Theirs To Take(32)
“You may kneel here, Evangeline,” Gabriel said, pointing to a spot before two of the armchairs.
“Kneel?”
He gave me a sideways smile while they assumed their seats and I sat on my heels, facing them. If they wanted me to know my place, I already knew it. This was unnecessary.
“Hands on your thighs, palms turned up, Eva,” Syn said.
I followed his instruction, noticing how he called me Eva and Gabriel always called me by my full name.
“Let’s lay everything out on the table so we’re all on the same page here, Evangeline. We know who you are, your father and fiancé were on the news begging for your safe return. Or at least your father was. Gallaston was doing a half-assed job pretending to.”
“Why do you keep saying that? Why do you hate Arthur?” A heavy weight settled in my belly as I asked the question, the same anxiousness I felt every time Arthur’s name was brought up.
“Can you tell us what you remember about the night you were kidnapped?” Syn asked.
“How long ago was that?”
“Just a few days. Tell us what you remember.”
“We were in Scottsdale for a fundraiser, it happened on the night of the event, shortly after it was over. I was tired and Arthur and I had had a fight earlier. We’d been fighting more and more lately. I thought he might have been having an affair,” I admitted for the first time. I glanced at my captors when I did, but what I saw in their eyes wasn’t concern. They remained studying me intently, waiting for my next words as if they weren’t surprised at all by what I had just said. I lowered my gaze to my lap.#p#分页标题#e#
“Go on.”
“He wasn’t though. I know that but I don’t know how I know. Why can’t I remember?”
“They most likely used a sort of date rape drug on you when they kidnapped you. You wouldn’t have any memory of the events after that was injected. And I’m wondering if the bump on your head has something to do with why you can’t remember much previous to it,” Gabriel said.
“That or she’s blocking it,” Syn added.
“Also a possibility.”
“Why do you say he wasn’t having an affair? Why did you suspect it but no longer do?” Syn asked.
“I don’t know why. I just know he wasn’t.” That weight in my belly was back and I shivered. Syn got up, retrieved a throw blanket folded on top of one of the ottomans and draped it over my shoulders. My fingers touched his as I took it and I looked up at him. “Thank you.”
He merely nodded and resumed his seat while Gabriel continued with the interrogation.
“What did you fight about?” Gabriel asked.
“Nothing. Well, I don’t know. We’d been fighting more lately. He was under a lot of pressure. I should have known that and listened to him.”
Gabriel glanced at Syn whose eyebrows went up.
“None of this would have happened then.”
“What do you mean?”
I shook my head, rubbing my temples and squeezing my eyes shut. This was so frustrating, I just wanted to remember! “I don’t know! And I’m getting a headache thinking about it.”
The brothers waited quietly for me to continue and I took a deep breath to force myself to go on.
“Arthur got a call at the fundraiser and he hadn’t looked happy about it. It changed his whole mood. Things were getting heated, I could hear it from where I sat beside him, and he’d had to excuse himself from our dinner table. When he wasn’t back a few minutes later, I went out to find him.” I paused, remembering what had happened.
“Where was he?”
“He wasn’t on the phone anymore. He was talking to someone in person. Someone I had never seen before, someone I couldn’t imagine him knowing. He was angry, and it’s rare for Arthur to get so upset. He’s usually very much in control of… well, of everything.”
“Go on.”
“Jamison was there. He was always there. Jamison worked with Arthur long before I knew him. Arthur trusted him and he didn’t trust many people.”
Syn nodded at me to continue while Gabriel remained studying me.
“They were talking about a shipment. About needing more money. Arthur said he’d have it soon. That was when I’d tripped over something and had gotten his attention. He’d snapped at me. He’d never done that before. For the first time ever, I’d felt frightened of him. It was something about the look in his eyes. He was so… so angry. It was a side of him I didn’t know.”
“Can you describe the man he was talking to?”
I shook my head. “He stepped into the shadows when he saw me and I didn’t get a good look. Another couple walked out of the banquet hall and Arthur composed himself quickly, put on the face I knew well and led me back inside.” I then asked the question that had been on my mind since the start of this. “What do you plan to do with me?”