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A short while later, my eyes closed, too. This time my sleep was dreamless.
The next thing I knew, he was gently shaking me awake. “We found him, Mila.”
My eyes popped open. “Joey?”
A somber nod. “It’s like you thought. He’s locked in one of the basement cells.”
I swung my legs out of bed. “You’re sure?”
“As sure as I can be. George Fagan says one of their thralls confirmed Joey’s still there. We’re going to send a couple of men to check it out, but I’m leaving now.”
“Yes.” I looked around for my shorts, then halted, frowning. “You’releaving now?”
He nodded. “It’s almost morning. Most of the vampires will be asleep by the time I get to Manhattan. Even if they’re not, they’ll be sluggish.”
“But…you’re taking me, right?” When he pursed his lips, I grabbed his arm. “You arenotleaving me here. I’ll go crazy, wondering what’s up. And Joey’s going to need me—you said so yourself.”
“Fine.” He blew out a breath. “You can come. But only to Manhattan. You can wait at my penthouse. It’s only ten minutes away.”
“Fair enough.” I glanced at his body, naked except for a pair of black boxers. The wounds were barely visible red lines on his lightly tanned stomach, but I couldn’t forget how much blood he’d lost, and not just from the knife wounds. Andre had ripped into his throat like an animal.
“What about you?” I asked. “You sure you’re up to this?”
He rubbed a hand over his belly. “This?” he scoffed.
“Yeah, that.” I put my hand over his. “If I lost you now…” I bit my lower lip.
He caught my hand, brought it to his mouth. “You won’t,cher. I really am better. And it has to be me. At this point, I don’t trust anyone else to extract your brother.” He pressed a kiss to my palm and curled my fingers around it.
My throat tightened. “Thank you,” I managed to say.
“Thank me when we get him back. Now, get dressed. We leave in ten minutes.”
“I’ll be ready.”
At some point, my new clothes had been moved to Gabriel’s walk-in closet, what was left of them, anyway—the pricks had slashed up most of them. But two dresses, a pair of sneakers and a motley collection of shirts, shorts and a pair of cropped jeans had survived. And they’d somehow missed the underwear, even the sexy stuff.
Now I pulled on a purple top and the cropped jeans, then twisted my hair up into a messy bun. Meanwhile, Gabriel dressed in slim dark pants and a green T-shirt. He tucked a switchblade into each pocket, and wordlessly handed me a third.
I looked from it to him. “Thanks,” I said as my fingers closed around the silver handle.
A shrug. “Hey, you earned it.” He handed me a leather duffel bag. “Bring some extra clothes. We’ll stay in Manhattan for at least one night, maybe two.”
I nodded and added some clothes into the duffel bag. The switchblade went into my back pocket.
Lougenia met us in the foyer with an insulated lunch bag packed with food and drinks. She was neatly dressed, the fuzzy slippers nowhere in sight, but her face was drawn and she had dark smudges under her eyes.
“Here.” She handed me the insulated bag. “I packed you some breakfast.”
Taking the lunch bag, I pulled her into a hug. “I’m so sorry about Chandra.”
“It should’ve been me,” she rasped. “She was so young. Had her whole life ahead of her.”
“I know.” I hugged her tighter. “I know.”
She drew a slow breath and let it out before pulling away. “Thanks,ma p’tite.”
Gabriel squeezed her shoulder. “You okay, love?”
