Page 33 of Seizing Control: Part Two

Am I repeating past mistakes by making decisions without Lily’s input again?

There’s a flurry of activity when I arrive at the vineyard that acts as the public face of the Adjudicator’s training facility, so I table my ruminations over blindsiding my sweet thing with an expensive home for later. Blacked-out vehicles are parked everywhere. A series of marques are being erected. The sheep that graze beneath the vines have been corralled into a far paddock. For a venue that promises discretion, this is a demonstration of the exact opposite.

“What the hell?” Layla remarks when I hold the door to the main entrance open for her.

“Looks like they’re setting up for a wedding.”

“You are partially correct,” Gabriel tells me as he steps out of his office. “An American dignitary is visiting with us over the weekend. We are wishing to avoid drone footage being captured, so hosting a high-profile wedding is our way of diverting attention while we host our VIP directly under their noses.”

“Explains the marque... definitely a good idea.”

Layla rolls her, then coughs, “Teacher’s pet.”

My elbow accidentally finds its way into her ribs as we step into the elevator. Her harsh intake of breath is loud in the stainless-steel box, and Gabriel shoots a look her way that fills with displeasure when he catches sight of her pinching my back in the mirrored walls surrounding us. He pointedly touches the custom made taser gun strapped to his waist.

I suppress a shiver.

There is nothing worse than neuromuscular incapacitation.

My mouth has gotten me tased a hundred times over my training.

I’m like Pavlov’s dog at this point.

The sight of a taser is enough to make me sweat.

“Do contain yourself, Miss De La Rue,” he tells her in a sharp tone. “We’re inducting a new member today, and I don’t want him to get the wrong impression.”

I grin down at her while she does her best to bite her tongue.

Gabriel’s always a hardarse when he has someone to impress. He leads with a combination of justified respect, prodigious intellect, and warranted fear. After knowing the man for my entire life, it’s still strange to reconcile his judge of the underworld alter-ego with the mild-mannered, slightly flustered persona he presents in the civilian sphere. It’s almost a running joke within the facility that we get our arse beat extra hard during training whenever our boss has a new member to onboard.

He starts as he means to proceed.

Tough and unyielding.

We are the best because he makes us that way...

“Has he arrived yet?”

Veronica, Gabriel’s right-hand woman, checks her tablet. “Looks like he’s parking now.”

“Good luck with that,” Layla mumbles under her breath. “It’s a free for all now we’ve lost our reserved spaces.”

She ignores the warning look I shoot her way.

Ever since the Maddison clan blocked the signal to his building to help Hugh kidnap Lily, Gabriel hasn’t undertaken business in the city—for his legitimate clients or related to curia business. He’s battened down the hatches, and refuses to reopen them. I’m sure it’s a pain in the arse for his clients to drive an hour outside of Perth to meet with him. It’s even more of an inconvenience for his recruits to journey out here to train, yet I’m equally as certain that not one of them has complained about it to his face.

I know no different, so I can’t grumble.

Layla, on the other hand, makes her displeasure known often.

For some reason, she gets a hell of a lot more leeway with Gabriel than the rest of us.

“Wonderful,” my boss comments with a bright smile. He continues talking like he didn’t hear Layla’s griping. “Send him in as soon as you’ve finished with him.”

Gabriel’s unusually jovial behaviour sets my teeth on edge.

Unfortunately, I don’t know enough about the normal functioning of the curia to put my finger on the reason why his cheerful demeanour is making me nervous.

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