like she was saying one thing but thinking about something else.
I know people! he wanted to roar as envy sheared through muscle and bone. I am those people! Her first thought should have been that he would help her, not Caleb Fucking Paynne.
His limbs felt mannequin stiff as he crossed to her once more, preparing himself as best he could to tell her everything. A murdered mother, an unknown father, a mobster lover with a bloodthirsty brother…
He only hoped that she wouldn’t want to run from him once she learned the truth.
Because he would not allow her that freedom.
† † †
“Can I get you a drink, Eva? Are you hungry?”
Drop food into her churning, aching stomach? Not happening. “No thank you, Quan.” Eva didn’t look at Quan as she refused his kind offer. She was too busy watching Gabriel advance, his movements measured and precise. Not at all his style.
Something about his reaction whenever Caleb’s name was mentioned didn’t make sense. For all he knew, Nika’s brother could be a hunchbacked nerd with a hairy wart on his nose, yet his apparent jealously said he knew that wasn’t the case.
Also, Caleb didn’t text her for no reason. And certainly never to randomly ask if she was okay. Like he’d just done. As if he knew there was a possibility something might be wrong. How could that be when she hadn’t been able to get in touch with him or Nika?
“Nika’s brother has an interesting circle of friends. He’s a member of the Obsidian Angels,” she said, watching closely.
“It’s the Obsidian Devils,” Gabriel corrected.
She gasped and his gaze clashed with hers, narrowing, his jaw rippling as if he were grinding his teeth.
“Slow your roll, sweetheart,” he muttered with dry amusement. “It’s an MC known throughout the world. As if I wouldn’t know the proper name of it. Now stop distracting from the issue here and tell us what happened earlier.”
What he said was true, but she wasn’t buying what he was selling. Her suspicions that he and Caleb knew each other were only growing, but since they had an audience, she’d drop it for now.
Gabriel came to stand next to the sofa, his big body strung tight, his hands flexing in a way she found oddly entrancing. Way too distracted by him, and suddenly too wired to sit still, she got up and walked the room as she talked.
“I was in my bedroom when I heard the window break,” she began. “I went down the hall and found the guy already halfway up the stairs.” Wandering over to the credenza in the corner, she ran her finger over the hotel’s logo on a room service menu that had been carelessly tossed onto a small mountain of mail.
As she cleaned up, making even stacks of all the letters—keeping them upside down so she didn’t appear nosy—she described the man with the Mohawk as best she could. “I tried to make it to the bathroom, because the door has a lock, but he grabbed my ankle and pulled me down. That’s how I hit my cheek…when I fell…” Her hand came up to touch the bruise on her face, her heart thumping when she remembered the man’s warning. She left her neat work and walked back to Gabriel, watching him as intently as he normally watched her.
“He told me to stay away from you. He said you’re not who I think you are. What did he mean by that?”
Gabriel. Turned. To. Stone. “What else,” he demanded, his tone so harsh that she took a step back.
“He said it was the only warning I was going to get. And he called you Gabe,” she supplied as she wrapped her arms around her middle, her body so cold all of a sudden.
If she’d thought Gabriel intimidating before, it was nothing compared to what she was seeing now. He was all coiled strength and danger personified. Six-and-a-half feet of fierce and deadly. She flinched when his hand appeared in her periphery.
He dropped his arm before his fingers came into contact with her cheek. “I will never raise a violent hand to you, Eva.”
His quiet vow stole her breath. Could she believe him? She didn’t know. She didn’t know anything anymore. Except that he wasn’t being completely honest with her. “I’m sorry. I’m just…freaked out.”
“Is there anything else, Eva?” Alek’s steady tone was a blessing, and she turned to find him just behind her, his hand swiping through his dark-blond hair. “Any other unusual things happen in