He shook away that thought. Perhaps some things had felt different, but that didn’t makeitdifferent. His reaction to the general didn’t makehimdifferent.
“I would like to think Evelyne and I could have made that clear to you,” Alexandre continued. “Neither of us are fools, and neither of us find you to be amonster, but it turns out Ines was right. I had to show you.”
Gabriel shook his head, trying to find some anchor amid all this crumbling inside him. If he listened to the crumbling, he’d have to believe he could…be what Evelyne and their child needed.
And he wanted that far too much to trust anything. “You tricked me. It shows…nothing.”
Alexandre lifted a shoulder, reminding Gabriel a little too much of Evelyne. “Doesn’t it?” Alex asked casually. “You didn’t know it was a trick. You reacted. Handled it. Seems to show me quite a bit, honestly.”
Gabriel was utterly speechless. He didn’t have an argument. As much as he might have liked a scene, he had rationalized it out. Because he did not wish to hurt or complicate life for Alexandre or Evelyne, he had…resisted those urges inside him.
As though he could. As though he would, when it mattered. He haddoneit.
“She is miserable,” Alexandre said, his voice quiet and serious. “She sits in the nursery and makes no decision. She ignores the staff trying to prod her into making decisions about the baby’s name so we can begin the royal decrees necessary.”
Gabriel rubbed at his heart, where an ache had not left him for some time but seemed to dive deeper now.
“And you are no better,” Alexandre added.
“I have been working.”
“You have beenhiding. You have beenwallowing. Why must you both insist on your own misery? You love one another.”
Gabriel did not know what to do with thisword. Love was for people who could handle such things.
Had he handled something? Could he… He shook his head. It all felt too dangerous, too…fragile. If he gave in, he’d spend the rest of his life walking the edge of violence.
Except General Vinyes had pushed all of his buttons and Gabriel had…handled it. Could it really mean what Alexandre wanted it to mean?
Gabriel eyed his friend, trying to understand where this had come from. Trying to find some old handle on his fear. “It is not like you to interfere.”
Alexandre pulled a face. “No indeed. But here I am. Take that as a sign things are dire indeed, and now it is up toyouto fix it. You are rather good at fixing things.”
He was. Hewas. He’d built a career out of fixing people’s security problems for them in different ways.
But this was…
“You knew I would not make the wrong choice,” Gabriel said, very carefully.
“Of course I knew, Gabriel,” Alexandre said, very seriously. “I have been your friend our entire lives. I have also spent most of Evelyne’s life doing what I could to protect her. I would not have allowed you anywhere near her if I thought that you also could not do the same. Just because you fell in love with her and got her pregnant under dubious circumstances doesn’t mean you didn’t protect her.”
Gabriel sucked in a breath. There were few people he trusted as deeply as Alexandre, because Alex had always been there—and because he knew what exactly had happened with Gia. And Alex was right, there was no one he protected more fiercely than his sister.
“There are no protocol meetings to attend, are there?”
“Of course not. Go apologize to Evelyne. Make her happy. Or perhaps I will throw you in the dungeons after all…one of Evelyne’s suggestions. Ines was a fan.”
Gabriel chuckled in spite of himself. Yes, Evelyne would suggest that, but she wouldn’t mean it. Because she loved him. She wanted him to be the man she thought he was. Not the monster he was so afraid of.
And if his best friend in the world could believe that of him, enough to set him up with the very real chance he might fight ageneral, Gabriel supposed he owed it to the both of them to decide to be the man they thought he was.
In every way possible.
“I will…see what I can do,” Gabriel said a bit haltingly. He stepped forward, too many complicated emotions swamping him. “Thank you, for always being the brother I needed. Always.”
Alexandre gave a sharp nod. “Likewise,” he muttered, clearly uncomfortable. But meaning it.
Gabriel left the office, the anticipation he’d felt at seeing Evelyne tenfold now that he wasn’t going to fight it.
