Page 85 of Fragile

Moving his hand, Gabriel placed his lips against mine, the kiss an instruction to do as I was told. He then pushed his mouth close to the shell of my ear and whispered, “I’m sorry. But please, stay here. No matter what you hear. Do not come out until I come and get you. Nod if you understand.”

I nodded.

Gabriel then took a step back and I watched as he slid the door closed and shut me inside.

Sliding my back down the wall behind me, I fell to my bottom and lifted my knees. Try not to panic!

Squeezing my eyes closed, I sat there alone and waited for it to be over—thoughts of Gabriel with a gun, infecting my thoughts.

Seeing a gun had been a shock and those same two questions kept coming back to torment me. Who the fuck was Gabriel Knight and what the hell were we doing?

Twelve

Gabe

The horror on Leonie’s face when she’d seen my gun was the last thing on my mind. Finding out who the fuck had decided to break into my apartment was the first order of business. I wondered how much grovelling I would have to do when I allowed her out of my wardrobe. Leonie didn’t like the dark, I remembered when we had the blackout and I’d had to rescue her from the basement.

After ensuring she was safely hidden away, I left my bedroom in bare feet to ensure minimal noise and pulled the gun out of my waistband. I knew how to shoot, I was part of a gun club for years, at my father’s insistence of course. Had I shot anyone though, that would be a big fat no. I preferred to use my fists but only did so when there was no other way. I wasn’t Max who was always chomping at the bit to get physical.

The clattering I’d heard earlier had stopped. I’d originally put it down to Asher but as I’d checked his room, his bed had been untouched. Having walked past Leonie’s room, I had briefly looked inside and thankfully she had been in bed, sleeping like an angel. I’d felt it best to leave her there in ignorant bliss.

As I’d gone back to my room for my gun without venturing down the corridor to the kitchen, I’d heard her door open and fuck me, the fear I’d felt at the thought of something happening to her was like actual pain.

Even more so than my brother and it was then that I knew; I was falling in love with her. The truth of that worried me. I needed to put the fucking breaks on.

Taking a deep breath, I drew the gun up to my face and slid down the wall towards the kitchen. There was zero sound. A tense silence stretched out before me.

Flicking my head around the corner, I could see we’d had company as one of my archive boxes was back on the table and there were papers and shit everywhere. That’s the thing about people who break in, they have very little finesse.

I sighed and banged my head once against the wall behind me. I so couldn’t be dealing with this shit. But this was the reality of my life thanks to my fucking father and his dealings with mafia scum.

Just then the lift arrived and I ducked behind the counter, my gun aimed as the door slid open and…

Marco fucking barrelled out with his gun raised. I held up a hand, “Easy, it’s me,” I whisper-shouted.

Coming into the apartment like a whirlwind, Marco did what he was trained to do. He kept his gun up and swept the entire area, before striding off down the corridor and checking all the rooms.

I placed my gun and the counter before me and rolled my shoulders before cracking my neck from side to side. My breathing was laboured and I was surprised I hadn’t shit myself. Fuck me but that was intense. I was usually quite calm in these types of situations, like when meeting with Gerard and his cronies. Shit, I sometimes got off on danger, but not with Leonie being in the house. This drew my attention back to the fact that I shoved her in my wardrobe and that reoccurring swarm of guilt erupted in my gut.

She was in danger because you couldn’t keep it in your pants. You let her in and now she is part of your world, something you tried so hard to avoid.

Fuck, Leonie!

Grabbing my gun, I pushed off the counter.

Marco met me partway down the corridor. “It’s clear boss. Did you get a look at him?”

“No, he must have left before I had the chance.”

“Why were they here? Did they take anything,” Marco blasted, his questions like an interrogation when I needed to get to Leonie.

“I don’t know, I haven’t checked, but they were looking for something.”

“I’ll go check the place is secure again. I take it we won’t involve the fuzz?”

I pursed my lips thinking about it. “No, no police, we’ll sort this ourselves.”

“Boss,” Marco said with a nod. I saw he respected the fact that I had decided against involving the police. Marco used to work for them and he’d told me that most of them were corrupted to fuck.

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