Chapter Four
The day Evelyne dreaded had come. After just three days of getting her settled, Gabriel would leave her here. Alone.
She almost loved the house. It was beautiful, if a little overly white and almost sterile feeling inside, but she absolutely loved standing on the balconies, terraces and porches watching the sea’s fascinating dance.
Sometimes the lull of calm waves against the rock, sometimes angry slaps, sometimes chaotic whirls. It made up for the bad decorating.
She would have loved the house itself, she thought, if it was full of people—like the palace had been. But the echoing emptiness of it at night—with Gabriel the entire length of the home away—left her uneasy and…sad.
Sadness was silly, she knew. She had escaped her father and General Vinyes. This was cause for constant happiness and celebration. She should be ecstatic.
But really, she’d traded one prison for another. Gabriel even warned her against taking walks just yet. And now he was leaving her alone and with instructions to stay inside.
This prison was better of course. No one would beat her or ridicule her or force her to marry a man who would also no doubt beat and ridicule her, but it was still…forced solitary confinement—even if the confinement was elegant and luxurious.
Gabriel must have read her distress over that—he was good at reading the room.
Or just her. And not in the way her father or even Alexandre was.
Though she hated to draw comparisons between her father and brother, they both had a way of understanding her in order to maneuver her into whatever they wanted.
But what Alex wanted was for the greater good, so that was not so bad. What her father wanted was always to prove his power, his dominance, so that was bad.
But Gabriel seemed to read her in order to…understand. And now, he assuaged her concerns. Or tried to.
“Eventually, we will ease your way into a less isolated life,” he was saying while she watched him fiddle with a computer—her computer now.
He’d gotten all sorts of things in place over the past three days.
A computer, a phone, an entire security system controlled by both.
“Once the talk of your disappearance dies down, once your father finds some different vengeance plot to follow, and with some slight physical details shifted, you may eventually lead a very normal life.”
May. Eventually. She tried not to be depressed by those words—she was safe from both her father and the general, after all. She was lucky.
She would teach herself to cook. She would watch the ocean. Maybe at some point she could buy some paint, some new furniture, bring life to this place’s interior.
And she would do all of these things without being manipulated, ridiculed or beaten. Ever again.
“Grocery delivery is set up, just as I showed you, without any personal contact. I have left you a document full of instructions for the security system. It should answer any query. You are not to contact me unless it is a dire emergency.”
She nodded, not trusting her voice. She didn’t want him to go. She’d come to realize she enjoyed his company. He was charming, funny, and that bright smile was like sunlight after years in shadows.
And in Gabriel, she saw everything Jordi had let her believe about him that hadn’t been true at all. Gabriel saw things through. He had no fear. He had risked for her. Well, for Alexandre.
She could trust Gabriel to protect her, just as Alexandre had always protected her. Even if he left. He had done all this, at great risk to himself. Regardless of the reason, he was brave. Strong. Admirable.
She would miss him. Desperately.
Gabriel studied her. Saw through her, she could tell. “I will come back to check on you in a few weeks,” he said gently.
She felt as though she might cry. Or fall down at his feet and beg him to stay. She refused to do either. At least in front of him, but it didn’t stop her from being a little bit pathetic. “Do you promise?”
“You have a state-of-the-art security system in place if you are worried about safety. I will make certain no one from Alis finds you. I promise you, just as I promised your brother.”
“I’m not afraid. Not like that. I just…” She looked around the room. “It will all just be so empty. I have never really been alone before. Not like this.”
“Then enjoy it, Evelyne.” He gave her shoulder a brotherly kind of pat. “I’ll be back in a few weeks. You have my word.”
And he kept it. Every few weeks, Gabriel would appear with no notice. Usually in the dead of night. She would get a little notification on her phone, waking her up, and she would let him in the back door.
In the shadows of those nights, Evelyne felt her heart race.
The sound of his voice would drift along her skin like a delicious secret.
The scent of him would find itself in little spaces around her house, and even though he stayed in a bedroom on the other side of the house, she slept easier every night he was here.
The first trip he arrived with hair bleach, which she hadn’t been able to bring herself to use. She didn’t think she was vain, but she liked her hair the way it was, and if she wasn’t leaving the house, what was the point of changing her appearance?
He had laughed at her, but not in a mean way. As though he was just amused by her.
“Well, keep it around, for the future.”
She spent the weeks in between his appearances trying to keep herself entertained. Gabriel had suggested she enjoy some alone time, and while she enjoyed being able to do whatever she wished around the house whenever she wished, it was still a very small life.
And she missed people. She missed Alexandre. How was Ines settling into the palace? Would they be introducing a baby soon? A baby she’d never get to meet?
Thoughts like that made her incredibly sad, or would start a spiral of thoughts… Was her father mistreating Ines? Would he mistreat a grandchild? Especially if Alexandre and Ines ended up having a girl?
Or was he so obsessed with her disappearance—something that would no doubt haunt him as a symbol of his lack of power—that eventually he’d track her down and find her?
But every time she got to that thought, she reminded herself to breathe. If there was anyone in this world she thought could keep her safe and hidden from her father, it was Gabriel.
So in the weeks between his visits, she threw herself into whatever projects she could think of. Mostly, she worked on teaching herself to cook, via those internet videos Gabriel had suggested. She tried to not think of the palace, of Alis. Instead, she simply tried to survive.
When Gabriel appeared next, almost two full months from their escape, she had a meal all planned out. She put it together while he locked himself in one of the office rooms and talked to someone on the phone in a language she didn’t know.
She had spent weeks upon weeks watching cooking videos, and while there’d been a few fails along the way, she was starting to get the hang of it. She was proud of the meal she’d made Gabriel, and the pretty little dining room scene she’d created—complete with flower arrangement and candlelight.
She was even more proud when he strode into the dining room and stopped short, like he couldn’t quite believe what he saw.
He blinked once, then carefully swept that surprised expression away. He smiled. “Look at you. I suppose you can teach an old dog new tricks.”
She rolled her eyes at the idea of being old. “It’s fun.” She thought of the pile of dishes in the kitchen sink that would be her responsibility and hers alone. “Sort of.”
She’d set the table family style, with plates set next to each other so he couldn’t try to sit all the way down the table like he had last time. She hated the huge, ugly, black, shiny table so she’d scrounged up an elaborate silk tablecloth. Still not to her tastes, but better than black.
Gabriel took his seat, and she took the one next to him.
She watched him with a growing fascination.
He did not treat her like he treated other women.
She was pretty sure she’d seen him harmlessly flirt with anyone from the age of five to ninety-five.
It was just him, and the way he moved through a crowd. Charming, happy, easy.
Except with her. He kept himself a little…tense, a little…closed off. Not that he wasn’t charming, exactly, but he was…stiffer, she supposed.
Evelyne had spent an inordinate time deciding what that meant. What else did she have to do? Learning to cook and cleaning up after didn’t take up full weeks at a time.
“I think I should like some paint,” she told Gabriel, as he usually restocked anything she needed on his little visits. “Some new furniture. I’d like to make some of these rooms at least a little but more…cozy.”
“Write me out a detailed list. We’ll figure it out.”
She smiled. “You’re too good to me.”
His smile was…tight. She studied it now, then picked up the glass of wine she’d already poured, sipped. He gave it a fleeting glance, before his eyes moved to his own untouched glass, then his plate.
“Is something wrong?” she asked. She didn’t think there was, and she also knew he wouldn’t tell her if there was, but she wanted…something. A reaction? A blip? To be able to read this way he dealt with her.
“Everything is going according to plan,” he said. “Your father has told the press that he has a ‘suspect’ in your disappearance.”
“Who?” Evelyne demanded, setting the wineglass down a bit too hard. Worry spiraled through her. Did Father suspect Alexandre? Gabriel?
Gabriel lifted a shoulder, cutting through the chicken in a lemon cream sauce.
“He’s keeping it quite tight-lipped, which makes me believe it’s a story to save face.
If he has no idea what happened to you, he looks like a fool.
” He took a bite, nodded approvingly. “So he’s invented this ‘suspect.’ With any luck, he’ll invent a story that makes everyone think you’re dead. ”