Gabriel’s deep voice drifted out of the shadows beside the fireplace, smooth as butter, edged with pent-up anger. I disappeared the cipher into my pocket. No reason to piss my jailer off even more.
Chances were this would get ugly.
“I thought we’d talked about these little…excursionsof yours.” He unfolded his big body from a chair in the corner, the glowing coals catching the harsh angles of his face, so hollowed out over these past three weeks, he almost looked starved. He shed the perfect mafia prince mask for the night—no tailored jacket, no tie, just a dark shirt rolled at the sleeves, throat bare. His inky hair was tousled, as if he’d been running his hands through it for hours.
I didn’t like how haunted he looked these days, constantly torn between playing his role for his father, thenporing over maps and satellite footage every night with Nico.
I should tell him to get more sleep, but he’ll just cut me off, like usual.
“I figured you were at the palazzo,” I said, because, apparently, I didn’t know when to keep my damned mouth shut.
“One of us needed to make sure you stayed put while we were gone,” he countered, blue eyes flashing. “Imagine my surprise when I came home to find our guest of honor missing.Again.”
“I would have left a note, but I planned to be back long before you.” I managed to sound unapologetic while pinned beneath that unblinking stare.
“That is not the compelling argument you think it is.” His gaze dropped to my hand in my pocket, as if he had X-ray vision or something. I loosened my fingers from around the pendant, trying not to look guilty.
Gabriel exhaled so godsdamned dramatically, I could fuckingtastehis disappointment on the air.
“I’ll ask you one time,” he said, in that calm, perfectly polite voice that meant he was very close to punching a wall. “And I am very tired and very cranky, so I will ask you not to lie to me again. Emberline,bella, may I have my cipher back?”
I hated that I was so drawn to this side of him. The carefully controlled heir with an edge of violence, the male so closed down, I wondered if he was capable of feeling anything at all. Once, I’d been close to peeking beneath that mask; now, I’d never get that close again.
“Emberline? Are you planning to return what you stole?”
Even caught barehanded, I hesitated.
It was stupid, but what I’d heard tonight could save our lives. This relic gave us an advantage, and when it was the three of us against an entire dynasty, we needed every advantage we could find.
And I would do anything to get Dante back.
Including defying his own brother.
Gabriel’s expression shifted into something a little more menacing, and the silence between us thickened, adrenaline spiking as his dark, woodsy scent washed over me.
“Please don’t try my patience tonight,” he added quietly, “I’ve had a long fucking day, bella, and I am at the end of my rope. And I will remind you of this. You may have lost your lover, but I lost mybrother.”
His composure cracked, face twisting in grief, before his mask slipped back into place, and my heart squeezed, as if he held the beating thing in his fist.
This could be an act. Gabriel had spent fifty years convincing his father he was a loyal son, fooling the entire Dynasty, which made him the consummate actor.
But that hollow, aching tone did things to my resolve I did not appreciate.
“Fine.” With a sigh, I tugged the thing out of my pocket and held it out.
Gabriel steppedclose enough for me to see the faint smudges under his eyes and lifted the pendant from my hand. His fingers brushed my palm for the barest instant, warm and calloused and reminding me of what life might be like if fate played fair.
At his touch, heat flushed through me, seeping into every cold corner, then I pushed the feeling away.Gabriel was not mine. I had to stop thinking about what could have been.
“That took some effort, didn’t it?” He reverted to that arrogant smirk that sent my hackles rising.
“You left it on the table,” I muttered defensively as he let it hang between his fingers. “It’s not like you bothered hiding the thing.”
“I left it underneath the book I was reading and didn’t think the female Ialmostmarried would steal from me and use precious resources to traipse around the city,” he countered dryly. “My mistake.”
“How did you even know…” I started to ask, then looked away from those blazing blue eyes,wondering, as I had so often lately, about things I should really just leave alone.
What would have happened to the two of us if Dante hadn’t stormed into our wedding and stolen me away? IlikedGabriel. Irespectedhim. I would be married to him right now, pretending to be his wife while I took down his father’s entire empire.
