Page 19

18

GUNN

“ S hould we move to the bed?” Scarlet makes a half-hearted attempt to sit up, but I bring her back to me.

“I’ve slept on worse.”

She lays her head on my chest and throws a leg over mine. “Me too. But there’s a bed just over there.”

“You’ve worn me out, Peaches. I haven’t got the energy to move.”

“Okay.” She stays quiet for so long I actually begin to doze off. But what she says next is like being dunked in a freezing cold ocean. “Gideon knows where you live.”

Every part of my body gone completely still, I say, “You told him.”

“He had me followed.” She pushes up onto her elbow so that she can look at me. “Our man, Itsuki.”

“Tall Japanese guy?”

She nods. “He’s as good as I am. Actually, better since I had no idea he’s been monitoring us for days.”

I glance at the window. “Is he there now?”

“No. He’ll give me the chance to prove myself to him.”

“Then we need to figure something out before he does send your friend to check on you.”

“We could always run,” she says hopefully.

I’ll admit, leaving everything behind and never looking back has a certain appeal to it. “But we’d be running forever,” I voice aloud. “Unless you think Gideon would just let you go.”

She thinks on that. “No. We both know he can hold a grudge for years.”

Before I can give another suggestion, my phone buzzes. I drag my pants toward me and tug the cell out of the pocket. “Shit.”

“Luca?”

I turn it so that she can read the screen for herself.

Luca: If you’re not here within the hour, I’m coming to you.

“Shit,” she says too. “What are you going to do?”

Getting up, I gather my things from the floor, then help her up. “I should go talk to him.”

Her pale cheeks go bright red. “Are you going to tell him about me?”

“I should.” I bring her to me and wrap my arms around her. “It will be in our best interest if we don’t have both Gideon and Luca against us. If he hears me out, I might convince him to give you asylum.”

“What if he tells you to kill me instead?” It’s a valid question.

“I don’t think he will. He’ll be pissed for sure, but he’s a reasonable man.”

“Even if I can’t tell him anything about Sofia?”

That me for a moment. It’s true, Luca will want information on his sister. But would he want Scarlet dead when she can’t give it to him?

It’s not in his nature to kill for the hell of it. And that’s what I’m relying on.

“Don’t worry.” I kiss the top of her head and release her. “Luca is like my brother. I have to give him a chance and trust him.”

What I don’t say is that Carina is another matter.

I leave Scarlet behind, safe and sound, hidden from the threat Gideon poses. Away from Briar House if things don’t go as planned.

It’s almost midnight and the roads are quiet at this time of night. Although it’s not uncommon that I would still be at Briar House this late, it is rare that I would be called in.

I discover the reason the moment I enter the house and find everyone but Luca has gone off to bed.

“You don’t want Carina to know I’m here,” I tell him as he practically tip toes to the study.

“Not for this conversation.” He shuts the doors and motions for me to sit.

“Won’t she be pissed you’re keeping her out of yet something else?” I ask.

He goes to the wet bar set on one of the walls and pulls out a bottle. “She’ll understand.”

“Well, you got me out of bed. I’m here. What’s so important that you needed to talk right now?”

Luca pours two shots of vodka and hands me one before going around the desk to his seat. “Don’t tell me you were already asleep.”

“Nope. But I was in bed.” I down the drink and grimace. “You gave me your best cheap shit.”

“What you deserve for keeping me in the dark. What the fuck are you up to, Gunn? It’s not like you to avoid us.” He peers into his glass and swirls it.

I shrug. “Just doing my thing.”

His gaze affixed on the drink, he says, “We’ve been friends for a long time, you and me.”

“Yup.”

“We’ve had each other’s backs since we were kids. I trust you with my life.”

“Same.”

“I’ve never doubted your loyalty. Until now.” He lifts his eyes and in them there’s a question. Did you betray me?

Even though he didn’t voice it, I answer it. “If I betrayed you, I wouldn’t be here.”

“No. Which is why I’m giving you a chance to explain.”

“Explain what?”

“Kyle told me about the information he gave you on Scarlet. Or should I say, Tamberleigh Johnson.” He clasps his hand around the glass, almost spilling some of that shitty vodka. “You asked him to keep it from me. Why?”

“I had to know who I was fighting.”

“Bullshit!” He glances toward the door, as if he’s afraid he woke Carina, and quickly calms. “I know about Scarlet. I know she’s been coming to your place for days. In fact, I’m willing to bet she’s there now.”

I scowl. “You been spying on me?”

“You left me no choice. Ever since you returned from New Orleans, something changed. You stopped showing up, didn’t return my fucking calls. I knew something was going on.”

“So you had me followed.”

He laughs and I don’t like the sound of it one bit. “I didn’t have you followed, you jackass, because if you were up to no good, I didn’t want anyone else finding out. I saw her going into your place with my own eyes. She’s probably there as we speak, isn’t she?”

I stare at him, searching for any hint of a reasonable man. Something that says he’ll behave like the brother he’s been to me if I confide in him. “Why didn’t you say something before?”

“Because I wanted to give you a chance to tell me yourself.” He lets out a breath, his shoulders dropping slightly. “Are you sleeping with her?”

I lean forward and pinch the bridge of my nose. There’s no point in denying it. “Yes.”

“I should never have let you go to New Orleans.”

“It would have happened anyway,” I confess.

Disappointment fills his gaze and he lets out a sarcastic huff. “Of course it would have, you were so fucking eager to go after her. But instead of getting Sofia’s location, you decided to fuck her!”

“I tried to get the damn location, Luca. She doesn’t know.”

“She tell you that before or after she got in your pants?”

“Fuck! She. Doesn’t. Know,” I repeat, this time punctuating the words so they hit home.

They don’t.

“You’re pussy whipped if you believe a murderer,” he hisses.

“Scarlet isn’t a murderer. She was doing what her boss ordered her to, just like I have.”

He glares at me. “I never ordered you to kill anyone in cold blood.”

“She didn’t do that, Luca. You saw Sergio’s photos yourself. She didn’t go through with the kill because it would have been in cold blood.”

“And what about Carina?” he demands. “She killed her sister.”

I think of her for a moment. “Alma wasn’t the intended target. It was an accident.”

“An accident that took innocent blood,” he retorts.

“It was an acci…” I trail off as what he’s just said hits me. Innocent blood. I now know who the innocent blood that weighs so heavily on her soul belongs to. “It’s Alma,” I whisper.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

I remain quiet for a beat, my mind reeling from the sudden realization I’ve just had.

“Scarlet isn’t who you think she is,” I finally say.

“She’s the bad guy,” he tells me.

“So are we,” I remind him.

“She’s Gideon’s minion. Why are you defending her?”

“Because I fucking love her!” I blurt out before I can stop it.

“You love her?” His brows shoot up his forehead and his eyes bulge. But the shock doesn’t last long, replaced by a weariness that’s palpable. “You can’t love her, Gunn. She will turn on you. It’s only a matter of time.”

I shake my head. “She loves me too.”

“So that’s it? We say let bygones be bygones and accept her into our lives?”

“That is what family does,” I say.

“You swore to help me find Sofia.”

“I still can.”

“No, you can’t. Fuck!” He stands and goes to peer out the window, as if he can’t stomach the sight of me. “Carina warned me about this. She saw it coming a mile away. But I fucking hoped she was wrong. You betrayed me.”

I stand too. “I never betrayed you, Luca. I would never do anything to hurt you.”

He turns to me, and the anger in his expression sends a chill up my spine. “I would never hurt you either. Which is why we can’t let you go back to her.”

“We?” Suddenly, the pocket doors to the study slide open. Carina steps inside, followed by Luca’s head of security, Hansen. When I go to stand, Luca holds me to the seat with a hand on my shoulder. “What the fuck?”

“I’m so sorry, Gunn,” Carina says sadly, coming closer. “It was a mistake to allow you to go to New Orleans. A mistake we intend on fixing.”

I try to stand, this time, it doesn’t take Luca to keep me down. My own limbs fail me, becoming weaker by the second. “What did you do to me?”

Carina crouches beside me and places her palm on my forearm. “She killed my sister, Gunn. I’ll never forgive that.”

Once again, I attempt to move, but it’s like lead has been poured down my arms and legs. Everything in the room becomes hazy, and I can only focus on what’s in front of me. The empty shot glass.

I shift my tunnel vision toward Luca. “You… You drugged me?”

He doesn’t respond. Instead, he moves out of the line of sight, but not before I see the shame in his expression.

“Take care of her,” Carina orders.

Panic sets into the pit of my stomach, but all I can manage to do is slouch forward. Carina catches me and prevents me from smashing face first into the desk.

“You can be a real bitch,” I mumble as darkness takes over my mind.

“I know,” she replies. “But I protect my own, even when they don’t want it.”

And it all goes black.