“Your sister is right. The first message with the blood and goat hearts was disturbing. The one tonight was more dangerous than the last. We can’t take a chance on the third message finishing the job. Tony Brooks is becoming unhinged. We have officers from all the island police departments searching for that bastard, but we must do more to ensure your safety. You’re doing the right thing,” he said, a glint in his soft blue eyes. “Don’t second guess yourself.”
Gabrielle nodded as the glass door to the police station pushed open. Sebastian stepped inside, taking up all the air in the room. His presence shifted the energy, causing her heart to pound in her chest. He wasn’t going to like what she’d done.
Sebastian headed straight for Gabrielle, ignoring Serena and Brad as if she was the only person in the room. He stopped mere inches from her, concern swirling in his brown eyes. “Everything okay?”
“Nothing is okay, you arrogant asshole. You promised Gabrielle you could protect her, but you botched the job a week into it,” Brad interrupted. Disgust clouded his face as he crossed his arms over his chest with a smug look. “Officers from my gang task unit and the St. Felipe police will take over security for her. It was a mistake for Gabrielle’s life to be in your hands.”
“I appreciate everything you’ve done for my sister, Sebastian,” Serena added with more diplomacy. “But after this second threat, we need to make a change. It’s important to have more resources to ensure she stays safe until we can catch the maniac doing this.”
Sebastian clenched his jaw, but his eyes, clouded by hurt, never left Gabrielle. “Let’s talk. Outside. Now.”
Brad pressed a hand against Sebastian’s chest, pushing him back. “She’s not going anywhere with you.”
Sebastian’s eyes blazed with anger as he glared at Brad.
Gabrielle pressed between the two men. “Brad, you don’t speak for me. You shouldn’t have blurted it out without giving me a chance to explain.” She grabbed Sebastian’s hands in hers. “Come on. Let’s go outside and talk.”
“No way. Not outside,” Serena insisted, waving her hand frantically. She turned to Brad and pleaded, “Isn’t there a room where they can talk privately?”
Brad grudgingly pointed to an interrogation room near the back hallway. Sebastian pulled away from her and stomped into the room, not bothering to wait for her.
This was not how she wanted Sebastian to find out. Not that it mattered. She’d known he wouldn’t like this turn of events. But it was what she had to do to ensure he was protected from her stalker. She refused to let him become collateral damage in a psycho’s fixation with her.
Stepping inside the interrogation room, Gabrielle closed the door. The room was the size of a closet, but the chasm between her and Sebastian felt as wide as the Cabrito Mountains. His face was a mask of angry, chiseled stone. She reached a hand to touch him, but he caught her wrist.
“Don’t.” There was a warning in his voice, low and menacing.
She swallowed hard, hurt by his rejection. “Why? I’m not doing this only for myself. I’m trying to protect you, too. Please don’t be mad at me.”
“Fuck, Gabs. I’m not mad at you,” Sebastian slumped against the table and squeezed the back of his neck. His body language shifted from on guard to defeated and weary.
“But you’re angry.”
“Yeah, I’m fucking angry that I let that bastard get close to you again.”
“That wasn’t your fault. You told me not to treat the trip to St. Basil like a day trip, but I was shopping and prancing about as if a stalker wasn’t after me. It was foolish.”
“I was supposed to protect you from him. Make sure you were safe, and I fucking didn’t.” Sebastian banged on the table. “And you know why? Cause I was too busy falling for you. Being distracted by you. We got too close. The lines blurred in my head. In my heart. I stopped focusing on protecting you because all I could think about was how much I …”
“How much you …” She paused as heat blazed across her cheeks. He’d stopped before they crossed a line she wasn’t sure either of them was ready for. As much as she wanted to know what he was going to say, she couldn’t handle it. Not when Tony Brooks was raising the stakes. She had to diffuse the situation. Gabrielle raised an eyebrow and forced a sexy smile on her face, trying to lighten the heaviness between them. “How much you can’t keep your hands off me?” She stroked a finger up his arm.
“Don’t do that. You know this thing between us is deeper than that. You can’t deny the connection we have, and neither can I. So don’t insult me by pretending it’s just lust and sex.”
His rebuke pierced her soul. The raw honesty and simplicity of his statement reflected the truth between them. But neither of them could act on it. Not until the stalker was caught.
“As much as I hate it, Shannon was right. That fucker got to you on my watchafterI promised to keep you safe,” Sebastian said. “Professionally, that’s a mistake. But for the man inside here,” He tapped his chest. “It’s about to fucking rip my heart out that I didn’t stop it from happening. I hate myself for missing it. And I hate that you’ve lost trust in my ability to protect you.”
“You think that’s why I agreed to let the cops take over my security?” Gabrielle asked. “It’s not. This has nothing to do with my trust in you or your abilities. From day one, you knew that I wouldn’t let anyone I cared about get hurt because someone was after me. That means protecting my sister, my family, the staff at King Estate, and now that includes you. I can’t sit by and know I’m putting your life in danger because you’re trying to protect me. I have to do this so that you can be safe.”
“Your safety is the only thing that matters. I can handle Brooks, Quattro, or any fucker who dares to hurt you,” Sebastian said.
An eerie calm settled over him as if a switch had flipped. The caring man who’d stolen her heart had turned into a soldier in front of her eyes. A highly trained and deadly operative.
“Seby, I know you can handle anything. I haven’t lost faith or trust in you. But I’m begging you to do this my way. Dealing with the stalker is hard enough without worrying about what might happen to you if you find him and get caught,” Gabrielle said, almost choking on the words. The thought that Sebastian would find Tony Brooks and take him out, then go to prison for protecting her was terrifying. He wasn’t a PISCO anymore. He didn’t have a license to eliminate threats. “Let the police handle this. Please.”
Sebastian gazed at her with intense emotion that caused her heart to stop. Never had a man ever looked at her like she was the only thing that mattered to him in the entire world.
His response came as no surprise to her.
