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Hopefully, Gabriel would do right by her.
The rest of the evening went the same way, lots of smarmy smiles and empty promises.
As the time for the ceremony creeped closer, Gabriel looked like he was about to jump out the nearest window.
When Jude nudged him, he startled as if he hadn’t even heard him come up. I’d never seen him so unsettled.
“Stop wringing your hands,” Jude teased. “You’re not being led to slaughter.”
“Might as well be. My life is over.”
Grinning, Jude looked out over the guests. “Always the drama queen.”
Abandoning my perch on the side of the balcony, I nodded inside. “Let’s sit back down. It’s about to start.”
“Fuck,” Gabriel cursed but followed.
Jude took up the rear, making sure our brother didn’t change course. Or run out. That would be undignified for an Olysses.
Once everyone was seated again, my father, who sat at the head of the table, raised his glass. “The day has come for me to step back. I’ve been head of our family for over thirty years, and I think I deserve to retire. And who better to take the reins than my son.”
Every eye in the room turned to me. Smirking, I watched their confusion when Gabriel stood up instead. Pulling on his suit, he stood tall, an air of confidence around him. “It’s an honor to be trusted with continuing our family legacy. This is what I was born to do and what I will die preserving.”
He sat back down, the room stunned into silence. Aleksándr looked ready to murder someone, but there wasn’t a thing he could do about Gabriel becoming head of the family. And I doubted he cared who his daughter would marry. We’d have to keep an eye on him, but we would have had to do that anyway.
I raised my glass, indicating I was okay with this instead of starting the brawl everyone seemed to be expecting. “To the new head of the Olysses family.”
One by one, everyone raised their glasses. “To Gabriel.”
Gabriel drained his glass in one gulp, his eyes flitting around the room, calculating how much longer he had to stay there.
Leaning in, I refilled his glass. “You did well, brother. Even if you cut the ceremony down to about a quarter of its usual length. Good thing everyone is still too stunned to have seemed to notice.”
At least it meant I could get out of here now, instead of wasting more hours sitting through a boring ceremony, pretending to be interested. It was nearing five in the morning, and I was ready to find Quinn, the urge getting stronger the longer I was away from her.
“Fuck you.”
Chuckling, I leaned back in my seat.
Time to get the life I want.
There was no reason for me to stay. And for the first time since I could remember, I left before anyone else.
I was walking down the long corridor, a spring in my step thanks to the weight that had been removed from my shoulders, when rushed footsteps sounded behind me.
“Liam,” Jude called, sprinting down the long hallway. “We have a problem.”
The smile dropped from my face. “What problem?”
“Quinn is gone.”
“What do you mean,gone?”
Jude ran a hand through his hair. He was out of breath, his usual smirk absent, replaced by a frown. “She went to the airport thirty minutes ago. Gunner’s men said they went with her, then watched her sit down at a café. One moment she was having a cup of coffee, and the next she was gone.”
Whoever took her would regret ever laying a hand on her. Because I was coming for them.
19
