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You want to be a badass?
Then show your heart to everyone…
EVERYONE.”
~ Michael Xavier
GABRIEL
“Let’s try to avoid bullets today,” I said to my refection before I stepped out of my room. Part of me expected to see Dona waiting outside, ready to strike swiftly. Luckily, my expectations were not met and my trip to the elevator and down to the dining room was a quiet one. I could hear muttering and saw two familiar men standing in front of the door, eyeing me like dogs… Well they are dogs.
I snickered at the thought and decided to name them. “Morning, Rocky, Coco.”
They looked at me as if I was insane and were about to say something when I nodded to the door. “I would open it myself but, ahh…” I reached up to my arm. “I think one of you might have pulled my arms back too far…not to mention the bullet.”
“The bullet our boss gave you.”
“The one that didn’t kill me, yes I know. The door…” I waited and the big Irish one opened it but held his hand out to stop me from entering the room.
“Sir. It’s him,” Rocky said.
“Him has a name,” I asserted but he ignored me. He nodded to the other guard before opening the door wider for me to enter. The Callahans all sat, Dona included, in a different arrangement than before. Ethan was at the head, with Wyatt on his right and Ivy on his left. Donatella sat next to her and Helen her other side. The butler nodded for me to sit two seats down from Wyatt; they were putting distance between us. Dona drank some sort of hangover juice, rubbing the side of her head.
“Gabriel,” I said to Rocky. He looked confused. “My name is Gabriel, not him. I’m saying this for your sake, Rocky. I’m sure your boss prefers you to be more descriptive when announcing his guests. I mean, you wouldn’t want him to seem rude and ill-bred, now would you?”
He glanced to Ethan and I watched from the corner of my eye as he continued to eat his breakfast as if he couldn’t hear us. Meaning he wouldn’t allow Rocky to wiggle out of accepting this defeat… It would look bad on him.
“Excuse me, Mr. Gabriel,” Rocky said to me.
“Leave us, Grayson,” Ethan finally said to him and nodded to me. “Gabriel, welcome. We didn’t expect you’d been joining us for breakfast.”
“Your expectations are correct,” I said when the doors closed behind me. “I’m not here for breakfast.”
Casting the helmet in my hand over my shoulder, I walked around the table aiming directly for her seat. She ate her toast calmly, as if she didn’t notice I was in the room, so I leaned over until my lips were touching her ear and she froze, “I came for you. Let’s go.”
“Gabriel, my brother invited you eat at his table.” Wyatt scowled at me, tearing his bread with more violence than necessary. “You wouldn’t want to seem rude and ill-bred rejecting that offer, now would you?”
Standing up straighter, I rested on Dona’s chair. “Seem? Wyatt, didn’t you notice? I am rude and my breeding is quite questionable.”
“I did notice.”
“Then why bother talking?”
He bit his tongue and I snickered.
“You aren’t off to a good start this morning,” Dona finally spoke before sipping her drink.
“How so, my love?” I asked, making Ethan pause for the first time. I ignored him and focused on her.
She inhaled. “Not only are you late, and I abhor tardiness, but your greater offence is expecting that I’ll stop everything I plan on doing today to go off with you again. I already have a migraine.”
“I cannot be late to a function I didn’t plan on attending as I told the maid this morning, which is why you were not ex
pecting me. And I was not expecting you to stop what you have planned today. I checked with your assistant; we’ll be done in time and I’ll drive you over. As for the migraine… Well, was the wine at least worth it?”
“Wait, go back; you did what?” She looked over her shoulder at me. “How do you even know who my assistant is?”
I smiled, reaching down to steal a piece of her bacon. “Did you know your grandmother is one hell of a tough negotiator? I had to promise our first daughter would be named after her. I told her you might want to name her after your mother so she said she would settle with Melody-Evelyn but it must be hyphenated because she would not be regulated to a shitty middle name.”
