“Yeah. I know.” I swallowed hard, passed the heel of my hand over my cheek.
Pain clouded Gabriel’s eyes. “Dammit. I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t mean to insinuate that losing DJ is the same as the death of your parents.” He rubbed his face. “What a shit show of a day.”
“So don’t make it any worse. Please don’t quit.”
It scared me that he seemed so adamant about walking away. From the moment I’d met Gabriel, he’d struck me as a person who didn’t make snap decisions but rather weighed out each word and action with care. The more adamant he was to leave, the harder it would be for me to convince him to stay.
“I don’t know.…I’m questioning whether you really need me.”
The last thing I wanted was to get rid of Gabriel. Was I so desperate for human touch that any man’s touch would’ve exploded that hunger inside me?
I doubted it.
“I promise it will never happen again. I-I had a rough conversation with…someone.” I caught myself before I revealed too much. “And you’re wrong. I do need you. Did you forget that letter? What if whoever wrote it decides to come after me?”
Gabriel rose from the bed. “I’ll stay the night and give you my final decision in the morning. At this point there’s nothing much left for us to discuss, and I think it’s best if you leave now.” He cocked a brow. “You should put some clothes on.”
My cheeks heated. I’d forgotten I was naked.
“Okay. But I’ll make sure to be up early.”
When I left his room, I had no idea what Gabriel’s decision would be or if he’d keep his word and stay the night.
Chapter Twelve
Gabriel
“So tell me what this Ronan Michaels is really like?”
Isaac sat across from me at a diner near his apartment. When I got a text from him later in the evening asking if I wanted to meet him at five in the morning after his tour, it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.
“He’s hard to explain.” I took a sip of my coffee to wrangle my jumbled thoughts, hoping to make sense of everything going on in my head.
“Yeah? Why?” Iz chewed his bagel. “He’s the type of guy who doesn’t talk? That would drive me nuts.”
“I’m aware. You’re an open book. But most people keep their emotions and feelings close to the vest. He talks, but it’s different. He’s…he’s had it rough.”
A line of worry bisected Isaac’s brow, and he set the rest of his bagel on the plate. “Oh, no. Don’t tell me you’re falling for whatever bullshit he’s trying to lay on you.”
The coffee tasted bitter on my tongue. I couldn’t stop hearing Ronan’s shocked, broken voice in my head. I’d spent the better part of the night piecing together the little of the conversation I’d listened to, and though I wasn’t proud of eavesdropping, I now believed I had a better handle on what had actually happened to him.
“It’s not bullshit. Remember how I said it didn’t make sense that Ronan would steal money from people or set up sham accounts so he could funnel clients’ money into them?”
“Yeah. The guy is loaded. But trust me, from the time I spent in Hollywood, I know some people never have enough. It’s in their blood to steal. Like arsonists. They can’t help themselves.” Isaac shrugged, ate some of his eggs, and took another bite of bagel. It might be six in the morning, but he needed to refuel. “Ronan probably saw a quick way to get more money and embezzled from clients’ accounts. Then, when his sister and brother-in-law found out he was skimming and wouldn’t cover for him, Ronan had to confess.”
“Except I don’t think it was Ronan who was skimming funds and creating false paperwork to show that the funds people were invested in were making money.”
It took a lot to shock Isaac, but it seemed I’d accomplished that, as his blue eyes bugged out of his head. “What the fuck? Why would you say that?”
I hesitated, unsure if I should repeat what I’d heard. I decided to put it in the hypothetical. “What if he took the fall for someone else? To protect them.”
“Then he’d be the stupidest person I’d ever heard of.” Isaac pushed away his plate. “You’re making him out to be this altruistic person when all you have is a theory based on spending a little time with him. Come on, Gabriel. You’re too smart to fall for that shit. I don’t believe it.”
I couldn’t sit and listen anymore. “What don’t you believe? That someone could love someone so much, they’d do anything for them?” Isaac had always been a good judge of character—it was the reason he’d seen through so many people who tried to pretend to be his friend simply because of his celebrity status. Unfortunately, it had also made him mistrustful of everyone except those of us closest to him, and he’d never had a relationship that lasted.
“I’m not sure. But you gotta admit it’s hard to imagine someone taking the fall for another person’s crimes and spending six years in jail.”
I chewed my lip, hearing Ronan pleading with his brother-in-law to see his point of view. How devastated he was when the conversation ended. I could still taste the salt of his tears.
