Chapter 31
Gabriel
“Are you certain?” Gabriel asked his brother. They sat across from each other in the sitting area of his study.
“We can’t afford to be wrong about this,” Marcus added from beside Hamza.
“You two are always looking for an excuse to kill. Yes, I’m sure. Ky—”
Nicholas barged through the doors, gaze scalding, and all three of them straightened like guilty children.
“I thought you were walking the dogs,” Gabriel said, just as they trotted in to flank Nicholas.
“How dare you discuss this without me!”
“We didn’t want to worry you, kid.”
Nicholas turned his blistering stare on Hamza. “I told you to stop calling me kid, and if it involves my life, I want to know about it.”
Gabriel sighed, Marcus cleared his throat, and Hamza let out a low whistle.
“Please, sit.” Gabriel gestured to the vacant spot next to him.
“I think I’ll stand.”
Hamza gave Gabriel a questioning look, which he returned with a nod.
“He doesn’t get to decide,” Nicholas said.
He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, hair held together tightly at his nape, diminishing some of his softness. The dogs maintained their protective stances beside him.
“Kyrin isn’t wasting resources, ‘searching for Soren and his whore.’” Hamza said the last bit with air quotes.
“His war with the Armenians is escalating. He can’t afford to be pulled in multiple directions.
Besides, he was upset with Gabriel for dropping the ball on the mass hit job he paid him for, but he never actually believed he was working against him. ”
Nicholas visibly relaxed.
“How do you know all this? Did you bring him in for questioning?”
“I may have pulled one of his men over for speeding,” Hamza replied.
“And he just told you all this? Do you trust that he told you the truth?”
Hamza glanced at Gabriel again before answering. “I have other ways of obtaining the truth. Ways of… persuading people.”
Nicholas frowned, clearly turning Hamza’s words over in his head.
“Mateo…” he whispered to himself. “Your gift is persuasion?”
He turned accusing eyes on Gabriel. “How come you never told me this?”
“It wasn’t my place, and besides, it’s a gift wasted on him.” Gabriel didn’t bother hiding his derision.
“What my baby brother meant to say was there are limits to what I can do with it, and it isn’t something I use often—if at all. I don’t take it lightly.”
Hamza’s jaw worked, making it known that he’d crossed a personal boundary for Nicholas. That was twice now, and it was clear that it didn’t sit well with him. Gabriel didn’t give a damn.
“Thank you,” Nicholas said with a smile that appeared heavy.
Gabriel could see this had been weighing on him just as much as it had been for the three of them. But Gabriel wasn’t so easily convinced that their problem had been solved.
“And you expect us to believe that he ordered our immediate deaths over dinner not that long ago, but suddenly we’re not that big a deal? You claim he was upset. You don’t send nearly two dozen armed men to hunt and kill because you’re upset. He was enraged, and he wanted revenge.”
“Are you calling me a liar?” Hamza challenged.
“No. I’m simply saying that maybe we should consider those limitations of yours when it comes to this. Did it ever occur to you that maybe his man wasn’t charmed by you, that he’d simply played into your gullible hands?”
Hamza scoffed. “I’m not a fucking novice, Muharib.”
“Well, what about Kyrin himself?” Nicholas asked. “Were you able to talk to him?”
“No. I don’t exactly meet up with these guys for drinks.” He hit Gabriel with a pointed look. He’d said something similar to him earlier, but with more colorful words.
“You’re a cop. What good is the badge if you can’t show up to places and demand answers?” Gabriel snapped.
“I’m a detective, but you know that. And while you may have little to no respect for the law, some of us prefer to abide by it.”
“You’re living in a fantasy world,” Gabriel drawled. This was Nicholas’s life they were talking about. If this wasn’t worth breaking the law for, then what was?
“And you’re being paranoid, brother. Kyrin hasn’t even left his fortress in weeks, and he has round-the-clock protection. And aside from his man, I have a source who’s confirmed that Kyrin’s attention is else—”
“Your source could be wrong.” Gabriel didn’t appreciate his brother’s sharpened na?veté on this matter. “And Kyrin doesn’t need to leave the house to see the thing done. He can give the kill order from the comfort of his living room, if he so chooses.”
Hamza’s gaze darkened on Gabriel. “I understand that. My point is that he’s focused on staying alive, on surviving and winning this war. I’ve got my eyes and ears open, brother, but believe me when I say you aren’t the center of his universe right now.”
He turned to Nicholas.
“I wouldn’t normally say this, but in the meantime, if you feel threatened, if someone so much as grazes your shoulder, use your gift to—”
“No,” Nicholas cut in sharply. “I’d never draw that kind of attention, and I’m not killing anyone.”
He hadn’t looked at Gabriel when he said that last bit, but he felt the direct hit all the same.
“I’d never suggest you kill anyone.”
“Not even to save his own life?” Gabriel snarled.
“Don’t be stupid. Of course, he should do whatever’s necessary if he feels that his life is in danger. The law recognizes the right to self-defense, but the force used should be proportional to the threat.”
His brother was serious, and it took effort for Gabriel not to issue his final-death.
“Did he say anything else?” Nicholas asked. “The guy you pulled over.”
“Nothing valuable.”
“Because he pulled over an underling,” Gabriel said.
“Can’t you muzzle him?” Hamza asked Marcus. “The bottom line is that Kyrin’s distracted right now. He’s got a new enemy on his ass, not to mention the heat from my department. He’s lost a lot of men—many at the hands of my brother and Rayyaan.”
“No trace of their disappearance was found,” Marcus said. “He may suspect, but he doesn’t know for sure.”
Hamza scoffed. “Disappearance? Is that what we’re calling it now? And since when do criminals need to be sure?”
“Watch it,” Gabriel said heatedly, not liking his brother’s mocking tone.
“What if they’d gotten word to Kyrin that they’d caught up with you? Right before you slaughtered them all?”
“Had they?” Marcus asked, unfazed.
Hamza didn’t answer. Either because they hadn’t, or because his source didn’t have that information. From the look on his brother’s face, Gabriel believed the former to be true.
“The point is, he’s stretched thin. Regardless of what my brother may think, I’m good at my job, and I trust my instincts. I believe that you three are the last thing on Kyrin’s mind.”
Gabriel gritted his teeth. He didn’t like leaving Nicholas’s well-being up to chance.
“So that’s it? We’re just supposed to trust your informant and your instincts? Trust that Kyrin won’t take an interest in us again, and that the authorities will handle him?”
“That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do. Sit back and let the authorities bring him down. Legally.”
“Yes,” Nicholas breathed, eyes imploring Gabriel. “It’s what I want.”
Gabriel had already promised himself to respect Nicholas’s wishes. He would spare the few, even though the irony of it was that if something happened to Nicholas at Kyrin’s hand—or at his command—Gabriel would see to it the whole world burned to ash.
Regardless of what Nicholas, or even Hamza, believed, Gabriel had learned his lesson. He would put Nicholas above all, above his own needs, his ambitions, and even his thirst for vengeance. But without him—alive and viable in the world—nothing would matter. Nothing would hold him back.
Nothing.
In that regard, not much had changed.
“I will respect what you want, Nicholas, but no matter how reassuring Hamza’s claims are, we should still assume the possibility of danger out there.”
Nicholas was strong, immortal, fast… He was a vampire. But even vampires could be left vulnerable against the right enemy with enough firepower and manpower. If outnumbered, if unable to escape a run-in with Kyrin without taking casualties, Nicholas had already made it clear that he wouldn’t kill.
In all likelihood, his predatory instincts would kick in, his instinct to survive, to fight back. But likelihoods came with odds, and Nicholas was stubborn.
What if an assassination attempt on Nicholas’s life ended with him somehow losing his head? What if he lost too much blood, leaving him incapacitated…
The worst part was that Gabriel wouldn’t be able to get to him. He’d feel his fear, know he was in trouble, but he wouldn’t be able to locate him. Not without the mated bond.
“I’ll be fine.” He turned to leave.
“Then what about the people you care about? The humans you care about?”
The room fell silent except for the panting dogs hovering around Nicholas, waiting for his next move.
“I’m not trying to be manipulative, and I’m not trying to keep you here. We just need to think. We need to be smart.”
“I’ll put more men on Kyrin’s people,” Hamza said. “They’ll be watched around the clock.”
“Yes, and maybe these new men can actually catch them in the act of committing a crime, since the men supposedly already watching them have thus far failed.”
For once, Hamza’s stare didn’t hold defiance for Gabriel’s sarcasm; it seemed sympathetic.
“You’ve never trusted authority, and I understand why. But this isn’t Saraad.”
“No, but those who hold power will always fall victim to the same mistake. They’ll always want more. You’ve been around long enough to understand that. Your precious justice system is corrupt, Hamza.”
“There are still a few good men out there, Muharib. Trust me.”
Not with Nicholas’s life, he wouldn’t. He trusted no one with what he held most dear.
“More men will be good. Thank you,” Nicholas said. His willful ignorance terrified Gabriel, a trait he seemed to share with Hamza.
“So I can go home then.” It wasn’t a question, and yet it didn’t feel like a statement either. It sounded more like he was trying to convince himself to leave.