Page 205 of The Reluctant Hero

“That isn’t what I meant,” he snaps at me.

“I don’t care,” I tell him in a voice flattened by cold anger.

“I’m sorry about the arrest. They manipulated me into making the decision. We thought the proof was absolute.”

I’m hearing him, but not really. All I’m getting out of this is that he can have sex with me if he’s desperate, but he can’t trust me. Another man who’s after what he wants with no regard to anyone else.

“Work calls,” I raise my chin defiantly. “If you need an update, call a maid.”

That was probably not a good idea. Who knows what they’ll say? I’m torn between wanting to get kicked out and pretending I’m safe here. I’m sure if I mind my manners, things will go smoothly. I’m not interested in doing that.

“We will be back at six,” Gabriel says through gritted teeth.

I don’t respond, pulling up my phone as a distraction. Shade moved my games, too. How thorough.

They linger for a minute and then leave, some calling out goodbyes that I ignore. I give it another thirty minutes to go back inside.

42

Vultures Fly

Gabriel

I wait until we’re in the SUV before I start asking questions.

“Do you know what Shade talked about?” I ask Mikael darkly.

“No. I didn’t want to get too close with Daniels so protective of her,” Mikael admits with a frown.

“The phone?” I look at Jake.

“Cloned,” he tells me absently. “No activity yet.”

“She’s out of this,” Cade insists. “With the stakes raised even higher, she’s going to lie low.”

The look both Ace and Jake give him makes him lean back warily.

“She told me last night that she wouldn’t go out again,” Mikael offers, but it’s weak. We all know it could be a lie.

“Did anyone else hear her Mama talkin’? If that ain’t a sign she’s gonna blow shit up, I don’t know what is,” Ace chuckles with relish.

Obviously, I missed something entertaining. I was stuck on the phone with my father and dreading his impending arrival. He will be here in time for dinner, but I want Amanda to be as far away from him as possible.

With her escape last night, she’s proven to be resourceful. I’m sure either Shade or Tera, possibly both, assisted in her slipping past us all. Or Jake, who never said a word to any of us about it. Coming home to an empty house has never felt so devastating before.

“She said thatlast night,” Jake taunts Mikael, still staring at his phone. “She needed sleep. It’s a brand-new day, Mikael and she’s all rested up. Talking to her parents gave her back some of her fire.”

His brows furrow at whatever he’s looking at before a smile twitches on his lips. The phone gets closed out quickly, making my eyes narrow. Whatever she just did amused him. I’m not taking that as a good sign.

“So you two are teaming up?” Cade gives Jake a dark glare. The rest of us follow suit.

She’s ignored Jake for so long that I never saw this coming. I knew he was obsessed with her, like the rest of us, but her closed-off attitude toward him made me think it was one-sided.

How much more wrong about her am I going to get?

My mind flashes to the video Shade sent me and the sound of her panicked breathing. The idea that she was facing that while I was planning to throw her in a cell and then lock her in my home to keep makes me sag in my seat. We were both falling apart, and I refused to listen.

My phone chirps with a message twice in a row.

---