by Madison, Mia
Gabriel
Adamo Bodyguards Book 2
Mia Madison
Gabriel (Adamo Bodyguards Book 2)
Copyright 2019 Mia Madison
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental. All characters are 18 years of age or older.
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Contents
1. Four Lethal Men
2. All To Myself
3. The Rules Don’t Matter
4. Just A Bump In The Road
5. Make Me Feel
6. For The Next Month
7. Doorbell
8. Unfinished Business
9. The Plate Drops
10. All There Is To Say
Epilogue
Also by Mia Madison
About the Author
1
Four Lethal Men
“Do you know the stalker’s identity?” says the woman behind the desk. Her name is Juliet North, and she’s the office manager at Adamo Protection Services.
I swallow. “Albert Kukor.” It feels risky to name him, as though it makes him more real, gives him more power.
But I know that’s an illusion. He’s real whether I name him or not, and I’m taking steps to protect myself. To prevent him having power over me.
You have to name your problems before you can solve them.
“Where did you first encounter Mr. Kukor?” Juliet asks. It’s not what I expected, to be telling my story to a woman instead of a man, but it makes me feel better. I don’t think she’ll dismiss my concerns.
The man lounging against the wall behind her hasn’t said a word yet. He’s tall, built, with shoulder-length hair and the kind of smoldering good looks you’d expect from a musician or an actor. He looks vaguely familiar, though I’m certain I’ve never seen him before.
Despite his appearance, and his casual pose, he doesn’t feel safe at all. A tiger is beautiful to look at, but reach out and try to pet it, and you’ll lose a hand.
Pulling my thoughts together, I focus on the question. “I was at a party for my brother—”
“And what’s your brother’s name?” She’s making notes on a piece of paper in a file folder.
I’m reluctant to answer her. Part of the reason I’m here is to avoid involving my brother in my problems. On the other hand, I’m sure they can find the answer easily enough, and I don’t want to hinder their investigation.
“Rob,” I answer. “Rob Wilson.”
That’s when I sense a presence behind me. It’s a sudden electric awareness, like an invisible strand of energy has connected me to an unseen person. The next instant, my world tilts on its axis.
“Rachel?” says a deep, masculine, hauntingly familiar voice. “Rachel Wilson?”
A man comes up alongside me, and past and present collide with a thunderous crash. I’ve seen him before, but the last time was years ago, when he was — to my adoring eyes — a very grown-up eighteen.
Back then, he was my brother’s best friend, and my first love. That was before he left me. Like every other man in my life.
Now, memory merges with reality. The man before me is taller, far more muscular, with lines at the corners of his eyes and faint hints of silver in his dark hair. He’s gorgeous and dangerous and breathtaking.
My heart constricts, then expands. “Gabriel?”
He looks as shocked as I feel. “My god. I haven’t seen you since you were …”
“About seven years old, I think.” I don’t think; I know exactly, down to the minute, the last time I saw him. “I can’t believe it’s you.”
Keeping him at a distance is an impossibility. I rise from my chair, and he takes me gently in his arms.
It’s like coming home. My head finds a natural resting place on his shoulder; we fit together perfectly. Not many men are tall enough to tower over me.
I don’t ever want to move.
We never embraced like this when I was a child. He was a teenager then — kind to his best friend’s little sister, but preoccupied with his own interests, as teenagers are, and totally unaware of his importance to me.
I’m not a child anymore. I’m all grown up, and my woman’s heart — and body — are having cataclysmic reactions to being pressed against every hard, taut inch of him. To being held like I belong in his arms.
Klaxon alarms are going off in my head, flashing red lights warning of Danger! Danger! Everything I’ve fought for, the life I’ve built — he could destroy it all in an instant. I have to keep my distance, protect myself.
Easier said than done.
“I’ll handle this,” I hear him say. There’s a rustling sound from the direction of the desk; Juliet must be giving him my case file.
Gabriel turns me, his arm around my waist, and walks me from the room. “Let’s go talk in my office. Why didn’t you ask for me when you made the appointment?”
My skin is hot where he’s touching me, even through my clothing. My breath has gone shallow. It’s a struggle to keep my brain functioning.
“I didn’t know you were here. Back then … you were just Gabriel to me. I’m sure your last name must have been mentioned at some point, but I don’t remember ever hearing it.”
He stops short. “Adamo,” he says quietly. “My brothers and I run this firm.”
“Adamo.” It suits him, his dark masculine beauty, his rugged strength. “Nice to meet you, Gabriel Adamo.”
He draws in a long breath, his eyes holding mine. For a moment, I’m sure he’s going to say something, and then it passes.
Holding out one arm, he ushers me into an office that contains a battered wooden desk and three chairs. A filing cabinet sits to one side. There’s not a stray piece of paper or writing implement in sight.
“You must not use this often,” I say, looking around the ruthlessly tidy space.
“Whenever I’m here,” he says. “Updating case files, making calls, that kind of thing. Does Rob know you’re here?”
Dammit; he would have to bring that up. “No. And I’d rather you didn’t tell him.”
Gabriel frowns, but holds back the questions I know he wants to ask. “Would you like something to drink?”
“A glass of water would be great.”
“Sure.” He starts to say something else, then shakes his head. “Be right back.” Gesturing toward the two visitors’ chairs, he disappears down the hall.
I’ve just sunk into one of them when a ruckus starts nearby. Loud, excited voices, followed by a dog barking. Too curious to mind my own business, I leave the office and wander toward the noise.
A whole group of men are in Juliet’s office with her; judging from the resemblance among them, they must be Gabriel’s brothers. The one who was with her earlier is still there, looking like he just won the lottery, and the others are clapping him on the back, shaking his hand, punching him on the arm. Juliet’s face is radiant, and a delirious black puppy is leaping around, jumping up on everyone and barking hysterically.
Gabriel turns and spots me
. A strange expression crosses his face; it’s gone the next moment, but I know I didn’t imagine it. “Nico just proposed to Juliet,” he explains.
Now I can’t help but notice the ring on Juliet’s finger. She’s hugging all the men, and beaming at Nico, but every few seconds she looks at her finger, and her inner glow gets a little stronger.
I’m happy for her, but I also feel strangely disoriented, like I don’t belong. As if I’ve accidentally wandered onstage during a play, and can’t figure out what’s going on, let alone what my lines are.
“Who’s this?” a voice says.
I turn my head and get my second shock of the night: a man who looks almost exactly like Gabriel. My head swivels back and forth between them like I’m at a tennis match. “You have a twin brother. How did I not know that? Why didn’t he ever come over?”
There’s a moment of uncomfortable silence before Gabriel says, “Daniel, this is Rob Wilson’s sister, Rachel.”
“Oh.” A shadow flickers through Daniel’s eyes; his smile is a little strained. “Nice to meet you.”
I absolutely do not want to know what the problem is, because it must have to do with Rob. But I can’t not ask. “Did you and my brother not get along?”
“You could say that.” Daniel wraps his arm around Nico’s neck when his brother joins us. “We need to celebrate. Let’s go out.”
“Congratulations,” I say to Nico.
“Thanks.” He grins at me. “We have to take Jet home,” he tells his brother, and the puppy, hearing his name, races over and jumps on Nico, then on me.
I kneel down and get my faced washed by an enthusiastic tongue. “What a handsome boy,” I croon. “Sit.”
He manages it for a second before he jumps up. “Sit,” I repeat, keeping my tone gentle but firm. This time, he manages to stay in place for a whole three seconds. “Good boy! Good sit, Jet.”
Responding to my tone, he leaps at me again, and this time I give him pets and praise and belly rubs. He responds by tearing around the room at high speed.
“Another dog lover,” Nico observes. He and the twins are looking down at me, Nico and Daniel both wearing expressions of genial approval. Gabriel’s smiling too, but there’s something more in his eyes that I can’t quite decipher.
“What’s not to like?” I hold a hand up to Gabriel; he takes it, helping me stand, and my nerve endings shoot sparks in all directions. “Dogs are like kids; they’re always genuine.”
“Pee, puke, and poop,” Gabriel intones solemnly. “The holy trinity of keeping things real.”
“And here I was thinking you were all grown up.”
He laughs and says to Nico, “Drop the pooch off and come out with us. You can celebrate in private later.”
Nico gives him a look. “We all know that’s what you do with ninety-nine percent of your free time anyway,” Gabriel says, unfazed. “Come out with us, or we’ll tell Mom and Dad and the whole family will get in on the act.”
“Asshole,” Nico says good-naturedly. “You’re just jealous because I’m the youngest and I got engaged first.”
“It was a pretty bratty thing to do,” Daniel says. “Jumping the line like that.”
“Not my fault you old geezers don’t have your acts together.”
I’ve got that strangely disconnected feeling again. Is this what families are supposed to be like? Rob and I were too far apart in age to tease each other like this. And then, after the divorce, it was just me and Mom. It was years before I saw my brother again.
I love Rob, but in many ways he’s a stranger, and always has been. As I am to him.
“Jules,” Nico calls, and Juliet comes over from where she’s been talking with two other men. “We’re being extorted into going out to celebrate.”
She doesn’t answer, just looks at Nico. He gives her a slow, very naughty smile. “Sorry, guys. We’ll have to celebrate with you another time.”
As his brothers laugh and tease him, I smile at Juliet. “Congratulations,” I say again.
“Thank you.” She beams at me like we’re best friends. In a room full of testosterone, it’s good to have some female solidarity.
Three more brothers come over, and Juliet does the introductions. “Rafael, Enzo, and Stefano, this is Rachel Wilson.”
Rafael reminds me of a medieval knight, for some reason. I feel like he’d look right at home jousting in a tournament, or performing feats of chivalry. Enzo has a restless energy about him, the kind that might make him romance all the girls and fight all the men.
Both of them say hello. Stefano nods a greeting, but doesn’t speak. It’s not that he’s unfriendly, exactly, but there’s a reserve about him that doesn’t invite overtures. He might be the most self-contained man I’ve ever seen.
No one can go through life completely alone. Maybe not, but I have the feeling Stefano Adamo intends to try.
“What did you mean by extorted?” Juliet says to Nico.
“Either we ditch the pup and come out with them, or they notify the whole family.”
“Aren’t we going to do that anyway? I’d like to call my parents; I figured you’d tell yours.”
“Babe,” Nico says. “I don’t mean the whole family; I mean the whole family.”
Juliet shrugs and smiles. “I like your family.”
“Confirmation, if any were needed, that you’re marrying the right woman,” Enzo says.
“Just how big is your family?” I ask Gabriel.
“My immediate family you’ve met, aside from my parents; my extended family’s another matter. I’m not sure anyone’s ever counted, but I have lots of aunts and uncles and cousins, and that’s just locally. There are more of us upstate, and scattered around the country.”
“When our cousin Rico got together with his now-wife,” Nico tells Juliet, “a bunch of us went up there and wound up getting snowed in all weekend at his place in the mountains. That was a zoo. But it was fun.”
She looks perplexed. “You went all the way up to the mountains to celebrate them getting engaged?”
“Oh, they weren’t engaged yet.” He bursts out laughing at her expression. “Come on, let’s get Jet home, and I’ll explain a little more about my crazy family. Now that I’ve got my ring on your finger, you’re stuck with me no matter what you find out.”
“That’s not how it works,” Juliet shoots back, but her eyes are sparkling. Turning to me, she says, “I hope you’ll join us when we do celebrate with everyone.”
She’s so happy, and hopeful, and friendly that I can’t say no. “I’d like that.”
“Good. See you then. Whenever ‘then’ turns out to be.”
Nico and Juliet go to corral their puppy, and I say quietly to Gabriel, “I don’t want to intrude.”
“How could you intrude when you were just invited? But back to your situation. Has this man threatened you?”
“What man?” Enzo says.
Gabriel’s answer is succinct. “Stalker.”
In an eyeblink, the good cheer vanishes and I’m surrounded by four lethal men.
2
All To Myself
“No,” Rachel says, “he hasn’t threatened me. Not overtly.” Her face is calm, her voice matter-of-fact, but the strain shows around her eyes.
I know this because I’m observing every tiny detail about her, and have been since the moment I realized who she was. It’s taking all my self-control to maintain a facade of normality. So many different impulses are warring inside me that I feel ready to crawl out of my skin.
First and foremost is the need to protect her, to hunt the stalker down and pulverize him. Then there’s the need to find her brother, give him a good shake, and ask him why the fuck his sister is so alienated from him that she couldn’t ask for his help and doesn’t even want him to know she’s in trouble.
And under everything else, like a dark drumbeat in my blood, is the hunger. I want to touch her, taste her, claim her so thoroughly that she’ll never look at another man again.
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When you haven’t seen someone for a long time, you remember them as they were. In my head, Rachel was still a little girl, the big-eyed waif who followed Rob and me around. Instead, she’s a stunningly beautiful woman who makes my head spin and my cock ache.
Rob is going to have to deal. Yeah, your sister came to me for help, and I helped her right into my bed. He’ll want to kick my ass, but that’s too fucking bad.
Rachel Wilson is all grown up — and I’m going to make her mine.
Everyone’s looking at me. Get it together, Gabe. I force my mind back into professional mode. “Does he know where you live?”
“He has my address. He’s sent me mail.”
My hand curls into a fist. “All right. We’ll get more details from you later and figure out an initial plan. Have you had dinner?”
A shadow crosses her face briefly, but she just shakes her head. “I’m hungry,” I tell her, “so let’s grab a bite somewhere. We’ll catch up on this tomorrow,” I add for my brothers’ benefit.
We leave the office and I steer Rachel down the hall, one hand resting at the small of her back. Not touching her is impossible. “Did you drive here?” I ask as we wait for an elevator.
“Yes. My car’s in the parking lot.”
Good. Our security cameras should capture anyone who goes near it. We get in the elevator when it arrives, and I fight the urge to stop the car between floors and kiss the hell out of her.
When she came into Juliet’s office, right after Nico proposed, I got a strange feeling, like she’d reached into my chest and squeezed my heart. It happened again when I saw her playing with the puppy. It wouldn’t take much for me to fall for this woman.
But I need to take it slow. Rachel might have a boyfriend, for all I know, though that idea makes me want to put my fist through the wall. If she does, he’s a jerk for not being here to support her.