Challenging Gabriel (Knight Security 2) (11 page)

“What would you like to do?” He eyed her speculatively.

She gave a disbelieving snort. “You can’t be serious?”

“I’m still on an adrenaline high,” he reminded her dryly.

“Well, I’m not.” She sat down in one of the armchairs. “Today has been exhausting.”

“And it’s not even lunchtime yet,” Gabriel reminded her.

Angel rested her head back against the chair, looking up at the ceiling. “What
does
Zander have up there?” She hadn’t heard so much as a sound on the floor above them for the past half hour, not even the creaking of a floorboard to indicate Zander was still up there.

Gabriel’s movements were slower than usual as he sat in the chair opposite her. “Last time I went up there, about twenty screens, each one showing images from different surveillance cameras. Plus half a dozen laptops with any amount of information feeding down onto them day and night. Some of it is even legal,” he added unapologetically. “You have blood on your arm.”

Angel followed his gaze down to the red smear on the top of her left arm. Tears blurred her vision at the sight of Gabriel’s blood. At the realization that if the bullet had hit him a few more inches to the right, he might be dead.

She felt the hot tears scalding her cheeks when she closed her eyes. “I’m not sure how much more of this I can take.”

“A lot more,” he assured her gruffly. “You’re strong, Angel, stronger than you even realize.”

She sighed. “I’m not feeling very strong right now.”

“Maybe not, but you are.”

Angel opened her eyes to find Gabriel had moved from the chair and was now on his haunches in front of her. “You should be lying down.”

He tilted his head. “Only if you’ll come and lie down with me.”

She gave a watery smile, the tears still falling softly down her cheeks. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I disagree.” He gave a slight wince of discomfort as he took both her hands in his and pulled her up onto her feet. “Come lie down with me, Angel?” he invited huskily.

She still thought it was a bad idea, but at the same time, she couldn’t resist the appeal in his tone and those warm green eyes. “You’re incorrigible,” she muttered as he kept hold of one of her hands and moved to the sofa.

“And an opportunist,” Gabriel acknowledged without apology as he lay down on the sofa and drew her down beside him before taking her in his arms. He breathed in deeply as he buried his face in her hair. “Your perfume should come with a public health warning.” He chuckled softly. “I think what blood I have left all just surged into my cock.”

“Gabriel!”

He pulled back slightly to look down at her, the blush in her cheeks indicative of her embarrassment. An embarrassment not quite in keeping with a woman of twenty-eight who had been married for eight years. “You and Sinclair weren’t intimate, were you?” he asked slowly.

“It’s true we had separate bedrooms, but Clive shared my bed whenever he felt like it.”

“And did you go to his bed whenever you felt like it?”

“No,” she acknowledged. “But it’s ridiculous to say we weren’t intimate.” She frowned.

Gabriel settled more comfortably beside her, his erection pressing against her hip. “There are different forms of intimacy, Angel. The one I was referring to is expressing desire and need, verbally and nonverbally.”

Her blush deepened. “We didn’t have discussions about our sex life, if that’s what you mean.”

It wasn’t, not quite. Gabriel would have thought when a man and woman were intimate, and married as long as Angel and Sinclair, discussing sexual needs and desires came quite naturally to them. Hell, the intimate glances between his sister, Lily, and her husband, Jonas, was enough to ignite a damned fire, and they hadn’t been together anywhere near as long as Angel and Sinclair. It was also something Gabriel would quite happily have foregone being aware of when it involved his little sister.

“I misjudged you, didn’t I?” He raised a hand and smoothed the hair away from the heat of one of her cheeks. “You didn’t share anything like what we had with Sinclair.”

“Gabriel—”

“Look at me, Angel.”

She raised her head hesitantly and then was unable to look away again as Gabriel’s gaze held hers captive.

He looked searchingly into her eyes, saw into the depths of her, before she broke that gaze and looked away. “I’m sorry, Angel.”

She glanced back at him. “What for this time?”

“Everything.” He winced. “My secrecy as to where I was going eight years ago. My bloody arrogance in expecting you would still be there, waiting, when I got back. The angry way I made love to you when you revealed you were married to Sinclair but had given birth to my son. The way I spoke to you while I was doing it. You didn’t deserve any of it.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it bloody matters!” he said fiercely. “You were just a kid still, and placed in a vulnerable position not of your own making.”

“I’m pretty sure I was there when Daniel was conceived.”

“I’m pretty sure you were too.” He nodded. “But from your point of view, I must have looked like someone who had steamrollered over your life for five weeks before just as suddenly taking off and then not coming back.”

That was exactly how it had appeared to Angel. She’d only had one year of university to go before she attained her degree, and then suddenly she was no longer that person but instead someone who was pregnant with the child of a man who had totally disappeared from her life.

“I’m angry with myself, Angel, not you,” Gabriel admitted gruffly. “If anyone is to blame for what’s happening now, then it’s me. It was my going off to search for Caleb without bothering to explain myself to you that started this whole sequence of events. Your fear when you discovered you were pregnant. Your vulnerability when Sinclair offered you marriage and security for you and your baby. I should have been the one offering you those things, and I didn’t. It’s because I didn’t that you’re now in this mess.”

“You’re being far too harsh on yourself—”

“No, I’m really not.” He sighed. “God, how you must have hated—still hate me.”

No, she could never recall hating Gabriel. Been bewildered by the fact that he hadn’t come back, perhaps. Frightened and panicked when she realized she was pregnant. Heartbroken when she learned Gabriel was on leave but hadn’t contacted her. She knew now that hadn’t been through choice, and that he had simply still been too ill to be able to come to her.

The moment Daniel was born, all she had been able to feel was love as she gazed down at the tiny baby who looked so much like Gabriel. A tiny part of him she could love and cherish forever.

“I didn’t. Not then, not ever,” she assured him. “Anger. Hurt. Betrayal. All those. But never hate. If I had never known you, then I would never have had Daniel, and I can never regret a moment of the time that led up to my having him or since.”

Gabriel felt a tightening in his chest as he listened to Angel describe how she had felt thinking he had simply abandoned her.

The choices she had been forced to make.

Choices that were now threatening to destroy her.

He vowed there and then, no matter what else happened, he would bring Daniel back to her. He owed her that much, damn it.

“Er—is this a bad time…?”

Gabriel’s arms tightened about Angel as she gave a self-conscious gasp at the sound of Zander’s voice. “Now is as good a time as any, Zander,” he assured, arching a mocking brow as he saw how uncomfortable the bigger man looked at finding them in what must appear to be an intimate moment. Well…it had been an intimate moment. Just not intimate in the way Zander obviously thought it was. Considering all his men now knew Gabriel had a child with Angel, and the fact they were now lying together on the couch, the other man could be excused for making that assumption.

“Okay.” Zander was avoiding looking at them directly now. “Ian called. The shooter had long gone by the time he got onto the roof of the building.”

“As I thought.” Gabriel grimaced.

“But”—there was a note of satisfaction in Zander’s tone—“Ash had more luck with the man on the ground. He has him back in the interrogation room at Knight Security.”

“You have an interrogation room?”

Gabriel ignored the surprise and censure in Angel’s tone as he released her to sit up and swing his feet to the wooden floor. “Call him and tell him I’m on my way.”

“Care to tell me why you’re wearing one of my T-shirts?” Zander eyed him curiously.

“No—”

“He’s been shot,” Angel cut across his denial. “Well, you have,” she challenged as Gabriel scowled. “If you don’t believe me, Zander, check the bin in your bathroom, and you’ll find his bloody shirt.”

“It’s a damned flesh wound,” Gabriel growled.

“Did it need stitches?” the other man prompted.

Angel frowned her puzzlement. “No.”

“It’s a flesh wound.” Zander shrugged.

She raised her eyes heavenward as she rose to her feet beside Gabriel. “I suppose you have to actually lose a limb before an injury is classed as serious!”

The big man shrugged. “Only if it’s a leg and you can’t walk.”

“Did you just make a joke, Zander?” Gabriel stared incredulously at the other man.

Zander’s discomfort deepened. “It’s been mentioned I’m too serious.”

“By whom?”

“Doesn’t matter.” The other man turned away, indicating that was the end of the subject as far as he was concerned. “Do you want me to drive you to Knight Security?”

“Or you could keep Angel here with you and let me borrow your SUV.”

“I’m coming with you—”

“You really aren’t, Angel.” Gabriel glowered his disapproval.

She eyed him warily. “What are you going to do to the man Ash caught?”

“Whatever I have to do to get him to talk.” He wasn’t about to lie to her. They needed as much information on Sinclair and where he was keeping Daniel and possibly Lena as they could get. By whatever means necessary.

“This is the twenty-first century, Gabriel, and you can’t just go around torturing people in the middle of London!”

He arched his brows. “I don’t remember saying anything about my torturing anyone? I employ other people to do that for me,” he added mockingly.

“Gabriel—”

“Angel.” He captured her gaze with his and held it. “Forget your squeamish principles for a few minutes and think about the nature of the man you married and the sort of men he would employ to do his dirty work. Then consider whether or not you want to get Daniel and Lena back or not. It’s as simple as that.”

“Gabe—”

“Answer me!” Gabriel ignored Zander as he continued to glower at Angel.

She could feel the frustrated anger rolling off Gabriel in waves, knew that he had to be as anxious as she was to have Daniel back with them. It was just… She had never thought of… Hadn’t ever contemplated…

Clive was a monster who dealt in the illegal sale of human flesh, drugs, and arms. The men he employed to carry out that work were as evil as he was. One of those men had tried to kill her or Gabriel earlier today, and the one they were holding prisoner had been an accomplice in that attempted murder.

She straightened her shoulders. “I’m still coming with you.”

Gabriel gave an acknowledging inclination of his head. “On condition you don’t question or try to interfere with my methods of getting information.”

Angel had no idea how she was going to react once she saw the man they had caught, and discovered his possible involvement in Daniel’s and Lena’s abductions.

Chapter 6

“Still think he’s deserving of your concern?”

Angel didn’t even glance at Gabriel, all her attention on the man seated in the adjoining room and currently visible to her through a two-way mirror. A man she was certain she had never seen before today.

She had been slightly bemused when Gabriel first brought her in here, had thought rooms like this existed only in television programs. Ash had been standing in the room with his back turned toward the mirrored wall when she first looked through it, but as he stepped aside, she got her first look at the man who might have been part of Daniel’s kidnapping and had certainly been an accomplice in the shooting today.

There was absolutely nothing distinctive about him. He was of medium height and build as he slouched down in the chair on the far side of the table, with medium-length dark hair, and a mildly handsome face.

It was his eyes which betrayed him as the killer he no doubt was.

Intensely dark and insolently challenging eyes, as he refused to answer any of the questions Ash asked him.

After the past ten minutes of listening to Ash’s questions and that unresponsive silence, Angel bunched her hands into fists at her sides. She just wanted to go in there herself and beat the answers out of the man, to demand he tell them where Daniel was.

“No,” she finally answered Gabriel flatly, gaze fixed on the insolent man.

“Know him?”

“No.”

“Never seen him before?”