Page 110 of Love What's Left
“Many possible reasons. Anything from the subconscious desire to be caught and punished, to the arrogant belief that they’re untouchable, to taking sick pleasure from confusing and taunting their victims.”
Charlotte opens the door and speaks quietly to someone in the hall, then returns. “The security cameras cover the patio area. Clay will go over the footage to see if they happened to catch anyone spiking Gabriel’s drink on camera.”
“My team will take care of everything,” Arden says.
Rubbing my thumb over my sleeping husband’s wedding ring, I take in the dark circles under his eyes and his shallow breaths.
Sitting back and letting Arden handle this isn’t enough. “I need closure. I want answers only Rob and Amelia can give me, and I want to look them in the eyes when they do it.”
“If she’s the woman you remember from your captivity, there’s no answer that could justify her helping Nikolai Markov,” Arden says.
I shake my head. “If it’s her, I don’t care about her reasons for doing what she did. I care aboutmine.”
37
Sydney
Gabriel surfaces several times as the day melts into night. It takes longer for him to come out of it than Dr. Stevens initially expected, which rules out Rohypnol, even before the labs come back. Still, he improves as the hours wear on.
His parents and siblings finally leave to get some rest when he becomes coherent enough to tell them to go home. I wait for him to demand the same of me, but he holds on to my hand without another word.
When he closes his eyes and drifts back to sleep, I fold my left arm on the side of his bed and rest my head on the crook of my elbow. I can’t reach his chest without stretching awkwardly. Instead, my hand falls on his abdomen and remains there.
The scent of sterilized bedding, the shadowy room, and the feel of him beneath my hand spark a memory, and I straighten to stare down at his sleeping face in the dim hospital room.
He was a thorn in my side for the first year and a half after I took the job working for his father, but that night took the prize. I was pacing in Gabriel’s darkened penthouse in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling windows when I heard the lock engage and his front door open. He murmured something to someone in the corridor, then, dressed all in black, he entered and limped past me, headed for the hallway to his bedroom.
“Where were you?” I demanded.
He jerked to face me, a hand pressed to his ribs and his face pale and drawn. “Walsh. What are you doing in here?” Even his voice sounded like shit.
“I have security clearance.”
“For meetings and picking up Rufus, not for you to hide in my dark living room and pounce on me in the middle of the night,” he said.
I scowled, heat surging up my neck and into my face. When I worked long hours at the lab, he stopped by my apartment and brought my cat up here so Rufus wasn’t lonely. “Stop making me sound like some kind of unhinged stalker.”
He turned and leaned against a table in the shadowy hallway. “It’s four in the morning. If you want a fight, I’ll give it to you tomorrow.”
“I received the notice from Arden that your mission was successful over five hours ago.”
“And?”
“And you always text me when you get home after a mission. You can’t set a precedent like that, then expect me not to wonder what’s going on when you don’t.”
He dragged in a breath through his teeth, then pulled his phone from his pocket and typed something on it.
A text alert flashed on my screen.
HIS ROYAL PAIN IN MY ASS: Home safe. I know how much you worry. Good night, my precious ray of sunshine
It was an exact quote of the sarcastic text he’d sent after his last mission two months earlier. “Oh, very funny.”
He let his phone clatter to the table, his head hanging low as he spoke, his words ragged. “Tell the guard at the door I said to give you an escort down to your apartment.”
I put my phone away and stepped closer, trying to make out his features in the darkness. Sudden terror caused my heart to jackrabbit against my rib cage.Old pennies.I smelled them along with antiseptic.
“Look at me,” I said hoarsely.
