"Sit."
"Adrian, you're scaring me."
"I know. Sit anyway."
I do, gripping the armrests of the rocking chair that had been delivered yesterday. "What happened? Is Gabe dead?"
Instinctively, I know this is about my brother. It's been three days since Adrian told me Gabe was working with the FBI. Three days of trying not to think about it, of focusing on baby clothes and nursery plans and anything except mybrother's betrayal. Though Adrian didn't say it, I suspected he was now hunting Gabe. And as much as I've tried, I'm not sure I can save Gabe from that.
But the idea still makes me sick.
"No." He moves to the window, hands in his pockets, back to me. "But I need to tell you something. And I need you to stay calm."
"Okay…" I take a deep breath, steeling myself. This just seems to get worse and worse.
He turns to face me. "What I'm about to tell you is going to upset you. But I need you to listen. Really listen. Can you do that?"
I nod, even though my heart is hammering.
"Eighteen months ago, Gabriel was arrested with a significant amount of cocaine," Adrian says, his voice calm. Clinical. "He was looking at serious prison time. Years. But then he was released. Do you remember that?"
I do. The phone call from the police station. The panic. And then, just as suddenly, Gabe calling to say he was out. That everything was fine.
I'd been ready to ask Mr. Bolinger for a loan to afford a decent lawyer, and then, poof, it was like nothing happened.
"He said it was a mistake. That they let him go because it was a minor offense."
Adrian shakes his head. "He had a significant number of drugs on him. Real prison time. They let him go because he made a deal. A strong one. The feds saw an opportunity to get someone inside the families since Gabe already had connections with the Morozovs through his gambling problem."
Lead falls heavy in my stomach, and my mouth goes dry. "He didn't do this to try and help me." It's not a question.
Adrian looks away.
"Well, I'm a fucking idiot," I snap. I've been holding a pair of infant pajamas, and I've been squeezing them so hard thereare wrinkles deep in the fabric. "He told me the judge ordered him to go to rehab."
"Sera…" There's pity in his voice. "I'm sure?—"
I shake my head. "No. Don't. He never even went to court. How the hell would he be ordered to rehab?" Suddenly, all the holes in Gabe's story are becoming apparent, and they are wide. "He didn't even need to be a good liar because I'm just so fucking gullible."
Adrian's mouth turns down. "My guess is that the FBI made sure he got a job on the docks, put him in a position to look good for the Morozovs. He had gambling debts, but they were minor. A few thousand here and there. Alexei would have let him work them off…"
My mind is racing, trying to process what he's saying. "I'm so confused."
"Gabriel got greedy." Adrian leans against the window. "My guess is he realized how the Morozovs clean their money and decided to start skimming off the top." He closes his eyes briefly. "The money he stole would have been enough to get him set up far away from the FBI and the Morozovs."
"But they figured out what he was doing?"
Adrian nods.
I feel sick as things start to slot into place. "So when Dimitri came after me?—"
"He was using you as bait." Adrian's voice softens slightly. "For a long time, I suspected your brother knew that attack was coming. He led you into that alley, then disappeared. You were the perfect distraction. By the time Alexei would have had you, Gabe would have been in the wind. Alexei thought he was getting you for leverage, but he was playing into Gabe's hands."
"He wouldn't?—"
"He called you to that café. Told you he needed money. Made sure you'd be vulnerable. He knew he was being watched, and he knew you wouldn't be able to help him."Adrian crouches in front of my chair, hands on my knees. "I'm sorry. But your brother put you in danger. Deliberately."
"You don't know that. Maybe he was trying to protect me—" It sounds silly, even to my own ears, but I cannot fathom a world where my brother would do such a thing.
