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Knowing that even when I am on my knees, utterly submitting to him, I am always in control, with a safe word I’ve never once had to or wanted to use with him.
“So I can assume that’s why he went in there with guns blazing?”
I nod. Taylor’s mouth twists into a wry smile.
“Interesting.”
My brows knit. “What?”
“It’s just…” She looks at me curiously. “You know he wouldn’t do that for just anyone, right?”
I roll my eyes. “I don’t know if that’s true. He’s like Mr. Hero?—”
“Fumi,” she says softly. “While I doubt I know Gabriel as well as you do, I do know him quite well, and have for a while.” She smiles. “We both know the Mr. Hero routine is armor. And for the record, there really aren’t many people he’d do that for. Tempest and Alistair, sure. Maybe for me.” She arches a brow quizzically. “You know, your fake husband might actually love you.”
My face heats as my top lip retreats between my teeth.
“Does Gabriel have proof of what Hall did?”
I look away. “Well…yes and no.”
I explain to her what Gabriel has, and I watch the wheels begin to turn inside her head.
“Shit,” she mutters. “That’s hearsay at best, and if Hall has a halfway-decent attorney—and I know he does—it would never stand up in court. But it could speak to character and motive if there was other, harder evidence against him.” She frowns. “I wonder if Meredith has any ideas. That girl is a fucking Pitbull when she wants to be.”
Back in the kitchen, though, they seem to be at as much of a standstill as we are.
“So, here’s where we are,” Taylor sighs. “Gabriel has some evidence against Hall regarding”…her eyes barely meet mine before she smoothly continues…“a past instance of sexual assault. It’s not provable, and it wouldn’t hold up in court. But it could be circumstantial evidence toward character if?—”
“If you catch him getting handsy.”
We all turn to see Amber standing in the doorway to the kitchen. She glances at Maeve and grimaces.
“Like Mr. Porter.”
Maeve makes a face. My brows arch. “Wait, who?”
“Mr. Porter,” Maeve exhales, scowling. “He taught chemistry at our school.”
“Everyone knew he was a creep,” Amber adds. “Like, girls just knew not to be alone with him, but no one could ever get anything concrete. Until this one girl, Evelyn Carter, busted him. She set up a bunch of phones recording in his classroom while he was out, and then dropped by after school one day, alone. She got him on tape offering to bump up her grades if she ‘came over to his house’ some night. They finally fired him.”
My nose wrinkles in disgust as I glance at Maeve. “Okay, first of all, Gabriel and I need to have a serious talk with your old school’s administration about some basic fucking protocols. But second…” I turn back to Amber. “You’re suggesting someone should go into Hall’s office and deliberately bait him?”
“That’s not a crime,” Taylor murmurs quietly, eyeing me. “Unlike, say, sexual assault and battery.”
“Would it work?” Amber says.
Taylor nods. “If someone were to get Governor Hall on tape committing a crime like sexual misconduct, assault, harassment…anything like that…then yes, it could be used in conjunction with the evidence of his other crime. But who would?—”
“Me,” Amber says flatly. “I would.”
My eyes snap to hers. “No, Amber?—”
“Yes.” A pause. “Can I talk to you?” she mumbles, glancing at me. “Alone?”
When I follow her into the living room, she turns to eye me, chewing on her lip.
“I was really, really disrespectful the other day,” she says quietly. “To Gabriel, to Maeve. Definitely to you. And I want you to know that I’m sorry. It was stupid, and shitty, and I felt like such an idiot after I did it…”
