Page 18 of Forbidden Sins
Gabe rolled his eyes, and flipped Alex his middle finger.
“Dude, do me a favor and shut the fuck up.”
In the next several minutes, the table filled. In the past couple of years, the Brotherhood had to add several chairs to their private table that sat above the club, as three members of their group—Brett, Rafael and Alex—had settled down with the women they love. It had been unexpected, but his friends were happy, and the women a welcome addition.
“I can’t believe you, of all people, had a quickie Vegas wedding,” Rebecca said, settling into her seat, as Brett sat beside her.
“Yeah, I don’t think anyone would have put money on you being the next to get married,” Jessica Morgan, the mayor of Las Vegas and Rafael’s fiancée, said with a hearty laugh. “Especially in a chapel on the Strip at 4:00 a.m.”
“Yeah, it’s so unlike you,” Maria was next to comment.
Gabe frowned. That was his reputation in the group. He was the reserved one, and although they would never say the word, theuptightone. He looked over at the happy couples seated around him at the table. Brett had fallen head over heels for his former rival, and had tried to take over her company. Now they were happily married. Rafael and Jessica had both run competing campaigns to be mayor of Las Vegas. They’d survived a high-pressure election and sex tape scandal, and somehow had defied the odds stacked against them, and were living together. Alex had fallen for Rafael’s younger sister Maria, and it had almost destroyed their friendship, and the group. Despite all of the trials, scandals and hard times, all of his male friends had fallen deeply, madly, irrevocably in love, and Gabe wondered if there was something he was missing.
He and Alana, his closest friend in the group, were the only single members of the Brotherhood.
“Just you and me left, eh?” she said.
“Yeah.” He eyed the annulment papers in front of him, not sure what else to say. He wasn’ttechnicallysingle. He’d gotten married but he’d missed all the steps that normally preceded it—the first date, getting to know each other, living together. He ran his thumb over the envelope that contained the annulment papers, and the rest of the group fell away into his periphery as he thought of seeing Ellie again. When he looked up, he saw that even though the rest of the group had begun talking among themselves, Alana was watching him.
“What’s that?” she asked, pointing to the envelope on the table.
“Annulment papers,” he explained, blowing out a heavy breath. “Ellie’s meeting me here and we’re going to begin proceedings to sign our ill-conceived marriage into oblivion.”
“You had to bring her here?” Brett asked. “You couldn’t do that in your office or anywhere else?”
Gabe shook his head. “Too risky. It’s a small office. We couldn’t risk serving her with papers there, and someone seeing it. Charles can’t see her there, or catch us doing the paperwork. He would have a lot of questions. And I’ve seen the man asking questions. He’s relentless.” He explained that he and Ellie had agreed that it would be best if Charles never found out about their indiscretion.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Alana interrupted. “Why are you so concerned about Charles seeing you together?”
Gabe blinked, realizing that he’d revealed far more than he’d meant to. “Turns out Ellie is Burnham’s daughter.”
Stunned silence met him, and Gabe blew out a breath. He’d been hoping to avoid the topic altogether. But again, he’d been sloppy. Seemed screwing up was his specialty lately.
“You drunkenly married your boss’s daughter?” Rafael asked.
“Apparently so.”
“Explains why you’d bring those here, and not around Burnham.” Alana nodded in agreement. “Yeah, there’s no chance he’d be seen anywhere near here,” she said, rolling her eyes.
Gabe huffed out a laugh, thinking about his very conservative boss, who had no idea that his youngest partner had a stake in an erotic club. Charles Burnham had even formed a group who’d lobbied the city to shut down Di Terrestres, citing propriety laws. Gabe knew that if the news of his marriage got out, he could kiss partnership, and probably even his job, goodbye. “Plus, I technically need a third party to serve her with the papers,” he said, taking Alana’s wineglass from her hand, tilting it in her direction, and drinking from it himself.
“What, you want me to do it?”
“Yeah, why not?”
She took her glass back. “There are lots of third parties here tonight.”
“Ah, Lana, but you’re my favorite one.”
Alana rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she said, snatching the envelope from him. “I’ll do it. Don’t say I never do anything for you.”
“You’re getting an annulment, eh? Not going to stick it out? What about the sanctity of marriage?” Brett chided him with a laugh, eliciting the same from the rest of the group.
Gabe chose not to answer. Unlike his friends, he’d always kept himself clear of scandal, and being the center of attention was not something he enjoyed. When he looked down at the floor again, his breath stopped. He saw Ellie in the crowd; his eyes were drawn to her. “She’s here,” he whispered to Alana, hoping to not raise the attention of his other friends.
No such luck.
“Whoa, is that her?” Maria asked, following his gaze to the woman standing near the bar. “She’s gorgeous.”