I wanted Gabriel to choose me. I wanted to be the one he wanted. And I wanted him to know that his money and last name had nothing to do with why I was in love with him. I wanted him to believe that I only wanted him. So, along with the fear of losing him, that was the reason I never pushed for more.
But even knowing all that, knowing I’m partly to blame for my clusterfuck of emotions, I still needed to find a way to move on without him. If he wasn’t going to choose me voluntarily, then I wasn’t going to push him to where he had to make the decision to have to choose.
This one-woman trip to Vegas might make me look and feel like a loser, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from trying. Gabriel got to go to college, meet new people, enjoy new experiences…why couldn’t I?
Well, I mean not go to college, but meet new people and enjoy new experiences.
I sat up and whist away my thoughts. I unpacked and decided to go grab some dinner, hopefully, somewhere cheap. Even though I worked hard and earn a decent wage, I was still poor, and this trip was all being done on a budget.
Chapter 8
Gabriel~
Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
Mason rarely stepped on our toes or came at us in a commanding manner. He worked hard not to continue my father’s legacy of bullying and intimidation. So, when he called me and barked out that he needed to see me immediately, I knew something was wrong.
The only thing calming me was that I knew it had nothing to do with my brothers or their wives. Mason had sounded too composed for that. It had to be work related, but I’ve only been here for four days. That’s not nearly enough time for me to fuck something up.
I didn’t bother knocking when I got to his office. I opened the door and walked right in. Mason was sitting behind his massive oak desk, his head popping up when the door sounded behind me.
I walked across the plush carpeted floor and dropped down in one of the two armchairs facing his desk. “What’s up?”
Mason placed his elbows on the desk and steepled his fingers together. “What’s going on between you and Justice?” he asked, surprising the hell out of me.
“Michael told you?” I mean, I wasn’t upset if Mike did; like I said, we didn’t keep secrets. But I just wasn’t expecting this line of questioning.
“Yes,” Mason replied, arching a brow, clearly indicating that he didn’t like not being in the loop. Mason didn’t sweat the small stuff, but he considered anything that had to do with the women in our livesnotsmall stuff. “Something you should have told me yourself.”
I let out a deep breath and told him everything. And I do meaneverything. If anyone could separate facts from emotions and see the truth, it was Mason.
When I finished, Mason picked his phone up off the desk and started swiping and tapping and whatever else. Looking down at his phone, he said, “You know how I hired that investigator to keep tabs on the Morgans after all that shit went down with Shane?” I nodded.
Mason’s senior year of college Branson Morgan had attacked Shane and Mason had gone after the entire family-even their pets-and brought them down. He handed their company over to Shane for her to do whatever she wished with it. She now runs it with the help of Aiden’s wife, Denise.
“Well, I still kept him on Branson because…well, I wanted to make sure he’s never near Shane ever again.” He handed his phone over to me and on the screen was a picture of Branson Morgan, free after only serving three and a half years in prison.
My eyes flickered up to Mason and then back to the screen. “Okay,” I replied. “So, what am I looking at?” The neon signs above his head were a dead giveaway of where he was at. “Looks like he’s in Las Vegas and nowhere near Shane.”
Mason sighed and the depth of it had me looking back up at him. “Look in the background, Gabriel,” he said. “What do you see?”
I looked back down at the phone, and ignoring Branson, dread settled in the pit of my stomach when I finally noticed what Mason was talking about.
Justice was in fucking Las Vegas.
The picture showed her rolling a travel bag behind her as she walked into the hotel lobby of…well, I wasn’t sure which hotel. The picture didn’t show any signature buildings or attractions. I doubted she’d be able to afford to stay on the strip, anyway.
I tore my eyes away from the picture when Mason’s voice cut through my wayward thoughts. “What would Justice Hillman be doing in Las Vegas, besides running from you, Gabriel?”
Mason’s phone felt heavy in my hand. Shame like I’ve never known slithered throughout my body. I’ve always prided myself on my unwavering loyalty for those who I loved, but in this moment, my loyalty didn’t mean shit, because I hadn’t been loyal to Justice, in the least.
I looked up at my big brother and having to admit that I knew nothing about Justice’s life was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I knew every inch of her body and I knew that I’ve loved her since I was 15, but that’s it. I knew very little about what she enjoyed outside the bedroom and I knew she worked for a doctor of some sort doing clerical stuff. And I knew she had a friend named Beatrice whom I’ve never met. “I…I don’t know, Mase,” I confessed. “She could be there for work or something with her friend Beatrice?”
Mason looked sad for me and that gutted me. “Was she right, Gabriel?” he asked. “Have you guys only been having sex for the past six years? Do you really know nothing about her?”
My jaw clenched, and I’d never felt so disgusted with myself. “It’s more than sex, Mason,” I said, looking him in the eye. “But…but it’s always just sex, if that makes sense.”
“I get it, Gabe,” he replied. “I really do. Hell, I see Shane every day and it’s all I can do to keep my hands off her. So, I get that you might get carried away whenever you go see her, but…” he trailed off, looking for the right words. “But based on what happened between you two this weekend and that she’s in Las Vegas now, I’d say she’s moving on to someone else who can give her everything else that’s missing from the relationship she’s had with you.”
