by W. J. May
It was all a matter of time.
Why hadn’t our parents ever mentioned how interconnected they all were? The stories told about the infamous Simon Kerrigan always were so distant, so aloof. Why had no one ever told us how personally connected he was to each and every one of them?
They might need to slow things down in a minute. In fact, they might need to freeze things altogether. And Rae could think of only one person who could do that.
“Where’s Angel?” she asked Luke softly, stretching up on her toes so as not to be heard.
Simon had busied himself with the coffee, and both Devon and Julian were staring at each other in that strange way they did when Rae wondered if they were telepathic.
“I don’t know,” Luke murmured back. “She said she had some things to take care of.” He shifted restlessly and glanced out towards the foyer. “I don’t want to bail on you guys, but I should go up and check on Molly. Make sure she was actually able to—”
At that moment, there was another knock on the door. It creaked open before anyone could stop it, moving in slow motion as they all stared in terror from the kitchen.
“Knock, knock!” Angel called, her lovely face lit up with a radiant smile. “Look who I happened to find when I raided his apartment in London…”
“Oh shit…” Julian murmured.
The door pushed open wider, and Gabriel’s golden head of hair sailed into view.
Rae sucked in a quick breath when she saw him. Tall and handsome. And completely closed off. Just as he had been at the funeral. Just as he had been ever since the day they met.
For a moment both siblings just stood there, glancing around the empty front room. Then they spotted the gang watching them in the kitchen and headed over, clearly having no idea what they were about to find.
Angel danced ahead first, obviously pleased with her efforts. “Turns out, all I needed to do was literally smoke him out of the apartment, and…”
She trailed off, coming to a sudden stop in the doorway of the kitchen. Her eyes rested upon Simon and tensed with confusion, like she was trying to recall a vague memory she had worked to suppress.
Simon slowly set his coffee down on the table, staring back with equal wonder. It wasn’t until her brother walked into the room behind her that his face lit up with impossible surprise.
“Gabriel?”
Chapter 7
The first time Rae met Gabriel, he was leaning over the bars of her cell. Even from where she was gazing up in the darkness, she could see he was smiling. As if the weight of the entire Privy Council wasn’t breathing down his neck. A short time later, he was propositioning her on a fishing boat—shamelessly disregarding her protests as he took off his shirt and climbed into bed. A while after that, he was bleeding—bleeding everywhere. She’d sent him back to London where he’d been strung up and tortured for three days. It wasn’t until later that night, passed out on the sofa amongst his new family of friends, that she’d seen him finally let his guard down.
He’d stolen her a birthday cake. Gotten shot in the chest. Both lost and found his humanity all within the same impossible year.
She’d seen him callous, and radiant. Repentant, and cold.
But she had never, ever seen him scared.
Until now.
“Gabriel.”
The voice hit him like a battering ram, freezing him in his tracks. For a moment, it looked like he was too shocked to move. Too profoundly surprised to do anything other than stare.
Then Simon cried out in delight…and his entire world began to crumble. “It is you! I can’t believe it!” Simon pushed to his feet, beaming all the while. “Gabriel, you’re all grown up!”
All grown up?
Only Simon seemed unaware of the effect his words were having—he was too caught up in the excitement of seeing a living token from his past. But to those who knew him better, the sudden transformation that came over Gabriel couldn’t have been more alarming.
Gabriel stumbled backwards. Yes, stumbled. His face was pale as a sheet. A thin layer of sweat broke out on his forehead, and when he reached down a hand to steady himself he slipped again.
“Gabriel,” Simon tried again, taking a step forward. “It’s me, Simon.”
That did it. Hearing the name did it.
A broken gasp ripped its way out of Gabriel’s chest, and he managed to say only one thing. “ No…”
Then time seemed to catch up again. The world blinked back into focus, and the kitchen was suddenly a blur of speed.
Angel threw a knife at Simon’s heart. Devon grabbed it out of the air.
And Gabriel?
Gabriel bolted from the house.
* * *
Without stopping to think, Rae did the only thing that made sense.
She took off after him.
It wasn’t easy. A heavy mist had descended over the spacious grounds, and even with a speed tatù on her side it was all she could do to catch up to Gabriel, as he was running like the hounds of hell were behind him. For all she knew, they practically were. She had never seen that expression on a person’s face before. Especially his face. Like he’d walked into the kitchen only to come face to face with his own living, breathing nightmare.
He knows my father! She chanted it over and over again. They’ve met before! I was right. It all comes back to Cromfield! But why didn’t he tell me?! Why would he keep something like that a secret?! My own father!
Her heart pounded in her chest as she swept over the icy grounds, the tip of her billowing coat skimming the top of the grass. Her hair fell in damp curls around her as she twisted her head this way and that. But still, no Gabriel.
Then she heard him.
Crying.
All her anger and confusion melted clean away as she walked carefully towards him through the fog, approaching as one might approach a frightened child or a wounded animal. His back was towards her and his shoulders hunched as he wept openly into his hands, shivering and trembling in the cold. The sight alone was enough to rip her heart out. It wasn’t until she placed a tentative hand on his back that he even noticed she was there.
“I can’t breathe,” he whispered, sinking down onto the grass. “I can’t breathe.”
She sank down with him, gathering him up in her arms as he had done for her so many, many times before. Together, they sat there. Rocking back and forth for however long a time. The sun came up and peeked through the morning mist, but they were in a world all to themselves.
Him, closing his eyes as silent tears ran down his face.
Her, running her fingers through his long, golden hair.
It wasn’t until his breathing had steadied and his heartbeat had evened out that she even dared to speak. “You knew my father,” she said softly. “You’ve met him before.”
His body tensed just at the memory, and for a moment she wished she hadn’t spoken.
After an eternity of silence, he nodded. But still, he couldn’t bring himself to speak.
She tried again. “At St. Stephen’s Church?” she guessed, remembering the place as she had seen it through his memories. “You must have been—”
In a flash, he leapt to his feet.
Gone was the frightened boy who had just wept in her arms. Gone were the emotions that had frozen him with fear, sent him running from the house in a blind panic. They had been replaced with rage. That telltale hardness that had kept him alive since he was a child. Seen him through unspeakable terrors. Looking at him now, she couldn’t imagine him crying.
“Yes, Rae. I’ve met your father.” He spat out each word like an unholy curse, one that took away a little bit of him just to say it. “I was five years old when he first came to the dungeons. Five years old, but it didn’t spare me.”
Rae got slowly to her feet, wondering, with a dreadful chill, what exactly that meant.
Gabriel was pacing now, whirling around in tight little circles as if he could shake loose the demons from his past. There was a storm bui
lding up inside him. One she couldn’t begin to understand.
“He…he’s a bad man, Rae. You shouldn’t have let him into the house.”
“They were going to shoot him,” she answered quietly. “No arrest. No trial. No accountability. They were going to just shoot him right there as he slept—”
“AND YOU SHOULD HAVE LET THEM!”
The words exploded out of him, lingering in the fog.
For a second, the two of them just stood there. Gabriel, panting as if he’d run a marathon. Rae, standing perfectly still.
If there was one thing Gabriel could be counted on, it was total honesty. He didn’t feel the need to censor himself the way other people did. Didn’t feel the need to sugar-coat the truth to make it more palatable for the masses. Call it his traumatic upbringing inside a lunatic’s cave. Call it his natural born aversion to sanctimonious bullshit.
Ever since he’d burst into her life, Gabriel was the only person Rae could trust to tell her the absolute truth. Never coddling or shielding her the way the others tried. Trusting that, no matter how hard it was to hear, she could handle it.
It was one of the reasons she was so terrified right now.
“You really believe that.” As strong as she tried to make it, her voice came out as no more than a whisper. “You really believe that he deserves to die.”
She didn’t ask it as a question. One look at Gabriel’s face told her that there was no question. But just in case there was the slightest bit of doubt, his green eyes locked onto hers.
“Give me a gun…and I’ll do it myself.”
She didn’t doubt him. Not for a second. In fact, she’d seen him make the exact same threat the last time a person he loved was in danger. He didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.
And now she’d brought a man into their house who was a threat to them all.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. When he glanced up, she shook her head with a sigh. “I’m sorry for whatever he did to you—”
“Don’t!” He threw up a hand in between them. “Don’t apologize for him! Don’t act like this is something you can apologize for! You need to fix this. Now. You need to get him out of here!”
“And where’s he supposed to go?” she exclaimed. “How am I supposed to deal in these kinds of absolutes? How am I supposed to sentence my own family?”
“Family?!” Gabriel grabbed reflexively at his arm, as if it had been burned. “Why the hell do you think I never told you?” he demanded, his eyes shining with unspeakable rage. “Why do you think I kept secret all the things he’d done?”
He was flat-out yelling now. The darkest words coming from the fiercest kind of love.
“Who should have to know their father is capable of something like that?! Who should have to know they’re the offspring of a monster?!”
Rae froze where she stood. Feeling as though he’d slapped her.
All this time, all these years…he’s been keeping the biggest secret of all.
But it was as he said. He hadn’t been doing it for himself. He’d been doing it for her. To protect her. Just as she needed to protect him now.
“You’re not a murderer, Gabriel.” She wasn’t sure of many things these days, but of this she was certain. “You’re not going to kill a man in cold blood.”
For a moment, he just stared at her. The wind blew his hair around him, and despite the terrible threat hanging in the air between them he suddenly looked very much like a child.
Then his face hardened, and the light died in his eyes.
“Who do you think taught me how?”
Then he was off.
Off before she could stop him. Off before she’d even decided if she should. She stared after him helplessly, frozen in place, until a single thought propelled her forward.
I can’t let him do this to himself!
It was as if the ground itself had released her. Before she knew what was happening she was flying back over the frosty grass, closing the distance between them.
Simon Kerrigan might deserve the worst the world had to offer. He might even deserve to die. But Gabriel was not going to be the one to pull the trigger. The man had taken enough from him already. He wasn’t going to take that, too.
“Gabriel, wait!”
He was almost to the house now. The sight of it only spurred him on faster. He didn’t have a weapon of any sort, didn’t have a gun. But they both knew he didn’t need one. If Gabriel wanted someone dead, he need only think it.
“Gabriel!”
For a split second, she thought she wasn’t going to make it. Even with her using Riley’s cheetah tatù, he had gotten too much of a head start. But then the front door opened, and Devon ran outside.
The two men sprinted on an intercept course, colliding in the middle of the field.
“Gabriel, you don’t want to do this.” Devon caught him lightly by the arms, and eased him back away from the house. “Trust me. You’ll regret it in the morning. Just take a second to think.”
Gabriel ripped his arms away, enraged beyond reason yet eerily calm. “The only thing I’m going to regret,” he spat, “is letting that man breathe for a second longer than is required.” He glanced up at the house, eyes dilating as if they could see through the ivy-covered stone. “Simon Kerrigan is going to die today. He should’ve died a long time ago.”
He tried again to move forward, but Devon held him back. It was the fight Rae had never wanted to see happen. One the two men had been dancing around since the day they first met.
“Devon,” Gabriel looked him square in the eyes, “stand aside.”
It looked like Devon wanted to. In fact, it looked like a part of him was ready to march inside and pull the trigger himself. But Devon’s sense of morality had never been as flexible as Gabriel’s was. Especially when it came to things that could do Rae potential harm.
His brown eyes shone with sympathy, even as he shook his head. “You know I can’t do that, man. Come on, let’s just take a breath—”
The punch came out of nowhere, hitting him right in the eye. It made contact just as Rae came flying up behind them in the grass. She saw the first of the blood trickle down Devon’s cheek.
“Gabriel!” she shrieked. “What the hell are you doing?!”
She rushed in between them, but Devon never moved. He looked neither upset nor particularly surprised. Instead, he was staring at Gabriel with a look of unthinkable pity.
“You’re not going to do that to Rae,” he said quietly. Half as a vote of confidence, half as a command. “You’re not going to make her watch her own father die.”
Gabriel gritted his teeth together, seemingly unaware that his hands had started shaking. “I don’t want to hurt you—”
“Then don’t,” Devon replied simply. He wiped away the blood with the back of his sleeve, pushing Rae discreetly aside in the process. “Let’s go into town and get a beer.”
Go into town and get a beer? That was his grand solution?
Rae turned to him in absolute shock, but Gabriel was staring like he’d never quite seen him before. His lips parted uncertainly, and for a moment he almost looked tempted. Then the distant hum of voices echoed from the house, and his face hardened once more.
“Move.”
This time, Devon seemed to realize the time for words had passed. He braced himself ever so casually in the grass and spoke to Rae, keeping his eyes on Gabriel the entire time. “Honey, go inside.”
“Are you kidding me?!”
She threw herself in between them once more, unable to comprehend how things had gotten away from her so quickly. One minute, Gabriel was crying on her shoulder, vulnerable and helpless as a child. The next, he was preparing to beat her fiancé into the ground.
“Guys, you cannot actually be ready to—”
Then she was flying through the air.
It was the last thing the boys did together, throwing her at the same time out of harm’s reach.
Then they turned to each oth
er.
“STOP!”
But it was no use trying to stop it. It would be over before she even landed on the ground.
Of all the men in the world, Devon and Gabriel had to be the most dangerous pairing. Not only because of the skill and impossible strength with which they fought, but because of the devastating speed with which it was done.
Devon got in five hits. Five hits in under a second. Five hits that would have leveled a normal person to the ground. Except Gabriel wasn’t exactly what you’d call normal.
Despite not have the enhanced abilities of Devon’s tatù, Gabriel had grown up fighting in a slightly different way. He’d grown up fighting for his life. It was something you couldn’t unlearn.
“GABRIEL—NO!”
There was no more fighting now. No more maneuvers. Devon had frozen so suddenly it was like the whole thing had never even happened. If it wasn’t for the look of exquisite pain rippling across his handsome face, she would have thought he’d simply given up. That, and the fact that Gabriel was standing just a foot in front of him, holding up two lethal fingers.
“GABRIEL!”
She had seen him do that just one time before. Seen him twitch his fingers and take a man’s life into his hands. Seen him slowly reverse the flow of blood to the heart.
Her feet touched down just as Devon fell to his knees. Then she was racing forward.
Her body flipped through a dozen different tatùs as she tore across the grass. Each more deadly than the next. Electricity, speed, kinetic vibrations…fire.
It shocked her, then didn’t shock her all at the same time. That her body would have instinctively settled on the one thing she needed most. To save the love of her life. To stop the man intent on hurting him. Coincidentally, it was the only tatù Gabriel couldn’t possibly survive.
Blue flames laced up the sides of her arms, like angelic wings trailing out behind her. But the second she got back to the clearing, she saw that, once again, she was too late.
It was over.