Page 50 of Raphael

“Gabriel!” I scolded softly. “You're supposed to keep my secrets.”

He gave me a feigned, innocent look but his mischievous smile ruined it. “Those things make you happy. I like when you’re happy.”

Be happy, Sail.The breeze whispered my sister’s last spoken words. Those words changed the course of my life. I have breathed them. Soaked them in, just like a wilting flower soaked in the water.

We passed a set of marble stone gates, then pulled up to the house. My eyes traveled over the marble mansion. It was so bright that it made me squint my eyes.

“Welcome to heaven,” I snickered softly. “Tell me your sins and you shall pass. Nah, just joking. Hell is just as bright.”

Oh, crap. I said that out loud.

“So poetic,” Raphael snorted.

“Mom is good at rhyming,” Gabriel commented, already getting out of the car. “Aunt Aurora said she’d sometimes enter poetry competitions at school.”

I waved my hand as I got out of the Jeep at the same time as Raphael. “That was a long time ago.”

Coming around the Jeep and planting his hand at the base of my spine, he guided me up the large, stone steps and through the large door. We made our way through the spacious marble lobby with a circular marble stairway leading to the first floor and the second.

My eyes flickered above my head to find a large dome above us with a painting of the archangels. The four angels - Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, and Uriel.

I lowered my gaze to find Gabriel’s awed expression and his mouth slightly agape as he stared at the ceiling. “I never want to leave,” he declared.

“That makes me happy, buddy,” Raphael said amused. “I want you and your mom to be happy here.”

It didn’t escape me he was doing his best to make Gabriel love this place. Not that he had to work hard at it. This place was like a paradise on Earth, and every window you gazed through provided glimpses of crystal blue water stretching for miles across the horizon.

“Want me to show you around?” he offered.

Gabriel and I shared a glance then nodded. We continued our walk through the lobby and out the back door where the green garden oasis greeted us with a charming little stone path weaving the way towards what looked to be a white sandy beach.

Even from here, I could hear the waves crashing against the shore.

Without any warning, Gabriel sprinted past us.

We followed the sound of his happy laugh down the little romantic path, shaded by palm trees all the way down to the beach.

And all the while I heard my sister’s voice.Be happy, Sail.

* * *

A soft breeze and the sound of waves woke me and I shot up. It was the middle of the night and I laid in a large, four-poster bed, carved from mahogany wood. The little nightlight threw a soft glow through the room and I found comfort in it.

A deep breath in. A soft exhale.

The humidity in the air was thick with the salt air that fragranced it. A white mosquito net surrounded me and my eyes shifted to the open window to find the moon reflected over the dark surface of the sea.

Then the events of today, or was it yesterday, came rushing back. Waking up to Raphael Santos in the Ashfords’ cabin, barely escaping the attack, and taking the private jet to an island.

And his insistence that I marry him.

I told him I’d think about it. He made it clear there would be nothing to think about. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t allow that man to boss me around.

The reasonable part of me knew he saved Gabriel’s life. And mine. But another part of me realized there was no way off the island. It was protection but also sort of an imprisonment. Although, I was also relieved to find, that he didn’t take me to Miami, the place that Aurora, Willow, and I had seen his father torture Anya.

The nightmare that had plagued us for the past seven and a half years.

It’d make do for now though. Until I could come up with a better plan.