expected him to use. But for Eva, Gabriel was clearly willing to do just about anything.
He engaged the call.
“Yeah.”
Something warm tried to roll through him when he heard his brother’s familiar voice, but it was crushed as rage slithered to life under his skin. The feeling was so dark and sinister it would have left the man on the other end of the line beaming with approval had he sensed it.
“Stef.”
A chorus of under-the-breath curses came from around the suite as what he was doing became clear.
“Well,” his brother drawled after a pause. “My efforts haven’t been wasted after all. Looks like my wait is finally over.”
“Call off the dogs. End this now.” Would he benefit from appealing to a softer side of his brother that he wasn’t sure the guy even possessed? “Weren’t three lives to Adrianna’s one enough?”
“You mean the three women you were banging last year?” Stefano snorted derisively. “You tell me. Talk about taking things too far. There was no reason those girls had to die. Other than you needing to get laid. And people accuse me of being harsh.”
In other words, Gabriel’s need for companionship and sex had sealed the girls’ fate. By attempting to have a relationship, he’d given Stefano the green light to come in and take his revenge by killing three innocent women.
Grinding his teeth, he tried again, keeping his tone even when he said, “Eva Jacobs has nothing to do with—”
A boom sounded in the background, like Stefano had slammed his palm on a hard surface. “She has everything to do with this! Or she will. And thank you, by the way, for saving me some footwork with this call. I was on my way over to the clubhouse to pick the biker’s brain about your woman.” Papers shuffled in the background as if he were looking for something. “Ah, yes. Before you go off on Paynne’s loyalty being with you, we found some damn attractive insurance that would have guaranteed his cooperation.”
The wheels in Gabriel’s mind turned until Stefano’s threat clicked into place.
Nika.
His brother was willing to use Nika as collateral to make sure Paynne answered his questions about Eva? “You seriously gonna start a war with the ODMC?” Gabriel snapped incredulously. “The fuck’s wrong with you? You’re making a lot of enemies, man.”
“So you say. I assume you or one of your boys managed to tag Furio. That why he hasn’t gotten in touch?”
Gabriel left him wondering. “How much damage has to be done before you’re satisfied?”
“I’ll be satisfied once I take care of Eva. And if you really want to know, I’m looking forward to ending this, Gabe. You don’t deserve the time and effort I’ve put into this game.” An underlying exhaustion came through the line, giving truth to his brother’s words. “Eva Jacobs is obviously the one I’ve been waiting for. And, really, Gabriel, you had fair warning about what I’d do when the time came. You knew I’d come after her. It makes quite the difference when your feelings are engaged, no? Well, just you wait.”
Staring out over the twinkling lights of Seattle, Gabriel ached to reach through the phone and slap some sense into his brother. “You will back the fuck off, brother,” he growled. “If you don’t, the destruction of the family, and your life as you know it, will be absolute.”
There was a slight pause, and then Stefano drawled in a bored voice, “Been there, done that, lived through it, so you can be sure that threat doesn’t impress me.” His voice went low. “Let me just say, I’ve gotten to her twice already, but next time, it won’t be one of my boys who has his hands on her—it’ll be me. And because I know you, I know it will drive you insane when I tell you I’m going to enjoy the hell out of her before I end her life.”
Fury nearly blinded him, flaming a path from his sternum to his throbbing head. “You touch her, you even breathe on her,” he warned, his voice warping to something demonic even to his own ears, “I’ll make you wish for death with every remaining beat of your blackened heart. She’s mine, brother. Understand that, or you will die.” He hung up and slid his phone into his pocket with a shockingly steady hand.
“Well, that was a long time coming,” Alek commented from his stance next to the fireplace.
Jak, who had walked in during the call, grunted his agreement from where he