Page 89 of Final Sins
She sank into the office chair, wincing as the cool leather touched her bare legs, and closed her eyes. His face, all hard planes and equally-fierce emotions, swam behind her eyelids.
The sound of the elevator doors opening made her look up. Gabriel sauntered in, face pale, jaw clenched, hands buried in the pocket of his rumpled hoody, his usual grace tempered by an odd, jittery energy. The bruises on his face were healing quickly, but still, something was off.
“You okay?” she asked, jumping up.
“We need to talk.”
She mentally prepared herself for a long conversation. Gabe was a gifted inventor, but he had never handled roadblocks well. Temperamental was the word that came to mind. “What’s up? Something wrong with the NeuroVerse research?”
“The research is great.” His clipped tone sliced through the air. “Perfect. It’s you that’s the problem.”
She blinked, struggling to process this sudden shift. Gabe could be difficult when he worked too hard—lack of sleep and proper nutrition for weeks on end would affect anybody—but he’d never been so short with her.
She tried another tack, forcing a gentle tone. “What can I do to help?”
Gabe’s dark eyes glittered, his face growing taut. Harsh. Mean.
It was a look she’d never seen on him before, transforming his familiar features into those of a stranger.
He jerked a hand out of the pocket of his hoodie. Alex’s world tilted on its axis as she found herself staring down the barrel of a handgun.
“You can die,” he said, in a stranger’s voice.
She flinched back instinctively before her training kicked in, overriding her shock. Was her cousin on drugs? She searched for a way to safely disarm him, but he was careful to stay out of range.
“Stay back,” he warned. “I know you’re way better at hand-to-hand fighting than I am. I’m not stupid.”
Alex raised her hands slowly, palms out, trying to project a calm she didn’t feel. Her heart thundered in her chest, blood rushing in her ears. What had happened to her gentle, brilliant cousin?
“Okay, Gabe,” she said, her voice steady despite the tremor in her hands. “Whatever’s going on, we can figure it out together.”
His gaze fixed on a point over Alex’s shoulder, his voice eerily detached. “Munsinger was supposed to have you killed. That was the agreement. I’d allow him to take the credit for licensing my tech to the military in exchange for getting rid of you.”
Bile rose in her throat.Keep him talking. It was all she could think to do while she sorted this out.
She swallowed hard, fighting to keep her voice steady. “You had no idea the general was involved with the Seven-Five group, did you?”
“Not that it matters,” Gabriel shrugged, the gun unwavering. “Now that the Seven-Five people know about my tech, they’lloffer me even more money. Either way, I win.” His lip curled in disgust. “Except the general failed. Badly. All three times.”
The pieces clicked into place, a sickening realization dawning. “That’s why you went to your alternate lab,” Alex said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Duh.” Gabriel rolled his eyes. “The whole point was for me to have an alibi while his people took care of you.” He pointed at his face with his free hand. “I even let them do this. I wanted to really sell it, you know? But then you ruined that, too. They beat me up for nothing.”
“But why?” The question burst from her, raw and desperate. “How could you?—”
“You don’t know?” His handsome face twisted with rage. “How could you not know?”
His finger tightened on the trigger.
Dear Jesus, make this stop.
She forced herself to breathe, to think. “I loved you like a brother. We all did. Mom and Dad treated us as siblings. Always.”
“Right. The poor, orphaned nephew. I never really belonged.”
The accusation stung, anger flaring hot in Alex’s chest. “That’s not true! We?—”
“It should have been your parents on that plane,” Gabriel snarled. “But no, your mother had just suffered a miscarriage, so your father talked my parents into representing the family business at that conference in Italy.”