He opened his mouth but nothing came out. His lips tried to form words, but after several failed attempts, he let out a defeated cough. “I can’t. I can’t tell you anything.”
“What are you doing down here?” Mercedes had joined us at some point, but I hadn’t heard her enter. She wore a men’s plaid shirt and a battered pair of blue jeans tucked into a pair of Sorel winter boots. She hadn’t bothered to brush her hair, and it was borderline afro in size and curl volume.
“Gabriel’s been arrested.” I pointed to the man in the cell.
“I know.” Behind her, the dark-haired detective was watching us quietly. “You remember Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember Tyler?” She nodded at Detective Sexypants.
“Should I?”
Cedes nodded. “You’ve known him for a while.”
I backed up to the empty cell behind me and slid to the floor, pulling my knees up to my chest. Gabriel was still standing at the bars of his cell, and his expression could only be described in one way. Guilt. He looked so guilty it made me want to hurt him.
“What do you know?” I tried to infuse as much menace as possible into my words, but they came out strained and desperate. “You need to help me.”
He shook his head and slunk back into the cell, stumbling against the edge of his cot. Once he was sitting, he wouldn’t meet my eyes again and kept muttering, “I can’t. I can’t.”
Mercedes sat next to me and placed her arm around my shoulders. Tyler stood in the door with his arms crossed and continued to act as a silent observer. I suspected he wanted to say something but was demonstrating exceptional restraint by keeping his mouth shut.
“I called Lucas,” Cedes said. “He’s on his way to come get you.”
I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of trusting a guy I didn’t know, but I was willing to do just about anything at this point if it meant I wouldn’t feel helpless anymore.
“Why did you come to see Gabriel?” she asked again.
“Because I know him.”
She nodded, her hand tightening on my shoulder. “You think he knows what’s happening to you?”
I stared into the cell, but Gabriel wouldn’t face us. “He looks guilty.”
“He is guilty,” Tyler interjected, breaking his silence.
Mercedes glared at him. “Not the best time, Novak.”
Tyler grunted and returned to the antechamber where I’d left my weapons. I leaned into Mercedes and let her familiar scent make me feel as normal as I could right then. She stroked my hair, and we sat quietly for a good ten minutes before being interrupted again.
A man entered the room, and the moment I laid eyes on him my pulse quickened. My whole body screamed at me that I knew this man and he belonged to me. Yet my brain drew a total blank. He was tall, but not as tall as Tyler, and where the latter was dark-haired, the new man was blond, his blue eyes shining with worry.
He was so damned pretty it hurt. No wonder my body wanted to lay claim to him.
“Secret?” he ventured tentatively. “Do you know who I am?”
God, I wished I could say yes. Instead I admitted, “No.”
The man exchanged worried looks with Mercedes. “How long has she been like this?”
“She called me just after one.”
“What’s the last thing you remember?” he asked me.
I tried to recall, but whenever I thought I could hold down a memory it would slip through my fingers like smoke. “I don’t know.”
“She remembers me and Keats. And she remembers Gabriel.”
The new man, presumably Lucas, seemed to notice Gabriel for the first time. “Why would she remember this guy? Does she even know him?”
“She and Gabe here go way back,” Cedes said, with a little more emphasis than she needed to. Lucas definitely got the gist of how well Gabriel and I knew each other. If he and I were really a couple, we apparently hadn’t gotten around to chatting about our past relationships.
Judging by the stink eye Lucas was giving Gabriel, it might have been a good thing we hadn’t discussed our former lovers. Lucas looked to be the jealous type.
“He knows something,” I said again, sounding more than a smidgeon on the crazy side. Gabriel had raised his head finally, but now he and Lucas were locked in a staring contest. There were a lot of unspoken threats being bandied back and forth. The air was thick with testosterone. “He knows what’s wrong with me.”
That got through to Lucas. He broke eye contact with Gabriel long enough to look at Cedes and I again. “Detective Castilla, would you mind if Gabriel and I had a word? Under supervision, of course.” He pointed to the closed-circuit cameras mounted in each corner of the room. Cedes hesitated like she might refuse him but finally nodded and pulled me to my feet.
“I’m going to be out in the hall,” she told him.
“Understood.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
If I’d been in my right mind, I would have known what a bad idea it was to leave Lucas alone with Gabriel.
From the chair Cedes had propped me in, I couldn’t see Lucas or Gabriel, but I had no problem hearing them. Lucas’s voice was soft but commanding, the voice of a born politician. Gabriel’s tone had an edge of worry to it, overpowering his usual cocky certainty. They hadn’t gotten beyond the awkward greetings and already Lucas had my ex all wound up. Impressive.
“What do you want?” Gabriel asked.
“I want to know what you did to her.”
“Me?” The word was a nervous squeak. “How could I do anything? I’m in here.”
Metal groaned and footsteps skittered across concrete.
“She may not remember anything, but she says you know something. I’ll take her word over yours any day.”
“She’s crazy.”
Gee, Gabe, thanks for the vote of confidence.
“Tell me what you know.”
My gaze flicked to the on-duty officer. He was watching the closed-circuit feed with great interest but made no moves to go into the room. Mercedes was on her cell phone, but I couldn’t listen in on her conversation without losing focus on Lucas and Gabriel’s.
“Look, you’re a powerful guy, right? Rich, good-looking.” Gabriel’s voice had changed again. It was smoother now, the crooning song of a con man. He’d used that voice when we first met. He wasn’t scared anymore, because he’d spotted a weakness in Lucas and now he wanted to exploit it. I knew Gabriel too well to mistake his intentions for anything else.
Lucas didn’t reply, but Gabriel continued undeterred. “What are you doing with a girl like Secret?”
“I love her.”
My stomach tightened, and aching pain stabbed me in the abdomen. Why did hearing Lucas’s words make me feel so guilty?
“I love her too,” Gabriel said, but the snort at the end made me believe otherwise.
“You don’t know her.”
“I know her better than you.”
Lucas snarled, a purely animal sound that made the hair on my arms and neck stand on end. Both Cedes and the desk officer looked a little on edge.
“You don’t think so?” Gabriel asked.
“I know you don’t.”
I could almost hear Gabriel’s self-assured smile, and it made me shiver. What was he thinking? He didn’t know my biggest secret, so I didn’t have to worry about him spilling that. So what was he dangling over Lucas’s head?
“You come from a big family, Mr. Rain?”
Again Lucas didn’t answer him.
“Guy like you,” Gabriel persisted. “Lots of money, proud family name. You strike me as a guy who would want kids.”
My blood ran cold, and I was suddenly unable to breathe. He wouldn’t.
Cedes saw my reaction, but since she couldn’t hear their conversation, she had no way to know why I was overcome by panic.
“What’s wrong?” She crouched in front of me, taking hold of my clammy hands. “Jesus, Secret, you’re freezing.”
I wanted to tell her to shush, but I couldn’t move even to speak. My whole being was trained on hearing what Gabriel said next.
“Of course I want kids,” Lucas said.
“I hope you don’t want them with her.”
Son of a bitch. He was really going to do it.
“What are you talking about?”
My feet remembered how to function, and I stumbled through the door so quickly I almost tripped over myself. I stopped next to Lucas, our sides touching, but the warmth from his body did nothing to stave off the cold I felt.
“Gabe, don’t.”
Gabriel smiled at me, and there was a twinge of sadness in the turn of his mouth. It was as if he didn’t want to be saying the things he was saying. So why didn’t he shut the hell up?
“What’s he talking about?” Lucas repeated the question, this time to me.
“You gonna tell him, Temple, or should I?” Gabriel winced as he spoke.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked him.
“Tell him,” he commanded.
I wanted to vomit. He was insisting I share something with Lucas—a stranger to me—that I didn’t want to remember myself. My fear transformed into rage, a hatred so big it felt like a living entity. The glare I fixed on Gabriel did nothing to dissuade him.
“Do you want kids, Secret?” Gabriel asked. “A big pack of rugrats underfoot?”
“Don’t,” I warned.
“Want to be a mom? Start a family with the billionaire here? He looks like good dad material. Think of the nice blond Aryan babies you two would pop out.”
“Gabriel, shut up.”
“Too bad you can’t.”
I froze. Lucas went rigid. We both stared at Gabriel. I didn’t know what Lucas was thinking, but I was wondering if there was any way I could get through the bars and throttle my ex to death before someone stopped me.
“God-fucking-damn you, Gabriel Holbrook.” I slammed my hands against the bars, rattling the metal. “I hope you go straight to Hell.”