Chapter 6 - The Confession in the Rain
Outside Bellanova’s, a heavy autumn rain had begun to fall over the cobblestone streets of the Harbor District.
Three dark SUVs were parked along the curb, their hazard lights blinking softly in the gray light.
Gabriel sat in the backseat of the middle vehicle, watching Claire through the tinted glass. She was sitting beside him, wrapped in his heavy charcoal coat, her wet hair wrapped in a clean, white cotton towel that Viktor had brought from a nearby hotel.
The silence between them was not tense, but it was thick with unsaid things.
"You ruined those families today," Claire said softly, looking out the rain-streaked window at the neon sign of the restaurant.
Gabriel didn't deny it. "They ruined themselves. They believed money freed them from the responsibility of being human."
"You used your money to destroy them," she pointed out, turning her head to look at him. "How is that different?"
Gabriel looked into her dark, clear eyes.
"Because I didn't destroy them for fun, Claire," Gabriel said, his voice dropping into a low, fierce whisper. "I destroyed them because they made you feel small. I spent my whole life watching powerful men take whatever they wanted because nobody stopped them. I swore that if I ever gained power, no one would ever make the person I love feel worthless again."
Claire felt a warmth bloom behind her ribs—a deep, complex emotion that fought against her natural fear of his world.
"I don't want you to be a monster for me, Gabriel," she whispered.
"I am a monster, Claire," Gabriel said honestly, reaching out to take her sticky, soda-stained hand into his broad palm. "I have always been a monster to my enemies. But to you... I am just the man who sat in a empty restaurant two years ago and ate bad apple cake because I couldn't bear to leave the only person who looked at me like a human being."
Claire looked down at their joined hands.
She remembered the night they met. She remembered his dark, exhausted eyes, the dangerous men standing at the door, and how he had eaten every bite of that dry cake without complaining.
"I washed my shirt in the sink," Claire said quietly, a tiny, weary smile touching her lips. "It’s ruined anyway."
"I'll buy you a hundred shirts," Gabriel said.
"I don't want a hundred shirts," Claire replied, leaning her head against his broad shoulder, smelling the rich scent of cedarwood, rain, and expensive tobacco that always clung to him. "I just want to go home and take a long shower."
Gabriel pressed his lips gently against the top of her towel-wrapped head.
May you like
"Home it is," he said.
He tapped the glass partition. "Viktor. Drive."
