Gabriela grabs my arm and I think this is the first time she’s touched me. At least not to shove me away.
Does it count when she put her hands on my shoulders to brace herself to kick me in the nuts? I decide it doesn’t.
I take a step toward Alex and her grip tightens.
“Stefan, stop. Please. Alex is my friend. That’s all. If you hurt him because of me—” her voice breaks and I turn to watch her swallow the lump. “If you hurt him, or worse, because of me, I’ll never forgive you just like I will never forgive my father for what he did.”
I don’t know why that matters. Why those last words leave any impression at all.
I turn to one of my soldiers. “Give me that.” I point to the bag of cash.
“That’s for them. It’s not yours!” Gabriela says.
“Gabi,” Alex warns her with a shake of his head, and it fucking grates on my nerves, that fucking nickname. That and the fact that she heeds his warning.
I open the bag. “How do you have this much cash?” There’s several thousand in hundred-dollar bills.
“I always save it, little bits at a time so my father won’t find out,” Gabriela says. “It’s all I had when I left the other night.”
I turn to her. “And you’re just going to hand it over to him?”
“Yes. And it’s none of your business,” she says, reaching to take the bag. “It’s my money.”
I capture her wrist when she does. “I’m being patient, Gabriela. You need to be very careful here.”
She searches my eyes and I study hers, think how pretty she is even if she is a mess with her spoiled make-up and hair.
She lets go of the bag and waits.
I study her, give her a nod, then toss it onto Alex’s lap.
“Let’s go,” I tell my men.16GabrielaI’m shuffled into the backseat of one of the cars and Stefan rides in the front. He doesn’t talk to me on our way back to the house.
Once we’re there, he walks me up to my bedroom.
“What are you doing?” I ask when he comes inside.
He closes the door and takes my clutch which I’d grabbed on our way out of Alex’s house.
He opens it, takes out my iPod, pockets it. He does the same with my credit card and cocks his head to the side as he lifts out my passport, tossing the clutch onto the bed.
I watch him as he opens it and reads the name.
“You don’t look like a Sandy,” he says. “How did you get the passport?”
“Alex helped me.”
“You were really going to run away? Disappear?”
I nod.
“With him?”
“No. Just me. He was helping, that’s all.”
“You’d give everything up?”
“What was I giving up?” I feel my eyes fill up. “You don’t understand what it’s like to be Gabriel Marchese’s daughter, Stefan. You have no idea.”
“Then tell me.” He pockets the passport.
“Why? It doesn’t matter anymore. And besides, you don’t care.”
“You don’t know me, Gabriela.”
“I know you’re more like my father than you think.”
“Don’t insult me. I’m nothing like that man.”
“Really? Let me make my point. He would sell me off to another man for his gain. You take me for yours. He isolated me, kept me under guard. I don’t even have a cell phone, Stefan. Nothing. You’re doing the same. Even taking my iPod. I was a prisoner there, I’m a prisoner here. He did the same thing to my mom. It’s what you’re going to do to me. Do you think I don’t know that?” I swipe the back of a fisted hand across my eyes, hating my tears. “Just leave me alone, okay? It’s been a really long day.”
“I gave him the money, didn’t I?”
I don’t reply.
“Let me ask you this. What would your father have done?”
I don’t want to answer that. I don’t want to think about the truth of it.
“You set me up,” I say instead.
He nods.
“I knew it was too easy to get out of here. I knew it. How did you find out?”
“Text message from Alex. It popped up when I was looking at your computer.”
“You were testing me.”
“And you failed.”
My stomach tenses.
“What did your brother do for Alex?” he asks out of the blue.
“What?”
“Alex said your brother did the same for him. What did he mean?”
I look away and think about Gabe and what happened. “Nothing,” I answer, swallowing back the lump. “He just meant when we were little. My mom would pick him up and take him with us sometimes. Alex’s mom died when he was a kid and they never had a lot of money. That’s all.”
“Sounded like more than that.”
“Well it’s not.” I need to change the subject. “What now?”
He cocks his head to the side. “Now you wash your face and brush your teeth and get ready for bed,” he says, undoing his bow tie and letting it hang there as he unbuttons the top button of his shirt.