by Opal Carew
When she woke, she opened her eyes and found her brother sitting by her side, his face inches from hers, staring straight at her.
She yelped and sat straight up, knocking Leo off the bed as he dissolved into laughter.
“Gotcha! I gotcha good, Sissy.”
It took her a minute to orient herself, to remember where they were, why they were here. She drew in a breath to scold him—and then it hit her.
Leo was laughing.
In all the time she’d known him, she’d never heard him so much as a giggle. The sound was so joyful, so normal, that the words died on her tongue, and she could only stare at him. The kid hadn’t said more than a hundred words to her before they’d met Gabriel. And now he was laughing so hard, he had to hold his stomach.
And she realized she didn’t know how long it’d been since she’d laughed.
A year, maybe more?
Way too long.
She felt her smile widen, felt a chuckle begin in her chest until it turned into an all-out belly laugh. It felt good…right. She let herself laugh until her stomach hurt.
Leo stopped long enough to gape at her then started laughing again.
He didn’t expect her to slip off the bed next to him, grab him around the middle and tickle him for all she was worth.
He started to squirm, his little body wriggling as he tried, though not very hard, to get away.
“No, Sissy, stop!”
He didn’t mean it and she knew it. She knew the game. She’d played it with her dad when she’d been Leo’s age. She’d loved to have time all to herself with her dad, when he’d paid attention only to her. They’d talked and laughed like there was no one in the world except the two of them.
Leo lunged away and she let him go, knowing the game for what it was.
“You can’t hold me, Sissy.” He backed away to the other side of the room.
She smiled and lounged back against the bed. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I’m faster than you think, bud.”
“Nah, you’re just old.”
That lifted her eyebrows. “Old, huh?”
With a simple spell, she bound him to the floor, only long enough for her to grab him and start tickling him again.
Through his laughter, he yelled. “Hey, that’s cheating!”
“All’s fair in love and war, bud, and calling me old was an act of war.”
“Okay, you’re not old.”
She stopped tickling him again, and, with a spell of his own, he bound her, long enough for him to scoot across the floor, out of reach again.
On the other side of the room, he continued to laugh. “Just slow.”
She laughed along with him, but inside she was shaking her head. He’d copied that last spell directly from her. As far as she knew, he’d never learned it. Granted, it was an easy one, but he’d performed it perfectly.
He had so much power. He needed someone to show him how to use it and control it.
Someone who wasn’t her. She stopped laughing with a sigh. “I’m going to have to leave you for a while, Leo. I don’t want to, but there’s somewhere I have to go.”
He dropped his gaze to the floor and started to pick at the hole forming in the knee of his jeans. “With Gabriel.”
“Yeah.”
He bit his bottom lip, as if he were going to cry. “Daddy told me not to leave you, Sissy. Not ever.”
“It won’t be forever, bud. Just for a few days. I promise to come back as soon as I can.”
He didn’t look convinced. “Is Quinn going, too?”
She shook her head, fighting back her own tears. “No. Quinn’s going to stay with you.”
That perked him up. The corners of his mouth picked up a little, and he slid back to her side. “And you won’t be gone long, right?”
“No, I promise. I’ll be back in a few days.” I hope. “I’d take you if I thought it was safe, Leo. I would. But I think you’ll be better off here. Plus, someone else is coming to help.”
“Who?”
“Our Uncle Matt. He’s daddy’s brother.”
Leo nodded, thinking about that one. “Does he look like Daddy?”
Shea had never even thought about it. “I don’t know. I’ve never met him.”
“Do you miss Mommy and Daddy?”
The sharp slice of guilt slid through her chest again. “Every day.”
“Me, too.” He nodded, and she braced herself to see condemnation in this eyes. Instead his smile returned. “But I’ve got you.”
Warmth replaced the guilt, and her eyes flooded with tears. She didn’t let them fall, though, because he might not understand. “That’s right. You do. And I,” she grabbed for him while he wasn’t expecting it, “have you.”
He shrieked as she started to tickle him again, but he got his own licks in, digging his little fingers into her ribs and wiggling them until she had to laugh.
The door slammed open, bouncing off the wall, and Gabriel charged into the room, a short sword in his hand and a fierce scowl on his face.
The intrusion silenced them as they stared at Gabriel, who looked ready to kill something.
“What the hell’s going on?”
After a few shocked seconds, they dissolved into laughter again, Leo curling into a little ball to hold his stomach.
Gabriel’s gaze narrowed, and they laughed harder at his stupefied expression. “Vaffanculo, Shea. I thought you were being massacred.”
“Don’t,” she had to stop and take a breath, “swear.”
“Don’t—” He paused, shot a glance Leo, who’d wound down to a giggle, then back to her. “You think this is funny?”
“Mm hmm.” She finally subsided to a chuckle but that wouldn’t last long if Gabriel didn’t lighten up soon. She’d have to laugh at him. And then maybe she’d have to cry.
With deliberate moves, Gabriel lowered the sword and leaned it against the wall before stalking over to Leo. “And you? You think it’s funny, too?”
Leo stretched out, put his hands behind his head and nodded.
With lightning speed, Gabriel grabbed Leo by the ankle and dangled him from one hand. “So who’s laughing now?”
Leo was, as Gabriel lifted him, with no visible effort, until they were almost eye-to-upside-down-eye. The little boy squiggled and squirmed, but Gabriel looked like he could hold him there all day.
“I was coming to wake you,” he told her. “It’s almost six. We usually eat around eight. I thought you and the little laughing hyena here,” he gave Leo a shake that made the little boy laugh even harder, “would like to take a walk.”
Then he grinned at her, nearly stealing her breath away. Didn’t he know she’d follow him anywhere? “Sure. That’d be great. Just…give me a minute.”
She headed for the bathroom as Gabriel lowered Leo onto the bed. She brushed her teeth and hair then stopped to look in the mirror, wondering if she should change her short black t-shirt and faded jeans.
Barely reaching the edge of her ass-hugging pants, the shirt showed off her flat stomach and molded to her decent breasts. With her hair down and without makeup, she looked younger than she was.
Maybe she should—
This isn’t a date, you idiot.
Her reflection wouldn’t stop grinning, though.
With a disgusted huff, she turned and walked back into the room. Leo had already donned his sneakers and climbed onto Gabriel’s back. Their hair was the exact same shade, she noticed. Raven-black and silky. If Leo let his grow, it would probably look exactly like Gabriel’s. Did Gabriel have any brothers? He’d never mentioned any but maybe that was some grigorio thing, like not telling anyone who your mother was.
Gabriel’s gaze caught and held hers and desire hummed along her nerves, burning away everything in her brain but the urge to flirt with him. To tease him.
For just a few hours, she wanted to be a normal twenty-three-year old.
But since that wasn’t going to happen, she wanted to have just a little fun before
she had to—
No. Probably better not to think about that.
Forcing a smile, she stepped through the door, letting him close it behind her. Then she stopped. This place was a huge maze, and she had no idea where she was going.
She followed Gabriel through the house to a sturdy wooden door. When he opened it, the gray wolf sitting on the outside step turned his head toward them and yipped.
For a second, Shea recalled her encounter with Tivr, which she still hadn’t told Gabriel about. There’d been no time. And she’d been pissed at him, which hadn’t made her talkative.
But she knew this wasn’t Tivr.
“Quinn?” Leo said as he slid off Gabriel’s back to kneel beside the animal and stroke his fur. The wolf leaned back his head so Leo could scratch his throat.
“Yeah, it’s Quinn.” Gabriel sighed. “And he’ll have you do that all day if you let him.”
Quinn shot a growl at Gabriel then trotted off the step, looking back at Leo. Leo, in turn, looked back at Shea.
“Can I?”
Gabriel nodded when she looked to him for guidance. When had that happened, she wondered? When had she started looking to Gabriel for answers?
And when had he become more to her than just Leo’s guardian?
Quinn took off like a bullet and Leo ran after him with a shout, his little feet flying, legs pumping. She lost sight of him almost immediately in the dense forest and she drew a quick breath, ready to call him back. What if—
Gabriel laid his hand on her shoulder and squeezed, the heat of him searing her through her shirt. “He’ll be fine. We checked. There’s no one around. Let him run a little, Shea. He needs it.”
He was right. She knew he was right, but for the past year, they hadn’t been able to go anywhere without looking over their shoulders.
Shaking off that thought, she let Gabriel lead her into the forest. They walked, side by side, not talking, not touching.
His long muscular legs ate up the ground, though he shortened his pace so she could keep up without having to hurry. The tight black t-shirt he wore bared most of his bulging biceps and she wanted to feel the strength of them under hands. The t-shirt clung to his broad chest and tight abs and…
She wanted to pull him down to the ground and make him kiss her, let that amazing body cover hers and block out the world.
As he stripped her, the air would cool her overheated skin and the fading sunlight would eventually give way to an all-consuming darkness that would hide them from prying eyes.
Alone in the dark.
As they headed in the same general direction as Leo and Quinn, the sound of Leo’s laughter echoing through the trees brought a brief smile to her face.
Would there come a day when his laugh wouldn’t be so amazing? When it’d become an everyday occurrence?
Or would they always be on the run?
And would she be here to hear it?
“When did you find out what your mother was?”
The question had been rolling around in her brain for a while, something she hadn’t felt right asking. But out here, under the sky and surrounded by the encompassing forest, it seemed okay.
“I was eight.”
Not much older than Leo. He’d need to know, too. Someday. “How’d you handle it?”
His snort was amused. “Disbelief, shock, denial. But after a while, I figured it wasn’t all that strange, considering all the other shit I’d been dealing with since I was born.”
“Did you go to school?”
Now, he laughed outright and her thighs clenched. “Hell, no. I would have blasted the teachers into walls the first couple of years after I came into my full powers. I did get my diploma. I had a tutor for school subjects, took the GED when I was sixteen. I would have blown it off but my parents insisted. My dad trained me in everything else.”
Gabriel knew exactly what question Shea was going to ask next. He braced himself for it.
And, as fate would have it, they stepped into the clearing at that precise moment.
“What happened to him?”
Someone else might have tripped over the two small headstones before noticing them. Gabriel would be able to find them on a pitch-black night during a hurricane.
As always, the grass around them was neatly trimmed and the oaks Serena had planted the day of their burial more than a decade ago grew strong.
“Dario’s men killed him.” The familiar ache returned to his chest. “They’d come for my brother, Nino. They didn’t want me. I was too old. But I was strong enough that they knew I had to be out of the way. I was stupid. I let them down, and they died.”
Lowering himself onto the ground beneath his father’s oak, he leaned back against the trunk, watched her stand next to the graves.
“I don’t believe that.”
He snorted. “Quinn and I were out screwing around, blowing off steam. I’d had a bad feeling all day. I couldn’t explain it, but it was like…someone had my lungs in their hands and they were squeezing.” He rubbed at his chest, remembering that ache. “I should have stayed home that night. I should have known.”
She sat next to him on the ground, close enough to touch but not.
“How old were you?”
He shook his head. “Just shy of eighteen.” Old enough to know better. “Doesn’t matter how old I was. I wasn’t there when they needed me. That won’t happen again.”
He wouldn’t—couldn’t let that happen again. Couldn’t bear to think about another small headstone with Leo’s name on it. Or Shea’s. “Quinn was only fifteen. We killed our first men that day. And it was too late. By the time my dad knew what was happening, it was too late.”
He still remembered every second of the phone call from his dad.
“Get the hell out of here, Gabriel. You and Quinn, go somewhere, anywhere. Dario’s men are here and I don’t want you anywhere near them. I’ll call you when it’s safe.”
Gabriel had, of course, said fuck that. He and Quinn would be there. “Hold on. We’re coming.”
He’d believed his dad could hold them off. Davis Borelli was the best of the best. The strongest.
But the ten-minute drive from town had been excruciating.
And when they’d arrived, he’d seen Nino’s lifeless body cradled in his father’s arms as a dark-haired man pulled the trigger on the final shot through his dad’s temple.
What he couldn’t remember was exactly what happened after that. Quinn had filled in the gaps, but Gabriel only remembered bits and pieces. Blood, fists. The crunch of breaking bones. Quinn’s growls. And the screams of grown men.
Magic that had seared through his skin like the flame of a butane torch.
Fueled by rage and grief, he and Quinn had killed the last two men his dad hadn’t been able to. And when they were done, there hadn’t been enough left for two body bags for the four men.
He had no regrets. They’d deserved it.
“Gabriel. I’m so sorry.”
Shea’s quiet, sorrowful voice ripped him out of the past.
“It was a long time ago.” But he would never forget. Not one detail.
She shifted closer, close enough for him to feel her, smell her, but still not touching. “Your mom must have been devastated.”
“I think she wanted to die, too, but she had three other children. And Quinn.”
“Who she won’t allow close to her.”
He looked into her eyes. “I can see her point. It’s tough to love someone you’re going to lose.”
She nodded, her expression solemn. “But think of everything she’ll have missed by denying herself. What about you, Gabriel? What are you denying yourself?”
Too damn much.
He managed to keep the words from escaping, but she had to be able to see them on his face.
He wanted her. Ached for her in ways he’d never ached for anyone.
But if he let his emotions get involved, he might slip. Might miss something because he was so focused on her
that he couldn’t see anything else.
He didn’t want her and Leo to pay for his fuck-up.
He opened his mouth to say just that but before the words formed, she straddled his lap and sealed her mouth to his. It was lunacy, but the minute her mouth touched his, everything else slipped away.
The woman he wanted more than he wanted to breathe had her arms locked around his shoulders and her tongue in his mouth. His body reacted with a powerful rush of adrenaline, making his cock hard and his brain explode with sensation.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he crushed her against him, smashing her breasts flat to his chest and bringing her crotch against the throbbing ridge in his jeans. He breathed in through his nose, her sweet, subtle scent screwing with his head while his hands flattened on her back and drew her even closer.
She moaned into his mouth, let her fingers slide into his hair and catch. Lust warred with reason, and, for the first time, lust won.
He kissed her, hard, slid his tongue into her mouth to tangle with hers. He kneaded her back like a cat then slid down to cup her ass, pushing her hips into him and rubbing her mound against his cock until he was primed to explode.
Hell, he wanted to, but he wanted to do it inside her.
Untangling her hands from his hair, she moved them to his shoulders in a light caress then stroked down his biceps and slid around his back. Her fingers dug in until she had his t-shirt bunched in her hands. He leaned forward so she could pull it over his head, releasing her mouth only long enough for her to do it.
He reclaimed her lips with a desperation that should have worried him. They were on borrowed time, and he didn’t want to waste any. Leo was out there, running with Quinn, who he trusted to keep the kid safe and occupied for these few stolen moments.
Rolling her under him, soft grass at her back, he grabbed both of her wrists in one hand, drawing them above her head. She arched into him, breasts pressing against his chest, belly to belly, and he let his mouth trace down her neck to her collar bone. He licked the delicate bones there as he heard her breathing shallow out. Slipping his free hand under her t-shirt, already riding above her belly button, he splayed his fingers across her stomach then dragged them up to caress her bare breasts beneath her shirt.
