Page 109 of Alluring Darkness

“Finish that step and Iwillshoot you in the head,” Shelley declares.

Connor pauses, his foot still hovering in the air. His worried gray eyes meet mine. I shake my head.

Gritting his teeth, he slowly returns his foot to the ground where it was before.

“Good,” Gabriel says. And there is a vicious glint in his eyes as he looks between me and Connor. “We’ll get to the shooting part later.” He locks his gaze on me. “Get up.”

Before I can so much as begin to push myself up, he buries his free hand in my shirt and forcibly hauls me to my feet. Pain pulses through my battered body when I move, and I have to clench my jaw to stop a gasp from escaping my throat.

With his fist still gripping my shirt, Gabriel moves us across the cave floor until we’re standing right opposite Connor and Shelley. After shifting so that he is standing behind me, he releases me and instead puts his gun firmly to the back of my head.

“Now that we’re all here,” Gabriel begins. “Let’s get down to business, shall we?”

“What the hell is going on here?” Connor demands, his voice becoming sharper and his gray eyes hard as stone. “You’re a first-year, aren’t you? Do you have any idea about the consequences your actions will have?”

“Ironic. You lecturing me about consequences. And I know exactly what I’m doing. The question is, do you? Do you even know who I am?”

“Should I?”

A snarl rips from Gabriel’s throat. And I have to admit, I am impressed by the utter disdain and nonchalance in Connor’s voice when he said that. As if he can somehow read those thoughts in my mind, Gabriel pushes the muzzle of his gun harder against the back of my head.

“Ah, I really wish that crazy fucker Eli Hunter had tortured you to death,” Gabriel says. “That would have been so entertaining to watch.”

Realization crackles through my body.

It’s mirrored in Connor’s eyes too as he says, “You. You’re the one who messed with my rifle that day.”

His words are half statement, half question. But Gabriel answers anyway. “Yes. I had hoped I could get the Hunters to take care of you for me. It would’ve been poetic, in a way. But since you have somehow managed to get him off your back, I guess I have no choice but to get my hands dirty. If you want something done, you have to do it yourself. Isn’t that what people always say?”

“Why?” I demand, completely befuddled. “Why are you doing this? I hadn’t even met you until a few weeks ago. And I’m sure Connor hadn’t either. What could we possibly have done to make you hate us this much?”

“You’re Harvey Smith’s children.”

Stunned silence pulses through the cave.

I blink. In my position, I can’t see Gabriel’s face, but I could hear the venom that dripped from his voice when he spoke our father’s name.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Connor eventually asks, sounding as confused as I feel.

“Everything!” Gabriel screams. “It has everything to do with this! Fuck, you really are his children in every way. Never caring about anyone other than you and your own fucking family.” He grips the back of my neck while shoving the muzzle against my head over and over again. “Did you really think that your father’s failure only affected him?”

Connor, who was staring daggers at Gabriel for how he’s manhandling me, blinks in surprise. I do too.

“If this is about the inconvenience to the Morelli family,” Connor begins. “I hate to break it to you, but we’ve already paid—”

“This is not about the fucking Morelli family,” Gabriel snarls, jabbing the gun so hard into my skull that I have to bow my head forward slightly. “My father is dead because of you!”

Ringing silence descends on the cave. It’s so potent that I can almost feel it pressing against my skin.

Behind me, Gabriel is breathing hard. But he has pulled back his gun a fraction, allowing me to raise my head fully again.

“My father was sent on the same mission as yours,” Gabriel grinds out. “And because your dad fucked everything up,myfather died too.”

From across the cave, Connor and I stare at each other. I hadn’t known that. And based on the surprise flickering in Connor’s eyes, he hadn’t either.

“But Harvey Smith also got himself killed,” Gabriel continues. “So I can’t make him pay for my father’s death, which means that you have inherited his blood debt. And now, it’s time to pay it.”

For the first time since I was dragged into this cave, true terror pulses through my body. Not for my own life. But for Connor’s. Licking my lips, I cast frantic glances around the cave in an effort to find something that can somehow get us out of this.

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