Gabriel's Mate

“What’s the latest?” Zane asked.

“Gabriel and Maya have disappeared. We can’t trace their cell signals either.” Amaury looked at Thomas and pointed at the phone. “That was the human crew you sent to Samson’s house. Nobody’s there.” For a moment, he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, pain was evident in the brilliant blue of his irises. “We have reason to believe that Carl is dead.”

“Oh shit,” Thomas mumbled.

“What about Ricky?” Yvette asked.

“We have our human bodyguards out looking for him.” Amaury stood.

“He’s dangerous.”

“We know that now.”

“Damn, we could have known earlier,” Eddie’s voice came from the corner as he flipped his phone shut. “That was Holly, Ricky’s ex-girlfriend.”

“Has she seen him?” came Amaury’s question.

“No. But she just told me that she followed him one night. Guess she was jealous and wanted to know who Ricky was so infatuated with. She followed him to an apartment in Noe Valley.”

“Maya’s place,” Yvette uttered under her breath. “What else did she say?”

“She gave me a few of his favorite hangouts.”

“Have the daytime guards check them out, see if we can flush him out,” Amaury ordered. “His movements are limited right now so this is our best time to find him. Tonight, once he’s able to move around again, he can slip through our fingers.”

Eddie nodded. “I’m on it.”

Yvette stared out the window at the city below. Somewhere down there, Ricky was hiding, and so were Gabriel and Maya—she could only hope that Gabriel had gotten to Maya before Ricky could lay his dirty paws on her. As much as she’d wanted Gabriel for herself, she would never forgive herself for not stopping Ricky if he’d harmed Maya. Gabriel deserved to keep the woman he loved. And she would do anything to make sure it stayed that way.

“Ricky has to be hiding somewhere.” She clenched her jaw and looked into the round of the four big vampires in her company. “And when we find him, he’s mine.”

Nobody contradicted her.

Thirty-two

Gabriel ran his hands alongside the door and found a switch. He flipped it. A second later, a neon light flickered and hummed before it steadied itself and illuminated the entire room. He bolted the door from the inside before he turned to take in his surroundings.

The approximately five-hundred-square-foot room was fairly bare. There were several cots stacked on one side, a supply cabinet next to them. In the back was a rudimentary toilet and a small sink. A small desk and chair completed the furnishings. While it wasn’t much, the place was surprisingly clean, and most of all, it had no windows through which sunlight could penetrate. For now, they were safe.

Next to him, Maya seemed to have come to the same conclusion. She nodded to herself.

“How did you know about this place?” he asked, turning to her and reaching for her hands.

“A paramedic told me about it a long time ago—they found a sick homeless guy who’d broken in.” She looked back at the heavy bolt on the inside of the door. “Ricky won’t be able to get in, will he?”

Gabriel pulled her close, seeking contact with her body to appease the worry he’d felt for her. “No. We’re safe. At least until sunset.” He tipped her chin up to look into her eyes. “I was scared. I thought he’d gotten you.”

“How did you even find me?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but for some reason I could see into your memories as you were fleeing Ricky. I followed the streets you saw when you were on the back of the truck.”

She shook her head. “How’s that possible? I thought you can only go into someone’s memories when you’re close to them.”

He shrugged. “That’s like it’s always been, but maybe my connection to you is so strong that I don’t need to be physically close.”

“You mean you saw everything?”

He’d virtually felt Maya’s disgust when Ricky had kissed her. It wasn’t a memory he’d particularly wanted to see, but nevertheless it only cemented what he planned on doing to him when he caught him. “I’ll never let another man touch you ever again, I promise you that. We’ll get Ricky and I’ll kill him.”

“Not if I kill him first,” she responded.

There was so much contempt in her voice, that Gabriel pulled back a fraction to look into her eyes. That’s when it hit him. “You remember.”