The blood trickling down my leg.
He’s wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. Glasses resting on top of his head. He looks like my father sometimes did on Saturday mornings when he slept in and would come downstairs at ten o’clock in the morning for his first cup of coffee.
Gabriel and my father had a lot in common, come to think about it.
I straighten, hug myself. Stare at Gabriel.
“There’s…”
He holds out a hand. Wants me to come inside. I look past him, into the small, dimly lit antechamber. Past that, to his room.
No fire this morning.
A suitcase, packed.
Ready to leave.
But I thought he was staying? That’s what the Brotherhood’s entire plan hinged on.
“Please, child. Come inside. I’ll make you some—”
“There’s something I need to show you,” I say.
Gabriel’s gaze searches my face. “What is it?” His voice is low.
I swallow hard, and wish I could look away. But his brown eyes have mine trapped, his face blank. “It’s…”
His voice is clipped when he says, “Speak, child.”
“It’s in the bell tower, Father.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Trinity
My heart’s pounding like a bongo drum. Father Gabriel holds out a big bunch of keys he’d taken out of a drawer in his apartment and glances at me over his shoulder.
He doesn’t say anything. He just frowns, and puts the key in the lock. But when he turns the key nothing happens.
Because it was already unlocked.
He opens the door. A slash of light paints the blank wall inside. Gabriel steps inside, turns, lifts his hands. “What do you want to show me?” he asks.
I rush into the small room and slap my hands on the bare wall.
“It was right here. Pictures, photos, articles.” I turn, and stab a finger into his chest. “About you. Everything. It all leads back to you!”
He grabs my wrist and twists my hand. I yell out in pain, my body moving to the side on instinct.
As soon as I yell, Gabriel releases my hand and takes a hurried step back, the metal desk rattling when he backs into it. His fierce expression dissolves into shock. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
I scramble away from him, my back slamming into the wall.
This can’t be happening. Where the fuck did it all go?
They’d kill me if they knew.
Shit…Did the Brotherhood find out about this room and take everything down?