Page 4 of Tempting Fate
“Well…” Felicity’s restless hands adjusted her spectacles, plucked at her collar, at the cuffs of her sleeves, at the watch dangling from a broach over her breast. “Good afternoon, Titus.”
“Always a pleasure.” He lifted her hand to kiss it.
The news of Gabriel Sauvageau’s demise felt like a tragic end to an even more unfortunate life. He’d been so strong, so utterly large and impenetrable that it was almost impossible to imagine something so small as a bullet taking him down.
Though he’d been a smuggler and a criminal, even a man she’d once seen as a threat, he’d ultimately been her savior. After her assault, he’d held her like a child might cradle a porcelain doll.
One they were afraid of breaking.
He’d crooned gentle things into her ear in his native French, soothing her. He’d been frightening. He’d been criminal.
But… Someone had hurt him so abominably.
Someone had done all that terrifying damage to his face.
Felicity didn’t allow her tear to fall until she’d turned away. Dashing it from her eye with her gloved hand, she fumbled with the door latch and slid back into the hospital’s hallway.
Gabriel Sauvageau may have looked like a monster, but he’d always be a hero to her.
* * *
Titus’sreverent words found Gabriel where he’d ensconced himself behind the gently scented drapes. “I’m not a religious man… However, I can’t help but believe you were meant to hear that.”
Pushing the heavy velvet aside, Gabriel ventured back into the office, pathetically aware that he displaced the air Felicity Goode had only just occupied.
He took in lungsful of it, hoping to lock it away. Imagining that somehow, she’d become a part of him.
His heart felt two sizes too big for his chest, and it hurled itself against his rib cage as if seeking to escape and go after her.
All because he’d chanced a bold peek at her as she’d turned to leave.
And he’d watched a tear form like a gem on her fair lashes and slide down the perfection of her cheekbone.
For him.
Her grief, however slight, was both a waste and a miracle. It humbled and distressed him. And for her own sake, he could do nothing to assuage it.
He must stay dead to her, or all his plans would be for naught.
No one knew that everything he’d done since they’d met was forher…
Gabriel Sauvageau had been born to a ruthless, evil gangster. As much as he’d hated his father, known asthe Executioner,he’d been in danger of becoming him.
He was the heir to the Fauve dynasty. Fauves meaning “wild beasts” in the language of his homeland of Monaco. His father, however, had been an exile from England.
Gabriel had been content to watch the empire that’d spawned his father burn to the ground with his help. He’d wanted to disassemble the city brick by brick, then light the spark that immolated everything.
Including the Fauves.
He’d been close to achieving his goal, too, until several months ago when the Goode sisters had found a cache of gold that’d been stolen from him.
He and Raphael had meant to take the gold back, but Mercy and Felicity Goode had proven themselves the better thieves.
Because they’d stolen the Sauvageau brothers’ beating black hearts right out of their chests.
That night, Honoria Goode, Dr. Conlieth’s bride, had been intent upon redemption.
Mercy Goode, the woman Raphael had recently eloped with, had been intent upon justice.
