"You're not what I expected," I say quietly.
His eyes meet mine. "Neither are you."
"What did you expect?"
"Someone easier to intimidate." A ghost of a smile. "Someone less stubborn."
Despite everything—the fear, the anger, the impossible situation—I almost laugh. "Sorry to disappoint."
"You haven't." His voice drops. "You're the opposite of disappointing, Seraphina."
The way he says my full name makes my stomach flip.
I close my eyes, sipping the warm liquid, trying to ignore the flutter in my chest.
"We need to talk about Gabriel," he says without preamble, and the mood shifts.
My stomach drops. "Did you find him?" I've been dreading the answer because either way it is going to be bad.
Adrian shakes his head. "No."
"Thank God," I breathe out, even though I'm not sure what I'm grateful for anymore.
"Did you know your brother embezzled money from the Morozov family? Almost a million dollars over six months."
"What? No. That's not—that can't be right."
His silver eyes bore into me.
"Your brother stole a million dollars from the Morozov family," he continued. "He was embezzling from them when he was supposed to be feeding them info."
"That's not—Gabe doesn't have that kind of money. He said he was working on the docks to try and get information. He needed to pay off his gambling debts. That's why he came to me."
"He worked the docks." Adrian's voice is gentle. Too gentle. "For the Morozovs. Low-level work. Unloading shipments. He had access to the money they were moving. A lot of it. He might have been in their debt at some point, but now, they want him because he stole from them."
"No." I shake my head. "He needed fifty thousand. That's what he said. He wouldn't have come to me for a million. There's absolutely no way I could come up with that kind of money."
Adrian looks away.
"What?"
"Nothing."
I put my hands on my hips. "I haven't known you long, but I can tell you're lying to me."
"He lied."
"Obviously. But that's not what you're hiding from me."
Adrian sighs. "Alexei told me that Gabe offered you to him."
"What?" I don't know what that means.
"He offered Alexei you as collateral for his debts. It distracted Alexei long enough for your brother to leave."
"He wouldn't—" But even as I say it, I know it's not true.
Because Gabe has been lying to me for years.
