33. GABRIEL meeting about mole
A few days later…
I'm walking a fine line. I know it. Every move, every decision, it all has to be calculated.
Audra doesn't sit still well. Not anymore.
Maybe she never did. And if I leave her with too much time, too much space, she'll start thinking.
About us. About the kiss. Even though she has nothing to feel guilty about, I know she does.
She lets other people dictate her feelings too much.
That's one thing she'll learn quickly in my world.
How to not give a shit what other people think.
It's amazing how free—and a lot less guilty—you feel once you can let go of that.
We haven't talked about the kiss. Or that night. Whenever our eyes meet, Audra averts her gaze. I'm willing to let her decide when she's ready to address it, but my patience only lasts so long.
So I keep her occupied. Busy. Contained without making it feel like a cage.
Or I try to. Her mom has been an unwitting big help with that.
For the last two days, she's done half the work for me.
The woman is… exhausting. But useful. She needed Audra's help to trim her cats' claws.
She also needed special food and toys for them.
Apparently, those animals require more attention than most people I know.
Fine. If it keeps Audra distracted, I'll buy them a damn kingdom. I handed her my card and told her to order whatever she needed. I didn't think twice about it. Didn't even set a limit. There was a glint in her eyes.
"Oh, you're going to so regret this," she warned me.
I almost smiled. Still might. I hadn't intended to check the damage.
I didn't care enough to. If she thought that would get a reaction out of me, she underestimated the wrong man.
But my accountant called me, because apparently, one hundred and fifty grand at a pet store is enough to warrant a call.
One hundred and fifty thousand dollars. At a pet store. I don't even know how that's possible. But it amused me. Let her push. Let her test boundaries. She needs to feel like she has some control. Even if it's manufactured. Even if I'm the one allowing it.
I lean back in my chair, staring out over the city. Massimo called a meeting in a few hours. Which means we're moving forward. Finally. One of the guys will be making contact with the Collector. That alone tightens something in my chest.
I don't like it. Don't like sending anyone into something I can't fully see.
And I definitely don't like the timing. Not with Audra here.
Not with everything starting to connect in ways I don't trust. My jaw shifts slightly.
Because this isn't just business. Not anymore.
Not when she's in it. Whether she understands that or not. Whether I like it or not.
A text from Mauro interrupts me. It's just a photo, nothing more.
But it's the eyes in that photo that make my blood curl.
Fuck. The same eyes as Alessio. I can only pray that she's not the same woman Audra saw as I make my way back into the primary penthouse area, where I find the lady of my thoughts sorting through a box of cat toys, a wicked grin on her face.
She has no idea how much I want to devour those lips.
No idea how thin the thread is I'm holding on to, how hard it is for me not to claim her completely as mine.
"Do you have a sec?" I walk over to her, phone in hand.
She puts some fluff contraption down and nods. "I got a picture of Alessio's mother."
Her smile falters, and seriousness takes over her expression as she reaches for the phone. Our eyes lock. She understands how important this is to me. This is my brother's life that might or might not change irrevocably.
My eyes are glued to her face as she takes the phone and studies the image of a smiling young woman, no older than nineteen, holding an infant in her arms. Nothing gives her emotions away when she looks up and nods. "That's her. She's a good deal younger here than when I saw her, but it's her."
I don't need to, but still I ask, "Are you sure?"
She nods again. "It's not just the eyes.
But see, when you look closely here, you can see that part of her earlobe is missing.
That was one of the things that stood out to me when I first saw her.
She could have easily hidden it behind her hair, both in this picture and when I saw her, but it's like… like she's proud of it."
An interesting observation, but I don't doubt her for a second. I've learned that there is a lot more to this woman than meets the eye.
"I have to go to a meeting right now, but Mauro is outside with six more men, if you need anything."
"Gabe," she leans against the counter, crossing her arms, "I know you're busy with your… stuff. But I need?—"
I cut her off, "We need to talk. Yes, I get that."
"Do you?" she challenges. Making me chuckle. I've had dealings with criminals less intensive than her.
"I do," I promise, hoping I'll have enough free time to continue to keep her distracted while my men hunt for Razor and Javier Salazar.
Once those men are out of her life, I might consider moving her and her mother to a safer neighborhood to help her feel independent again.
I know how important that is to her, even though I'm not sure how I can let her walk out of my home ever again.
I get to the meeting early to catch Alessio and have a few minutes alone with him. His car rolls into the garage smoothly and quietly, only five minutes later.
Leaning against the concrete pillar, I wait for him and his entourage.
Mine is already by the elevator, keeping an eye on me.
He sees me the second he gets out. The expression on my face must give me away, because he waves his guards off to join mine.
Adjusting his cuffs like this is just another day, he strolls toward me.
"Waiting for me in a parking garage?" He glances around. "Should I be flattered or concerned?"
Like nothing ever gets under his skin.
"A word," is all I say.
He glances at me. My expression is grim. I don't like what I'm about to tell him. I don't like to poke at my friend's old wounds.
"What's up?"
"I don't know if this means anything," I push off the wall, "but Audra used to run with an MC crowd. Black Canyon Reapers."
Alessio's brow lifts slightly, still cool and collected. "Oh? Wouldn't have pegged her for the type."
I huff a quiet breath.
"Yeah," I mutter. "She's full of surprises, that one."
His gaze sharpens. Not on the information. On me.
"You really like her?" he asks.
I let out a short, humorless breath.
"Like?" I shake my head, running a hand through my hair. "Fuck, I wish it were just that."
That earns me a second once over. He's seen this before. I'm sure I'm wearing the same idiotic expression on my face that Massimo has been sporting lately.
"Anyway," I continue, shifting gears, "she saw someone back then."
That gets his full attention. "Oh yeah?"
"A woman." I don't want to make this any more dramatic, but I hate saying these words out loud. "One who looked like your mother."
The silence that follows is sharp and immediate, as if all the air has been sucked out of the parking garage.
Alessio's mask slips for just a second. Then he composes himself again. "My mother?" he repeats, slower. "Where the fuck did that come from?"
I pull my phone out, unlock it, and bring up the image, holding it out for him to see. "The eyes."
He looks down at it, and the tendons on his neck strain as he works hard to remain in control of his emotions. The anger that always boils underneath his skin shows for just a moment. "Where the fuck did you get that?"
"Does it matter?" I question in return. "It's the same woman Audra saw."
He doesn't answer right away. Just stares at the screen a second longer before he looks away. He takes a step back to bring some distance between us and leans against the same wall I used a few minutes ago. He regards me thoughtfully, then the mask drops back into place. Clean. Cold.
"So what?" his voice is flat. "My mother ran out on me eighteen years ago. She must have been a lot of places since."
"Audra saw her six or seven years ago," I point out.
"Fuck."
Yeah. That. Exactly.
We stand there for a second. The weight of it settling.
Not just what it means, but what it could mean.
If anything. It might just be exactly as Alessio's old man always told him.
She took off. Abandoned them. On the other hand, the name Black Canyon Reapers has shown up a lot lately.
In the most unexpected corners. In our lives, nothing is coincidental.
If you start to believe that, you're dead. I slide my phone back into my pocket.
"This isn't nothing," I remark.
Alessio doesn't answer. His gaze is fixed somewhere past me now. Not the garage. Not the building. Somewhere else entirely. Working it. Rebuilding the past in real time.
"What exactly did she say?" he asks.
Quiet. Controlled again. But there's something under it now.
Something dangerous. He knows Audra is off limits.
But I know Alessio too. Once he sinks his teeth into something, nothing will stop him, not even a best friend or brother.
I fill him in on as much as I'm comfortable sharing of Audra's story, which isn't much more than that she saw her.
"We need to let Massimo know." Alessio tugs on his tie, a sign that he's done with this conversation.
"Agreed." I follow him to the elevator, where our men are waiting for us.
Five minutes later, we enter the meeting room. Massimo stares at us. "This is starting to become a habit, being late."
"I'm not as late as last time," I defend myself with a chuckle, following Alessio once more, this time to the side bar to take the glass he fills for me with Massimo's choice of poison. Stagg Bourbon.
Alessio drinks his Stagg down and refills his glass. "What's up, boss?"