Robin Schone by Gabriel's Woman (10 ebook reader TXT) 📕

in front of the massive armoire. Opening the

door, he rifled through coats, trousers .. . He grabbed a royal blue silk robe. It clung to his fingers like a

woman’s hair.

Victoria sat on the cold tile in front of the toilet, spine erect, face drained of color. Her hair fell over her

right shoulder.

She had dark brunette hair that shimmered with red and copper highlights.

Beautiful hair.

“Her name was Dolly,” Victoria said dully.

Gabriel’s hand fisted the silk robe.

There was nothing he could do to comfort her. But he wanted to.

The anger inside him kicked up another notch.

The second man had planned everything. And there was nothing he could do to halt the game.

But he wanted to.

“Three months ago a man tried to rape me,” Victoria continued in the same shock-dulled voice. “It was

raining. Dolly helped me. Everyone else just walked by, umbrellas lowered so they wouldn’t see what was

happening.”

Gabriel tensed; a pulse suddenly pounded inside his left temple.

He knew who had accosted Victoria—he knew everything about him save his name and the extent he

would go to fulfill a dead man’s will.

“What did the man look like?” he asked, voice deceptively calm.

Victoria was not deceived. Realization flowed across her drawn features.

“The man you are looking for,” she visibly swallowed, “he paid Dolly to save me that night.”

And then he had killed Dolly. Just as he would kill Victoria.

She read the truth in Gabriel’s eyes.

“I found the first letter underneath my door the next morning,” Victoria said convulsively.

Gabriel waited for her to piece together the puzzle.

Comprehension sparked inside her shock-dulled eyes; the spark left, leaving behind the comprehension.

“I’m sorry,” she said with the calm that only comes after witnessing violent death. There was no hunger

inside her eyes, no desire for an angel’s touch. “He grabbed me from behind. I never saw his face. But it

doesn’t matter, does it? He will kill me. That is why he gave Dolly the tablets for me to use, is it not? He

will kill anyone who comes into contact with him. Won’t he?”

Gabriel wouldn’t lie. “Yes.”

“You talked to Mr. Thornton today.”

“Yes.”

Gabriel’s muscles coiled tighter, knowing the course of her thoughts, knowing there was only one

conclusion she could draw.

“Mr. Thornton was alive.”

Victoria voiced Gabriel’s fears.

“But if he or his wife were associated with this man you are seeking, they would be dead, wouldn’t

they?”

But if they weren’t associated with the second man, then Victoria was being pursued by two men, her

eyes said.

The second man wanted to kill her. What did the other man want?

“Fear,” Victoria whispered.

Gabriel strained to hear her, to comfort her. “What?”

“You said he sent me to you because of my eyes.”

Hungry eyes.

Sharp pain twisted inside Gabriel’s gut. “Yes.”

“No.” Victoria stared down into the porcelain bowl; Gabriel stared down at her bowed head. “He didn’t

choose me because of my eyes.”

Gabriel fought to distance himself.

You don’t k now me, Victoria had accused him.

But he did know her. He knew her, and he wanted her.

“Then why do you think he chose you?” Gabriel asked, voice strained.

Victoria raised her head and met his gaze. “He chose me because I was afraid. And because you were

afraid.”

They were still afraid.

Awareness glimmered underneath the fear and the shock inside Victoria’s eyes. “You said fear is a

powerful aphrodisiac.”

The wire inside Gabriel coiled tighter.

Sex. Murder.

Fear was an aphrodisiac. Through sex, men and women had the power to create new life. A final

victory over death.

“I’m cold,” Victoria said suddenly.

Her breasts quivered.

She was trembling.

Thornton had trembled in his fear; Gabriel had felt only contempt. Victoria trembled in her fear; Gabriel

wanted to weep for the pain he had brought her.

He did not weep.

Angels didn’t cry.

Her bottom lip quavered. “I don’t think I will ever be warm again.”

Gabriel had the power to warm her.

Knees trembling, he entered the bathroom.

Copper gleamed; the mirror sparkled.

The walls closed around him.

Victoria stared up at him. Not expecting warmth. Comfort.

Gabriel stepped behind her, unable to look into her eyes.

Victoria didn’t blame him for the whore he had been. The danger he had placed her in. The carnal

comfort he didn’t give her.

Gabriel wished that she did blame him.

He hunkered down, knees spread wide on either side of her back; her hair glistened like a dark waterfall.

Slowly, carefully, he draped the silk robe over her shoulders. Feeling her warmth and fragility; inhaling her

femininity and her vulnerability.

Almost touching, not quite daring.

“I won’t let him hurt you,” he murmured.

They both knew he lied.

Gabriel couldn’t stop the second man. All he could do was try to find the second man before he found a

way to get Victoria.

Chapter

14

Yellow fog embraced London like the arms of a possessive lover. A hansom cab cautiously

maneuvered through the coal smoke-induced haze that was the price of human life.

They would be dead, wouldn’t they? the horse’s hooves clacked. They would be dead, wouldn‘t

they?

And they would be dead, if they were associated with the second man.

But the Thorntons weren’t dead.

And Gabriel didn’t know why.

Dull light shone through the sulfur-laden night like warning beacons.

Gabriel had not needed Victoria to describe the interior layout of the Thornton house; Peter Thornton had

done so in great detail. What Gabriel had needed to know was if he could trust Victoria.

She could be trusted, unlike Gabriel.

He leaned against the metal park gate, watching the town house windows that were brighter than the

fog. And thought of Victoria.

She had lived with the Thorntons as