Gabriel gave an acknowledging inclination of his head. “On condition you don’t question or try to interfere with my methods of getting information.”
Angel had no idea how she was going to react once she saw the man they had caught, and discovered his possible involvement in Daniel’s and Lena’s abductions.
Chapter 6
“Still think he’s deserving of your concern?”
Angel didn’t even glance at Gabriel, all her attention on the man seated in the adjoining room and currently visible to her through a two-way mirror. A man she was certain she had never seen before today.
She had been slightly bemused when Gabriel first brought her in here, had thought rooms like this existed only in television programs. Ash had been standing in the room with his back turned toward the mirrored wall when she first looked through it, but as he stepped aside, she got her first look at the man who might have been part of Daniel’s kidnapping and had certainly been an accomplice in the shooting today.
There was absolutely nothing distinctive about him. He was of medium height and build as he slouched down in the chair on the far side of the table, with medium-length dark hair, and a mildly handsome face.
It was his eyes which betrayed him as the killer he no doubt was.
Intensely dark and insolently challenging eyes, as he refused to answer any of the questions Ash asked him.
After the past ten minutes of listening to Ash’s questions and that unresponsive silence, Angel bunched her hands into fists at her sides. She just wanted to go in there herself and beat the answers out of the man, to demand he tell them where Daniel was.
“No,” she finally answered Gabriel flatly, gaze fixed on the insolent man.
“Know him?”
“No.”
“Never seen him before?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Ready for me to go in?”
She did glance at Gabriel then. “Make him tell you where Daniel is. Please.”
Gabriel stepped forward and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “Whatever I say or do, whatever he says and does, I want you to stay in this room and not show yourself, okay?”
“What are you going to do?”
He placed a hand beneath her chin and tilted her face up so that she looked directly at him. “Whatever it takes to find Daniel. Our intel indicates Sinclair has him in Majorca, but that could just be a ruse to delay us finding out where he really is. Whatever happens in there, I need for you to remain calm. But most of all, to remain in here. Trust me, hmm?”
How could she not trust Gabriel? He was so blunt and forthright, he wasn’t the sort of man anyone could distrust. She also now knew that if she had only waited a little longer eight years ago, before accepting Clive’s marriage proposal, that Gabriel would not only have come back but would come looking for her. She was the one who had disappeared, and taken Gabriel’s son with her.
“I trust you,” she assured him huskily.
“Thank you.” He gave her a reassuring smile before releasing her.
“You’ll be careful?”
His expression became grim as he glanced at the man seated in the other room. “It isn’t me you need to worry about.”
Her stomach cramped as she heard the deadly intent in Gabriel’s voice. “It isn’t my intention to introduce Daniel to his father in prison.”
He gave a grin. “You have to get caught to end up in prison, and I’m guessing there aren’t too many people who would miss this piece of lowlife.”
She groaned. “Gabriel…”
He gave her another hard grin before leaving the room and closing the door quietly behind him.
Angel instantly turned back to the two-way mirror, just in time to see Gabriel enter the room. There appeared to be no change in the seated man’s expression, but even so, Angel instantly sensed a new tension in his slouched body. As if Gabriel was the last person he expected to see. Which was possibly true if he had thought his accomplice had succeeded in killing Gabriel earlier.
“You look surprised to see me.” Gabriel obviously saw that same reaction as he leaned against the table just inches away from the seated man. “Still alive, that is,” he added harshly.
Emotion flickered in those sinister dark eyes, too fleeting for Angel to discern exactly what it was, before the man’s gaze returned to looking at the floor.
“Maybe you would like to go and grab a coffee, Ash, while the two of us get acquainted?” Gabriel glanced at his brother.
“Sounds good.” Ash nodded.
“You’re not leaving me alone with him?” The seated man spoke for the first time, obviously not happy about this change in situation.
Ash gave an unconcerned shrug as he strolled over to the door. “It’s thirsty work talking to someone who doesn’t want to talk back.” He let himself out of the room.
Dark eyes glanced at Gabriel and then quickly away again. “I’ve heard things about your methods,” he muttered.
“Have you?” Gabriel replied pleasantly. “All of it true, no doubt.”
“Mr. Sin— The boss wants you dead.”
“I feel the same way about Mr. Sinclair,” Gabriel returned pleasantly.
“I almost feel sorry for the bastard,” Ash said softly.
Angel turned to see he now stood beside her. She had been so concentrated on what was happening in the other room, she hadn’t been aware of his having joined her. “Gabriel was shot earlier,” she told him worriedly.
His gaze narrowed on his brother. “Badly?”
She shook her head. “He called it a flesh wound. Zander agreed.”
Ash visibly relaxed. “As I said, I almost feel sorry for this bastard. Almost,” he added coldly.
Angel chewed on her bottom lip. “Do you think he’ll tell us where Daniel is?”
“Give him a few minutes alone with Gabriel, and he’ll be singing like a canary.”
Somehow that didn’t reassure her.
“Gabriel won’t lay a finger on him,” Ash drawled. “He won’t have to.”
Again, that didn’t reassure her.
“Did Mr. Sinclair tell you why he wanted me dead?” Gabriel asked pleasantly. “Or are you too low down the food chain, merely hired muscle, for him to bother explaining anything to you?”
Anger flickered in those dark eyes. “If you’re trying to antag—anta—annoy me, then you aren’t succeeding.”
“No? And by the way, the word you were looking for is antagonize,” Gabriel taunted.
“I know what the word is!”
“Didn’t sound like it to me.”
“What the fuck do you know about anything?” the other man snarled.
“I know lots of things. For instance, I know that once Sinclair hears how you bungled the job, at the very least you’ll never work for him again, at worst your dead body will be thrown into a landfill site with the rest of the trash.”
“I’m not the one who bungled the job, Mayhew is—” He broke off as he realized he had just revealed the name of the shooter.
“Oh, he’s good,” Angel admired.
Ash smirked. “He hasn’t even started yet.”
It was almost painful to watch as the seated man fell apart over the next few minutes, Gabriel’s taunts and mockery goading him to reveal much more than he should have done, or intended, as a way of trying to counteract those taunts.
They now knew his name was Jack Kramer. He had been working for Clive for almost a year, not as part of his personal security, but on jobs Clive didn’t want anyone else to know about.
“Why does Sinclair want me dead?” Gabriel leaned down so his face was now only inches away from Kramer’s.
“Isn’t it obvious?” the man scoffed.
“Not to me.”
Kramer looked Gabriel over contemptuously. “Little brat looks just like you.”
Angel drew her breath in sharply, knowing the “little brat” he was referring to had to be Daniel.
“Must have been
quite a shock for your boss to realize his wife had an affair,” Gabriel taunted, knowing Sinclair’s ego would never have allowed him to let anyone know he had always known Daniel wasn’t his son.
He shrugged. “Can’t say as I blame you. I only saw her once from a distance, but I wanted to give her one myself.”
“Really?” Gabriel’s tone was mildly enquiring, only the cold glitter of his eyes betraying his anger.
“I’ve never seen him before,” Angel gasped, her face pale. “At least, I don’t think I have…” Clive had so many employees coming and going, and this man was so unremarkable, she might just not have noticed him.
“Oh yeah.” The man settled more comfortably in his chair. “I would have enjoyed giving it to that stuck-up piece of pussy. Is she as good as she looks?”
Gabriel sat back. “Better.”
“You have some balls, man, to go up against Sin—the boss.” The younger man looked at Gabriel admiringly.
“Balls is exactly what I needed to get the job done.” He gave a smirk that didn’t reach the ice in his eyes. “Bet Sinclair was pretty pissed once he realized his wife had come to the father of her child for help, hmm?”
“Never seen him so angry.” Kramer frowned. “Almost foaming at the mouth.”
Gabriel leaned forward again. “What do you think the boss is going to say—and do—once he knows that Mayhew missed me and killed Sinclair’s wife?”
Angel gave Ash a startled glance. “But—”
“Watch,” he bit out, narrowed gaze concentrated on the adjoining room.
“No!” Kramer no longer slouched back in his chair, and the insolence had completely gone from his expression, his face deathly pale as he stared at Gabriel in horror. “He couldn’t have done. He’s a crack shot. He couldn’t have missed his target.”
“’Fraid so.” Gabriel derided. “I think your future in that landfill site is secured, don’t you?”
The other man looked completely panicked now. “Mayhew is the one that screwed up, not me.”
Gabriel shrugged. “I doubt Sinclair will bother making that distinction.”
“He’s going to kill us both!” All bravado had gone from Jack Kramer now. A fine sheen of sweat slicked his pasty brow.
“Yes, he is.”
“You have to help me.” Kramer grabbed hold of Gabriel’s arm, too agitated to see Gabriel’s wince as the movement pulled on the flesh wound on his side. “If I go back to him now, he’ll kill me!”
“Why on earth would I want to help you?” Gabriel removed the other man’s hand from his arm. “You’re nothing to me.”
“The kid,” Kramer announced triumphantly. “I know where Sinclair’s keeping him. That information has to be worth something,” he challenged.
Angel’s knees almost gave way at how close they were to knowing where Daniel was.
“Steady.” Ash placed an arm about her waist.
Gabriel arched one dark brow. “Does it?”
“’Course it does,” Kramer insisted. “You have to want your kid back, right?”
“That would depend on what you want in exchange.” Gabriel stood up.
Angel turned her anguished gaze to Ash. “Why is he delaying?”
His mouth twisted. “First rule of interrogation, never, ever, allow the person you’re negotiating with to realize how important the information is he’s holding back.”
“But—”
“You have to trust Gabriel to know what he’s doing, Angel.”
Which was exactly what Gabriel had said. What he had asked of her. What she had agreed to do.
She nodded. “I trust him.”
“I want a new identity,” Kramer demanded. “New passport. Credit cards. Money. The works.”
“You’re asking a lot.”
“In exchange for your kid’s life!”
Gabriel began to slowly pace the room, as if he was thinking the proposal over. “Mayhew didn’t get away either. He’s now in the custody of the police. They aren’t too enamored of people shooting in the capital’s streets. He may have told them the name of his accomplice by now. They could already be looking for you in connection with Angela Sinclair’s murder.”
Kramer’s face went gray. “I’m not going back to prison.”
Gabriel gave him a considering glance. “Maybe you should have considered taking up a new profession when you got out last time?” he mused. “You’re young, almost pretty. I’m guessing you’re just the type some of the other inmates like.”
Kramer’s eyes darted everywhere, as if he half expected some of those inmates to appear here and now. “Okay, forget the money and credit cards, just get me another passport and I’ll tell you where the brat is. I’ll even tell you how to get him away from Sinclair,” he added with a pleading whine.
“Hmm, that sounds more reasonable,” Gabriel considered. “I would need to secure Daniel before I let you go, of course.”
Hope glittered in the younger man’s eyes. “Anything, as long as you help me to disappear afterwards!”
“Bingo,” Ash remarked softly at Angel’s side.
It was all a bit too much for Angel. The shooting. Cleaning and dressing Gabriel’s wound. Learning Ash had captured the accomplice to the shooting. And now the strain of standing in here, holding back, as Gabriel questioned the other man.
The world turned black around the edges before that blackness consumed her completely.
“We now know Daniel is definitely being held at Sinclair’s Majorcan estate,” Gabriel informed Angel once she woke from her faint.
She still felt totally disorientated, taking several moments to understand what Gabriel had said while she took in her surroundings. She appeared to be lying on the sofa in Gabriel’s office, or one very like it, probably carried here by either Ash or Gabriel after she passed out.
She blinked up at Gabriel as he sat on the side of the sofa, and the events of this morning crashed in on her. “Has Kramer told you how to get to Daniel?”
“Not yet, but he will.”
“Because he believes I’m dead and you’re going to help him evade Clive’s retribution?”
Gabriel gave a smile of satisfaction. “Sorry about that, but my plan wouldn’t have worked otherwise.”
She nodded. “It was very cleverly done.”
“And the reason I didn’t want you to get all emotional and possibly enter the room and make a liar out of me.”
She had felt like doing that at one point of Gabriel’s questioning of Kramer, Angel recalled. “You’re very good at what you do.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. “Do you have a problem with my methods?”
Not when Angel thought of the alternative, no. She had seen so many television programs and movies where interrogation involved violence, sometimes extreme. Gabriel had played with Kramer’s mind and his fear of Clive rather than resorting to physical tactics. But watching Gabriel literally take Jack Kramer apart piece by piece had given her a glimpse of yet another Gabriel.
Another part of Gabriel she hadn’t known before today.
A depressing thought.
She avoided meeting his gaze. “Not at all if it means we get Daniel back. Could I sit up, do you think?” She felt at a distinct disadvantage lying down but couldn’t sit up until Gabriel moved out of her way.
He stood slowly. “Angel, I did what I had to do to get the information I wanted.”
“I said I understood that.”
“You said the words, but your eyes said something different.” He grimaced.
She shook her head. “I’m just… Are we still flying to Majorca this afternoon?”
“Along with several of my men. Ethan and half a dozen Knight Security employees flew over last night. They’ve been watching the place, gathering information. He’s found somewhere, a villa, where we can all stay. In a little village on the west coast called Banyalbufar. Heard of it?”
“I’ve eaten in the restaurants there several times. It’s only a couple of miles from
Clive’s estate.”
“So the people in the village would recognize you?”
“Maybe.” She looked flustered. “I’m not sure.”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s better if you keep a very low profile until we’ve secured Daniel, anyway.”
“Of course.”
“Angel—”
“Do you have somewhere I can splash some water on my face?”
Gabriel knew he wasn’t imagining the way Angel couldn’t quite look at him, or the flatness of her tone or her distance from him. Obviously not physically, but emotionally he sensed there was definitely a barrier between them. “The bathroom is through there.” He nodded in the direction of the connecting door, continuing to watch Angel until she closed the door behind her.
He was still staring at that closed door, wondering what he could do to make Angel less uncomfortable around him, when Ash strode into his office.
“You haven’t lost her again?” his brother teased after noting Angel’s absence.
“Oh, fuck off!” Gabriel scowled as he moved to sit behind his desk. “She’s simply gone into the bathroom to freshen up.”
Ash grinned unrepentantly as he leaned against the front of the desk. “She’s one hell of a woman,” he murmured admiringly.
“She is.” Some of the tension left Gabriel’s shoulders as he acknowledged all that Angel had been through today: the tension at the bank, the shooting, cleaning and dressing his wound, watching as he interrogated one of the men involved in the shooting. Most women would have been in hysterics by now rather than simply fainting. He certainly doubted the past eight years as Clive Sinclair’s wife had prepared her for any of what had happened today.
Ash arched a brow. “Going to keep her this time?”
“Doubtful.”
“Why not?”
Gabriel gave an exasperated snort. “Because she’s who she is and I’m who I am.”
“Which is…?”
“Angel has lived as the wife of a bloody billionaire for the past eight years. Knight Security is lucrative, and it’s made us all rich, but nowhere near the realm of Sinclair fortune.”
“Mainly made by ruining other people’s lives, whereas we do all we can to preserve life,” Ash reasoned.
Challenging Gabriel (Knight Security 2) Page 9