by Opal Carew
It took Gabriel several seconds to put words together.
“You’re late.”
Matt snorted. “Apparently not late enough.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed and his fists curled at the implication in Matt’s laconic drawl. Behind him, he heard Shea pull on her shirt then step to his side.
Matt didn’t acknowledge her, just addressed Gabriel. “They need to be ready to move in five. We’ll head for Louisiana, see Maddie. Then Texas. I’ll let you know where we end up.”
Shea’s mouth firmed at Matt’s deliberate snub, and her hands clenched into fists at her sides. For a second, he thought she might go straight for Matt’s chin with her fist. She’d reached the end of her rope.
Then Matt turned to Shea and smiled. Gabriel’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. He’d never seen Matt smile. Not once in the fifteen years he’d known him.
“I take it you’re Shea.”
She nodded, staring at Matt like he was a bug under a microscope.
Surprisingly, he stuck out his hand and leaned away from the door to shake. “You look just like your mama. Pretty woman. Where’s the boy?”
Shea took a deep, shaky breath. “With Digger.”
Matt nodded, his expression softening just a bit. “Then I suggest you get him and your stuff so we can go. Got a lot of miles to cover.”
For a few seconds, she stared at Matt with her mouth set in a mutinous line. Then those pretty lips softened and quivered and, without another word or a look in his direction, she pushed through the door Digger and Leo had disappeared into.
He expected to hear the door slam. It didn’t.
“Christ, Gabe.” Matt’s drawl thickened with disgust. “Didn’t you learn anything from your daddy? He would have been the first to tell you not to get emotionally attached to any of them.”
The words got out before he could stop them. “Davis wasn’t my father.”
Matt shocked the hell out of him with his next statement. “Well, no shit, Sherlock. Not by blood, anyway. Anyone who had half a brain could tell by looking at you. But most people don’t look beyond what they’re told. Some of us don’t want to. But Davis loved you like you were his, and if you wanna shit on his memory, then you do it away from me.”
Gabriel opened and closed his mouth twice before he could speak. “You knew?”
“Knew what? That Davis wasn’t your biological father? Shit, yeah. Don’t know if anyone else did. Can’t help you with who the real deal is.”
Gabriel didn’t know what to say to that. He didn’t need any help figuring out who his real father was. He knew. He just didn’t want to believe, didn’t want—No, he couldn’t go there.
“Why the hell didn’t you say anything?”
Matt shrugged. “Wasn’t my place. Besides, I’m not much for getting involved.”
“Then why are you here?”
Matt shook his head. “Well, that would be the million dollar question, now, wouldn’t it?” He glanced over his shoulder at the door. “She’s gonna be a problem, isn’t she?”
Gabriel huffed. “She’s tough. She’ll deal.”
“What about the boy?”
“He’s the most powerful grigorio I’ve ever met.”
“Yeah, well, that would figure, wouldn’t it?” Matt released a heavy sigh and shook his head. “Damn Kyle for leaving this mess to me.”
“I don’t think he had a choice in the matter.”
Matt nodded then dropped his head and stared at the ground. “Kyle called me just before he was killed, said something was up, needed me to come. I didn’t get the message until it was too fucking late.”
Well, that explained Matt’s grimmer-than-usual mood, Gabriel decided. “If you’d been there, they might have killed you, too.”
Matt rounded on him again, and Gabriel could actually see a sheen in the guy’s eyes. Hard-ass Matt, who didn’t have a sentimental bone in his body. “I still don’t understand how they got to Kyle. My brother was one of the best.”
Gabriel shook his head. “I’m pretty sure Leo’s power got away from him, and Dario followed the trail. Then I think…I think Kyle and Celeste sacrificed themselves for the kids.”
Shea opened the door at that moment, Leo clutching her free hand while she held her backpack in the other. Her gaze tripped over Gabriel before she stuck out her chin and looked straight into Matt’s eyes.
“No swearing,” she said. “I have to agree to wherever we’re going. You look at me when I speak to you, and you don’t ignore Leo. I agree to jump when you say jump and bite my tongue most of the time.”
Matt didn’t hesitate. “I’ll try to tone down the swearing, for the kid’s sake. You can say anything you damn well want to me. I will look at you when you’re speaking, but I won’t promise to hear what you’re saying. You can try to ditch me but it doesn’t mean you will.” He turned to Gabriel. “I take it you’re going after Quinn alone?”
Gabriel nodded, trying to ignore the plea on Leo’s face and the way Shea wouldn’t look at him.
“Think that’s wise?” Matt asked.
“I work better alone.”
Matt shrugged. “Your funeral, then.” He turned back to Shea and Leo and did something Gabriel hadn’t expected. He knelt in front of Leo and stuck out his hand.
“Matt Tedaldi. I’m your uncle.”
Leo swallowed and took his hand. “I’m Leo. Do I call you Uncle Matt?”
Matt’s head tilted to the side, considering. “You can, if you want. And I’m gonna apologize right now for being an ornery bas—jerk most of the time. It’ll save a lot of grief later, ’kay?”
That made Leo brighten a bit. “Okay.”
Matt nodded and stood. “Let’s get outta here.”
Pain ripped through Gabriel’s chest, nearly taking him to his knees. Vaffanculo, this wasn’t right. They shouldn’t be leaving him. But he had to find Quinn.
And Dario.
And he couldn’t watch them and do that.
Leo walked over and held out one little hand to shake. Instead, Gabriel picked him up so they were eye to eye. “Listen to Matt, okay? He’s a good trainer.”
“We could come with you, Gabriel,” Leo whispered. “We could help.”
The pain in his chest tripled. “I know you could, bud. But I couldn’t concentrate with you and Shea around. I’d worry about you too much. This way, I won’t worry.”
Tears popped into the boy’s eyes. “Will we see you again?”
Gabriel nodded, every movement an agony. “Count on it. And the next time I see you, I’ll expect you to have mastered those knives.”
Leo’s tears never fell. He blinked them away as Gabriel set him on the ground. Fuck. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t supposed to go down like this.
He turned to find Shea staring at him through dry eyes. She was royally pissed, whether at him or Matt or life in general, he wasn’t sure.
Grabbing her hand, he drew her to a corner of the room, far enough so the others couldn’t hear. “I’ll come for you and Leo. As soon as I’m done here. We’re not finished, you and I.”
That made her smile for a brief second but something flashed through her eyes. Something that scared the shit out of him. “Be careful, Gabriel. I need— You need to stay safe.”
She leaned up, pressed her lips against his cheek. Then she walked to Leo, took his hand and let Matt lead them away.
* * *
Serena was gone.
Mentally, Gabriel kicked himself backwards, sideways, up and down as he stood in the garage staring at the empty space where the Jeep had been. He should have known she’d do this, should have seen it coming.
But he’d been so fucking furious at Serena and so damn heartsick at sending away Shea and Leo. He should have realized she’d been planning something like this.
“Jesus, Gabe, where the hell do you think she went?” Digger shook his head. “Why the hell didn’t she wait for you?”
That second question he could answer.
The first… He didn’t have a clue where she was headed.
But he bet she knew exactly where to find Dario. Had probably been in contact with the bastard when Gabriel had been stupid enough to leave her alone in the garage.
Gods-be-damned. She was going to give herself up to Dario for Quinn, and Quinn would do something so fucking stupid to try to save her that he’d get himself killed.
Crushing weight dropped on his chest like a solid block of iron, the one metal grigori could not manipulate.
He had to find them all and he had to be prepared to kill Dario when he did.
* * *
Matt had an old Chrysler with a front seat the size of a church pew.
Shea and Leo sat in the front with Matt…because he had an arsenal in the back. A rifle, two handguns, a few boxes of ammunition, two sets of wrist sheathes and throwing knives, and a few miscellaneous blades. A custom-made carrier held it all steady on the backseat.
She studied their new grigorio, their uncle, in silence as Matt drove with an intensity only madmen have, though his handsome features and curly, golden brown hair made him look more like a California surfer than a powerful protector. The shadow of whiskers on his square jaw added to his air of danger.
He looked like their father, enough so that her heart ached as they left the building. Except for his eyes. Matt’s were bright blue and sharp, able to see through lies and into all your secrets. He turned those eyes on her now, only briefly.
“What?”
A man of few words. So unlike Quinn. So much like Gabriel. She hated him for sending them off with someone else, even though she knew he was doing what he thought best.
“Nothing.”
Matt’s right eyebrow lifted slightly but he didn’t say anything.
“You look like Daddy,” Leo said, his tone subdued. “Are we going to live with you now?”
Shea drew in a short breath, ready to punch the man if he so much as looked at Leo the wrong way.
Matt surprised the hell out of her. “Yeah, I’d like you to. You two are all I have left in the way of family. And frankly, I miss your dad. He was some years older than me, and…” Matt took a deep breath, “your parents raised me when my mom and dad were killed.”
He now had their undivided attention. Their father had never talked about his parents. In fact, he’d never talked about Matt, but Shea wasn’t about to mention that now.
“What happened?” Leo voiced the words Shea couldn’t get past the lump in her throat.
Matt’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel, and his foot goosed the gas pedal before settling into a slower speed for the city streets. “Car accident, if you can believe that. Drunk driver ran ’em down on the side of the road. They were walking home from a dinner party. Mom was killed instantly. Dad hung on for a few days until we pulled the plug. I was twelve. Your mom and dad took me with them after that. Kyle trained me, even though I wasn’t sure I was going to be a grigorio. I thought maybe I’d follow my dad into the service first.
“We traveled for a few years, until I decided I could take care of myself when I was seventeen and set off to see the world.”
The look he shot Shea said something she couldn’t understand, but there was something…
“How old are you?” she asked.
“Thirty-eight.”
She gasped. “You knew. About me. You were there when I was born.”
“Yeah, I was.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Did Mom…did she tell you how…how I’m supposed to break the curse?”
His expression softened, and he released one hand from the steering wheel to squeeze her shoulder. “Sorry, hon, she didn’t. She never said a word about it.”
The hope that had flared briefly but so fiercely for those few seconds died with a sharp pain in her chest, and she silently cursed herself for being a fool. She knew what she had to do. Her grandfather’s journal and Serena had made that so clear.
This was a blood curse and it would demand blood in payment. Her blood.
And it was going to be soon. She just needed to know that Leo would be safe when she was gone. Then she’d finish this.
“Where are we going?” Leo’s voice broke into her morbid thoughts and she waited for Matt to brush him off. He didn’t.
“New Orleans, see Gabe’s sister, Maddie. Then Dallas. I got a house there, been in the family for nearly a century. We should be safe for a while. If not, then Mexico. I got a few spots tucked away.”
As Leo continued to ask questions, the buzz in Shea’s head grew louder. It had started the second Matt had pulled away from the warehouse. She hadn’t worried about it. Now that she knew what that buzz was, what it meant, she’d accepted it and didn’t try to block it. She still couldn’t make out what the women were saying, though, and it was beginning to drive her a little crazy. She knew they wanted to tell her something, something important. About the curse.
And that they were going in the wrong direction.
Matt finally hit the ramp for Route 222 and took it at sixty miles an hour. He pressed his foot to the floor when they hit the straightaway and shot over the Schuylkill River.
The inarticulate buzz became louder, more annoying, until her head started to throb. A migraine wouldn’t be far behind.
But she knew what she had to do.
“Matt. Stop the car. I have to go back.”
Matt’s jaw dropped, and he took his intense concentration off the road for one brief second. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I have to go back. There’s something I have to do. Pull over and let me out.”
“Shea, there’s no way in hell—”
She grabbed the wheel and forced Matt to pull the car to the side of the road. A chorus of horns and raised fingers from the other drivers didn’t faze Matt at all as he hit the brakes. She threw an arm out to stop Leo’s forward motion.
“Jesus H. Christ, girl, do you wanna get us killed?”
Before he could stop her, she’d twisted the keys and pulled them from the ignition.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She ignored Matt and looked at Leo, pasting on a smile for him.
“I’ve gotta go, bud, but you need to stay with Matt, okay? I need you to promise.”
Leo shook his head once, vehemently. “No. Daddy told me I couldn’t leave you. Never.”
Shea shook her head, unwilling to thinking about the implications of that statement. She refused to put Leo in danger with her.
Matt’s hands stilled on the wheel and his tone got deadly serious. “What else did your dad say, Leo? Can you remember?”
Leo nodded. “He said I’d know what to do when I had to.”
She continued to shake her head, but Matt sighed. “Shea, give me the keys.”
“No!” Gods, no. Her heart hurt just thinking about it. “There’s no way I’m taking Leo back into this mess. You have to protect him. I want you to take him away from this.”
Matt held out his hand. “Honey, sometimes you don’t get to make the rules. Sometimes the rules are already laid out ahead of time. If Leo says Kyle told him to stay with you, then he stays with you.”
No, no, no. This wasn’t what she wanted. She wouldn’t allow Leo to go with her. “He can’t. What if something happens to him? I couldn’t live with that.”
“Shea.” Matt’s voice got soft, softer than anything she’d heard come out of his mouth. “Your dad, he had the sight. You know that, right?”
She refused to acknowledge anything he had to say, but she couldn’t tear her gaze from Matt’s blue eyes.
“If the kid says he has to stay with you then you need to listen.”
Looking into Matt’s eyes, she knew he wasn’t going to budge. And she knew Leo well enough to know if she ran, he’d follow.
She took a deep, ragged breath. “Will you promise me you will give your life for his if it comes to it?”
Matt nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll do whatever it takes to make su
re he’s safe. You, too.”
With a sinking heart, she handed over the keys.
“Then we need to find Dario.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Serena sat on one of the benches in City Park facing the band shell.
She wondered if the eteri who gathered here for summer concerts ever looked closely at the markings around the pond, if they suspected that the decorative carvings were really runes blessing Egeria, Goddess of Fountains, and Nethuns, God of Springs.
Germans may have been the first Europeans to settle the area and the architecture of the older sections of the city reflected their influence.
But the Etruscans had made their mark in other ways. The city still held a powerful magic, fed by the Etruscan descendents who’d flocked here a century or more ago with Italians seeking a better life.
Today, Reading had all the problems of its larger counterparts, like Philadelphia, but the outlying areas of Berks County retained or had reclaimed some of its original wooded glory.
Her home on Mt. Penn was in one of those areas.
She hoped she got to see it again.
Taking a deep breath, she shook her head to clear it of the fear in her heart.
“You can do this. You can do this.” She’d been repeating the words over and over in her head since she’d left Gabriel and the others at the warehouse. After she’d made a phone call to the one number she’d been afraid to write down anywhere.
After a few minutes of disbelieving minions, she’d been connected to the man she sought.
Dario had sounded almost sad to hear from her but had agreed to meet her here. With Quinn.
Fear gnawed at her, mocking her decision to come alone.
“No. No! This is your mess. Fix it.”
But what if she couldn’t? She’d tried once before and look how that had turned out. She’d been so sure that plan would work. Yet she’d created another mess. She loved Gabriel more than her life, but she’d hurt him by keeping the truth from him. She feared he would never speak to her again.
Closing her eyes, she shut out her surroundings and tried to put herself into the dream state where peace was found.