Which was exactly what he was doing now. He left me five minutes ago and stepped outside with a gentleman I had never met. But their meeting seemed urgent, and when Malik told me “I’ll be back. Stay here,” I did exactly what he said.
My eyes had stayed trained on the door across the room that he had gone through, so I wasn’t surprised when he entered the ballroom and prowled across the dance floor toward me, with heads snapping in his direction as he passed them, as if I was the one who had clearly pissed him off.
“We’re leaving,” he snapped as soon as he reached me.
I glanced at the women I’d been speaking with; two of them were the governor’s wife and daughter, the women I had promised I would pass the florist’s name to. The governor’s wife looked at me with wide eyes as I stepped away immediately.
“Okaaay,” I said, drawing out the word.
I set my full glass of champagne down on the nearest table and turned to follow Malik as quickly as I could. As we reached the exit to the ballroom, his hand clasped around my elbow with such force I tried to jerk out of his touch.
“What is it?” I glanced at his hard features and watched another muscle tic.
“That talking I said we’d do later?” His eyes met mine, and I saw nothing but chilling coolness. They turned black as onyx. “I’ve recently received news that means we can no longer wait.”
“I don’t think you need to hurt me,” I said, still refusing to follow him.
He glanced down at his hand on my elbow and loosened his grip.
“My apologies.”
Blood flow began to return to my lower arm, and I brushed my hands down the sides of my dress. “Okay, then.”
I followed Malik out to the waiting limo, hesitating only briefly while he opened the door for me, gesturing to his driver to stay in the car.
“Is everything okay?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“No,” he snapped. His lips were pressed into a straight line and he gestured toward the car with a dip of his chin. “Get in the car.”
Coiling sensations tightened in my gut when I chose to obey his order. It was clear I wasn’t being given an option, anyway. He followed me into the car and slid onto the bench on the other side. He barely had time to situate himself in his seat, picking up a file folder that was placed next to him, before the car was moving.
“I told you that regardless of your decision to marry me, that your protection is still my prerogative.”
My stomach tightened further and I nodded once, clasping my hands together in my lap. “You did. Although I’m not sure I understand.”
“I had a man following you this week.”
My eyes widened. “You what?” I asked, as my pulse began to thrum quicker and harder in my veins.
“It appears you’re not keeping good company.”
I shook my head. This had to be a joke. Of all the bullshit things for Malik to do. Anger boiled inside me.
“You have got to be fucking joking with me right now.”
“I never joke when it comes to business.”
“And I am not your business,” I snapped, leaning forward. My dress suddenly felt too tight. Too heavy.
Malik picked up the folder next to him and flicked it outward.
“I’m not talking about you,” he sneered, finally losing a semblance of control. “I’m talking about my business. Your father’s business. Fuck, Gabriella, I’m talking about your family.”
“And I’m telling you I don’t understand.”
“Read the file.” His hand shook the file, and I watched as pages inside flickered with the sudden movement. “Take the damn file.”
I hesitantly reached for it, taking it from him as if it was a snake that might attack at any moment. When it was in my hands, I frowned at Malik. His lips were white and pulled tight. His jaw was clenched shut. His eyes shot daggers out toward me as if I had somehow betrayed him.
I set the file in my lap, my stomach dipping and flipping with nerves. I had no clue what he was talking about, I could only assume it had to do with Tyson.
I opened the file and I gasped as I learned my instinct was correct.
“What is this?” I asked, slowly flipping through pages of photos. Hand-scribbled notes were next to the photographs with names of people when Tyson was talking to someone and places when he was walking into a building. I looked up at Malik and saw his anger clear in his black eyes. “My father has tried this once before, telling me Tyson was dating me to gain family secrets. Last time, it was all a lie.”
“This time it’s not.”
I didn’t want to believe him, but I couldn’t help but be curious as to what else was inside. I looked further into the file, reading all the scribbled and typed notes. None of them made sense, and my frown dipped deeper until I got to the third page. My world began spinning and spinning until I felt it begin to crumble.
FBI.
“No.” I inhaled, unable to exhale. My fingers trailed over the photo of Tyson walking into a tan building with curved windows on the ground level. Just above the main doors were the stamped words, “Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
“What does this mean?” I asked, lifting my shocked eyes to Malik.
His eyes roamed my face and then dropped to the file in my hands. “It means that the man you’re fucking is working for the FBI.”
I jolted at the term fucking. He was so much more than that.
Wasn’t he?
“He c-can’t be,” I stuttered, unable to look back down at the photos. I didn’t need to. Malik wasted no time taking the file out of my lap and began flipping through notes and photos and God knows what else.
“Tyson Blackwell, age twenty-eight. Graduated from Detroit East High in 2005. Attended Central University where he was believed to be an easy first-round draft pick by the Philadelphia Eagles until a knee injury ended his career before it began. Graduated with a degree in criminal justice.”
“I know all this,” I whispered. My voice was hoarse from dryness. I could feel the blood drain from my face with every word he spoke.
“But what you don’t know—” He stopped and snapped the folder closed. My eyes flickered to Malik’s immediately. My mind was swirling with confusion and anger and…betrayal? His hands clasped together and his elbows dropped to his knees. When he spoke again, his voice was softer, almost patronizing. “What you don’t know is that after he left college, he immediately joined the FBI. He’s been an agent with them for the last four years.”
I shook my head, unable to stop. “No. He wouldn’t.”
“The man whose bed you’ve been sharing is currently working on taking down your family.”
“Impossible,” I said, but my lip was trembling.
“And he’s using you to do it.”
My chin trembled as I fought the urge to look away from Malik.
This was so similar to ten years ago. Tyson wouldn’t do this to me. I refused to believe it. But this time, I had proof in photos. It was the same…but so different. My father had lied before to get his way, and he could have been doing it now. Although I would have expected him to use a new trick.
“What have you told him?” he asked, his voice hardening.
“Nothing. I haven’t said anything.”
“You’re sure? You haven’t mentioned a single thing about your father? About me? About anything that your father is involved in?”
“I don’t even know anything, Malik! And he already knew,” I said, memories quickly flickering into my mind. “He knew things, but I thought—”
“That could probably be debated,” he interrupted, clearly thinking I was an idiot.
I had never felt more like that could very well be the case.
“I only knew that my father had Tyson’s father killed several years after I was already in Colorado. His dad was in the DPD and investigating my father.”
“And did you ever stop and think that he might want vengeance for that?” Malik roared, leaning forward. His voice was so loud, so completely furious, that I jolted back into my seat and wiped tears from my eyes.
“Fucking Christ, Gabriella. You’re a goddamned Galecki and you’ve literally been in bed with our fucking enemy! How could you be so damned stupid?”
“I’m not!” I shouted, losing the grip I had been maintaining. “I’m not stupid and I’m not an idiot. It’s Tyson. I’ve loved him since I was fifteen years old. He was the first person I saw when I came back to town and I thought…”
“What? That it was all coincidence?” His look of disgust slashed right through me and I looked away, down to my lap. Admitting that yes, that’s exactly what I thought, or maybe worse—that it was fate—would make me sound more like a moron.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered. “This is shit I don’t need. It’s shit your father definitely doesn’t need right now. Do you know how much he’s going to fucking flip out when I tell him?”
“You can’t,” I gasped, snapping my head to his. “He’ll kill him.”
“And he’d deserve it.”
My jaw dropped in shock.
But this was Tyson. He wouldn’t betray me like this. There was no way.
Malik and I stared at each other, the fury pulsing off him making it difficult for him to breathe. But even as I looked at his heaving chest, and a vein thumping at his temple, I wasn’t really seeing him.