Page 15 of Prodigal

“André.”

He blinked at Gideon, who watched him with a calm, direct stare.

“Answer the question. Could your father be behind this?”

His father. It was laughable that someone would even be asking him that kind of question. Why would anyone—even the man who didn’t want him—want to kill him? He did nothing but mind his business and take care of Jules. He literally did nothing else. “I think you’re mistaken,” he told Gideon. Therecould be no other explanation for this. He had André confused with someone else. “Thank you for your assistance earlier, but I’m gonna take my sister and leave now. We won’t take up any more of your time.” He turned toward the door. Obviously, this guy had been in hiding for far too long; he couldn’t be thinking straight. Nothing he said made any sense.

“There is a price on your head.” Gideon’s voice didn’t raise. He just said that shit calmly at André’s back as if he spoke those words every day. What kind of world was he living in and how the fuck could André get far away from it? “If you leave here, I can’t guarantee your safety.”

André spun to face him at that. “Guarantee my safety?” He narrowed his eyes. “Dude, I don’t know you. You can’t guarantee shit for me.”The fucking ego on this guy.

Gideon’s lips twitched and he strode over. He did that a lot, André noticed. Stayed close, up in his face, chest to chest. His stare was intense, but André refused to back down or look away. Gideon and Ennis moved in the same world. They were cut from the same cloth. Both thought they were entitled to power and respect simply because of their last names and the amount of money in their bank accounts.

“I can guarantee you and your sister won’t survive the morning if you leave here,” Gideon murmured. “I can guarantee you have no idea the shitstorm you’re in the middle of just by virtue of whose blood flows through your veins.” He cocked his head, expression almost amused when he said, “And I can also guarantee there is nowhere safer than here, under my protection.”

Secrets shifted behind his eyes, bigger and darker shit that André didn’t want to know about. Just the knowledge that they existed at all had him wanting to take a step back. He meant what he said; he didn’t know anything about Gideon besideswhat little Jules told him earlier. And if any of that were true…he wanted exactly zero parts of it.

He tried to think rationally. Tried to work shit out in his head, ignoring Gideon and that stare of his that made André almost want to do what the other man asked.Almost.

The house had been ransacked; he’d seen the proof of it. His and Jules’s photo had been on the pizza shop robber’s phone. They were targets, he and Jules.

But targeted for what?

By whom? Not the father who wanted nothing to do with him? The same person who deposited money into André’s account every month as if that was all he needed for absolution? Nah.

He took in the man standing in front of him as if he had zero care in the world, waiting for André to speak.

“I want to know what you know.” Because Gideon Winters, with all his money and his infinitely powerful reach, definitely knew something.

“Why?” Gideon lifted an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t believe me?”

André rolled his eyes but didn’t give him the satisfaction of speaking.

After a short pause, Gideon blew out a breath and returned to his desk, picking up his iPad. He gazed down at it, swiping with one finger as he spoke. “There were six men in total. Robbing the pizza shop wasn’t part of the plan. They were just supposed to wait there for you since they knew your routine.”

How the fuck did he even know that much? André opened his mouth to ask, but Gideon beat him to the punch.

“We found the two who destroyed your place. They were happy to share some things.”

André blinked. What the fuck? “What does that mean?”

“Hmm?” Gideon glanced up at him. “Oh, my security team had a nice conversation with them.”

See, the words said one thing but that tone and the gleam in his eyes said something different. The hairs on André’s arms lifted. Out of his depth. He was out. Of. His. Fucking. Depth. Who was this man? And why was André still standing there, listening to him talk? Why wasn’t he grabbing Jules and getting the fuck outta there? “T-that's five. The three at the pizza shop and two at my house. That’s five. One’s missing.”

“Oh no, he’s not missing,” Gideon said, and fear iced André’s chest.

That tone signaled something bad. “What do you want?” He’d asked before and gotten no satisfactory response. “All this that you’re doing…” He gestured in a circle with a finger. “You don’t know me, haven’t met me until tonight, yet you’re invested.” Because he saw it in Gideon’s eyes. “What do you want?”

Gideon put the iPad down on his desk, then faced André with a smile. “I want Ennis Canto.”

André frowned. “For what?”

Gideon simply lifted a shoulder. “Why does one man want another man?”

Okay, he could keep his secrets. André wanted nothing to do with it. “Where do my sister and I come in? How did you even know about my connection to Ennis?”

Gideon grinned. “There are no secrets I’m not privy to, not when I am who I am.”

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