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

unable to protect her.

Rage chased fear.

Victoria had shown him light again and again; he would not let her die.

Gabriel carefully eased out from underneath Victoria’s head and her knee. Cold air evaporated the wet

heat that pooled on his left thigh; icy wood impacted his feet.

The darkness was his ally. If Gabriel could not see the second man, then the second man could not see

him.

Stealthily, he padded toward the study door.

The sensation of being watched dissipated, as if a door had closed.

Gabriel halted, every sense alert. He filtered out the smell of sex, the soft, rhythmical sound of Victoria’s

breathing, his heartbeat...

There was no one inside the room save for him and Victoria.

Now.

There was no doubt inside his mind that just moments earlier they had not been alone.

Gabriel had designed the bedchamber door to open into the study, so that no one could use the door to

hide behind inside the bedchamber. Someone could very well be hiding on the opposite side, however,

someone who waited for Gabriel to enter the study.

Someone armed with a knife or a gun.

Gabriel was not afraid to die. But he was suddenly, heart-stoppingly frightened for Victoria.

Inside the shower he had shown her how easy it was to make a woman—or a man—beg for release; he

did not want her to learn how easy it was to make a woman—or a man—beg for death.

He flung the bedchamber door back, catching it just before it slammed the wall so as not to awaken

Victoria.

There was no one behind the door.

There was no one inside the study.

But there had been. The second man’s presence lingered in the air like cheap perfume.

The silver cane leaned against the couch; the Adams revolver and holster were draped over the blue

leather couch arm.

They were undisturbed, like Victoria’s sleep.

There was only one way to enter—or exit—his suite.

Gabriel yanked the Adams revolver out of the holster and strode across the carpet. He jerked open the

satinwood door.

Allen leaned against the wall, black hair gleaming with moon-silver highlights, black eyes alert.

Immediately, he straightened.

He was neither surprised nor embarrassed nor alarmed to find his employer standing before him naked

with a revolver in his hand: whores, pimps, beggars, cutthroats and thieves were not easily discomfited.

Whereas Gabriel was all too aware that Allen wore a holster underneath his black coat.

Had it been Allen instead of the second man who had entered his suite?

“Good afternoon, sir,” Allen said politely.

Afternoon.

“What time is it?” Gabriel asked sharply.

“After four, sir.”

Gabriel had instructed Gaston to find out everything he could about Mitchell Delaney, and to report to

him promptly.

Dread knotted his stomach. The killing would continue as long as the second man lived. “Where is

Gaston?”

“He tried waking you earlier, sir,” Allen said easily.

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. No one had tried to wake him ...

Immediately he remembered where he had slept.

Gaston would have knocked on the study door, or perhaps not. But finding the study empty, he would not

have entered Victoria’s bedchamber.

Had it been Gaston whom Gabriel had sensed in the suite?

“When did Gaston try to wake me?”

“He has been here several times, sir.” Allen’s black eyes did not waver. “Most recently he was here an

hour ago.”

So it had not been Gaston who had awakened Gabriel.

Allen outwardly showed no interest in either Gabriel’s nakedness or the fact that he came from a

woman. But there was no mistaking the smell of sex.

Allen knew he had been with Victoria. Gaston, too, would have known where Gabriel slept, else he

would have awakened him.

The rumor that Gabriel had purchased a woman had already spread throughout London. The fact that he

had fucked her would spread even more rapidly.

Perhaps it was already spreading.

Gaston was the only other person with a key to his suite.

He could have given it to Allen. Gaston trusted the men and women whom Gabriel employed.

“Were you inside my suite today, Allen?”

Allen did not blink. “No, sir. I do not have a key, sir.”

The fewer keys to his suite, the fewer people who could be killed—or bribed—to obtain them. But there

had been someone ...

“How long have you been on guard?” Gabriel asked.

“Since noon, sir.”

“Where were you ten minutes earlier?”

“Here, sir.”

Gabriel could not afford to trust his employees as Gaston trusted them.

“That is impossible, Allen,” Gabriel said silkily, dangerously.

“No, sir, it is not impossible.” Allen’s gaze did not waver from Gabriel’s. “I was here, guarding you and

the woman as I was instructed to do.”

“Then how do you explain the fact that a man was inside my suite only minutes earlier?”

“I cannot, sir.” Anger glimmered inside Allen’s black eyes— anger and hurt. “Begging your pardon, sir,

but an intruder would have to enter your suite through this door. The only way he could do that was if he

killed me. We are loyal to you, sir.”

Allen’s anger could stem from the fact that Gabriel did not trust him. Or it could stem from the fact that

Gabriel had outwardly dismissed John and Stephen—no one knew that they were still in Gabriel’s employ,

not even Gaston.

Or Allen’s anger could stem from the fact that Gabriel had burned down his house six months earlier.

Anger, like a conscience, could be preyed upon.

Fear, too, could be preyed upon.

Gabriel had eaten, slept, pissed and shit these past years for the sole purpose of killing the second man.

The smell