Page 158 of Gabriel: Duke of Bencalor

An­other scar on Gabriel’s body…and prob­a­bly his soul. Quinn wanted to wrap her arms around him but re­mem­bered she didn’t have that right any­more.

Gabriel smiled at Paola. “I hear chi­cas dig scars.”

The EMT laughed as she taped a ban­dage over the wound. “That will keep you un­til the am­bu­lance ar­rives.”

Hélène stroked her son’s un­in­jured arm, mur­mur­ing her mother’s love, while Lorenzo hov­ered be­hind the sofa. Both of their faces were tight with re­lief and the af­ter­math of ter­ror.

Quinn knit­ted her fin­gers to­gether as she stared down at Gabriel. “Thank you for tack­ling Odette to save me.”

“I tack­led her to save me.” His eyes were shad­owed as he met her gaze. “That is the sec­ond time I have al­most lost you.”

Mikel in­ter­rupted them, look­ing tense and un­happy. “No one seems to be en­tirely clear on what hap­pened. I’m go­ing to as­sume you shot Odette?” He looked at Quinn.

“Where did I hit her?”

“Left shoul­der. Solidly.” His voice held rel­ish.

Re­lief flooded her. That meant it wasn’t her bul­let that had grazed Gabriel. She didn’t tell Mikel that she had been aim­ing for Odette’s chest.

“I spoiled Quinn’s aim,” Gabriel said. “In my de­fense, I didn’t know she had a gun with her.”

A look of pain tight­ened Mikel’s fea­tures. “She should not have needed it.”

Once again, her boss felt re­spon­si­ble for the sit­u­a­tion.

“I didn’t think I would need it ei­ther. It was just habit to shove it in my purse,” Quinn said. Then she re­mem­bered. “Jefe, we’ve got Odette. She talked about Dupont and the kid­nap­ping in front of ev­ery­one here. The sniper, as well.”

“It’s still hard to ac­cept,” Gabriel said, caus­ing Quinn a pang for re­mind­ing him. He lifted his eyes to hers. “I should have be­lieved you, car­iño mío.”

“The king told me what she said,” Mikel said. “El rey also said you shouted about Iowa.”

“What­ever she did there, she wanted to keep it a se­cret. I fig­ured say­ing the state would have enough shock value to get her at­ten­tion,” Quinn ex­plained.

“Smart,” Mikel said, mak­ing her glow with pride.

“What does Iowa have to do with Odette try­ing to mur­der Raul?” Lorenzo asked.

“We’ll find out,” Mikel said, his voice grim.

Flash­ing lights strobed around the edges of the cur­tains, and two stretch­ers were wheeled into the sala. They watched as Odette was hand­cuffed to one and trun­dled out the door. The sec­ond crew came to­ward Gabriel.

“No,” Gabriel said with ducal firm­ness. “I am not get­ting on a stretcher.”

“Fine,” Mikel said. “You can walk to the am­bu­lance.” He waved off the wait­ing EMTs.

Gabriel blew out a breath of frus­tra­tion. “I don’t need a hos­pi­tal. Just a doc­tor with su­tures.”

“The hos­pi­tal is non­nego­tiable.” The king’s voice came from be­hind Quinn. She spun around as Gabriel be­gan to stand.

“Sit.” The king laid his hand gen­tly on Gabriel’s un­in­jured shoul­der to press him back down onto the love seat. Luis looked ten years older than he had when the evening had be­gun. “I am so sorry, hijo mío, that you suf­fer again be­cause of me. Your courage never fal­ters.”

“Tío, you owe me no apol­ogy,” Gabriel said. “You could not know that Odette had gone in­sane.”

“Could I not?” The king looked at Quinn with a silent ac­knowl­edg­ment. “Quinn, thank you for your in­cred­i­ble brav­ery. I do not know what—” He took a deep breath. “Both of you saved lives tonight. I can­not guess how many of us would have died at the hands of that mad­woman, if not for your ac­tions.”

Quinn un­der­stood now why Gabriel hadn’t wanted a medal for his ac­tions. To have the king thank her was more than enough. In fact, she didn’t need thanks at all. She would have taken a bul­let her­self rather than let harm come to Gabriel’s fam­ily.

“Gabriel is the brave one,” Quinn said. “I had a gun.”

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