In the paneled corridor, he saw the darkness lightening up ahead. The foyer and access to the upper floor. Two doors between him and the foyer. He moved on, knives at the ready. Floorboards creaked, doors opened, and two brutes tore into the hallway. Gabriel went in low and fast, his right blade slicing cleanly upward, his left crossing his body in a deadly arc. Blood slid hotly over his fingers, bodies thudding to the ground behind him. He kept right on moving toward Thea.
Toward the only thing that mattered.
He took the stairwell up, following the sounds. He kicked open the door at the top. A ballroom. The balcony windows were open, white curtains whipping against the dark sky, ghostly reflections dancing along the mirrored walls. At the far end…
Thea.My love.
Cicero stood behind her, an arm around her throat and a pistol held to her head.
Options flashed. Flick of the wrist and Gabriel would have the blade embedded in the soft giving spot between Cicero’s eyes. Or a curving throw to that place in the side of the neck, the one that made a man bleed out within a minute. He could do either before Cicero even pulled the trigger.
And Cicero knew it. Which was why the lily-livered bastard was using Thea as a shield.
“Let her go,” Gabriel said, “and I’ll kill you quickly.”
“That was always your problem, Trajan. Talented killer,”—Cicero shook his head mournfully—“terrible negotiator.”
Gabriel’s fingers itched to make the kill. But he couldn’t risk Thea getting harmed.
Keep Cicero talking. That’s his weakness. Wait for an opening.
“I haven’t your talent for selling our country’s secrets to the highest bidder,” he said evenly.
“But you do have a rare aptitude for ruining my plans.” Cicero’s smile bared his teeth. “Normandy still wasn’t enough to teach you a lesson, it seems.”
“Clever of you,” Gabriel said, “pretending to be taken prisoner along with me and Tiberius. Screaming so loud we believed you were being tortured.”
“I had a sore throat for days.” Cicero’s grin widened.
“How did you survive my dagger? I saw you fall.”
“I was wearing a vest of chainmail. In such situations, I always take precautions.” The spymaster shrugged. “For years, your knife made quite the souvenir. Pity I had to pawn it.”
Gabriel’s grip tightened subtly on the hilts. “Money? Is that what this is all about?”
“My dear fellow, money is what everything is about.”
He had to distract Cicero, get Thea loose…
“You have money,” he said evenly. “You married an heiress.”
“Alas, my access to her fortune is not as I had hoped.” Cicero smiled thinly. “I would have managed, however, had Octavian not caught my trail. The codger never knew when to stop, so I had to stop him. For good. But then you got on the scent.”
Half a foot—that was all it would take. If Thea was just half a foot away from Cicero, Gabriel could safely go in for the kill. He willed her to recall the moves he’d taught her.
Surprise the bastard. Attack him. Free yourself.
“You’ve led me on a merry chase,” he said.
“Itisrather refreshing to share my triumphs. Seeing as how dead men and women don’t talk,”—Cicero dug the gun’s muzzle deeper into Thea’s temple, causing her to wince and Gabriel’s fingers to twitch around his blade—“I suppose there’s no harm in indulging a little, is there? I planted the documents you discovered in Tiberius’ safe. And the blackmail note, supposedly from the Spectre, that you found in my desk. Do you honestly think you could find something of mine if I didn’t intend for you to see it?”
“Why try to kidnap Freddy?”
“For leverage over you—you’d do anything I said with your boy’s life on the line. Eventually, I would have ransomed him back to you.” Cicero’s arm tightened around Thea’s neck. “But now I have someone just as good, don’t I? Enough parleying. Throw your weapons toward me, or I’ll put a bullet through her pretty head.”
Gabriel made the calculation. He couldn’t risk Thea. He tossed down one knife, and it skittered across the floor toward his enemy.
“No, Gabriel, don’t—” Thea’s cry was choked off by Cicero. Her hands grasped futilely at the arm crushing her windpipe.
