“Hey,” she whispered. Her heart was lodged in her throat. “Hey, look at me. Look at me, Becks.”
His body tensed at her words. Gabe was frowning at the both of them. She could hear the whispers behind them, but she focused on Beckham. On the anger slipping off of his features and his black eyes shifting back from stone.
Slowly, he turned his attention toward her. He still held Gabe’s throat with his hand. She could see the color beginning to drain from Gabe’s face. She needed to reach Beckham faster. Her heart stopped beating when their eyes connected.
“Do you see me?” she asked, gently caressing his jaw. “I’m fine. I’m not hurt. I’m here. Come back to me.”
He had attacked Gabe for her. He had gone to that dark place within himself for her. She didn’t know what that meant about what he felt for her. It didn’t erase the errors in their past, but at least he was showing something.
He released a breath and retracted his hand from Gabe’s throat. Gabe bent over and coughed as air reached his lungs once more, but Beckham’s attention was solely on her. Usually it was a very unnerving position to be in, but he wasn’t looking at her like a predator. He was assessing her because he had been worried.
His hand enveloped her own where it rested on his cheek. “You’re okay.”
“Yes,” she uttered on a breath.
“You’re prone to danger, Little One.”
“It finds me.”
“We have much to talk about, you and I,” he said just loud enough for only her to hear.
“I’m ready to talk.”
A throat cleared from the other side of the room. “As much as we’d all like to continue to witness this reunion,” Sydney drawled dramatically. “Everyone take a seat. We’ll decide what to do with Mr. O’Connor and Miss Carpenter after we’ve heard their stories.”
Gabe ambled over to the empty seat next to Washington. Reyna figured that left her with the seat next to Penelope, which, under the circumstances—or any circumstances—she’d rather keel over than take. But Beckham didn’t give her an option. He took her hand in his and guided her over to the table. He gestured for Penelope to move down a seat. She gave him a wide-eyed expression and then shot one of loathing toward Reyna before moving. Beckham gave up his right-hand seat next to Sydney and offered it to Reyna. Reyna cautiously sank into his vacated seat, and then he sat down between Reyna and Penelope. Cozy.
As soon as they were situated, Gabe launched into everything that happened—including the full details of his meeting, Jodie getting drugged, and then casually mentioning that Reyna had run into Everett.
“What?” Beckham asked, exploding out of his chair all over again. “And you let him get away?”
“I personally searched the premises. I put my guys on it. They’re looking, and I’m waiting to hear back about the tapes, but the guy fucking disappeared,” Gabe said.
“You compromised her security. He was the person who got Reyna kidnapped, and you let him walk right up to her?”
“I didn’t justlethim,” Gabe ground out.
“Did he see you?” Beckham continued, ignoring his response. “Does he know that you work for Elle? Did you check to see if you were tailed?”
“I’m fucking competent, Anderson. Sit your cold, lifeless ass down,” Gabe spat. “No one tailed us. No one knows that I work for Elle. He’s not going to figure that out.”
Beckham looked as if he were about to launch across the table and rip out Gabe’s throat this time. Sydney slapped her hands down on the table.
“We’ll continue monitoring Everett. Gabriel, you are lucky your reach extends so far and that we have a history, or I’d kill you myself,” Sydney said. “Reyna Carpenter is the only known blood match of the most dangerous man in the world. With her, he is invincible. You know where this Blood Census has led us. You know that he is already rolling out permanent escorts to everyone at headquarters. Do you want to see him take over?”
“No,” Gabe ground out.
Sydney continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “Now, we find out that he has purchased a huge plot of land, and recent reconnaissance missions have shown that he is building an enormous facility. Can you guess what that would mean, Gabriel?”
“Nothing good.”
“Exactly. So next time you decide to compromise the only person who can allow William Harrington to take over the world, maybe think again. Are we clear?”
“Yes,” he spat.
“I didn’t hear you.”
“We’re clear,” he shot back.
