Page 108 of Gabriel

“You know it’s not the same,” she whispered, breath catching as I traced a line of kisses down to the hollow of her throat. “Not even close.”

“I know,” I said between kisses. “So I’ll give you something to remember. Open your legs for me, wife. You’re going to use me as your personal vibrator.”

Amara

Igave Gabriel his phone back to tell his family he was okay and to let him handle some business. Strangely, I trusted him, and I felt like he was on my side as well as his family’s. I wasn’t sure if that made me gullible, cock-whipped (was that even a thing?), or plain stupid.

Either way, I had decided to go with my gut and trust him.

My siblings, on the other hand, had started to lose my trust, and I hated the distance that Elira’s admission and Jet’s actions had created. The conversation with Elira where she deflated any culpability to whatever she and Jet were up to played in my mind, biting at me.

I gave a nod to Gabriel, and mouthed, “I’ll be right back,” then went in search of Elira.

I found her in the office, pacing around, agitated, tension in her shoulders. I entered the room, letting the door shut with a soft click behind me.

She stopped her pacing and whirled around.

“Amara, what?—”

“I think it’s time you and I talk,” I said seriously, locking eyes with her. “And no more bullshit.”

“I haven’t bullshitted,” she spat defensively.

“But you hid the truth from me, didn’t you?” Her nose twitched in that familiar way when she didn’t want to answer a question. “Didn’t you?”

“Listen, I think it’s best if you clear the air with Jet.”

“I would if I could get in touch with him,” I snapped. “But since you’re helping him with whatever the fuck he has planned, you can enlighten me too.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, I can’t.”

I blinked.

“You can’t?” I stated slowly, the pitch of my voice increasing with each syllable. “You can lie to me, deceive me, have me kidnap Gabriel, and start a war, but you cannot tell me the truth?”

By the time the last word left my lips, I was screaming. I couldn’t recall a single time in my life where I lost my cool and saw red, but it was happening now, and with the person I would least expect it with. This felt like the worst kind of betrayal, and it hurt like hell.

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Listen, I don’t want to argue.”

I scoffed.

“You don’t want to argue, but you don’t want to right the problem you and Jet created either.” My chest constricted with pain at their deceit. “And you certainly didn’t mind manipulating me or using me. Neither you nor Jet bothered to be concerned with me or my feelings.”

My eyes stung with tears that refused to fall and frustration that threatened to smother me. Getting nowhere with her and knowing that I wouldn’t get the truth from her, I whirled around and left.

Amara

Tonight we’d set foot on Albanian soil, four weeks after setting sail from Buenaventura.

Gabriel had been attempting to call Anya for the past twenty-four hours, without any success.

We sat across from each other at the breakfast table, the morning light filtering through the half-closed blinds and casting thin stripes across his face. Elira hovered nearby but kept her distance, her eyes darting nervously between us, avoiding any direct contact.

Her betrayal and the discovery over the past twenty-four hours of her conspiring with Jet was hard to swallow, although her loyalty to our brother should hardly be surprising. It didn’t hurt any less though.

She finally spoke up, her voice hesitant. “He tried to reason with you at Revelation, remember?”

My brows knitted. “With me?”