Page 34 of Gabriel

I smirked. “This isn’t a relationship.”

He shrugged, eyes steady on the road. “But it’s still communication.”

I leaned back, exhaling slowly. “You’re so…” I searched for the right word. “Different.”Infuriating.

“So are you, Amara. I like that about you. I like everything about you.” He glanced my way, eyes gleaming with something unreadable. “You’re a strong, independent woman who can hold her own in any situation. Stop hiding it to make the world more comfortable.”

I wasn’t hiding it exactly, but men often felt inferior when faced with it. Not Gabriel though, and a part of me hated that he seemed to like every part of me. Especially because I’d have to kill him if he was after Jet.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m sure you can figure it out.”

I laughed, a dry bark that echoed inside the vehicle. “You’ve got some balls on you, Santos.”

He smiled, slow and dangerous. “Maybe one day you’ll admit you want to explore them further.”

I shifted in my seat, heart thudding like a drum in my ribs.

“Yeah, keep dreaming,” I muttered. “Your balls and hot body aren’t on my agenda.”

“Yet,” he drawled, then shrugged again like it meant nothing. But I didn’t miss the muscle in his jaw clenching.

I turned toward the window. The jungle blurred past, too dark now to make anything out. Whether it be his presence next to me or my body’s way of staying awake, memories I’d kept buried surged—sharp, hot, and inescapable.

I was eighteen—right before I started college—the first time I killed someone. It wasn’t in the stupid, scrappy way kids threw punches after school, but deliberate and violent.

Late afternoon’s humid, sticky-hot air clung to my skin as my Converse hit the pavement of the Boston streets. I could smell sunblock in the air and hear the clatter of bikes rattling on the streets.

But all I could focus on was the restlessness churning in my bones. It was my weekend with Mother Liana, but she wasn’t here and neither were Jet and Elira. They’d be back today.

I passed the Cathedral of Holy Cross, the outer walls of the church blending in with the city. I decided to cut through the abandoned alley behind the church. Just as I turned the corner, I spotted two boys. No, not boys. These were men—half-drunk and swaggering, laughing and sputtering words I couldn’t hear at the girl who couldn’t have been older than fourteen.

I saw red, and before I registered what I was doing, I moved. Or maybe I made the conscious choice because a calmness had washed over me.

I spotted a shattered bottle neck glittering on the hot pavement and reached for it, picking it up. It almost felt like flipping a switch.

I strode toward them calmly, acting like I belonged there.

They spotted me, their breaths stinking of cheap beer and machismo. They laughed when I shoved them. They even went as far as to say I looked mighty pretty when I was mad.

Then the glass met one of the men’s necks. The sound it made was soft, wet, and so wrong. Yet I felt no remorse. He was no longer laughing, and I watched as his blood hit the pavement, sizzling in the heat, the scent of rust, gasoline, and death permeating the air.

I turned to the other guy, and before he could run off, I yanked him by his dirty hair and knocked him unconscious.

The girl whimpered, but the sound was almost drowned out by the pulse in my ears.

“Go home,” I instructed, my voice calm and distant. “Tell nobody.”

I didn’t have to tell her twice. She took off running, never looking back.

Without another look at the scene, I walked away. I threw the glass in a dumpster, and once I got back to Mother Liana’s, I scrubbed my hands raw in the sink of the guest bathroom. My eyes locked on the mirror, the petite, nonthreatening woman staring back at me, and it dawned on me then.

Thiswas my asset: appearing nonthreatening to everyone, so they’d never see me coming.

A smile curved my lips just as I heard the commotion outside, the familiar voices of Mother Liana and my siblings ringing in the air. I quickly dried off my hands and slipped out of the bathroom, eager to see them.

I hugged them tightly with an innocent smile on my face while my heart hammered under my ribs with the newfound discovery of the side I didn’t know I had.