Mine To Take (Nine Circles) Read online

  “It’s okay, Dad,” she said soothingly. “Woolf is going to come to the party.”

  There was a silence down at the other end of the phone. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.” Gabriel had promised her and she was going to hold him to that promise, come hell or high water. “End of this week, we’ll have the money.” At least, she hoped so.

  Another silence. Which wasn’t what Honor had been expecting. “Dad?”

  “Yes, I’m here.” Her stepfather sounded less than excited. He wasn’t a demonstrative man but she’d expected more than this.

  “This is good news, honestly.”

  “Of course. Yes. And I’m … relieved, obviously.”

  “Really? You don’t sound it.”

  There was a noise in the background, a car’s engine. “Look, I’m going to have to go. When are you back in New York?”

  She looked down at her watch. “Tonight probably.” At least she would once she’d finished packing.

  “Tonight? Your mother said you were there for the week?”

  Honor glanced at her mostly packed case. “I was, but … there was a work emergency. I’m needed back sooner than I thought.”

  “Well, get in touch when you get back, okay? We need to discuss this.”

  Honor frowned. Hadn’t they had enough conversations about this already? Still, maybe it was better not to press it now. Face-to-face was better anyway.

  “Sure,” she said.

  “Oh and Honor?”

  “Yes?”

  “Best not bring Alex up to your mother again. You know how upset she gets.”

  Honor opened her mouth to protest, then shut it. There wasn’t anything to say. Guy tended to get protective when her mother was upset. “Yes, well. I’m sorry about that.”

  “Something to bear in mind for next time, hmm?”

  They spoke for another couple of minutes then Honor ended the call. If she wanted to be back in New York by that evening she had to get on the road before it got too late.

  Walking into the bedroom, she took a last look through the drawers and bathroom before going over to the chair where she’d put her case, flipping it shut and clicking down the clasps.

  She tried not to look at the tangle of sheets on the bed. Or think about what had happened in that bed.

  The hard warmth of his skin as she’d traced the Gothic lettering of the tattoo on his stomach, the shift of muscles beneath her hand, the musky taste of him in her mouth, the sound of his ragged cry as she’d made him come …

  Honor shivered. She’d felt so good making him shake like that. Making him cry her name. She’d only gone down once on a man before and it hadn’t been the most pleasant of experiences. But doing that to Gabriel had been … intensely powerful and more arousing than she’d ever thought possible. She’d felt so pleased with herself afterward.

  Until he’d got up and walked out. And she still didn’t know why. Whether she’d given him the world’s worst blow job or whether it was something else. He certainly hadn’t liked her mentioning the words of his tattoo, that was for sure, so possibly it had something to do with that.

  She set her jaw, lifting the case off the chair and putting it on the floor.

  A moot point now anyway since she wasn’t going to be waiting around until he decided to show his face. She’d spent the morning hoping he’d come back but he hadn’t.

  Which was fine. They weren’t in a relationship and he didn’t owe her any kind of explanation, even if she’d wanted one. And she didn’t. What she wanted was to get back home, get back to work. Get back to her life where she was the one in control. Basically anywhere where he wasn’t because it was better to be away from temptation than keep trying to prove herself against it.

  Trying and failing.

  Turning on her heel, Honor towed her wheeled case out into the hallway just as the front door of the cottage opened and Gabriel came in, bringing in a whirl of snow and cold air.

  She stopped dead.

  He was in his bike leathers, snow dusting his shoulders and glittering in his blond hair. And the cold that came in with him wasn’t only from the outside world. There was no warmth in the brown eyes that met hers, none of the heat that had been there last night. Only a detached, flat darkness that chilled her down to the bone.

  He flicked a glance down at her case. “You’re going?”

  Honor braced herself for an argument. “Yes. I know you wanted a week, but I’m not sure staying longer is going to be in our best interests.”

  “Fine. Leave the bill with me. I’m going to be leaving today myself.”

  So, no argument then. Why was that so inexplicably disappointing?

  “I can settle my own bill, thank you,” she said coolly, ignoring the feeling. “I trust our agreement with regard to the investment is still good?”

  The look on his face was absolutely unreadable. “Yes. You’ll get your money.”

  “Great. Well, I’m sorry I can’t stay but…”

  “As you say, it’s not in our best interests.”

  “No. And I have quite a lot of work stacking up back in New York.” She gripped the handle of the suitcase tightly as tension charged the air between them. “Well, good-bye then, Gabriel. And thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For considering Tremain as an investment.” And because he was just so damn impassive and she wanted some kind of reaction from him, she arched an eyebrow and added, “What else could there be?”

  Something flickered in the darkness of his eyes. Then it was gone. “Nothing. I’ll see you again in New York to finalize the details.” He reached for the cottage door and opened it for her. “Drive safe.”

  She wanted to say something else. Something about the night before. Something about this morning. But she didn’t know what and he gave her no clues. It was like he was a stranger.

  He’s always been a stranger, you fool.

  Of course he was, and yes, she was a fool for feeling so disappointed. The night before should have satisfied her craving for him and she definitely shouldn’t want more. It was over. Done with.

  She would move on and so would he, strangers still.

  Honor gave him a polite smile.

  And walked through the door and out into the snow.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The morning after Gabriel returned from Vermont, he walked into his office on the fortieth floor of Woolf Tower to find someone already sitting in the big leather chair behind his desk.

  A small, fine-boned woman dressed in black stovepipe jeans, an Iron Maiden T-shirt, and a battered, black leather jacket. She wore black platform boots with big silver buckles, currently positioned on top of the heavy oak desk he hardly ever used. Her pale hair was tucked beneath the black beanie she favored, her charcoal-gray eyes made to seem even darker by thick black eyeliner and mascara.

  “Hello, Gabe,” she said flatly.

  In no mood for games, Gabriel slammed shut his office door. “How the hell did you get in here?”

  “She’s a hacker, she can get in anywhere.” Zac’s cultured tones came from behind him and when Gabriel turned, he saw the other man leaning up against the wall, his arms folded.

  “For fuck’s sake,” he said, not bothering to hide his annoyance. “Haven’t you two ever heard of the word ‘private’?”

  “Your secretary was obstructive.” Eva leaned back and put her hands behind her head. “And I couldn’t be bothered waiting.”

  Gabriel stalked over to the desk and stood in front of it, staring at the woman sitting in his chair, who stared back unflinchingly. Her flat look reminded him strangely of Honor, which he really didn’t need right now.

  “You couldn’t have called me?” he asked.

  “No. I don’t trust the phone.”

  A fairly typical Eva response. There weren’t many things Eva did trust, Zac the exception. “How did you know I’d be back today?”

  “Zac tracked your bike.”

  “Zac what?”<
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  “Relax, Gabe.” Zac strolled over to the desk from his place by the door, apparently unconcerned he’d been found out and that Gabriel was pissed as fuck about it. “We did it via your phone. Eva wanted to get in touch with you urgently and we needed to know where you were. Saved us a trip to Vermont at least.”

  Gabriel stared at him. “There’s a line, Zac. And you just fucking crossed it.”

  The other man’s amber eyes didn’t so much as blink. “This is important. You’ll want to hear what Eva has to say.”

  Jesus, he had to calm the fuck down. He’d thought that long, cold ride back from Vermont would have gotten his head back on straight, put things into proper perspective again. He assumed it had since he hadn’t thought about Honor once until just now.

  But Eva and Zac getting amongst his shit wouldn’t normally have made him feel so on edge. Yeah, he’d be pissed but it was their usual crap and most of the time he went with it.

  Yet not today.

  It’s her. You know it’s her.

  Gabriel ignored the thought, and flicked his gaze back toward Eva. “Did you find something about the Tremain reservations then?”

  “Yeah, I did.” She took her feet off his desk and leaned forward. “There’s a pattern. For each of his hotels, just about every day, there’ll be a certain number of less-than-twenty-four-hour cancellations. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but there’s always at least one or two, never zero. I looked into the names of the people making the reservations and canceling them. Some of the names are fake and lead to dead cell phone numbers or defunct e-mail addresses. Some of them are people who had no idea they were even making reservations, let alone canceling them.”

  This news did not surprise him in the slightest. The moment Eva had mentioned there was something suspicious with Tremain Hotels’ reservations, he’d known it was sketchy. And he knew exactly why, too. Hell, he was intimately acquainted with the business since he’d once been involved with it years ago.

  “Money laundering,” he said. “It’s got to be. The money is paid to the hotel and because the reservation is canceled less than twenty-four hours from the reservation time, the hotel gets to keep the money.”

  “Yeah,” Eva said. “That was my thought, too. Because there’re lots of microtransactions, they can slip easily under the radar. I mean, they’re not much taken in isolation, but when you put them all together, over a worldwide hotel chain, every day? It adds up.”

  “Hmm.” Zac leaned against Gabriel’s desk. “Seems our Mr. Tremain isn’t quite the upstanding businessman he appears to be. Which makes it interesting that now his company is going down the tubes.”

  Gabriel stared at him. “You think they’re connected?”

  The other man lifted a shoulder. “Seems like a strange coincidence if not. The real question is why he’s doing it now.”

  “Jesus,” Eva muttered. “So you think he’s bankrupting his business on purpose?”

  “Could be,” Gabriel said slowly, thinking it over. “Maybe he wants out. Or maybe we’re not the only ones to catch the cancellations and he has to cover his tracks. Either way, winding it up could seem too purposeful. Like he had something to hide. But pretending to be careless when it comes to business is better. Or better yet, blaming the failure on lack of good advice even more so.”

  Eva sat back in Gabriel’s heavy black executive chair, frowning. “We can’t jump to conclusions just yet. We need to look into this more closely. Find out who the hell’s making these reservations and why. Where that money’s coming from.”

  It was a good plan, but Gabriel’s gut instinct was already telling him Tremain was guilty. That there was something big behind the man’s failing company. And if it was true, if he was purposefully bankrupting himself, it was going to make Woolf Construction’s unexpected investment probably the worst thing to happen to the guy.

  The thought was satisfying. Yet it wasn’t exactly what Gabriel had in mind when it came to his plans for exacting justice. He wanted to be the one who ruined him. He didn’t want Tremain ruining himself. And there was another variable he’d been trying not to think about for the past day or so.

  Honor. She’d also invested money in Tremain Hotels. And quite a lot of money at that. If Tremain failed, then so would she.

  He didn’t like the feeling that sat in his gut at that thought. Didn’t like any of the feelings she seemed to arouse in him. Fucking hell, he hadn’t succeeded in his goal of getting information on Tremain out of her in Vermont. And he hadn’t because he couldn’t seem to think clearly when she was around. He’d had to let her go when she’d wanted to in order to give himself some time to get a bit of fucking perspective.

  So she’d sucked cock like a dream. That shouldn’t have made him lose it the way he had. Shouldn’t have made him walk out just to get away from her. And yet, he’d done both.

  It couldn’t happen again. He was going to have to go after her, inform her of her stepfather’s dealings, but this time, he’d know what to expect. And this time he’d be better at making sure she didn’t get under his guard like she had before.

  “It might be worth examining those financials again,” Zac commented. “See if there’s anything dodgy with them.”

  Gabriel frowned. “Good point. I had a look over them a day or so ago. He’s spending shitloads up front, buying quality materials, and using the best of the best to do the work, so that would explain some of his current financial problems, plus he’s had a few investors pull out. I’m sure we can find out whether they did so deliberately or whether they were frightened off.”

  Eva leaned her elbows on the desk, her pale brows descending. “Do you think Honor knows anything about this? She’s invested quite a bit of money in Tremain herself.”

  Gabriel cursed silently in his head. He didn’t want to talk about Honor with either Eva or Zac. “She didn’t mention it to me.” He looked at Zac and changed the subject. “You have any contacts you can use to look into this stuff?”

  “I have a few.”

  “Use them then. If you turn up anything, let me know. I’ll deal with Honor.” He was conscious of Eva’s gaze on him, but he ignored that. “Now, if you don’t have anything better to do, you can both fuck off. I’d like my office back.”

  Eva pushed back the chair and got to her feet. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Gabe,” she said, her usual, guarded façade dropping for a moment. “Tremain’s covering up something and I don’t think it’s going to be good. I want to be involved, especially if Honor’s business is on the line. She shouldn’t have to suffer for anything he’s done.”

  “So what do you want to do? Let the police deal with it?”

  Instantly she scowled. “Fuck no. I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them. This has to be dealt with by us.”

  “Agreed. But don’t forget, Tremain is mine. Whatever shit he’s gotten himself into, I’m going to be the one who deals with him directly. Okay?”

  Eva threw up her hands. “Hey, you’ll get no argument from me. He’s all yours.”

  After the two of them had gone, Gabriel leaned against his desk and ran a hand through his hair, unsettled.

  Eva’s question had him thinking. Did Honor know anything about what Tremain was doing? Sure, she’d invested her own money but that might have been all part of the plan. He didn’t think she’d be the type to get involved in something like this, but then again, you never knew. People did all kinds of shit. After all, it wasn’t as if her family were beacons of honesty.

  The thought that Honor may not be all she seemed disturbed him.

  Abruptly he pushed himself away from the desk and walked out of the office.

  “Mr. Woolf?” his secretary said. “Your nine fifteen is here.”

  “Reschedule it,” he snapped on the way to the elevator. “I’ll be out for the rest of the morning.”

  Half an hour later, he stepped into the cold, damp space of St. Sebastian’s, still not quite sure what had drawn him her
e. Only that he needed the icy cold of the church to quiet the restlessness inside him.

  A few people were sitting in the pews, their heads bowed. They didn’t turn as he entered, too engrossed in their own prayers or problems.

  Gabriel slipped into the back pew and sat down, leaned back against the hard wood, and closed his eyes. He could still feel her fingers on his skin, the curious tone in her voice as she repeated the words he’d had tattooed onto his stomach. His vow.

  I will repay.

  “Keep it cold, boy,” the Reverend had told him. “And don’t get distracted. Don’t get sidetracked. Not by money or pussy or anything else. If you want to take him down, deliver justice, you have to have a plan. A goal. Keep a clear fucking head. Understand me?”

  He’d understood. Even at eighteen, his heart full of rage at the injustice of his life, he’d known. His anger would destroy him, eat him alive if he didn’t direct it. And it might have if he hadn’t had the Reverend to set him on the path of cold, clear justice.

  The old president was dead now, killed in a gun battle with a rival gang a couple of years after Gabriel had become one of the Angels’ most feared enforcers. But he’d never forgotten. Then he’d become the president, keeping the old man’s last words close.

  “Revenge is for pussies,” the Reverend had said. “Justice is for men.”

  Gabriel had earned justice for the Reverend’s death eight years later, as club president himself. Driving out the rival MC from their neighborhood through a combination of planning and icy ruthlessness. It had worked then and it would work now.

  He’d get justice for his mother. For himself. All he had to do was keep a clear head. Keep his end goal in mind. And not get distracted by one uncommonly good blow job.

  Gabriel bowed his head but he didn’t pray.

  He thought about vengeance instead.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Violet leaned forward and put her elbows on the table, blond dreads falling over her shoulders. “So, dude. Tell me everything.”

  As soon as Honor had arrived back in New York, Violet had wanted gossip. She had cornered Honor in the kitchen and made her swear to a lunch date to hear all the Gabriel Woolf news.