Gabriel's Redemption (Gabriel's Inferno 3)

“Sorry, sweetie.” Diane pulled away from her fiancé, but not before moving her hand gently over where his hand had rested.

“Would you like to take those with you? I think they belonged to your mother.” Diane pointed at the boxes that were sitting in the closet.

The air in the room swiftly changed as Tom and Julia followed the path of her finger.

“What?” Tom’s tone was sharp.

“They’re just sitting there. Maybe there’s something she’d like to take home with her to Massachusetts. But if you don’t want them or you don’t want them now, that’s fine. I opened them just to see what they were, but I closed them back up again. I came across them when I was emptying this room out.”

“I’d like to look at Mom’s stuff.” Julia was conscious of her father’s fists opening and closing.

“I’m not all fired up about having this conversation three days before my wedding,” Tom growled.

“Honey,” Diane reproached him.

“All right. Why don’t you ask Gabriel to come up and help me carry them down to your car?”

Julia nodded and exited the room, but not before seeing her father pull Diane into his arms.

As she descended the staircase to the front hall, she heard voices coming out of the living room.

“You tell her yet?” Julia’s Uncle Jack, Tom’s brother, was speaking.

“No.” Gabriel’s tone was clipped.

“You going to?” Jack’s gruff voice grew louder.

“Since everything has been quiet, I haven’t seen the need. She’s been upset enough recently. I’m not about to add to it.”

“She better not be living in fear.”

“She isn’t.” Gabriel sounded impatient.

“I find she is, you and me got a problem.”

Julia’s footsteps echoed across the hardwood floor and the voices stopped.

She entered the living room and saw Jack standing by the far wall, his form menacing.

Gabriel was standing a few feet away, having adopted a similar posture.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Gabriel lifted his arm and she went to him, curling into his side. “Nothing. Did you help Diane?”

“A little. But I need your help now. I have a few boxes I need to carry out to the car.”

“Absolutely.” Gabriel gave Jack a significant look as he followed Julia into the hall.

The day before the wedding, Julia agreed to help Diane’s sister, the maid of honor, by running errands. She visited the florist to double-check the order, she visited the church hall to inspect the decorations, and she stopped in at Kinfolks restaurant.

Kinfolks would not have been her choice as the location of the rehearsal dinner, but since it was a place that held sentimental value for both the bride and groom, she kept her opinion to herself.

She’d just finished her meeting with the owner and the manager, ascertaining that everything would be ready for that evening, when she ran into Deb Lundy, her father’s ex-girlfriend, and Natalie, her daughter.

Julia tried to plaster an artificial smile on her face as Deb approached her.

“Hello, Jules. I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

“Hi, Deb. How are you?”

“Just fine. Natalie is home for the weekend and we’ve been doing some shopping.” Deb lifted the numerous bags that she was carrying.

Julia’s gaze moved nervously from the tall blond woman to her daughter, who was standing some feet away with a sour expression on her face. Both women were dressed in expensive clothing and obviously designer sandals. Both women clutched large Louis Vuitton handbags.

Natalie was an attractive young woman, with red hair and green eyes. She and Julia had been roommates at Saint Joseph’s University. They’d even been friends. But that was before Natalie decided to sleep with Julia’s then-boyfriend, Simon, and invite her to join them in a threesome.

“Natalie was supposed to be in the Hamptons this weekend with her boyfriend. You remember him, don’t you? Simon Talbot, the senator’s son?”

“I know who he is.” Julia resisted the urge to comment further. Deb knew exactly who Simon was to Julia and that he’d been arrested for assaulting her two years previous. Sadly, the arrest had yielded only a plea agreement and community service.

Ignoring Julia’s obvious discomfort, Deb prattled on.

“Mrs. Talbot became ill and so their trip to the Hamptons was canceled. But I’m glad Natalie was able to come home. We see so little of her now that she’s working for the senator’s presidential campaign. She has a very important job.”

“Congratulations,” said Julia, trying to keep the contempt out of her voice.

Natalie ignored Julia and turned to her mother. “We need to go.”

Julia watched her former roommate curiously. The last time they’d seen one another was in this very restaurant. Natalie had cornered her and shown her a clip from a video that Simon had made. A video that showed Julia in a compromising position. Natalie had threatened to post the video on the Internet if Julia didn’t withdraw the assault charges against Simon.

In a surprising turn of events, Julia had stood her ground. She even threatened to go to The Washington Post and tell them that Simon had sent his new girlfriend to blackmail her. The senator would not have been pleased.

At the time, Natalie seemed skeptical that Julia would carry through on her threat. But she must have changed her mind. There was no evidence that the video had been shared or posted anywhere. It was as if they’d given up.

Julia wondered occasionally why she hadn’t heard from them. But she decided to count herself lucky and simply accept her good fortune.

Seeing Natalie now, Julia expected her to be rude or aggressive. She expected Natalie to offer veiled threats or innuendo. Instead, she appeared agitated, shifting her weight back and forth and glancing at the door. It was as if she were afraid of something.

Julia didn’t see any intimidating people in the restaurant or outside on the sidewalk. She wondered what was bothering Natalie. And why her smugness and superiority had been magically eliminated.

Deb gestured to her daughter to wait.

“It was good seeing you, Jules. I hear your dad is getting married again.”

“Tomorrow, yes.”

“Never thought he was the marrying kind. I guess old age will do that to you.”

Julia lifted an eyebrow. Deb was at least as old as her father, if not a year or two older. But she had no wish to be drawn into a confrontation.