by Logan Fox
“In the study. In the safe. Same combination.”
“What, the study door and the safe?”
He makes an angry sound and steps back, shaking his head. “I don’t care how he made it look. I didn’t do it. None of it.” Another step. He’s brighter now, lit up by the faint gray light of the overcast sky.
But before he turns to leave, I say, “And what about that file on your hard drive? The archive you hid in the system files? Same combination?” I know it isn’t. My password cracking program already went through the numeral-only phase.
“Archive?” He turns back to me. “It’s one file.”
My heart legit skips a fucking beat. “Same combination though, right?” I ask. “That also going to prove you’re innocent?”
“It’s password protected.” He looks at the ground. “If you can open it, show it to Trinity.” When he looks up, his eyes have a dark shadow over them that has nothing to do with the rain that’s on the way. “Then maybe she’ll change her mind about me. About them. About everything.”
Un-fucking-likely.
“So what’s the password?”
Gabriel’s face turns to stone. “I don’t know, child. I’ve spent years trying to figure it out.” Then he shrugs and starts walking away. He glances back at me. “Promise me you’ll show her.”
Anyone with a shred of sense in their heads will tell you to never make a deal with the devil. But they’ve never faced a devil like Gabriel.
I guess he’s had years to practice his poker face, because fuck knows I can’t tell if he’s bluffing.
And it’s kind of a stupid request. I mean, why wouldn’t I show Trinity? She’s as much involved in this as any one of us.
“Promise me.” He’s stopped walking. Somewhere along the line, he put the gun back in his pocket.
I drag my fingers through my hair before I remember about the blood, but luckily it’s dried already. It’s still gross though, still makes me light-headed even thinking about it.
Gabriel’s face collapses. “Please.”
“Yeah, fuck. Whatever.”
He grimaces, perhaps for my language, perhaps for my vagueness, but it’s as good as he’s going to get. And I guess he realizes that, because he turns and walks away.
Follow him.
But instead I slide my back down the concrete wall and sit on my ass, trying to process why the fuck I let Gabriel get away.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Trinity
“…but I can’t blame you. I’m pissed off at me.”
Consciousness ebbs and flows, bringing with it a familiar voice. Who’s Apollo talking to? He seems agitated.
“You weren’t there. You didn’t see the look on his face. How he spoke about you.”
“Who?” I try to say, but nothing comes out. My lips don’t even move. I feel like I’m caught on the edge of sleep. My brain is certainly foggy enough. And all I want to do is slip away again.
Apollo drops his voice, makes it raspy. “Promise me you’ll show her.”
My fingers twitch. My lips move. “Apollo.”
But he’s so caught up in what he’s discussing with the other person in the room, he doesn’t notice.
“If I can just figure out that password. But what the hell is it? He said the combination was the same for the study and the safe, right? But the study didn’t have a lock. The basement had a lock…but we’d have to get back inside the house to check it out. And now that it’s a crime scene, the fuck that’s going to happen, right?”
Lord, maybe I should go back to sleep. I can’t understand a word he’s saying.
But then someone’s holding my hand. “Trin, listen. I know you’re in there somewhere. Can you wake the fuck up and explain this to me, please? Maybe you can decode the Gabriel Chronicles, and that would be swell, because Cass and Reuben are pretty pissed off with me. I need a win.”
Mmm. Sleep. That does sound good.
“Come on, Trin.”
How can I say no?
I force my eyelids open. They’re heavy, fluttering like a downed butterfly. Too-bright light spears into my head. “Ow.” I choke out hoarsely, squeezing my eyes shut again.
“Hey! You’re back!” Another squeeze to my hand. “Fuck yeah.” Something brushes my cheek. “Okay, so let me fill you in, right? I was chasing after Gabriel, and—”
“Apollo, enough.” A shiver chases through me when I recognize that deliciously low and rumbly voice.
Reuben.
I force my eyes open to slits and move my head to try and find him.
He’s standing opposite Apollo, on the other side of my hospital bed. As I catch sight of him, he wraps his hand around mine. So warm and tight.
“Welcome back,” he says quietly. “I hope you had pleasant dreams.”
“Course she did,” another voice says, the speaker out of sight. “Because she was dreaming about us. Weren’t you, darlin’?”
I have to tip my head forward to see Cass. He’s lounging in a chair pushed to one wall, but he stands and comes closer when we lock eyes.
“What happened?”
The last thing I remember is taking Gabriel to the bell tower. How he found the photo. And then…him shoving me against the wall. I hit it hard—is that why I’m here? I shiver violently, and Apollo immediately tugs the thin hospital blanket at my feet all the way up to my chin.
“Body warmth will work better,” Cass says, giving me a lopsided grin.
“Cut it out,” Rube demands, throwing him a faint scowl. Then his eyes are back on me. “How are you feeling?”
“Heavy.”
“Anesthesia,” Apollo says. “It’ll wear off.”
Rube squeezes my hand. “They said you can come home tomorrow.”
“Home?” My mind flashes back to that tiny, cramped room at Saint Amos. To the Brotherhood’s lair where Zach shoved a knife between my legs and told me he’d fuck me with it if I showed my face again. I squeeze my eyes shut. “I don’t want to go back there.”
“Not your house,” Apollo says through a chuckle, making no sense. “Our house!”
“He means our hotel room,” Rube says dryly, but looking at Apollo, not me.
“It’s where we live,” he says, shrugging. “What else am I supposed to call it?”
“It’s not home. Not even close.” Cass runs his fingers over the top of my foot. “But it’ll be a far sight better with you in it, that’s for sure.”
Anywhere’s better than that horrible school. I smile at Cass. At Rube. At Apollo. I get another peck on my cheek from Apollo, and Rube starts massaging my hand. I lift my left hand, and stare at the mass of bandages over it. When Rube catches my puzzled look, he shakes his head and gives me a faint smile. “Dislocated thumb. But it’ll heal just fine.”
When did that happen?
He ducks down, presses his lips to my forehead. Whispers, “You’ll heal just fine, Trinity.”
I let out a happy sigh, but that beautiful moment only lasts a second. I wriggle a little to sit up taller, and crane to look around the room.
Someone’s missing. Did Zach stay away on purpose? He’s made it clear he hates me, so I wouldn’t be surprised. But that hasn’t stopped him hanging around with me before. Honestly, I’d have thought he’d have enjoyed being here, especially if there was a chance to see me in pain. That’s what he gets off on, right? Pain?
But now that I’m looking, I notice an edge to the brothers. A grimness to their smiles. Shadows under their eyes. It’s not the kind of concern you get from someone who bumped their head against a wall.
What aren’t they telling me?
“Where’s Zach?”
When their eyes drop in unison, so does my stomach. Right to the fucking floor.
It makes no sense. He hates me, and I’m terrified of him. But the thought that something’s happened to him, it scares me more than that knife up my skirt ever could.
Because I know he’d hurt me…but never more than I could take.
I’m worse than a hopeless romantic. I’m a fucking fool.
No one’s going to change just like that. And these men? Probably never. The damage done to them is too deep. It may have scarred over, but those scars are permanent.
Instead of trying to change them, I should accept them for who they are.
But something tells me my epiphany came too late.
“Where is he?”
“Let’s not…” Apollo trails off.
Cass steps back, waving a hand. “You know what, we can chat about that later. You need to rest.”
I turn wide eyes to Reuben, who’s looking from Apollo to Cass with a blank expression. “Reuben? Reuben!”
He looks down at me. Strokes my eyebrow with his thumb. “It’s too early to tell,” he murmurs.
“What is? What do you mean?”
“You don’t remember?” Apollo asks.
I stare at him, my voice rising to a shout. “Remember what? Tell me what’s going on!” The last I direct to Cass.
He’s watching me through his lashes. And then he blinks, like he’s snapping out of a spell. “He took two gunshots to the chest. One barely missed his heart. The other…didn’t.”
Someone shot Zachary? My body goes ice-cold. “Oh my God.”
Reuben squeezes my hand. “It’s too early to tell if he’ll pull through, Trinity, but the doctors are doing everything they—”
I pull out of his grip, grab the edge of the sheet, and do my best to get out of the hospital bed. “Is someone going to help me?” I demand through gritted teeth.
Apollo rushes around the bed, but Rube puts out a hand to stop him. I scowl up at Reuben with as much ferocity as I can muster, but before I can open my mouth to cuss him out, he bends and scoops me up off the hospital bed.
Now I’m floating through the air like an aerial dancer. Cass comes over, grabbing the IV stand and wheeling it after us as Rube heads out my hospital room behind Apollo.
I’ve never been in a hospital before, but I have a feeling I’m in one of the private wards because I was the only one inside the room and there’s tasteful artwork on the walls we pass.
We go down an elevator, and when we exit, there’s suddenly too much excitement and activity. I burrow back against Reuben, and as if they sense my sudden panic, Cass and Apollo walk in front of us like a shield.
I hear voices murmuring up ahead when we stop. And then Cass says, “Does it look like I give a fuck about visiting hours?”
Rube grumbles something I don’t catch, and then we’re on the move again. He takes me through two more doors, and then the air is filled with the mechanical beep of machinery and the whoosh of life support systems.
Apollo and Cass part, their faces grim.
Rube takes me right up to the bed as if he won’t even entertain the thought of my feet touching the ground.
Zachary’s chest lifts and falls in time with the massive machine on the other side of the bed.
He’s pale and drawn, his cheekbones poking at his skin. Lips bloodless. Deep shadows under his sunken eyes.
My vision blurs. I blink hard, freeing my tears so I can see him again.
Apollo is talking to someone in the background. A nurse? A doctor? Their soft murmurs don’t sound positive.
“Put me down,” I say.
“We should get you back—” Rube begins, but I lift my unbandaged hand and lay it on his chest. Still not looking at him. Still focused on Zachary. “Please. Put me down.”
I have so many questions, but that’s not important right now. Right now, I’m trying to understand why it feels like the world is breaking down around me.
There’s no way I could have imagined the things he did and said, but now it feels like it was all a bad dream. The man lying in this bed isn’t capable of such violence, of such spite.
It’s impossible, but I know it’s true, and those conflicting thoughts make me feel dizzy and on edge. I want to shove away those thoughts and focus on my anger, but when I glance around the room, I see I’m not the only one struggling emotionally.
How can I be angry with him when he’s dying? We can sort out our shit later.
I slide out of Reuben’s arms and land on wobbly legs. He grabs me around the waist, keeping me steady as I lean forward and take Zachary’s hand in mine.
“Hey,” I whisper, and then clear my throat. “It’s me. Trinity. You remember me, right? The little girl who annoyed you so much?”
But nothing changes. There’s no quirk of his mouth, no twitch in his fingers.
I glance behind me and tilt my head back to look up at Rube. “Can he hear me?”
Reuben nods, his grim expression softening. “Of course he can.”
I turn back to the bed. Move a little closer. I stroke my fingers down the back of Zachary’s hand, careful not to nudge the IV drip. “Hey, so, the guys and I were wondering when the hell you’re coming back.” I try to laugh, but it doesn’t come out right. “It’s kinda lonely without you.” My voice catches on “without you” and when I try and speak again, I realize I’ve gone mute.
Cass appears at my side. He slides an arm around my waist, just below Rube’s, and squeezes me. “Yeah, you fucker. I mean, I get taking a vacation and shit, but this is costing us some serious dough.” He laughs too, and it sounds so forced that my heart shrivels up like a dying flower. “Well, guess it’s costing you.”
Apollo walks around the bed, and he hesitates before reaching out and stroking Zachary’s head. “You know we still have asses to kick, right? Can’t do that if you’re lying on yours.”
There’s quiet. Cass, Apollo, me…waiting.
Rube clears his throat. He hands me to Cass, and I miss his arms the second they leave my body.
When he stands over Zachary’s bed, it’s as if someone puts a stake through my chest and twists it.
Compared to Rube’s strong, broad body, Zachary’s looks so…fragile. Broken.
“What you did…” Reuben begins. “It wasn’t right. You know that. We all know that. But I’m hoping it was one of those times you couldn’t help it.”
I turn a puzzled frown to Cass, but he closes his eyes and gives his head a shake, as if telling me he’ll explain later.
Rube clears his throat again. Then he reaches out and lifts Zachary’s hand before lacing their fingers together.
“But then you did something so brave, so selfless…we’d be dicks not to forgive you.” His voice goes thick. “So if you don’t want to come back because of what I said, just know that I was full of shit. I do forgive you, Zach.”
“I forgive you too,” Apollo says. He gives Zachary’s head another stroke. “And I need you, man.”
“I forgive you.” Cass grabs his leg. “And you know I fucking need you.”
Then they all turn to me.
But the words stick in my throat. And when I shake my head, tears spill out of my eyes and race down my cheeks.
They don’t know what he did with the knife.
They didn’t hear how he threatened me.
I can forget about what he did, but I don’t know if I can ever forgive him.
“He saved your life,” Apollo murmurs. “Doesn’t that mean anything?”
“Apollo.” Rube’s voice is firm, his frown deep.
I glance at Apollo, then back and up at Rube. “What is he talking about?”
Rube points at Zachary’s chest. At the two sets of bandages plastered over his skin. “One of those bullets were meant for you, Trinity.”
“And one was meant for me,” Cass says beside me.
And then it comes rushing back.
My old house.
Gabriel trying to drown me in the bath.
The basement.
Gabriel chasing me down the hall.<
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Cass at the front door.
When I look down at Zachary again, it feels like someone is wrapping barbed wire around my heart.
“I…forgot.” I swallow hard and put my hands over my face. “How could I—”
“Concussion,” Apollo supplies, and then shrugs when I look up at him with slitted eyes. “What? You asked.”
I lick my lips. He saved my life. Possibly in exchange for his.
Only a cold-hearted bitch would hold a grudge against someone who sacrificed themselves for her.
“I forgive you, Zachary. And I need you too.” I look up at his three brothers, and my next words come easy, because I’ve never spoken truer ones in my life.
“We all need you.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Trinity
SIX MONTHS LATER
Water laps against the side of the infinity pool, merging seamlessly with the nearby ocean. It splashes against my body as I slap my arms down on the cool tiles beside the pool. I shiver at the contrast between warm and cold, and almost slip back into the heated water when a pair of bare feet pad into view.
I tilt my head back, blinking water from my eyes as I stare up at Cass.
“Water’s perfect,” I tell him.
But he just keeps standing there, watching me. If it was any other guy, it would have been creepy as all hell. But it’s Cass, and with those stunning blue eyes staring at me, it just makes me feel like I’m melting inside.
“Are you getting in, or you just going to keep gawking?”
“Rube wants to see you,” he says.
I stop paddling my feet, sinking a little lower into the water as a chill races through me. “Now? But—”
“No buts.” He crouches beside the pool, his swimming shorts hiking up his legs. He’s put on muscle in the last few months. Everyone except Apollo has, who flat out refuses to use our mansion’s built-in gym for anything more than some light cardio when it rains longer than a day. “You promised.”
“Yeah, bu—” I cut off, pressing my lips together. “God. Now?”