“What are you doing?” I asked, looking towards the open door.
“You need to go,” she whispered, pulling at my hands. A fresh bruise splashed across her cheekbone. “Please, hurry.”
“Where are they?” I asked, letting her pull me to my feet and towards the door.
One of my answers was laying sprawled on the floor of the hallway. Marco was facedown, his legs blocking the doorway. An upturned chair lay next to him.
“What did you do?” I whispered, not sure whether to be horrified or impressed.
“He’ll be fine. I just drugged him.” We both stepped over his legs.
“With what? He looks dead.”
“Just some Valium in his whiskey sour. And Klonopin. And Ativan.” She held out her hand as we both listened intently for a sound that never came. The hallway light was on, but the stairs were dark. “I gave some to Domenic, too, but not as much. He might wake up and if he sees that I’m gone…”
I followed her silently down the steps and into the darkened kitchen, two ghosts in the night. The back door, the one that led to the alley where the houses on the block kept their trash bins, squeaked slightly when she opened it.
“Take this.” She pressed cash into my hand, then squeezed it. “I wish I had more to give you, but—”
I hugged her for the first time in years. She smelled of lavender and lullabies and soft hands smoothing away my hurts when she could. My throat clenched with sudden tears. I was still angry with her, and I probably always would be. But she knew he would hurt her for this, and she was helping me anyway. She clung to me and breathed in my scent, too.
“I love you. I’ll help you,” I murmured.
“Go,” she whispered and pulled away. She pushed me towards the door. “I love you too, but you have togo.”
I kissed her unmarked cheek before darting into the alleyway.
The door closed softly behind me, and my only goal was to get as far away from the house as possible. That’s why I didn’t notice the man lurking in the shadows until he grabbed me.
His hand closed over my mouth, stifling my yelp as he pulled me into the darkness between my parents’ house and the next. Anger and panic gave me strength, but I still couldn’t break free of his grip on my waist. He held me firmly, my back against his chest.
My body recognized his scent before my brain could fully process it. Cedar, warm on his skin despite the cold air that bit at my face and neck. I sagged against him in relief, and he let his hold relax so I could turn in his arms. The hand covering my mouth dropped to my shoulder, then skimmed down to my waist.
“I knew you would come,” I whispered.
“But I am too late to save you. You have saved yourself,” Gabriel said and his smile was radiant.
“I had help. But we need to go, now. Domenic has been—” I broke off, choked by my guilt. Here I had been, worried about myself when there were a dozen women who needed far more help.
Gabriel led me further down the alley, away from the house.
“I know what he has done,” Gabriel murmured as we walked. The smile was gone, replaced by a hard look that made a shiver of discomfort crawl down my spine. He didn’t look like my Gabriel anymore. We stopped at the end of the alleyway, just before we reached the street.
His eyes softened again as he brushed his thumb lightly across my cheek and temple. “They are safe, carrissima. Jason and his pack have them; they will be alright.”
I felt like there was something he wasn’t telling me, but that could wait. I wanted to get home as soon as possible. “Then we can call Maggie in the morning, and she and Soren can arrest Domenic.”
“No, tesoro. We can not involve your friends.”
“Why not? He can’t just get away with it.”
He hesitated. “I do not intend to let that happen.”
I almost asked what he meant, but then I realized. “No. You can’t just go around… killing people.”
“It is too late for that.”
Ah. The faces of the guards flashed in my mind, but no sympathy followed. I couldn’t summon any regret for their loss, not when they’d been complicit tothat.
