was speaking like he’d just left the streets of Queens again, something she noticed he was doing more and more.
“You sound happy,” she observed as he put his phone away.
“Security caught some asshole rolling up on one of our closed-off job sites near Issaquah.”
Was this the same CEO she’d worked with today who’d spoken to the Florida Governor about signing some contracts to put a new project into motion? “Oh. What do you do in a case like that? And wouldn’t a foreman or site manager be called to deal with it? Why would they contact you?”
Gabriel looked at her for a suspended moment, a small smile forming as he came down and kissed her softly on the corner of her mouth. “This fuck was carrying weapons, smart girl.” Giving his nose a playful rub against hers that had her smiling, he took her hand and led her to the front door. “Do you want to change before we leave?”
She nodded and went up to discard her work dress before changing into a pair of leggings and a tank top. Minutes later she was carefully moving down the stairs to where Gabriel was waiting, the cuts on her feet uncomfortable but not bad enough to hinder her ability to walk. Or run, if she had to.
When she reached the bottom, she read his intent before he scooped her up. She didn’t protest because she was feeling embarrassingly vulnerable. As he carried her outside, her face found its way into his neck and she inhaled his familiar scent, losing it too soon when he placed her into the rear of the Escalade.
“Be right back.”
He closed her in and she sighed, letting her head fall back against the seat. Exhaustion descended like a blanket, lending a haze to her drowsy thoughts about Gabriel’s suite, sleeping next to him again, having sex. She’d tell him about her intruder before any of that. Find out how he and that Mohawk-haired creep were connected. Stupid ass. Breaking her window…her alarm pad…invading her house. How had he known where she lived?
Her eyes slid open. Come to think of it, how had Gabriel remembered where she lived? He’d only been here once. She looked to her front door, her stomach dropping when she remembered him bringing her into the kitchen when he’d first arrived. A room that wasn’t visible from the entrance. Tendrils of unease snaked around her when she remembered him turning on the lights. The switch was hidden behind the calendar on the wall. How had he known it was there?
Was she being naive to discount her intruder’s crazy warning?
She jumped when Gabriel and Quan appeared from out of the now-dark house. Gabriel headed toward the truck as Quan closed and locked the door.
The expression of genuine concern on his face when he climbed in released the tension in her neck. “You good, sweetheart?”
She nodded while refusing to believe her attraction to him was making her dismissive.
Too tired to resist, she let her head fall to his shoulder and didn’t protest when he wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. God, he smelled wonderful.
And, really, if she were to question him, he’d probably tell her they’d gotten her address from the paperwork she’d filled out for HR earlier in the day. All Quan would have had to do was put it into his phone’s GPS. Easy.
As for navigating her house… “Gabriel?�
� she started, the question forming on her lips.
“Yeah, baby. What is it?”
Mmm. She snuggled deeper into him, craving his body heat.
Sleep took her before she could remember what she’d been about to ask.
† † †
“What,” Gabriel snapped impatiently, glaring across the elevator at Quan’s expression.
Eva was once more in his arms, asleep, the numbers flashing on the panel above the doors as they ascended to the top floor of the Crown Jewel.
Quan gave a lazy shrug. “That bruise on her face from a fist?”
Gabriel worked his jaw. “Won’t know until she tells me. But if it is, someone’s gonna wish their old man had pulled out.”
Quan chuckled under his breath as the elevator stopped and the doors swooshed opened to reveal Alek standing in the center of the corridor, arms crossed, legs braced apart.
“How the fuck did we not realize sooner that she’d left the office? That shouldn’t have happened.”
Quan, in a reasonable tone that must have irked, murmured something about free will.
“What are you doing here?” Gabriel asked, having assumed Alek would be guarding Stefano’s guy who they’d picked up.
“The twins are with him in a Motel 6 off I-90.” Impatience lanced like a whip through Alek’s words even as Gabriel relaxed slightly, knowing their captive was being held by two of their best men—the Berkman brothers had been among the few who’d followed Gabriel to Seattle from Queens. “I had one of our SPD contacts set up a DUI checkpoint before the bridge. It’s Furio, by the way. Fingered him and that fucking haircut a dozen cars in.”
The tension came back with a vengeance, Gabriel’s blood running cold as he pictured that Mohawked motherfucker. Furio had been recruited by Albert Moretti himself the year before his death. He and Gabriel had even done the odd job together, which was where Gabriel had learned the guy was colder than stone. Thinking of Eva anywhere near the merciless prick made his skin want to crawl off his body.
Alek looked Eva over. “What happened to her face? And what’s that?” He motioned to her bandaged hand.
“I don’t have the full details yet, but she cut her hand on the glass from a broken window and walked all over the shit for good measure.” He lifted her legs and tilted his chin at the fluffy socks he’d put on her in the car. “Furio’s mine, no matter what.”
He started down the corridor after nodding to the two boys now stationed on either side of the elevator, repeating the greeting to two more halfway down the hall. He thought of the pair tucked away near the front entrance to the hotel’s garage, another duo squatting in a tinted sedan a few cars over from his parking space, the deuce stationed in plain sight at his private entrance. And now he was inclining his head at two others taking up real estate outside the suite: Bobby T and…
“What the fuck are you doing here, brother?” he demanded of Maksim’s right-hand.
Micha Zaretsky, known to some as Torpedo because, well, he was a deadly sonofabitch, briefly shook Gabriel’s outstretched hand, careful not to jar sleeping beauty. Didn’t even look at her, actually, which was a nice change. “Maks sent me.”
And that’s when it hit Gabriel.
He still had a crew.
Even though he’d “gone straight” years ago, he was still neck-deep in the life. He didn’t have a “security team.” But a fucking crew. And because trouble was brewing, his allies were gifting him.
Alek had stayed and was intent on offering his services.
Lucian Fane had given him information.
Maks had sent Micha—a lethal goddamn weapon if there ever was one.
Gabriel wasn’t sure what to think as he entered the suite through the door Quan had opened.
Shouldn’t he be more surprised?
Angry at himself, perhaps?
Disappointed, at least, that he’d never completely left the organized crime world behind as he’d believed. He’d simply downsized. By hundreds of men. Not that he’d fooled himself into thinking he’d become some philanthropic, law-abiding, respectable businessman, but he’d definitely thought he was a little further from being “organized” than he actually was.
Swiftly accepting what was, for the moment anyway, he felt an odd sense of relief. He had respectability, sure, but it was the intimidation factor and his capacity for instilling fear that would be an aid when it came down to it. Because that was the way things worked in their world. The bigger and badder you were, the better off you’d be. Fear and weakness couldn’t be entertained. Not when dealing with men like Stefano and Furio.
Looking down at Eva, Gabriel was reminded that weakness could come in different forms. Like loved ones. If your enemies couldn’t get to you, they targeted those closest to you.
His lip twitched without humor. Good thing his father had taught him how to get around his inhibitions and conscience. Would make it so much easier to take these fuckers down before they triumphed first.
“Think she’s out for the night?”
A funny sound escaped Eva, and she lifted her head, looking around in confusion. It hadn’t been Quan’s question that had woken her, though, but Gabriel’s tightening grip. He loosened his arms.
“We’re here?” she asked sleepily.
“I was going to put you to bed.”
She squirmed and glanced at the others as color filled her cheeks. “I’m good now. I can walk.”
He glared at her.
“Really, Gabriel. I’m fine.”
He slowly lowered her to the floor. Last thing he wanted her thinking was that he or his boys saw her as weak. She was anything but.
“I just need the washroom.” Her movements were uncharacteristically subdued as she headed through the main room and into the bedroom.
Once he heard the bathroom door close, he stalked over to the bar in front of the window and poured two fingers of Stoli into three glasses. Without hesitating, he downed the clear liquid. Quan and Alek wasted no time in doing the same.
Palming his phone, he dialed the twins. “Which one?” he asked when the call was picked up. Couldn’t tell which brother had answered by the voice alone.
“Abel.”
“You guys tight?”
“Of course.” Abel’s calm tone was the antithesis to what was swirling through Gabriel’s head.
“I can’t get out there—”
“Weren’t expecting you, boss. Any time limit on how long this one circles the drain?”
Gabriel sighed in frustration. He was torn. He needed to take care of Furio himself; he couldn’t leave Eva. But the longer the boys held that weasel, the greater the chance something could go wrong.
“Hurt him,” he finally said with Eva’s fear and injuries front and center in his mind. “I need to hear his pain.”
A thump and bellow came through the line, followed by a round of cursing and moaning. Gabriel felt no satisfaction because he hadn’t been the cause of it.
“Ball peen to the radius, if the added visual helps,” Abel volunteered as if he knew more was needed. “And I’m pretty sure the ulna didn’t fare well either. Little bonus.”
“That does help.”
“Reaper called.”
Gabriel massaged the back of his neck, the action doing little to ease his tension. Why would Vincente have called Abel? Unless Alek had let him know they’d tagged Furio. “Did he.”
“Yeah. After he recommended the best way to deal with this piece of shit, he said he’d see us shortly. What do you make of that?”
Fuckin’ Vincente. The guy never gave up anything until he was good and ready. “Only V knows, man.”
“True. I’ll expect him sooner rather than later, though.”
“Same.”
Abel cleared his throat. “Is Tarasov’s kid okay?”
Christ. The guy sounded almost as guilty as Gabriel felt that Eva had been hurt. “She will be,” he muttered, looking longingly at the vodka bottle. “Later.”
Ale
k poured himself another. “Call my uncle, G. He needs to know what’s happening.”
“Like he doesn’t already,” he said dryly. He was well aware of Vasily’s need for information, and wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised to learn other calls had been made when Gabriel hadn’t supplied much at the office today. He wouldn’t blame any of his boys if they shared what was happening with the guy’s daughter.
“Still, you don’t need me to tell you that it would be in your best interest to call and fill him in yourself.”
Gabriel leveled his friend with a hard stare. “Where would you suggest I start, Alek? By telling him all the ways I’ve failed and brutally disrespected him in the past weeks? The worst being that I’ve claimed his fucking daughter without his knowledge or permission? Or should I begin by informing him that I’ve been so distracted by her that I’ve let harm come to her more than once?” He cracked a sharp, humorless laugh as the foreign taste of what he had to assume was embarrassment coated his tongue. “You’d have to put me down within the hour, and you know it. Now why would I do that to you?” he asked as he turned back to the Stoli and poured a chaser, which he downed immediately.
“He won’t go that far. Not with you.” Alek elbowed him out of the way and reached for the bottle. “And you know it.” He splashed what remained in the bottle into his glass and walked off with it.
“I think she needs to know what’s what.” Both Alek and Quan groaned at that. Man, his temples were throbbing. “It’s too dangerous for her to be in the dark anymore. The minute her shadow goes down she’s wide open. Look at tonight. Nick went down—Furio got to her. Not that she’ll be out of my sight ever fucking again, but she needs to know what to look for and how best to protect herself.” Fucking Stefano.
Gabriel hung his head, sweat beading his brow as that night five years ago rushed through his memory.
His father had come to him as Gabriel had been getting ready to head out for the night. He’d been instructed to leave a cube van out front of a factory in the Bronx, and, like the obedient soldier he’d been, Gabriel had done just that. He remembered vaguely wondering which family owned the building and what was being delivered. A body? A simple shipment of goods?
Vengeance Unleashed (The Wanted Men Series Book 1) Page 15
