Chapter 16

16

When Mitch came jogging up to him an hour later, brows tight, Gabriel felt his heart sink.

And he cursed when he followed Mitch out the side of the building where nonsensical phrases and symbols were spray-painted in garish yellow. Considering the paint was well set, it had to have happened the night before, even if they'd only just noticed now.

"Is this normal?" he demanded, waving a hand at the graffiti.

Mitch hunched his shoulders against the cold. "Not so long as I've volunteered. We've had the odd thing, but this is like we're being targeted."

Gabriel crossed his arms in disgust. "I didn't install a camera here when we put in the new security system. That will be rectified."

In the meantime, they shoved up their sleeves and got to scraping the paint off as best they could. They were soon joined by Frankie and the three of them carried an easy conversation as they worked, easier than most Gabriel had ever been part of. In fact, Melly had been delighted when he'd mentioned his "friends," (her words), and had again clamored to visit so she could meet them. He'd stuck with his refusal, still leery about having her around so many humans where she couldn't defend herself with magic. A dreamscape potion wasn't created in a day.

Once the wall was as clear as they could get it and their shifts long over, Mitch raised the idea of a drink. Considering the only thing Gabriel had waiting for him was a microwaved casserole and the second part of a documentary he knew Leah would enjoy, he'd agreed. If she was there, he could recommend it, they could talk. Safe, easy.

He'd missed her, damn it.

She wasn't at Toil and Trouble when they arrived, but Bastian Truenote was.

Gabriel tried not to let it stiffen him up as he left Frankie and Mitch in a booth and approached the bar. It wasn't so much that he disliked Bastian, more that he was a solid reminder of everything Gabriel was not.

Bastian was tall, golden and handsome in the way of the old movie stars. His grin was charming, his eyes a twinkling navy, his manner easy, and, as had become apparent when they'd worked together, he was as suited for the role of amiable bartender as Gabriel wasn't. He was also a far superior Higher son from what Gabriel had observed. His parents doted on him, their pride open and unashamed. In a word: perfect.

And it was hard to like perfect when he was achingly aware of every flaw he possessed.

"Truenote," he greeted, his accent making the word clipped. "I didn't realize you were in town."

Bastian served his customer, cast Gabriel a casual grin as they walked off. "We came in this morning. Emma needed to help Leah with some gala stuff, and they recruited me to tend bar since Tia got called to New Orleans by her family again." He looked beyond Gabriel. "You here alone?"

"No. I came with...friends." Will's words floated through his head but he pushed them aside. He would focus only on today.

Bastian choked. " Human friends?"

Gabriel made no comment, deliberately not rising to the bait.

A dimple flashed. "Well, who'da thunk it? Gabriel Goodnight sliding right into the human world."

"They'd like two beers. Three," Gabriel decided in the next breath, gesturing to one of the taps. "That'll do."

"Gabriel!"

Recognition pulled Gabriel's attention from Bastian to the owner of the familiar voice. Nonplussed, he stared into green eyes paler than his own, set against a shock of platinum hair. "Henry? What are you doing here?"

The tall man Gabriel considered his only real friend offered a hand, clasping Gabriel's briefly. Dressed in jeans and a gray fisherman's sweater, he lifted his eyebrows. "I'd be better if I wasn't in enemy territory."

"Ah." Nobody could forget the intense few years where Henry Pearlmatter and Tia Hightower had been a blazing item. Everyone had expected they'd marry, but instead, their relationship had fallen apart in as passionate a display as it had begun.

Bastian snorted from across the bar. "You have to be in the same room at some point. You're both invited to the wedding."

Gabriel's invitation must have been lost in the cosmos. He was too used to being excluded to take offense.

"How are you finding being here?" Henry perched on a stool, hooking his shoe around the bottom rung. He more than most knew of Gabriel's family history. "Tell you the truth, I half expected you to message me by mirror and request an extraction."

"I came close." Gabriel passed across a bill to Bastian as the latter plonked three pints on the bar. "It's better, now."

"Catch me up."

So, he did, after quickly dropping the drinks with Mitch and Frankie, who waved off his awkward apology for choosing his old friend over them. Henry's family was as old magic as Gabriel's, and just as respected. While Henry played proper in public, Gabriel had always enjoyed the hidden jovial side of the warlock. Goddess knew what Henry saw in Gabriel to hold up their friendship, but whatever it was, he'd always been grateful for it.

Bastian had joined them, settling into the conversation as they swapped stories about working at the bar. Gabriel had relaxed enough not to take offense at Bastian's taunts, had even made several of his own and enjoyed the friendly nature of it all. At least until the conversation circled around to Leah.

"So," Bastian said, drawing out the word, expression narrowing. "You and Leah. Something going on there?"

Caught off guard, Gabriel felt his left eye twitch.

Henry swore. They'd been friends too long for him not to pick up on it. "You're messing with a human?"

"No." The lie seared his insides and he shifted to ease the discomfort. "We're...friends."

"Friends." Henry swiped up his beer and swigged. "How did that happen?"

Gabriel shrugged, uncomfortable. "You'd have to meet her."

"Irresistible, is she?"

Yes. "More like an unstoppable force."

"That's true." Bastian held up an acknowledging finger at a customer. "Leah's kind of the human equivalent of a battering ram. She gets through in the end."

As Bastian ambled off to fill the order, Gabriel watched speculation fill Henry's eyes. And he frowned. "Don't look at me like that."

"You like this woman."

"She's tolerable."

"You really like her."

Gabriel pokered up. "I said no such thing."

"You didn't have to. She must be something to get you to see beyond your fears."

"It's not just her." Gabriel unbent enough to smile faintly. "Though she plays a big part. Being here...spending time with humans, it's harder to hold onto the past. I've enjoyed it, learned from them. That has value." He stared at his signet ring, all that it represented. "My parents hoped to take the company forward, expand. At least now I think I might be able to live up to their expectations and carry it through."

Henry said nothing, but set a hand on Gabriel's shoulder briefly. He didn't dwell, didn't point out that most family was held together by love, not cold obligation.

Instead, he lifted his beer again with a quick grin. "So, you're dating this human?"

"You know that's impossible."

"Interesting." Henry drank, set it down. "You didn't say you didn't want to. Have you kissed her?"

Bastian returned at the tail end, cocked his head.

Loathing the attention, Gabriel refused to say anything. Not that it mattered.

"Shit," Bastian said unhappily. "Emma's going to freak." His expression shifted to something Gabriel couldn't read. "Not sure what Kole will say."

The muscles in his back stiffened. "Are they...involved?"

"No." Bastian drew it out, making it sound more like a question. "Though I've always wondered—" He stopped short, gaze going over Gabriel's shoulder. His lips formed a silent whistle. "Well, hell, what did you do, Goodnight?"

Gabriel frowned.

Bastian's smile was more a smirk as he nodded behind him. "Cute blonde, pint-sized, pissed off, and headed your way." As Gabriel swiveled, Bastian added, "Start praying now."

Leah wasted no time as she approached the dark warlock. She ignored the hubbub of the evening crowd, the pumping music, even Bastian's casual greeting as she screeched to a halt, planting her feet and her hands on her hips. She gave Gabriel her best glower.

He didn't react. "Leah."

She threw up an accusing finger. "Don't even. How dare you hide that the shelter was vandalized again? Is that your call to make? Newsflash: this isn't the 1900s, Gabriel. I don't need some interfering, autocratic man deciding what I should and shouldn't know. You had no right."

Gabriel didn't stand from his stool, which put them at an even height for once. His startling green eyes surveyed her with careful neutrality.

It infuriated her. How he was calm and contained while she was a bag of hormones and lust. Even now, as pissed as she was, all she wanted to do was grab hold of the black sweater he was wearing and have his glorious mouth locked on hers again. Addiction ran through her bloodstream, hyping the irritation that he'd been hiding things from her.

She'd called in to run through some details with Sonny for the gala, only to be told they'd been vandalized again. But Gabriel had taken care of it, she'd been assured. Read: don't worry her pretty little head.

"I am not one of your minions," she said, poking her finger into his chest. Meeting a wall of muscle. "I am not beneath you. It's not your place to choose whether to tell me something."

He waited. "Are you done?"

Her lips thinned.

"Because I wasn't keeping it from you."

"Bull," she spat.

"Don't accuse me of lying." His eyes shone greener, if that was possible.

"You know I'd want to know. It's my place, Gabriel."

"And I wanted to take care of it first. For you."

It made her falter.

"I was planning on telling you tomorrow, when we're both scheduled to be in. I didn't want it to play on your mind all night when nothing could be done. I won't apologize for that."

God help her. How was a woman meant to deal with Gabriel Goodnight? She stared at him, confused, touched. His actions were sweet and misguided and irritating because he was right. It would have been on her mind all night.

Even so, someone needed to yank Gabriel into the twenty-first century. Good thing she was woman enough to take up the challenge.

She released a breath and stepped forward, teasingly close to touching his knees. "Okay, I appreciate the thought. But you can't make those decisions for me, not if you respect me at all. I had a right to know as soon as it happened, even if you thought it was going to worry me." She quirked an eyebrow. "Do you respect me?"

"Of course."

"Then, respect me enough to tell me bad news."

Mulishly, he stared her down. Finally, he gave a clipped nod. And she could breathe again.

Easing her grip on the righteous anger, she patted his cheek. The barest hint of stubble grazed her palm. "It was very sweet of you, though."

"I am not sweet," he informed her loftily. Cranky.

Adorable. She smiled now, a bright beam. "Goodnights aren't sweet?"

"Sweet doesn't get things done."

Her smile stretched into a grin. "Of course. This yours?" Before he could answer, she lifted his beer, took a swig. Then caught sight of the man on the neighboring stool gaping at her. Mortified, she looked at the beer. "Shit. Is this yours?"

The handsome man with platinum hair grinned. "No, sorry," he said, his voice deeper than she'd expected. "I've just never seen Gabriel admit he was wrong."

Gabriel gave him a bland look.

"You know Gabriel?" It hit her then what that meant. Warlock. She disguised the instant of excitement, forcing her expression to stay casual. "You're from New Orleans?"

The stranger lifted his hand in a half greeting. "Henry."

Her eyes widened, mind turning on a dime to race in a different direction. " Henry? "

He grimaced. "You must know Tia."

"You ever going to say hello to me?"

Leah swiveled at the mock-affronted question. She grinned, boosting herself up and giving Bastian a smacking kiss on the cheek. "Who could forget about you, handsome?" She winked at him. "How about a beer on the house?"

"Since you own the house, why not?"

Leah shifted back to Henry as Bastian went to fetch her a beer. "So, you're Tia's ex?" And he was here, in her bar. Should she throw him out? She studied his arms, the muscled form, reconsidered. Should she get Bastian to throw him out?

"To save you from asking the question that's all over your face," Henry stated wryly, tapping a hand on the counter, revealing some edginess. "I'm only here because Bastian asked me to swing by so he could hit me up for a favor. Trust me, Tia and I know to keep a state between us."

God, she had so many questions. Like, a ballpark full. But, since it felt disloyal to gossip behind her friend's back, Leah focused elsewhere. All innocence, she commented, "A long way from New Orleans for a favor."

She jumped when Gabriel's hand settled at the small of her back. She glanced his way, caught the warning flash. She grinned at him.

Henry merely flashed his own smile. "Private jet. And it gave me a chance to catch up with old friends."

"So, you knew Gabe when he was a boy?"

"Sure, me and Gabe go way back."

"Was he always such a killjoy?" She poked his ribs, squeaked when his hand on her back slid down, tapped her ass. A rush of inappropriate lust had her frowning at him.

His lips barely curved. That only made it worse.

"Not always," Henry answered. He leaned an elbow on the bar, the picture of a man settling in for a conversation. "When we were young, he had a real nose for a prank. His parents hated that. Their son shouldn't dishonor the family name, do good and all that. Even if he only went after the bullies."

"Henry."

He ignored Gabriel and regaled a fascinated Leah with more stories that Mrs. Q hadn't known about. She laughed so hard at one point, beer shot out of her nose.

She didn't want to like Henry, out of loyalty to Tia, but it was hard not to get sucked into the charming warlock's orbit. Even so, she occasionally caught the edge of something before he smoothed it over with a grin. As much a mask as Gabriel's, she thought, as they called for a second beer. It seemed nobody survived in Higher society without one. Fake, all of it. Just like...

She swallowed, suddenly edgy. Well, just like the entitled world she'd walked away from. Hadn't thought twice about leaving it all behind, had never been happier than when she could stop second-guessing everybody's smile and words.

Gabriel's society might be magical but it was the same. And this was the world she'd always wanted to join?

As she picked up the beer Bastian brought, she nudged that disquieting thought out of sight to focus on the now. Gabriel didn't have many friends, or not that she'd picked up on. It was important to her that she made a good impression. She tucked the reason away with the other thought, neatly out of sight.

With a cleansing sip of her beer, she angled toward Gabriel's friend and changed the subject. "So, Henry...you're rich, huh?"

Henry's laugh lured a few female stares from the nearby table. "Reasonably."

"You're a good person?"

"Depends who you ask."

Intriguing, but she didn't ask questions. Instead, she batted her eyelashes. "Ever thought about investing in an animal shelter?"

When she saw Gabriel smile behind his beer, everything fell into place.