19. In Love
IN LOVE
GAbrIEL
As the team began exiting the conference room, Gabriel hung back.
Halston stood, spoke with Caroline then—as if pulled by an invisible string—made her way over to him.
Her smile made his heart beat a little faster.
Despite the murder and mayhem, he found joy in simply being with her.
He stood, his gaze cemented on hers until Greystone walked over, severing their fiery connection.
“I’m sorry,” Greystone said. “Forgive me?” He extended his hand.
“Always.” After a handshake, they hugged it out. “We’ve been fighting with each other—”
“My earliest memory is a fight with you,” Greystone said. “It was about sitting on Dad’s lap. I coulda been three, maybe four, so you were—”
“Four or five,” Gabriel replied.
“He pulled you onto one knee, put me on the other, and he told us a story about a bad guy.”
Gabriel had no memory of that. “What happened?”
“He asked us what we should do about the man,” Greystone said. “I told him everyone should be nice to each other. You said, “We win, Daddy. We are the bosses.”
“He asked you how you’d win,” Greystone said.
“And?”
“You told him we could punch him and kick him and put him in time out.” Greystone smiled. “He set me down, told you another story. I knew in that moment you were his favorite.”
“Yeah, because I’m just like him.”
“No, G, you’re not,” Greystone said. “You have a heart.”
Halston joined them and Gabriel regarded her. “But it’s painted black.”
Halston shot him a smile. “My heart is filled with love, but the blood running through my veins is ice cold.”
Greystone shifted from one to the other. “What do you think of my brother?”
She regarded Gabriel. In true Halston form, she shrugged a shoulder. “He’s all right. Why?”
“Has the Agitator found his person?” Greystone asked his brother.
Not wanting to give anything away, Gabriel remained poker-faced.
“When we were kids, I wanted to be like you,” Greystone said. “You picked fights and you won. Every. Single. Time. You made Dad proud. I watched you on the playground. I know how you think, brother.”
Gabriel slid his attention to Halston. “Then you know the answer to your question.”
“I guess I do, G,” Greystone replied.
Caroline joined them. “Grey, you’re flying tomorrow and need to be on base at oh-six hundred. Let’s get you home, Rambo.”
After Greystone and Caroline said their goodbyes, Gabriel turned to Halston. “You ready to get outta here?”
“Absolutely. Any chance I can buy you a drink?”
“Whatever Barbi wants, Barbi gets.”
That made her smile.
As Sin’s chauffeur-driven limo headed toward DC, Gabriel stared out the window, his thoughts centered on the twelve packages.
Are they connected to the power outages? How much danger is Halston in working alongside Dmitri Petrov and Yuri Bulgrov?
As the limo drove over the bridge and into the District, he regarded Halston. She was courageous, ingenious, and confident in her abilities… and he wanted her to know how much he respected her.
Is tonight the right time to tell her?
Normally one to take charge, he wanted to do something he hadn’t done before.
Follow her lead.
By the time Sin and Evangeline dropped them at Hotel Dillinger, Gabriel was ready to skip the drinks and get right down to business—dirty business. He needed to strip his woman bare and get lost in everything Halston.
Patience wasn’t his jam, but he’d agreed to a drink. And he was a man of his word. She clasped his hand, led him to the Bohemian Lounge, and found an empty four-top nestled in the back.
He pulled out a chair facing into the lounge. “Sit next to me.”
She eased down. He sat beside her. Beneath the table, he held her hand in his lap.
The server made his way over.
“Santini Chianti,” Halston said.
“Santini Whisky, straight,” Gabriel told the waiter.
After he left, Gabriel peered over, her Barbi wig, brown contacts, and baggie clothing a fitting disguise meant to blend in and go unnoticed.
“I missed you,” she said. “Were you happy to be home?”
“I love my city,” he said, “but not the reason I was there.”
“Was it bad?”
“It was necessary.” He stroked her hand under the table. “I care about you and don’t like that you’re alone at the embassy, especially with those two.”
She kissed his cheek. “I lived in Moscow for nine months. My brother came over twice to check on me. My only interaction with anyone I thought I could trust was my handler, and that was never in person.”
The server returned with their drinks, asked about food. When they declined, he left.
She lifted her glass. “No more shop talk. Here’s to us.” Then, the furrowed her brows. “Is there an ‘us’?”
He found her vulnerability charming.
He savored that first sip of whisky, then a second, before setting down his glass.
“Yes,” he said, “there is an us.”
Fire burned in her eyes. “That was the right answer.”
A smile tugged on his lips. “I’m yours. You’re mine. It’s simple.”
“Nothing with you is simple.”
The longer he stared into her eyes, the more convinced he was that she was the one. He ran the back of his finger down her cheek. “I don’t want us to separate when your job here ends.”
She kissed his cheek, letting her lips linger an extra beat. “I can only think about today. Tomorrow is too far away and filled with its own challenges.” One more kiss before she murmured, “Let’s dance.”
They made their way around the tables filled with guests and onto the dance floor. A slow song had him pulling her close, holding her flush against him.
“This is where you belong,” he murmured as he peered down at her. “With me.”
That elicited a little smile.
“My Barbi.”
She clung to him as they moved slowly to the ballad. A brief interlude of calm in a raging sea of uncertainly and enemies.
“I know that man,” she whispered. “Grigori’s on my translator team at the embassy.”
Gabriel followed her gaze. A man had jumped onto one of the bright, orange sofas, combing the crowd.
When he spotted Halston, he screamed, “I know you’re a spy, Minka! The Americans have turned you against us.” He whipped out a gun, pointed it toward her. “Time to die, Minka!”
Gabriel spun her away from the gunman, shielding her with his body as shots rang out.
BANG! BANG!
A sharp pain pierced his back, but the strong armor of Kevlar stopped the bullet.
Screams and cries filled his ears. Some sprinted out, others dropped to the floor.
Gabriel wanted to pump him full of lead, but his priority was Halston.
Using his body as a shield, he ushered her toward the kitchen.
Once there, he moved her into a corner while the kitchen staff ran for cover.
“Are you hit?” he asked.
To his surprise, there was no fear in her eyes. Only calmness stared back. “You got hit, didn’t you?”
“Answer me.”
“No, I wasn’t, but you were.”
“I’m fine,” he protested. “We need to get you out.”
“You got shoved into me.” She hurried around him. “There’s a bullet hole in your sweater.” Seconds later, she was peering into his eyes as concern flashed across her face.
Gabriel had done for Halston what Angelo had done for him. He’d paid it forward. He just didn’t think it would happen so soon after Angelo’s death.
“I’m pretty sure the bullet’s lodged in the vest,” he said.
“We need to get you upstairs.”
“We need to get you upstairs,” he pushed back.
A server rushed over. “The shooter is down,” she said. “Hotel security shot him. I think he’s dead.”
After the employee hurried off to alert others hiding in the kitchen, Gabriel murmured, “No one can know you were his target. If anyone finds out, your cover is blown.”
“Agreed.”
“We need to get you out of the hotel—”
“I can’t leave,” she pushed back. “I’m safer here than anywhere else.”
“Follow my lead.” He clasped her hand, led her back into the lounge. It was more crowded than he’d expected, but that would work in his favor. Moving slowly, he made his way around the guests toward the lobby.
There were four security guards, their guns drawn, all pointed at their subject. Grigori was on the floor, blood oozing from multiple wounds.
“Is he dead?” someone asked.
“Everyone!” shouted one of the guards, “we need you to move away from the body.” The guard pointed into the lobby. “Wait over there. The police will need to question all of you.”
A man hurried over. “I’m a physician. What can I do to help?”
A couple in front of Gabriel and Halston started to walk out.
“Now,” Gabriel murmured, and they fell in line behind the couple.
“Hey, you can’t leave,” yelled one of the guards.
The first couple stopped. “That guard told us to wait over there,” called out the man.
“Right. Over there,” said the security guard.
Gabriel wrapped his arm around Halston and continued walking. Instead of stopping where instructed, he guided her to the Penthouse elevator.
She pulled out her keycard, the doors slid open and in they went.
Once inside, she swiped the card. The light turned green, the doors closed.
They stayed silent, the only sound Halston’s breath coming faster than usual.
Up to the penthouse level, down the hall to their suite.
Once behind the locked door, he held her tightly in his arms.
“You saved my life,” she said. “Thank you.”
“Your cover might have been blown,” he said. “We need this handled.” He extracted his phone, called Sin.
“Hey,” Sin answered, “we were just talking about you guys.”
“We have a problem,” Gabriel said, “and we need you to fix it.”
“Go.”
“One of my translators showed up in the hotel lounge,” Halston said. “He outed me, said I was an American spying on the Russians.”
“Jesus,” Sin bit out.
“He tried to assassinate her,” Gabriel said.
“God, no,” Evangeline said.
“Gabriel protected me, got me out of there.”
“The shooter was taken down by hotel security,” Gabriel said. “We snuck out and are in Halston’s suite.”
“I have no idea how he figured it out or if anyone else at the embassy knows,” Halston said.
“You can’t go back there,” Evangeline said. “You’ve been compromised.”
“Tomorrow is the delivery. I can’t bail now,” Halston pushed back. “I’m not afraid.”