AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My firefly squeezed back.
“No,” Harrison told her. “First, you didn’t put anyone in danger, because whatever Mr. Sullivan’s intentions were, you’re not to blame for them. Second, as much as I hate to say it, he’s entirely focused on you. There aren’t any reports in his history that back up this kind of harassment as a pattern. Not that we’ve found.”
“So it’s just me?” Sloane shook her head. “Perfect.”
“I didn’t say that either.”
Gabriel crossed his arms, eyes hard. I recognized the posture. It was one that said he was holding himself in check despite simmering beneath the surface. Sloane may not have noticed, but Gabriel took that posture a lot in the first week we knew her, while she was in pain. “Harrison said he’d found some things, but we haven’t discussed them yet.” The briefest of smiles. “We didn’t want to interrupt your time here.”
“Too late.”
Jace squeezed our girl’s thighs and began to purr. Ash took his cue from him, and the low combination of sound and vibration helped her relax so she wasn’t strung so tightly it felt like she might break in two.
“How much do you know about Craig Sullivan?” Harrison asked, pulling up a chair and speaking low and even. Loud enough for us to hear, but not loud enough that Sloane felt she was the center of an interrogation.
She sighed. “Probably not as much as I should. I know the basics. Early dating kind of stuff. Job, family basics, favorite color. Oh, and apparently he’s a possessive psychopath, so there’s that.”
Jace laughed once. “There she is.”
“Well,” Harrison said. “What we found isn’t probably something you’ll know. He’s in a lot of debt.”
Gabriel’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “How much?”
“A metric shit ton,” Cole, Harrison’s business partner, said from nearby, where he stood between us and Petra. “The kind of debt you don’t acquire without fucking up on a massive scale, and the kind you don’t come back from without serious luck, help, or government intervention.”
“You’re right,” Sloane said. “I didn’t know that. But what does that have to do with me?”
Harrison spread his hands and shrugged. “I don’t know yet, and possibly nothing. But where that kind of debt lives, foolish actions often follow. We’re still looking. This obviously isn’t going to be something hewantsfound.”
Looking down at the ground, Sloane paused. “I wonder if it has something to do with the concert?”
The four of us shifted, attention focusing even more on her. Gabriel stepped closer. “What do you mean, little one?”
“He had a surprise for me, right? That’s what he said. That he was going to have me meet the composer. And later in the texts he said I humiliated him by leaving. He never told me what he had planned until those texts. But it’s not just him saying I’m his or whatever the hell. It’s more. He’s pissed aboutthat night. That he ‘put himself on the line.’ And he just said he’ll get what he’s owed. And I don’t think he just means me or sex. I don’t know…”
Cole nodded. “It’s a start. Thank you.”
“Sorry,” Sloane whispered, looking at her friends. “Not exactly the evening I had planned.”
“No,” Dion said, standing and smiling. “But eventually, once Craig is done, we’ll look back on tonight and laugh.”
“Roman,” Harrison said to me. “Will you and Gabriel stay to speak to the police and file a report?”
“If they stay, I stay.” Sloane stood up. “I can give a statement.”
“No. We don’t know how long it will take for the police to speak to us, and we don’t know if they’re going to arrest him. I’ll try, but there’s no guarantee. And as long as he’s here, I don’t want you anywhere near him.” Gabriel took her by the shoulders and kissed her forehead. “Hundreds of miles away would be my preference, but home will do for now.”
“Gabe—”
“This isn’t a discussion, Sloane. Ash and Jace will take you home.”
Her lower lip trembled, the only true sign she wasn’t doing okay. “I don’t want us to be separated.”
Pulling her into his arms, he whispered something in her ear that had her nodding as he stroked a hand over her hair.
“It won’t take long,” Harrison promised. “Not that you need this, but I agree with your Alpha. It’s better you’re not in the same place Mr. Sullivan is right now.”
“And considering several hundred people just heard me say I’d kill him if he touched her again, I probably shouldn’t be here either,” Ash said. He meant it to lighten the mood, and it didn’t.
