Chapter 18 Chapter 18
Gabriel
I stared at my computer screen without really seeing it.
How was it possible that I always found out what was happening in Audrey’s life this way and not from watching her?
It didn’t seem fair when we were meant to be together that I had to find out like this.
She had sold the house.
Sold it when it was the only link that kept us together.
Why would she do that?
Why?
I could feel the beast inside flexing his claws. The madness pressed in so close that I knew this time there would be no taming it.
She was planning on leaving me.
It didn’t matter to me that she thought this was some weird stalker relationship and this was her way of getting rid of me.
I would never let that happen. I had tried being nice. I had tried being loving and she had some the god damn house.
Blinking the red madness away my fingers flew over the keyboard,
“Call Finn.” I ordered to the empty room and the silence was filled with the sound of one of my brothers voice a second later.
“What do you want, Gabriel?” He asked and I could tell by the sound of his voice that he had been asleep.
“I need your help.” There was no point in beating around the bush. If I was phoning him then it was because I wanted something and we both knew it.
“Yeah I gathered that. What do you want?”
“I need you to hack into the family accounts and put a stop to a payment -“
His sigh rattled down the line. “You want me to stop the payment to the Audrey girl?”
I didn’t answer him. Honestly I didn’t have to. He had guessed straight away.
“Michael and Adam are expecting that. I’m sorry little brother but there’s nothing I can do. She sold it to them. The paperwork was signed this morning and the money has-“
Closing my fists I slammed my hand down on the desk. If I carried on like this I would be buying yet another set of office furniture tomorrow.
“Do something Finn, this is meant to be where you come in handy right? You’re the hacker? Well then fucking do your job. Hack them, hack her. I don’t care, just do it.”
He remained silent “Gabriel.” The sleepiness was gone from his voice but he sounded tired. Not physically but emotionally.
I got that. Being a King would do that to you.
Being related to me would do that to you quicker.
“Please Finn.”
It was the please that did it. I heard him suck in a rattling breath.
“Are you still crazy?”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. It was such a Finn thing to say. Even when we were growing up he had been the quiet older brother who locked himself in his room with his computers and didn’t know how to talk to his peers.
As an adult he hadn’t changed. I was glad of that because being a King did change you.
“I don’t think that’s going to change.” I answered honestly. I could have lied and told him that I was all cured but he would have known that was a lie.
There was no cure for me, and the demons I kept locked inside.
Audrey tamed them but she would never be able to cure me.
No one could.
“I’ll help you Gabriel but you have to do me something in return.”
He spoke so quickly and so quietly that I barely heard him. My stomach sank.
“And what is that?” I almost didn’t want to ask.
Finn fell silent. It stretched on so long that I had to check the connection.
“What is it Finn?” I asked again.
“I’ve found this cell.” His voice shook. “You know what I’m talking about?”
I nodded before I realised he couldn’t see me. “Yeah I know what you mean. But I thought Michael told you to move on from finding those.”
“And I thought he told you to leave Audrey alone.” He countered and I couldn’t help but smile.
We all had our own stories, the King brothers.
“Touché.”
“Anyway I’m not going to do what Michael tells me just because he tells me to do it. This hasn’t got anything to do with the family. It’s purely personal.”
Personal revenge. I understood that completely.
“I want-“
I didn’t let him finish. Finn was a hacker , his line would be secure but the less said the better.
“Where?”
“Germany.”
Fuck, out of the country meant I couldn’t be as close to Audrey as I would have liked.
“How many?”
“Girls five as far as I am aware.”
“Girls?” My eyebrows shot up.
“None of them are over sixteen. I am trying to get some more intelligence on other factors. Alistair has found where they are holding them.”
Holding them, evil grown men holding children, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Once upon a time I had been one of those children and the things that those men had done to me were enough to haunt me for the rest of my life.
It had changed me completely.
“And Alistair is my contact over there?”
“Yeah. Do you need-“
I cut hm off. “I know how to contact him. I’ll do it Finn but I’m gonna need another favour from you?”
“What locking your girlfriends accounts and losing some important documents isn’t enough for you. Michael is going to be pissed. At both of us.”
Yeah I knew that but I also knew it didn’t really matter. Not in the grand scheme of things.
“Keep an eye on her, keep her safe.”
Finn sighed. “Whatever you say Gabriel. If it gets you in a flight I’ll watch over her like I was you. I won’t let anything happen to her brother. I promise.”
“Thank you.” It wasn’t that I thought something bad would happen to her, I was more afraid of her forgetting me. Unless of course I did something to make sure that would never happen.
“Tell Alistair I’ll be on the first flight into Berlin tomorrow. He should expect me then.”
I ended the call without a goodbye and settled into the seat. Steepling my hands under my chin as I went over my options.
I didn’t want to leave Audrey. The distance would make it harder to control the monsters inside but if I wanted her in my life then I needed to.
And those girls needed my help as well. They deserved to be saved.
Plus, a smile tugged at my lips. Hunting those men, the men who hurt children would feed those monsters. I hadn’t had a good hunt since I had killed the man who had hurt Audrey’s friend.
Finn had given me the perfect way to feed the madness.
And he had said he would look out for her and Finn was a
Man of his word.
Just like I was. I had told Audrey that she was mine and it looked like I had to remind her of that.
A smile curving my scarred face, I found her form on the back of screens.
“You think you're free of me Audrey. Tonight you realise that you will never be free.”
Smile still on my face, I reached for the mask I kept close and headed toward the door.
She was in the bath, her hair piled high on top of her head with some kind of thin stick.
All that hair was just waiting for me to let it down and fist it. So I could yank it back and bare that slender throat for me.
It would be easy, so easy to take control of her now but for now I was content to just watch her relax from my place hidden in the shadows.
That was one of the perks of such an old house. It didn’t matter whether you filled the place with artificial electric light or not. You couldn’t banish all the shadows.
Just like she couldn’t banish me.
I was the shadow that would stick with her for life.
My eyes roved over her shoulders, I traced the pattern of the freckles dotted over them and took a step forward before I could stop myself.
The floor board squeaked.
Instantly her shoulders tensed. She didn’t sit up right but she had heard me, she knew I was right there in the room behind her and now she was trying to figure out how she could get away from me.
Even now after all this time she still thought she could escape.
My sweet innocent Audrey.
“Don’t move my love.” I took another step. “Don’t look behind you.”
Her shoulders moved, hunching around her ears and I took another step toward. I was so close now that I could reach out and touch her.
My fingers itched to do just that.
My arms shook with the need to do it but I reached up and secured the mask more firmly over my face. I knew my Audrey, she would look behind her.
Her head moved and I curled my hand around her throat. “I think I said don’t look behind you. You wouldn’t want to be frightened now would you?”
“I’m pretty frightened, right now.” She admitted in a whisper.
Bent over her with one hand wrapped around her throat wasn’t the best position if she decided to fight back but it did give me an almost perfect view of her body half hidden under the dwindling bubbles.
And what a body it was.
My eyes lingered first on the apex of her thighs, shaved smooth and my mouth watered.
Had she done that for me?
Then my eyes lifted, and I chuckled. Her nipples were tight and hard. Pebbled up proudly.
“You’re not frightened Audrey. You are turned on though aren’t you?” I let one finger slide down the column of her throat and felt her breasts heave.
“Gabriel.”
I froze. My fingers went slack before I regained my composure. She had called me that before but this time it was different. She said it like she knew for certain that was my name.
“Were you waiting for me Audrey? You didn’t even lock the door this time. And you are lying here so beautiful, so naked, so wet.”
Every word I said made my cock throb. Each glance at her body made it impossible to control myself.
But it was more than that at the same time. It was the idea that she was indeed waiting for me. She was waiting even though she knew who I was.
I was Gabriel and she was mine.
“Michael said you are sick.” She said in a rushed whisper. And I felt my happiness turn sour.
Of course my perfect eldest brother had told her that.
“And it’s going to be ok, I will help you get better.”
I tightened my hand on her throat, cutting off her words and her air.
Anger bubbled upwards. The madness was so close to the surface that not even the sight of her seemed to help.
“You are helping me get better, Audrey.” Leaning over her I rubbed the rubber of my mask against her cheek.
“You are my-“
She was turning a weird sort of purple, her eyes round and bug like in her head.
Fuck, I sucked in a startled breath. I’d almost hurt her, almost killed her.
For a moment I had forgotten who she was and where I was and that had been atupid.
Maybe going on Finns little mission was exactly what I needed. It would quieten the monster but I couldn’t leave until I had done what I had come to do.
She sucked in a wet rasping breath, clutching her throat with shaking hands.
I let her catch her breath because it gave me time to catch mine.
That was too close.
“Stand up Audrey.”
She didn’t want to do that I could tell because she was shaking so hard that water was sloshing over the sides of the bath to soak the tiles. But she pushed herself to her feet. Her arms slack at her sides.
Snatching up a towel I wrapped her in it, trapping her arms to her side as I lifted her into my arms and pushed her face into my chest.
Right over my heart.
I needed her to know my heart beat just for her.
And I needed her to be relaxed. She needed to be for what came next.
Silently I carried her down to her bedroom. Neither one of us spoke but then we didn’t need to.
Our souls were too entwined to need words.
Flicking on the lights I headed to the bed , but I didn’t look down at her until I had placed her on the edge and stepped away so she could see what was waiting for her.
I took in the confused look in her eyes first , the line that appeared between her eyebrows as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.
“I’m sorry Audrey.” And I was sorry. Sorry that I had to do this to her but it was the only way she would know who she belonged to.
My fingers closed around hot metal.
The fear came rushing up, fast and panicked as she scrambled across the bed , the towel fell and bared her body to me.
“It will only hurt for a second.” Grabbing hold of her ankle , I pulled her back across the bed towards me.
Then the screaming started.