“What happened back there?” Syn asked.
Gabriel kept his eyes on the road. He knew what his brother referred to. He also knew he’d have to have this conversation.
“I don’t know.” He shook his head and turned to his brother. “I know she’s innocent. God, I knew it then. I just… it was like I was punishing him when I had that strap in my hand. Fuck, Syn. I could have hurt her. Badly.”
“You didn’t.”
“I could have.” He looked at Syn. “Thank you for taking the strap from me.” Gabriel wasn’t sure himself what it was that had come over him when he’d been punishing Evangeline. He only knew that for a moment, for a very critical moment, he’d lost control. He’d let the anger he still felt over what had happened to Laney, the anger he blamed Arthur Gallaston and men like him for, to get the best of him, and he hadn’t reigned himself in when that anger had turned on Evangeline. An innocent, helpless Evangeline bound to a post while he held the strap. “It won’t happen again.”
“I know it won’t. She’s not a part of Gallaston’s organization. We know that.”
Gabriel nodded, still angry with himself for having lost control, for letting his own pain cause another innocent pain.
“What do you want to do about her?” Syn asked.
Gabriel shook his head. “Not sure. We can’t send her back. He put her on that truck for a reason.”
“I’m guessing the reason’s money.”
“Could be, but that can’t be the only motivator. Her family is powerful, wealthy. Marrying her gives him access to that. Maybe he panicked? But why? Unless she figured something out.”
“Can’t be that. She believes he’s looking for her.”
“And he well may be.”
“We’ll have to make sure he doesn’t find her.”
“I don’t plan on allowing that, brother,” Gabriel said. “We’ll keep her safe.” Strangely, what had happened had bonded him to Evangeline in a powerful way. It was something he didn’t expect and she did not know, but he meant what he said. She belonged to him now, to them, and she would be protected. “No way in hell I’m giving someone like him one more life to destroy.”
“You aren’t responsible for what happened to Laney.”
Gabriel looked over at his brother. How many times had Syn said those words to him? How many times until he believed it?
Laney had been around Evangeline’s age when she’d overdosed. Now, six years later, she lay in a special facility connected to too many tubes to count, brain-dead. If Gabriel had been around more, if he’d paid more attention, maybe he could have saved her.
But it was too late now.
“Let’s get home. We’ll talk to her, find out what exactly she knows and decide from there.”#p#分页标题#e#
The next several hours passed in silence, each of the brothers lost in their own thoughts. Every time he’d peek into the back cabin, he’d find Evangeline sitting there staring out the window, her hands tucked between her knees, her bare feet turned inward, making her look even younger than she was. The sick bastard had loaded her onto a truck to be sold, knowing what her fate would be. Gabriel’s hands fisted the steering wheel and his foot pushed harder on the accelerator. He wanted to get home, to change out of the dusty clothes he wore, have a shower and wash the filth from his body. Eat a decent meal. He and Syn had bought the home they lived in now and had it renovated three years ago. The place calmed him somehow. It was the untouched nature surrounding it as much as the gothic structure itself. It was secluded and remote, set on a large piece of land, sheltered from the world. It wasn’t a house anyone would stumble upon by accident, so the rare guests they did have were ones they brought in themselves. Gabriel liked it that way. They both did.
“I hope Caroline cooked up some of her stew,” Syn said. “I’m hungry.”
“Me too.”
Syn went over the numbers from the auction over the next half hour before, finally, they approached the tall gates to the old mansion. Gabriel punched in the code and they drove in. Two of the staff were out of the front door before they had even parked the car. Gabriel took one more look in the mirror at Evangeline who now stared around with wide, anxious eyes. He switched off the engine and stepped out.
“Thomas,” Gabriel said, greeting the man who kept the house running when he and Syn were away on business. The number of staff were few: a cook, two cleaners and Thomas. All were paid exceptionally well and Thomas — who knew everything about Syn and Gabriel’s work — somehow kept it all under control.