Page 114 of Gabriel: Duke of Bencalor

“Don Gabriel, a plea­sure to see you,” Mikel said, low­er­ing his head in a sketch of a bow. “Join me in my of­fice, please.”

Gabriel rose and held out his hand to Mikel. “Thank you for see­ing me with­out the cour­tesy of ad­vance no­tice.”

“Of course, Duque.” Mikel clasped his hand briefly be­fore turn­ing to lead him down the hall­way.

It al­ways seemed strange to have this man who knew all the dark se­crets of the royal fam­ily—many of which even Gabriel wasn’t privy to—treat him with such def­er­ence.

Of course, there had been that tackle on the cliffs of Acan­ti­lado Alto, so he was not al­ways def­er­en­tial. But that vi­o­lence had come from a place of pro­found car­ing, which Gabriel val­ued more than gold.

Mikel ges­tured him to the blue vel­vet-cov­ered sofa in the seat­ing area of his of­fice. Once Gabriel sat, Mikel set­tled on a carved wooden chair. “What may I help you with?” he asked.

“How much dan­ger is Quinn in from Dupont?” Gabriel watched Mikel’s face closely, try­ing to gauge whether the man would tell him the truth. “Re­mem­ber that I know from di­rect ex­pe­ri­ence what he’s ca­pa­ble of.”

Mikel’s face tight­ened. “I am sorry for that.”

“You bear no guilt for the kid­nap­ping. You weren’t royal se­cu­rity then,” Gabriel pointed out.

“I am sorry for your ter­ri­ble suf­fer­ing. No one should have to en­dure that.” Mikel’s knuck­les showed white where he gripped the arm of the chair. “The wheels have been set in mo­tion to track down Dupont, the mur­der wit­ness, and the paint­ing. If Pier­son’s in­tel­li­gence checks out—and I be­lieve it will—Dupont will go to prison for the rest of his life. Once he is in cus­tody, he will be too busy try­ing to re­gain his free­dom to worry about Quinn.” Mikel’s smile was as sharp as a shark’s tooth.

“Un­til he is in prison, I would re­quest that you have an ex­tra guard on Quinn at all times.” The thought of Quinn un­der­go­ing the hor­ror he had been through twisted fear and fury deep in his chest.

“Al­ready done, as you heard last night,” Mikel said.

“Dou­ble it.”

“I will take care of Quinn.” A touch of steel hard­ened Mikel’s voice. “You should have no wor­ries about that. I would ask that you post­pone your trip to New York City to as­sist in that.”

Mierda! Gabriel should have seen that com­ing. To wait might be safer, but ev­ery mol­e­cule of his be­ing cried out in protest. He had to find out what his fu­ture would be.

“I have two meet­ings set up with per­form­ers whose sched­ules are filled to over­flow­ing. I can’t ask them to resched­ule. It could take months to find a new time and place.”

“Two per­form­ers?” Mikel raised his eye­brows. “I know of only Marisela Alejo.”

“I also have a meet­ing with Kyran Redda. It is the first step in cre­at­ing an in­ter­na­tional cul­tural fes­ti­val in Cal­eva. My un­cle wants to make it hap­pen next year.”

“Kyran Redda, the lead singer of Pow­er­haus? I can see how that would be hard to can­cel.”

“I will ask Quinn to stay here while I go,” Gabriel said, even though it felt as though he were toss­ing away his para­chute while leap­ing out of a burn­ing plane.

Mikel’s lips twitched up­ward at the cor­ners. “How suc­cess­ful do you think you’ll be at per­suad­ing her to do that?”

“About one chance in a thou­sand,” Gabriel ad­mit­ted. “As her boss, you could tell her you need her here.”

“I sus­pect it would take a com­mand from the king to keep her from ac­com­pa­ny­ing you.”

“That could be ar­ranged,” Gabriel said. She’d be spit­ting mad be­cause she would know he had spo­ken with his un­cle.

“Quinn is quite com­pe­tent, and you’ll both have pro­tec­tion while you’re in New York. I imag­ine that Kyran will have his own se­cu­rity as well.” Mikel gave Gabriel a level look. “Please keep me ap­prised of any ad­di­tional meet­ings you might plan.”

“Now that I am aware of the dan­ger Dupont poses, I will make sure to do so.” Gabriel could also get a jab in about Mikel keep­ing him in the dark.

“Gra­cias, señor.” Sar­donic amuse­ment tinged Mikel’s voice.

“By the way, Quinn strongly ob­jected to me mak­ing this re­quest of you. I promised I would tell you that.”

“She wishes to prove her­self.”

For a mo­ment, Gabriel was tempted to ask Mikel about Quinn’s past. Then Gabriel would be pre­pared for what­ever she re­vealed.

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