Late Night Guest

GABRIEL

It's been a few days since I felt Rowan's soft lips against mine. Since I tasted her anxiety and gave her the comfort she so desperately needed. But I haven't been able to get that fucking kiss off my mind.

The fire flickers inside the fireplace in my study, popping and cracking as it burns brighter. I watch as shadows from the flames climb the walls, rippling beneath the ambient glow of the lamp on my large desk. I'm reading through a declassified blueprint my men were able to snatch up about yet another weapon the Sparks' are planning to manufacture and sell to the highest bidder. It's another fully automatic machine gun with an extra-long clip installed to carry the most rounds a gun has ever been able to hold before. The bullets have been manipulated so that they pierce harder and do more damage. It's a weapon of mass destruction that cannot make it out of their warehouse.

I try to keep my eyes glued to the imminent danger on the pages before me, but my thoughts travel back upstairs to where my pretty little captive lives.

I've left her alone since our kiss. I figure she needs some time to come to grips with the reality of her situation, and I must try to get my head back into the game. I have to remind myself why she's here in the first place, why I've risked my life and my brother's life and rage to steal her away from her vacation. She is only a means to an end. She is my way to revenge, simple as that.

But I can no longer deny that she's worked her way into my head.

I wonder what she's doing up there. She's probably sitting in the window, face stuck in another book like she always is whenever I enter her room. She's probably got her knees pulled up to her chest, the sun warming her skin as a gentle breeze sweeps through her hair. She likes to read, adding to the stacks of books that I assume she's finished on the nightstand. She keeps them separate from the unread novels stored underneath the window. She's been here for a month and the stack of books on the small table is nearly toppling over, one or two more and the entire tower will crash to the floor.

The sound of a confrontation downstairs tears me away from my thoughts. Over loud stomping footsteps, I can hear a fluent threat in Italian that can only belong to one person.

What the fuck is my brother doing here so late?

Groaning, I stash the papers beneath a layout of a new farm I'm trying to scope out and then rise to deal with whatever he's brought to my house.

"Fuck off, Johnson!" My obnoxious younger brother has my poor butler cornered in the foyer behind an expensive statue of a centaur I'd gotten during my trip to India last summer. Johnson is cowering beneath the wrath emitting from my brother.

"What crawled up your ass, Roman?" I turn the corner just in time, stopping him from intimidating Johnson any further.

Roman's back straightens as he casually spins on the heels of his snakeskin shoes to look at me. "I got a little pissed off when bitch-boy here refused to let me see you."

He is always wearing a suit and tonight is no different. His long torso is covered by a navy-blue Armani suit, with a dark emerald tie knotted perfectly at his throat. Only one button on the jacket is buttoned, a clean black shirt exposed underneath. His face looks the same as mine, except I don't have dimples in my cheeks like he does. Dimples that give the appearance of a man who is approachable and nice, which he tries to offset by being more of a bastard than I am.

"Johnson is only following orders." I sigh, not wanting to go another round with him. "We've been through this-- I don't know how many times."

"There's something I have to discuss with you." His light hazel eyes come alive with a secret. "Something that can't wait until you decide you want to have visitors."

"What now?"

Roman is always going on about one thing or another, so I'm not surprised to find that he's already got another idea on his mind. "That Bradley bitch has gone missing." His eyes narrow and he curves his lips. "Someone fucking beat us to the punch!"

My heart drops out of my ass and my blood freezes.

Shit.

I don't want him to know that I have her because stealing her was his idea in the first place. We were supposed to create a plan to capture her together. But I decided to act alone. I decided that I deserved her more — even though I'd never done anything like this before. Kidnapping is up his alley, it's not up mine. But I didn't care. I took her life away without giving him the opportunity to help. And now that I've got her here, I don't want anyone else near her because she's mine, and I know without a doubt that he'll want to take his own revenge from her — more so to retaliate against me when he discovers that I stole his chance to make her cry.

Roman is quick tempered and fast to use his hands, and I'd rather not have to beat his ass again tonight. Which is exactly what will happen when he finds out that I have Rowan Bradley and that I'm not willing to share her with him. He'll try to fight me, which isn't anything new to our brotherly relationship — but I've never crossed him or betrayed him like this before. This is whole new territory for the both of us.

"What do you mean she's gone missing?" I try to keep emotion from my face as I stare him down.

"Exactly what I fucking said. I overheard someone in the network say that she's been missing for a few weeks now." He explains, face firm as he slams his fists against the wall. "Marcellus Sparks is offering a one million-dollar reward for her safe return — on the down low, of course. But he's pissed. He's even questioning the bitch's best friend because she supposedly vanished from their Vacation."

Rowan's father is interrogating Sara.

There's no way she's going to rat me out, because then she'd have to confess to her part in the abduction. And she'd never do that. She would never throw herself under the bus like that — even if I did technically force her into our little arrangement. The Sparks would never let her live if they found out that she played a huge role in Rowan's kidnapping, and she knows it. She'll lie through her teeth to survive, so I'm not fazed at all about them realizing she's gone missing.

I should feel a little guilty about what is to come to Sara, but I don't. She could have said no to my deal. She could have told me to shove it up my ass like Rowan has, but she didn't. She willingly kept me updated on what they were doing and where they were heading the few days they were in Cabo, and the months leading up to the vacation.

"Man, we were going to take the bitch." Roman grits out, "We were going to torture her, beat her fucking bloody because of what her asshole brother did to Olivia."

I open my mouth to respond, but a ruckus from the top of the stairs interrupts the conversation, followed by the bang of a door slamming shut.

Fuck!

Was Rowan eavesdropping?

Did she just hear everything?