Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 165(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 165(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
“It’s nothing. I’m fine.”
She went to walk around the car to climb in, but Gabriel reached out, pulling her in close. They had already gained the attention of people moving by. She tried not to look in their direction, but they were rather blatant in staring at her.
“Gabriel, people are watching.”
“Let them. I don’t give a fuck what they’re doing.” He pressed a kiss to her lips, startling her. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.”
He kept staring at her and she knew she was a terrible liar. Nigel had often seen through her lies. After their parents had died, he asked her if everything was going to be all right. It was a question she asked her parents so many times, and they always had the answer. Yes, everything was going to be all right. She said the exact same thing to Nigel. Only, she’d not believed it. How could she promise anything to her brother when the truth was, she didn’t have a clue if it was ever going to be okay? They were alone. They had no one else.
She became aware of just how often she asked her mother that question, and each time she never wavered. She never gave anything away. Always the same answer. Everything would always be okay. The one and only time Nigel had asked her, and she’d wavered. Was that when she fucked up? Did he start to slip then? Realizing the person taking care of him didn’t have a clue? That she was afraid of the world she was about to enter.
Their parents were no longer there to guide them. It was all up to her. And look how Nigel had turned out.
Gabriel surprised her by pulling her in close and slamming his lips down on hers. She didn’t fight it. His kisses took away the pain and the guilt.
“I’m sorry about this,” Gabriel said.
There was a sudden sharp pain, and then the world started to spin.
****
Several Hours Later
“You drugged me!”
This was not the first time she had accused him in such a tone. Gabriel had talked to Nigel about taking his sister away for a short time. He’d been all for it, saying that Faith hadn’t been away since before their parents died. She always worked. Nigel also happened to warn him that Faith didn’t travel well.
Their parents had to give her some medication to help her relax so she slept for most of the journey. Even on long car rides, Faith didn’t like it. She often felt like they were all going to die some horrible death.
“Yes, I drugged you.”
“And you don’t even care. What if I had an allergic reaction?” Faith asked.
She had been awake for an hour, and so far, she’d not even marveled at the beautiful villa he’d rented for them for the next week.
He figured she was going to be pissed. He just didn’t quite realize how pissed off she would be. On a scale of one to ten, this was bad. He realized that, but he didn’t have a choice. The only way to get her away from the normality of life was to take her far, far, away from it. That was exactly what he did. And to do that required some extreme methods, which he had also used. This was not a problem to him.
Gabriel was used to having to do some pretty bad stuff to get what he wanted. Faith, alone, in a private villa away from all responsibility, was what he wanted with her. So, he’d done that, and he had to use whatever means possible at his disposal.
“You didn’t have an allergic reaction,” he said. “Your parents did it all the time.”
“They knew what they were doing.”
“And you think I didn’t?” he asked.
“Are you used to drugging women to move them from one location to another?” She held her hand up. “Don’t answer that, I don’t want to know.”
He saw she believed her words and he chuckled. “I don’t deal with women.”
There was a lot of bad shit he did. Drugs, guns, fighting, all bad shit, but he never dealt in women. He knew of the pimps and whores who covered street corners. Gabriel didn’t have anything to do with that, but if the women came to him, terrified, he’d have no choice but to deal with it. Yes, he knew dealing in women would bring him a lot of money, but they were a giant pain in the ass.
He wasn’t a good man.
Gabriel had lost count of the number of men he’d killed, of the people he hurt to get to the top. So, people assumed he dealt in women, but they were the one commodity he didn’t deal with. He wasn’t a guy with moral ethics or any of that kind of shit. He’d do whatever was necessary.
Women were … he just couldn’t do it. Steal women from the streets to sell them to the highest bidder. Innocent women. Even evil bitches, he couldn’t do it. Life was fucked up enough, it was hard, and he wasn’t going to add to that.