Page 27 of Ruthless Enforcer

He nods.

At the door, I turn around. “Dawson.”

He stands at attention.

“If Blackthorn realizes those cameras are looping before I'm gone, I'll know whose mistake it was.”

His face tightens. “Understood.”

“Excellent.” I close the door.

By the time I return upstairs, the tailor has the jacket waiting. He holds it open without comment.

I slide my arms into the silk-lined sleeves.

The tailor steps around me and smooths the lapels. “A magnificent drape, sir.”

I inspect myself in the mirror. Calm. Respectable. Untouchable.

Almost myself again.

The tailor adjusts the pocket square. “Are we preparing for an event?”

I fasten the middle button. In the mirror, I smile. “Yes, we are.”

24

CLARA

The ink bleeds just enough on the cheap yellow legal paper to make the shadows look deliberate.

Jake gave me the pad and pen when I asked for it, probably thinking I’d write a note or make a list. Everyone else went to sleep, including Gabriel.

I did sleep some, but it was restless. When I saw the sun rising, I decided to get up and do what I always do when I'm stressed. Draw.

I crosshatch the hard angle of Gabriel’s jaw, dragging the cheap ballpoint pen across the ruled blue lines until the contrast turns sharp and unforgiving. The brutal slant of his cheekbones. The heavy, calculating brow. The lethal set of his mouth, softened by the dimples that have no business belonging to an enforcer for a crime family.

I wish I had some watercolor to color his eyes. I wonder if I can make a blue that's as brilliant as his are.

I tuck one bare foot under me on the leather couch. Luke gave me a pair of his fiancée's jeans to put on, loose but covering and long enough, but it's Gabriel’s fleece sweatshirt that keeps me warm.

Every time I breathe, I swear I catch a whiff of his scent.

Muttering, I focus on my sketch, staring down at his likeness.

Marriage.

The notion still tastes foreign, reckless, and entirely insane. I offered it to him in the heat of the fallout, a cold strategic countermove to dismantle Cole Turner’s kidnapping frame before my uncle and Gabriel's brother destroy each other. A legal shield—a public lie to protect both our families.

My uncle is going to be livid.

Before we adjourned for the night, Gabriel sent a message to James for me. I included the code word we have for if everything is okay—yes, we also have one for if something’s wrong but we can’t talk. It should hold the worst of it at bay, but when James sees the security footage of me leaving the museum with Gabriel, he’s going to explode.

Getting married quickly is of utmost importance. Apparently, Hendricks is arranging that for us. Tomorrow, in Portland, Oregon, with a judge who owes him a favor.

The sheer weight of what it means to become Gabriel Reyes’s wife is settling heavy in my chest.

It's a temporary maneuver until Turner is dead and the smoke clears.