Page 70 of Gabriel

“Anya.” Her name came out like an oath. Sacred. Tender. “You’re making a mistake,” he said, voice tightening.

“We’re just following the coordinates we were given.”

“To my fuckingsister,” he growled, launching forward. “Jet’s leading you straight to Anya. He wants her!”

My gun was out before he took his next breath.

“Back off,” I ordered coldly. “Put your hands on the rail, or I’ll make sure you reach our destination riddled with bullets.”

For a long beat, he didn’t move. Then he exhaled and let a blank mask fall over his features.

“Here.” He placed his hands where they’d been earlier. “Happy?”

“Put the cuffs back on. Through the rail.”

He obeyed, and I leaned in to lock them—close enough that his lips brushed my ear—as he whispered, “You’re going to regret this, Amara. Your brother wants my sister.”

Click.

I stepped back, holstered my gun, and picked up the silverware that scattered all over the floor in silence. Then I powered up the television and selected Stephen King’sMiseryfrom the movie options, which I thought was fitting, before heading for the door.

“Jet has never even met Anya.” If Anya had met him, she would have surely mentioned it. “We’re halfway there,” I said without looking at him. “Enjoy the quiet while it lasts.”

“Your love for your siblings is blinding you.”

“And your paranoia about your sister is blindingyou,” I said softly. “I promise you, Santos, Jet doesn’t want Anya. She’s not his type.”

“She’s all he’s wanted,” he said, fury laced with fear. “For almost a year.”

I startled, my hand pausing on the doorknob, then shook my head. He was trying to get a rise out of me, that was all.

I glanced at him over my shoulder and said, “There’s no scenario in which Jet would have met Anya, much less have something to do with her. He would have told me otherwise.”

Would he? I questioned myself silently. Jet was notoriously private when it came to his love life, so maybe he wouldn’t. However, Anya would, and she had definitely not mentioned my brother.

“Anya is the key to whatever your brother’s up to,” Gabriel gritted, and I had no doubt that he believed it. Yet, it seemed unfathomable. Right?

He stared at me, eyes sharp, but behind the steel, something cracked. “Wherever this goes… you’re going to regret not trusting me.”

“We’re all already regretting something,” I whispered.

He didn’t answer. Only the soft clink of chains followed me out and the heavy silence of everything we weren’t saying.

Gabriel

The door clicked shut, and with it, the storm she dragged in with her words and actions finally settled.

The movie began playing on the screen, and I had to wonder at Amara’s choice of entertainment. It was disturbing.

Ignoring it, I stared at the metal rail where my wrists were once again cuffed. I let the pain simmer in my jaw, the taste of control lost sitting like rust on my tongue.

She hadn’t believed a word I said. She’d pulled aweaponon me. Even worse was that she had cemented her faith in Jet, the fucker who’d go to extreme lengths to get what he wanted. Maybe I should have told her what I’d overheard between Jet and Elira on the phone, but when she leveled that gun at me, I knew she was already too deep under her siblings’ sway to believe anything I said.

And still, my loudest thought had been how close her mouth had come to mine.

What the hell, Gabriel?

I sat back and closed my eyes. I didn’t bother uncuffing myself, instead I let the tension seep into my muscles until it burned. My eyes zeroed in on the screen.