Sweet Seduction Serenade (41 page)

Which brought me to why I was here. I ignored his question and got straight to it.

"Dad died this morning. I was with him in the end."

He stared at me impassively for several seconds, then sighed as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

"Was he in pain?" he asked, his voice lower and gruffer than before.

"Not in the end. They had him drugged up I think."

"Good," he said nodding as if to himself. Then, "Was Jessie there?"

I frowned, but held his gaze. "No."

He nodded again, seemingly pleased with that answer, but not voicing it.

"Word is Levi's got it in for you, sis," he said, surprising the darn hell out of me.

"Where'd you hear that?" I demanded, feeling a chill seep into my spine. It's not as if I didn't already know this, but Gabe being aware of it made it more real.

His steel blue eyes held mine. "He always had it in for you, didn't he? Whatcha do to him, anyway?"

I didn't do anything. "I have no idea," I said a little defeated. Gabe grunted at that.

"I think it started that summer he and Bailey stayed with us for a week. Remember that?" he said, as though reliving our childhood in the visitor's area of Mt Eden Prison was a perfectly normal thing to do.

I shifted uncomfortably from the recollection, but decided the least I could do for my incarcerated brother was entertain a trip down memory lane.

"Yeah, I remember. You were eight and I was five."

"That's right," he said, crossing his arms over his chest and resting back in the chair comfortably, settling in for a good chat it seemed. "He followed you around like a lovesick puppy. Thought you was adorable in your overalls and pigtails." He huffed out an amused laugh, I just frowned.

"I don't remember that," I said quietly.

"Nah, you was too young and not fooled by his attempts at smooth talkin'. But it started then," he announced with finality, then abruptly stood. "Thanks for comin' today, to tell me in person. You didn't need to do that."

I blinked at the genuine sound to his words. Gabe had never thanked a single soul in his life before. Prison must have been changing him.

"I'm guessin' your Eva's man," he suddenly said to Nick, who nodded in agreement and held my brother's steady gaze. "Word is Levi Russell wants to prove a point. Can you protect her?"

"Yes," Nick answered immediately, then added, "What else have you heard?" The question surprised me further. Nick would surely know more than my brother who'd spent the past four and a half years behind bars.

Gabe flicked his gaze slowly over Nick, from head to toe, but then seemed to come to some decision, because he answered in a level tone, "He'll already know you're both here." His head twitched to the left slightly - nervous? Angry? "Nothin's private in this hell hole. He'll be waitin' and as he's had several fuck-ups already, he'll be lookin' to put things right."

"Right?" I questioned, but Gabe was no longer interested in looking at me, his fierce eyes were all for Nick.

"Levi don't much like bein' shown up and word is he's a laughin' stock out there right now. Payback's a bitch and Levi thinks Eva owes him."

"For what?" I demanded, standing up as I asked, garnering the attention of a prison guard off to the side, who started in our direction, hand already resting on something on his belt.

Gabe's gaze finally flicked to me and there was a moment where I saw something raw, something honest. Fear. Sympathy. Guilt. It all flashed across his handsome face so quickly it was difficult to tell which emotion was first or last.

"You never noticed him, when we was growin' up. He had to get more and more inventive to get your attention and even then you snubbed him. I found it amusin', so I played it up."

I swallowed at the look of regret on his face. I knew where this was heading. I knew it and it left a heavy weight in my heart and a foul taste on my breath.

"I never thought it would come to this, Eva," he said quietly, as the guard arrived behind him, but didn't interrupt my brother's confession, just stood there menacingly, threatening in his presence for us to keep order and not do anything rash. I wasn't sure I was up for rash right then, but you never knew.

"What did you do, Gabe?" I asked, feeling Nick take a step closer to my side - for support? To prevent me from flying at my brother when he admitted the words?

"It was a game," he said almost inaudibly. "It riled him up. So I fuelled the flame."

"What. Did. You. Do?" I asked slowly.

He sighed and ran a hand over his face as though that would wipe the slate clean. "I told him you had the hots for Ryder, bein' as he was closer to your age and all. That you thought Levi was a loser; too old, too slow, too fat. Why'd you think he gave Ryder such a hard time growin' up too?"

I stood there numbly for a moment sorting out this new reality Gabe had uncovered for me. Levi Russell had been sweet on me since I was five and I'd never even known. I'd ignored him, dismissed him, half the time failed to even acknowledge him - and he had got more and more forceful in his attacks over the years trying to get the attention I'd failed to give. Until now when the ultimate rejection - my father snubbing his family in his will and me returning after all of these years still not noticing
him
- had him believing I was rubbing salt in the wound.

"Gabe," I said softly, shaking my head from side to side. "What the darn hell were you thinking?"

Silence met my question, I hadn't really expected him to reply. But then he turned to Nick and said, "Keep her safe. Make her happy. God knows we never did any of that over the years."

Then he turned around and left without a backward glance.

The last vision of my brother was of a streak of orange as he rushed out the door. As though he couldn't get away from me fast enough.

Or couldn't face the shit-storm he'd helped create all those years ago.

"He was young," Nick offered as defence for my brother's actions. We'd made it out of the prison itself and were now standing beside his Porsche. He'd opened the door to the passenger side, but I hadn't stepped inside yet.

"You're defending him?" I asked, coolly.

"Just stating a fact," Nick replied easily. "The ultimate blame lies with Levi Russell. Who reacts to teasing as a child and turns it into a lifelong grudge?"

He had a point. Gabe never did a thing to help me out when we were young, and I admit, I was angry he'd even done something that caused harm, but he was subject to his environment too. Just as much as me. Just as much as Dad and Mum. I turned out all right. Dad and Mum were who they were, but they weren't that bad in the end. But Jessie and her boys are something else. And who they are is all on them.

"You're right," I said with a sigh.

"Of course I'm right," he offered with a cocky shrug of his shoulders.

I smiled at him, the first smile since seeing Gabe.

"Come here," he said in a low voice, his eyes darkening seductively.

"We're in a prison carpark," I pointed out, stepping into his waiting arms anyway.

"I don't care where the fuck we are," he grumbled back, whilst wrapping an arm around my waist and hauling me tight against his body. His other hand already tangled in my braid. "When I want to kiss my woman, I'll damn well kiss her," he said, lowering his face toward mine.

"I'm your woman, huh?" I asked, pulling back slightly and receiving an impressive growl in return.

"Better bloody believe it, angel," he said tugging me back into place forcefully, but somehow still managing to cradle me as gently as a baby. I loved how his strength belied his careful touch.

"Okey dokey then," I said, which caused him to huff a breath out in a laugh, then his lips were on mine.

It started out gentle; exploratory, his tongue sweeping along the seam of my bottom lip. Maybe because of the location, I'm not sure, but he seemed to just be making it a kiss and nothing else. Somehow my body wasn't on board with that, even though I'd been the one to point out where we were. I bit down on his bottom lip, hard enough to make him grunt, then laved my tongue soothingly over the spot, receiving a groan instead and my body being pushed back against the closed rear door of the car. His frame melded to mine like an old familiar and welcomed blanket. His hand running up my side, under my T-Shirt and wrapping around my breast.

I groaned at that.

His other hand twisted around my braid, tipping my head to the side for his benefit, placing me exactly where he wanted me for the kiss.

Things deepened and progressed, the carpark around us disappeared, the location didn't even register in my mind. I was lost to Nick and his tongue and teeth and lips. I was lost to the sensations he was creating through his touch and heat and caress. I was consumed in desire for him. Why was it that things got interesting and we were always in the wrong place for it to progress?

Then suddenly he stilled. His entire frame going statue hard, right down to his lips on mine. He pulled back, his hand slipping out from under my shirt, the other untangling from my hair. Both came to rest on my shoulders, holding me immobile, while his fierce Arctic gaze searched the carpark over the top of his car.

"How many?" he asked out of nowhere and I was about to demand an explanation when I noticed he had that thing in his ear again. He was talking to Eric at ASI. "Which direction?" he asked then and I watched as his head swung round to the rear of the car. "Get in the car and buckle up, Eva," he instructed in a deadly calm voice.

"What's going on?" I asked, doing exactly as he said. He just shook his head at me, slammed the door shut once I was inside and then pulled his gun from his holster at his belt.

My stomach flipped, then plummeted to my feet.

Darn it all to hell, this was not happening. It couldn't be happening.

But then... it was.

A gunshot rang out and I screamed, jumping in the front seat of Nick's car. I frantically searched for any sight of him, but since he'd shut my door, he'd disappeared. I crouched down automatically in my seat when another loud clap rang out and a metallic sounding
thunk
met my ears, in the vicinity of the rear left fender of the Porsche.

They were shooting at the car? - aiming for me or Nick? Where was he? I peeked above the door frame, my eyes just over the edge to peer through the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of Nick. Instead I got another bullet fired at the car, this time connecting with the window in front of me, making it shatter in a crystallised crunch of glass. My reaction time must be excellent, because I'd shut my eyes before the glass rained down, protecting my eyeballs, but feeling every little pelt of fractured safety glass as it hit my skin instead.

I managed not to scream and inhale all that glass, but I just about peed myself. Scrambling into the back seat, thinking I'd have more room to hunker down and that the intact glass there offered more protection for some reason, I felt the too near passing of three more gunshots. The harsh and sharp sound of them being fired from across the carpark still making my body jump involuntarily, despite having heard several by now.

My entire frame was shaking by the time I made it between the front and rear seats, shudders starting at my head and quaking down to my toes. Sweat had formed on my forehead, trickling down my neck, more gathering between my shoulder blades and trailing down my back. My eyes were filled with tears, my heart beating like a metronome set on 250 BPM, and my throat so dry it was literally sticking together giving me the sensation of not being able to suck in breath.

But although my body was quite clearly reacting to the danger surrounding me, my fear was all for Nick. Where the darn hell was he? Had he been hit by a bullet already? He'd been looking over the car at first, but Eric had directed his searching gaze to the rear, but now the gunshots were coming from the left hand side of the car - the passenger side - so where were the shooters? And was there more than one, surrounding the car?

There were a couple of other visitor cars in the carpark that he could have found shelter behind, but no matter how I tried to see where he was - while keeping as much of myself out of the line of fire - I couldn't spot any movement, any shadow of a figure, and especially not now I was in the darkened interior of the rear of the car. The windows here were practically all black, visibility through them: nil. Which, perhaps, was a good thing, I was no longer a sitting duck for Levi - or whoever was in charge of that gun - but it also meant I couldn't see jack shit.

Several more gunshots sounded from outside the car, their sharp retorts echoing through the air, making it difficult to hear what direction they were fired from, but I could have sworn that they came from several. Panic welled inside me, swallowing up all cognitive thought and drowning me in fear. What if all the Russell boys were out there? The cops did have warrants out on their heads, but that didn't mean much. The cops had been able to act on those warrants, the Russells had friends in low places, who'd hidden them all well.

Which made me think where were the cops? Or the prison guards for that matter? We were still on prison grounds, all of this no doubt caught on security camera, and Eric would be aware of what was happening too. Which gave me hope, because maybe those multiple gunshots I'd heard were from Adam and our invisible guards, or the cops, or the prison guards - or all three.