Page 136 of Their Will be Done

“Why did you bring me here?” Gabriel has a hand on his heart, but not clawing at it like he’s having a heart attack or something. Just…flat. Like he’s counting his own heartbeats.

“It’s gone,” I murmur. “They took it.”

“Who? What?” He looks around. “Trinity, talk to me. Tell me what happened.” He steps closer, reaching for me, his eyes darting to my legs, to the blood. “Tell me who did this to you.”

But I can’t. I mean…what the fuck am I supposed to say? Yeah, so, there’s this bunch of guys, they say you’re a criminal mastermind. And they have evidence, which was all here, but now it’s gone.

I’d sound like a lunatic.

“You can trust me, Trinity.”

His one hand connects with my shoulder. Then the other. He squeezes my muscles, ducking down so our eyes are level.

“You can tell me anything.”

“What other sins have you committed?” I ask quietly. “Besides fucking my Dad, obviously.”

Gabriel’s face hardens. “That’s between God and me, child.”

“You said I can trust you, but I won’t. Not until you tell me everything.”

He releases me, steps back. His eyes narrow as he studies me. Then he takes in the room again, turning as he crosses his arms over his chest. “I don’t know why I thought things would be different,” he says, so quietly I step forward on instinct to hear him better.

“What things? Are you talking about you and my dad?”

“I thought I could…explain.”

“He cheated with you on my mom and you expect me totrustyou?”

Gabriel runs his hand over the dusty metal desk, and my gaze follows the trails he leaves behind right to the marks my butt made when Apollo set me down on the edge.

Gabriel outlines that heart-shaped smudge in the dust as if he can see into the past.

An invisible hand grips my throat, and not nearly as kindly as Zach or Reuben ever did.

“Dear child…” he murmurs. “There’s so much you still don’t know. So much I have to tell you.”

And then he opens one of the drawers.

The screech it makes drags ragged nails down my back.

Tell me? What the hell does that mean? Is this…is it about the Brotherhood?

No. He’d never tell me if he was guilty. No one in their right minds would.

“So tell me,” I say.

I step closer.

Gabriel reaches inside the drawer and comes out holding an envelope. He glances at me from the corner of his eye, his back still turned, and frowns. “Is this what you came here to show me?”

He holds up the envelope.

TRIN

There’sa heart over the I.

Tears blur my vision.

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