514GoldfinchRd.
The rest of the address had been left behind, but Gabriel didn’t need it. Sir lived in Aurora, and the taxi driver had plugged the address into his GPS and found it without issue. There was no mistaking the bungalow. Soon, Gabriel wouldbehome.
“Thank you,” Gabriel said before he shut the door. He stepped around the taxi and onto the sidewalk, taking in the house he’d thought he’d never see again. As the taxi left, Gabriel gathered his wits and approached the front door. It was early in the morning, and he knew Sir would be sleeping, but if he needed to, he could figure out which of the house’s front-facing windows belonged to his bedroom. If he tapped at the window for long enough, Sir would wake up and open the door for him. They’d have a frank conversation about expectations and how Gabriel could be good, and then all would be well with theworld.
He approached thefrontdoor.
The doorbell was a slender rectangular button set to the right of the frame. Gabriel lifted his hand to push it, thenstopped.
There was conversation happening on the other side ofthedoor.
It was early in the morning, and Gabriel was certain that Sir lived alone. Nervous, he pressed his ear closer to the door and tried to hear what was going on. Sir wasn’t the type of man who’d bring an omega home so soon after his last one had left, was he? If that was the case, Gabriel was out of luck. He’d only borrowed enough money from Adrian to get him to Sir’s house—he had no way togethome.
“Get the hell out of my house.” Sir’s voice was darker than Gabriel had heard it before, but it was stronger, too—unyielding. “You’re not welcome here. Get thehellout.”
Gabriel laid his palms flat on the door and closed his eyes, trying to hear the response. The other person stood too far away from the door, and all he heard was a distant, masculine rumble. Jumbled noises like those offered noanswers.
“You need to leave.” Sir’s voice was steel. He didn’t sound like himself at all. “I swear, if youdon’t…”
The voices behind the door drew closer. This time, Gabriel heard the reply. “You don’t have any say in this, Cedric. It’s not your place to make demandsanymore.”
The bottom dropped out of Gabriel’s stomach, and he pushed back from the door inhorror.
He knew thatvoice.
Hehatedthatvoice.
It was the man withoutaname.
Reeling from what he’d heard, Gabriel took a few, hasty steps backward and almost tripped down the stairs. He caught himself on the railing and gasped for breath as his throat convulsed. Sickened, he leaned over the railing and dry heaved into the shrubbery by Sir’s front door. It had to be a nightmare. The man without a name couldn’t be inside. Hecouldn’t. Now that Gabriel didn’t live with Sir anymore, the man without a name had no reason to be there. He should have given up and left Siralone.
The nightmare would end if Gabriel walked away. The man without a name didn’t know he was standing outside the door. All Gabriel had to do was leave—to take the sidewalk and turn the corner, then lose himself in the city until he found a pay phone so he could call Adrian to pick him up. But if he did that, there was no telling what the man without a name would dotoSir.
Oneyear.
For one hellish year, Gabriel had been at the mercy of the man without a name. He’d suffered at his hand and done things he regretted. He hadn’t had a choice. If he left now, there was a chance that the man without a name would take Sir, and he’d do the same terrible things to him that he’d done toGabriel.
Or maybe he’d doworse.
Gabriel couldn’t let thathappen.
Sick to his stomach with nerves, Gabriel hobbled down the stairs and sucked in a breath. A small voice inside told him that he was foolish—that all he was good for was serving an alpha, and that there was nothing he could do to help Sir. But Sir had taught him betterthanthat.
It was okay to be scared. It was okay to feel weak. What wasn’t okay was giving up withouttrying.
Sir deservedhisbest.
Gabriel rounded the side of the house and entered the carport. The lights were off, but the door was open. The man without a name spoke from deeper within the house, gloating. The individual words were lost, but their malicewasn’t.
One at a time, Gabriel took off his shoes and left them in the carport. The gritty asphalt of the driveway stuck to the bottoms of his socks, and he said a silent prayer that no small stones would catch on the cotton. What he was about to do, he needed to do in silence. Stones tapping against the kitchen floor with each footfall would givehimaway.
Gabriel let go of one last, shuddering breath, then filled his lungs and held the air inside. As his panic built and his world started to spin, he set foot inside Sir’s house and started to creep across the kitchenfloor.
39
Cedric
The backof Cedric’s thighs hit the arm of the couch, and he winced. The hand he’d wrapped around the lamp cord shot down to brace himself, but the cord went taut before he could reach, and he stumbled. The force pulled the lamp from his hand, and it swung down and clattered against the table. Cedric grabbed at the couch to steady himself, but by the time he’d regained his balance, it was too late. The familiar stranger was right in front of him, and the gun he carried nuzzled the underside of Cedric’s jaw to force his gazeupward.
