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I felt my eyebrow
twitch and looked over to Ethan, praying he’d toss him out the window.
“Gabriel, how many times must I tell you, scotch does not need ice?” Our grandmother asked over the phone.
He frowned, pouring the glass for himself. “I’m not sure how many time you must tell me. But I’m sure you’ll tell me a million times more, seeing as you’re planning on living forever and I plan on drinking my scotch with ice for as long as people keep offering it to me.”
“No one has offered you anything.” Ethan still managed to say calmly and the man, Gabriel, I could only assume, looked back to him.
“I know, it was rude of you, which is why I helped myself and didn’t make a scene about it. But if you’d prefer I point out all the shortcomings in your hospitality, that can be done.”
What the hell? Where was I? When did I go to the Twilight Zone?
Ethan lifted the phone back up to his lips. “Grandmother, once again, who is this person and how important is he to you?”
“His name is Gabriel, and he’ll be staying at the mansion for a short while. I’ve already let the staff know to prepare his room.”
“Thank you, Evelyn,” Gabriel said, walking in front of Ethan and taking the phone from his hand. “You’re so sweet to me… If only you were fifty years younger.”
“Ugh,” Wyatt cringed, turning away.
“Not even then. Do your best not to get yourself killed by my grandchildren—”
“So we can kill him?” I asked her and he glanced up, glaring at me.
“Goodbye Evelyn. Rest easy; I’m sure your grandchildren know how to behave around a guest,” he said, not waiting for a response before hanging up on her. “That’s how you feel after I saved you?”
“You saved me? From what?”
“You seem to have selective memory disorder,” he snapped back at me. “You went mad, shattered a glass with your hand and then grabbed my shirt, only to pull a gun on me…and your doctor was no help. Shouldn’t you be worried about her hand, not your nose?” He directed that comment at Wyatt. “She is your sister, isn’t she?”
The moment he brought it up, it was like he kicked down the door to the pain I’d blocked out. I looked to my hand, which was still bleeding, small shards of glass embedded in it. Wyatt moved quickly, taking the glass of scotch from Gabriel and pouring it on my hand before taking a napkin to tie around the wound.
I jumped as it burned, looking back into the grey eyes now watching us.
“Gabriel what?”
“Excuse me?” he asked.
“What is your last name?”
“I don’t have one.” He grinned, rising to his feet as he added. “Think of me like a Greek God, here to see how the tragedy will unfold.”
He winked at me before walking to the door, but before he could leave, Ethan called out to him saying, “God, man or monster, if you ever lay a hand or pull a gun on anyone in my family again, I’ll drown you in warm scotch myself.”
This was the moment where most people knew to step back from Ethan Gabriel, however, simply looked amused, “So you’re a Shakespeare man… Good to know.”
Just like that he left, and when the door closed behind him, Ethan said to me directly, “What did he say to you before? It’s not like you to lose your cool in public like that.”
I didn’t answer, so Wyatt spoke up, “Obviously he wanted to get under our skin. Whatever he’s up to… I don’t trust him, even if Nana does.”
“Obviously,” Ethan muttered, walking back over to his bar. “Any man who drinks scotch must be mental.”
Wyatt snickered, checking over my hand, but I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure what was going through my grandmother’s half-burnt mind, but something told me this Gabriel was much more dangerous than he seemed. How else could he so easily stand up not only to me, and my brothers, but also to my grandmother; he was either accustomed to being in the company of monsters or he was one himself. And it had to be the latter because no one was as bad as my family; Gabriel just didn’t know it yet. He was ignorant and I’d enlighten him.
“You don’t think Nana would be pissed enough to make us live with a serial killer, do you?” I asked them, partially joking, but neither of them laughed.
“Kill him and apologize later,” Wyatt suggested to Ethan.
