Chapter 18
“There you are,” Mom says. “I’ve been looking for you all day.”
She approaches the bench where I’m seated in the gazebo. Now that the estate is secure, Mom no longer felt the need to lock me up, although she took my phone and laptop for obvious reasons. At least my prison is bigger and has a decent tennis court.
“Gabriela?”
I continue staring at the wisteria climbing the column across from me.
“Come on, honey. I know you’re upset, but you can’t ignore me forever. We should talk about what happened. That must have been hard to see.”
Somehow, I suppress my laugh at this murderer’s attempt to counsel me.
“You mean, watching you try to abduct and kill your boyfriend in cold blood? Yeah, I’m sure there will be no lasting trauma from that.”
“He wasn’t my boyfriend and I’m not the one who pulled the trigger.”
She can’t be serious.
I turn on her. “You told Rob to ‘weaken him’ so he couldn’t escape. What the hell did you think was going to happen?”
Her objection is all over her face, but I don’t care. She’s the one crossing lines. She’s the one whose mind has warped out of control.
“I explained all of this to you. Aden might be our only chance at being free of The Shadow. Of course I’m going to trade his life for yours.”
My heart cracks in my chest. I have no more words and turn back to the pretty flowers.
Every time I close my eyes I see each detail of the violent scene. The sound of the gunshot. The puddle of blood on the floor. The dark red spatter painting everything around us, including ourselves. It kept me up all night.
I’m glad he was able to get away, but now the hole in my gut grows with each passing second. I don’t know if he’s dead or alive. If he’s suffering or cold or scared. Maybe he’s stuck in The Translucence, too weak to go anywhere else. Either way, I’m powerless to help him, and it’s killing me that I have to play along with my mother’s evil plan for my own safety. At some point, I’ll go on the offensive and try to stop this madness, but for now, I don’t understand what’s happening enough to thwart it.
Mom drops beside me with a sigh.
“Aden wasn’t who he was pretending to be, Gabi. He didn’t care about you. He had his own agenda and we’re lucky we figured it out before it was too late. I hoped for a different resolution, but this is how it played out. We have to work with what we have.”
Dread swirls through my stomach at her cryptic threat.
“I’m never going to be okay with this,” I say without looking at her.
“I know. You don’t have to be.” She tugs my arm to draw my focus. “For now, all you need to worry about is staying safe. Rob and I will take care of the rest. We spent most of the night gathering intel on Aden. We’re going to flush him out and end this once and for all.”
My blood runs cold.
She’s serious about her plan to capture him, and I have no idea how to stop it.
Her phone buzzes and she glances down to read a message.
“The contractors need a decision on the new flooring after they clean up the blood. You want to help me pick something out?” She glances at me like she just asked what we should order for dinner.
I don’t know, Mom. What’s good flooring for murder?
“Whatever is fine.”
“Come on, Gabi. We’re in this together. I’m sorry it happened the way it did, but we need to move forward. Let’s go meet with the interior designer.”
“Interior designer? I thought you said the crews were here to clean up.”
My heart rate picks up at her tight smile.
“They are. But there’s a monster on the loose, Gabi, and I have no doubt he’ll be back. This time we’ll be ready for him. The crews have been working in the basement since early this morning. I’ll have them do the bedrooms next so they’re out of our hair by this evening.”
Great. So considerate of her.
She still hasn’t explained what any of that means.
Her expression softens. “Look at it this way. At least we learned the truth about Aden before it was too late. Imagine if he’d actually succeeded in seducing us. I don’t even want to know what he had planned.”
Her words send a shiver down my spine.
Demon. She called him a demon—a monster. Ironic, considering what they did to him in cold blood.
Her chilling comment right after the shooting still haunts me. There was no emotion except anger in her voice when she said they should have shot him more times. Even if they knew he wouldn’t die, it takes a certain kind of person to pull a trigger on an unarmed victim. And then her only regret is that they didn’t pull it more?
I turn to face her. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.” Mom looks pleased at my engagement.
“Why Aden?”
“What do you mean?”
“You acted like this thing with him was about sex and appearances, but was it? Did you suspect who he was from the beginning?”
She scoffs and shifts on the bench. “Of course not.”
“No? So, it’s just a coincidence that the guy you brought home happens to be one of the gods that ruined your life?”
Her gaze snaps to me. “A what?”
Shit.
“Nothing. It was a figure of speech. The point is?—”
“He told you he was a god? Unbelievable. Don’t you see?! He tricked you, Gabi, just like he fooled me and countless others. I know you feel betrayed. So do I, but the sooner we accept the truth and take action, the better.”
“Okay, but?—”
“I’m trying to protect you. From the moment your father abandoned us, all I’ve done is try to keep you safe. Why can’t you see that?”
Because I don’t fully believe it. Because someone who would lie about every aspect of our lives for months, then gun down and hunt a person I love can’t possibly be protecting anyone but herself.
But she’s right about one thing. Someone needs to protect me, and it’s looking like that person is going to have to be Gabriela Wells. I swallow the rest of my accusations.
With Aden gone, it’s time to switch to survival mode and work toward my own freedom. I have no intention of sitting around waiting for someone to decide my fate. I’m not that kind of damsel.
We finish the conversation the same way it started—in silence.
As the day wears on, each new development only magnifies the worry in my gut. When the announcement comes that my bedroom “is finished,” I’m more than a little unnerved by the changes.
Why Mom decided now is the time for a medieval-dungeon-chic makeover is beyond me. Nothing looks right. The walls, ceiling, fixtures, and even the furniture is all heavy woods and bulky metals. I guess it kind of works if you’re into the gothic theme, but Mom isn’t exactly known for her love of the macabre… or so I thought.
“Wow. Um…” I don’t know what else to say. Mom takes a slow pass around my suite to inspect it as well.
“You’ll get used to it,” she says. “The important part is that if Aden tries to find you, you’ll be protected.”
“How is ugly furniture going to protect me?”
“Because it’s surrounding us in iron.”
My gaze snaps to her. “Iron? Why iron?”
“As you witnessed yesterday, those creatures are allergic to it. It’s the one thing that can stop them. We’re packing this place with as much iron as we can find, although we’re disguising it, so he won’t realize until it’s too late. If Aden comes back, he won’t be getting away again. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to see the changes to my suite as well.”
Once I’m alone, anxiety swirls through my stomach as I study my surroundings with a different eye. Metal sconces, mirrors, furniture—even the bedframe itself—all of it means something horrible.
My gaze lands on what looks like a dagger on the nightstand. It’s eerily similar to the one my mom used on Aden to “test her theory.”
“For your own protection,” a voice says behind me.
I spin around and my stomach drops at the figure in the doorway.
“What are you doing here?” I snap.
“Good evening,” Rob says as he leans against the doorframe. A gun is secured at his hip, a sneer on his face.
Fear and anger mix inside me at the strange turn of events. I can’t believe this man has gone from my father’s trusted assistant to my mother’s criminal accomplice. I shudder at what other secrets he could be hiding.
“I’d like to be alone, please,” I say.
“Is that any way to treat your new bodyguard?” he taunts.
“My what?”
“Didn’t your mom tell you she put me across the hall for your protection? Fuck. That’s awkward.” But the man doesn’t seem remotely upset by the development—unlike me.
“No. It must have slipped her mind. Excuse me.”
I shove past him, and I feel his amusement as I storm down the hall toward my mother’s suite.
It’s bad enough “the minor renovations” turned out to be an entire remodel of our ancestral home. Now, she’s recruited this asshole to babysit me? There’s nothing I like about all of these changes, especially since they must be related to her plan to capture Aden.
Furious, I push through her door and slam it behind me.
“Hello, Gabriela. You know I don’t appreciate you barging in on me.”
“Well, I don’t appreciate you inviting Rob to hang out in my room!”
“He was in your room?”
“Basically!”
“I’ll talk to him about that. But yes, I’ve asked him and other trusted members of my security team to stay here until we find Aden. That man is dangerous, and we need an extra layer of protection.”
“Rob’s dangerous? Agreed.”
She gives me a hard look, and I clench my fist.
Rein it in. She doesn’t know the whole truth about you and Aden.
It kills me that I can’t defend him against these ridiculous lies. He’s a monster? No. He’s being hunted by monsters, and I’m praying he knows not to come back. I’m still reeling from the image of his torn body and tortured gaze.
“Rob’s not as loyal as you think, Mom. Did you know he plotted to kidnap me and turn me over to The Shadow?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Right before the shooting, when you left him alone with Aden and me, Rob said he thinks I should be the hostage, that he even had a plan to make it happen.”
Mom’s slight flinch gives me hope.
“He’s not in your corner as much as you think,” I say. “Just because you’re aligned by a mutual enemy, doesn’t mean you can trust him.”
After a pause, her expression morphs back into stern resolve.
“I don’t trust Rob,” she says. “I don’t trust anyone, but for now we need him.”
“You already have all the stupid iron! Isn’t that enough?”
“We don’t know the answer to that. A gun didn’t stop Aden, and we have no idea how effective this iron retrofit will be.”
“Yes, but if you?—”
“Rob is staying. End of story. Also, I’ve decided you shouldn’t leave the house again unsupervised.”
I stiffen. “You have to be kidding me. You can’t hold me here as a prisoner!”
“You’re not a prisoner. It’s for your own safety. There’s no iron outside these walls to protect you. I didn’t like the idea of you alone in the garden. We’re working on wearable iron adornments, and once those are in place, you can have more freedom. I’m sorry for locking you in the basement yesterday, but you left me with no choice. Please don’t make me do it again. I don’t want to hurt you, Gabriela.”
“It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”
“Enough! Every single thing I’ve done has been for you! How can you not see that?”
She takes a calming breath. “Look, this is bigger than all of us. The stakes are astronomically high, and for your own safety, I need you to cooperate and stop questioning every little development.”
I tamp down the rest of my “questions.” Angering her won’t help me, especially now that she’s so stubbornly committed.
“This is bullshit,” I say as I head for the door.
“That may be, but you’ll be glad for all these precautions if Aden comes back.”
I’ll kill him myself if he comes back and lets these animals hurt him.
Rob is still at my door when I return, looking like he’s been waiting for me. He caresses the handle of his gun as I shove past him into my room.
“Sort everything out?” he asks with a smug expression.
“Let’s just stay out of each other’s way as much as possible.”
“Going to be hard when I’ve been instructed to protect you.”
“I don’t need you to protect me.”
“No? So, you’re going to stab that bastard yourself when he comes after you?”
Stab him?
My gaze slides to the dagger on the nightstand.
“He’s not coming after me.”
“How do you know?”
“Why would he?”
“You don’t think he’ll be out for revenge?”
“No idea. But he’d be stupid to come here.”
“He won’t know we’ll be waiting for him. At least let me show you how to use that.”
He motions toward the object I’ve been avoiding.
“How to use a knife? I think I can handle it.”
His eyes narrow on me. “I’m not talking about holding the damn thing. I’m talking about whereto aim, how to strike… Shit like that.”
“Bullets didn’t kill him. What makes you think some knife will?”
“We don’t want to kill him. He’s way more valuable alive.”
My blood goes cold at the thought.
“Besides, you think this is bad? You should see what they’re doing in the basement.”