Page 112 of Fragile

From his tone, I suspected the ‘new sheriff’ was now standing before us. My sixth sense kicked in. Kai wasn’t as bad as he’d made out. The guy saved his stepsister even though she had shot him and so he had to have some empathy inside that hardened shell. A psychotic version but better than nothing.

I bit my lip as he limped over with his shirt now soaked red and drew a knife, causing Gabriel to shift back around me. Protective waves bounced from him.

“All right princess, calm your shit,” Kai said to Gabriel before running the knife carefully under the cable ties and freeing me. I pushed shakily to my feet and Gabriel dragged me into his arms. Emotion flooded me and I buried my face in his neck.

Kai stood before us with an empty expression, looking alarmingly pale. Why I felt a twinge of concern when the maniac had kidnapped me was anyone’s guess; Stockholm syndrome?

“I don’t need to explain what will happen to you if you speak about any of what you saw here today do I?” he said in a steely tone.

I felt Gabriel shake his head. “As I said, I’m not a rat.”

Kai took a moment to contemplate this and then took a step back, making a dismissive motion with his hand towards the door. “Go. Fuck off then.”

We then moved past him and his men slowly, no sudden moves with Gabriel’s strong arms around my shoulders. Sean moved and handed Gabriel’s gun to Max. “Here you go, Al Capone,” he said with a sneer. “I emptied the chamber so don’t get any ideas sunshine.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Max replied, pushing it into his pocket.

“Try not to shoot your dick off,” Gabriel said under his breath, earning him a death glare from his friend.

“Oh, just one more thing, Knight.”

Gabriel stiffened and turned back.

“I have an opening on my legal team. I’m fully legit. If you want a real job, come find me.”

A good minute passed by before Gabriel said. “Fully legit? So, no racketeering or violence of any kind?”

Kai’s mouth curled into a wicked smile. “One thing at a time sunshine. You can’t rush these things.” In other words, the violence wasn’t going away anytime soon.

“I’ll think about it,” Gabriel said, drawing me back against him.

“You do that.”

And with that, we left the building. I felt exhausted and numb and could hardly stand but I was back with Gabriel and we were alive.

Leonie

“Are you alright? Did he do anything? If he touched you, I’ll fucking kill him,” Gabriel growled, holding me by the arms and frantically scanning my body. I must have been sweating in there as my hair was plastered to my shoulders.

I took a huge breath to calm myself down. “I’m fine, he didn’t hurt me. He was quite civil, but with a weird serial killer type of vibe,” I panted, pushing my hair back from my face. “The whole thing was surreal. Eventually, my instincts told me I wasn’t in any real danger.”

Gabriel dragged me into his arms in a bear hug. “You must have been terrified,” he said, his hand cradling the back of my head. The heat of his body pressed against mine and I welcomed the safe feeling that generated.

“I was, at first but then—at the back of my mind, I think I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. It was you I was worried about,” I replied, a tremor running through my frame.

Gabriel pulled back and looked down at me with a serious expression.

“Kai wouldn’t have killed you. I wasn’t worried about that. He’s an eye for an eye type of guy and you're innocent, you’re also a woman. They’re fucked up people but they do have some moral code. That’s why he didn’t allow Sean to shoot Ava. He could have hurt you though, caused you pain. I didn’t know it was Kai who had you until I came into the room. When I saw it was him, I was partly relieved, to be honest.”

“I was scared. I didn’t know what would happen to be honest. His personality was very unpredictable. And he held a gun to the back of my head!” That fact came biting back and caused a small sob to push through my throat.

“He didn’t.”

“What?”

“Kai never held a gun to your head. It was his lighter. He was fucking with you,” Gabriel explained.

“So, he has a twisted sense of humour then as he waved the real gun at me when he forced me into the car.”

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