Page 108 of The Billionaires' Gamble

The reminder that we all have our own baggage is sobering.

Damn, I miss him.

That irreverent smile. The cocky geek who questions everything.

I reach for the door handle.

After nodding to my men, I’m halfway up the walk path when I pause. This is the spot where Roman took a bullet trying to protect Katherine. Someone’s cleaned off his blood.

People in this part of the world like to think violence won’t find them in their fancy homes and posh cars.

And ordinarily, they’d be right.

But Tadhg stands just outside the front door, a reminder that sometimes the enemy is as close as your family tree.

Shaking off the worry, because my team’s got my back, I jog up the front steps. With a nod to Gabe’s bodyguard, I push the door the rest of the way open. Random noises and voices meet my ears, and I follow the sounds to the back of the townhome.

Adrien Chen glances up from a box, a potted plant in hand.

“Alex. Hey.” Gabe’s assistant, ever efficient, seems both surprised and pleased to see me. We’ve always gotten on well, and he’s excellent at his job. I like to think he’s got Gabe’s back during work hours, and I’ve got it the rest of the time.

“What’s going on?” I gesture with my chin at the pot in his hand.

He jerks a thumb in the general direction where the man and woman are positioning the tree in front of the window. “We’re rescuing Miss Montgomery’s collection.”

That’s when I notice the space and not just the people in it. Plants dot every available surface.

“All right, Simon, that’s the last box.” Gabe trots down the stairs, putting on the brakes when he sees me.

Something twists in my chest. Relief. Anxiety. A bitter combination of the two?

Now that I’m here, I have no idea what to say. And he looks like he’s having the same problem.

“Excellent,” the man, Simon, says as he straightens. Wheeling the dolly toward us, he pauses just long enough to say, “And I’ll take the triage patients back to my shop.”

Then he’s off.

“Bill me!” Gabe calls.

“Oh, I will.” He pauses, turning back toward us. “You know, Katherine usually pays me with gossip.”

“How about I pay you in dollars? And lots of them.”

Simon’s fingers rata-tap-tap along the dolly’s handle, and then he shrugs. “That’ll work. Come on, Bonnie.”

They make themselves scarce; the dolly clanking down the front steps.

“I’ll head back to the office if we’re done here,” Adrian says.

“Thanks for all your help,” Gabe says.

We follow him to the door, the two of them discussing business along the way. Gabe locks the door behind him, and then there’s silence. Stillness.

Hand still on the lock, he asks, “Can we talk?”

That’s the most nerve-wracking question ever, but I nod. I fucking hate how silent my life’s been these last few days. How did I go from Gabe chattering away every morning and every night to utter, painful, dreadful silence?

“Of course,” I add, because he’s still not looking at me.