Betrayals (Cainsville Book 4) Read Online Free Page A

me know.
    He didn’t text back.
    I told Ricky that it’d been Halloran in my vision, killing fae.
    “Gabriel should be here,” he said. “We should all be discussing this.”
    “He knows. He’s fine.”
    “I just think—”
    “He’s fine. I’ll talk to him tomorrow.”
    Ricky shook his head and picked up a textbook as I settled in at my laptop. He drifted off to sleep shortly after that. When he woke at five, seeing me still at my laptop, he said, “You do realize there’s no point in both you and Gabriel being up all night researching the exact same things.”
    “I’m sure he’s asleep by now.”
    “You know he’s not. You two—”
    “Tomorrow’s Saturday.”
    He took a deep breath and then met my gaze. “I’m not saying I’m worried about Amos tying me to this murder, but I’d kinda like both of you working this. Together.”
    He held out my phone. I took it.

WAITING GAME
    G abriel had been home for an hour now, and for nearly that long he’d been standing in front of his fifty-fifth-floor window, staring out at the city with a tumbler of Scotch. He hadn’t touched the drink. He wouldn’t, even if he’d never wanted it more in his life.
    No, that wasn’t true. There’d been one other time he’d wanted it this badly, one other night he’d spent holding a glass, staring out this window. When Olivia left.
    She’d only been away for two weeks, and he’d known she was going. It was a motorcycle trip with Ricky, a much-needed vacation after they broke the case against her parents, discovering that Pamela had indeed murdered four people and Todd let himself also be convicted for the crimes, because she’d done it for Olivia, as part of a deal with the Cŵn Annwn to cure Olivia’s spina bifida.
    It was not surprising that Olivia had needed to get away after that. But it hadn’t felt as if she was fleeing Pamela as much as fleeing him. Getting him out of her sight after he’d abandoned her when she needed him most.
    It was a mistake.
    Except it hadn’t been. Not really. The mistake had been that he hadn’t listened to her messages and known she was in trouble. But the reason he hadn’t been listening? That was no mistake.
    Tristan had just told Gabriel that he was Gwynn, and he’d refused to believe it. Matilda’s jealous lover? The man who’d betrayed both her and Arawn? Dishonored their friendships? The man who’d brought about Matilda’s death through his own selfishness and blindness and arrogance? Gabriel was
not
that man.
    He’d rejected the idea. And then he’d rejected Olivia. He’d laughed at her suggestion that they were friends. Left her standing by the roadside in one of Chicago’s worst neighborhoods. Told her not to come into work the next day.
    Later, when Ricky had come by the office, trying to set things right, Gabriel had sent him away.
    A few nights before that, Olivia had woken from a nightmare vision of being alone and trapped and needing Gabriel and he would not come, and he had said he’d never do that. He would be there for her. Always. And when she called, alone and trapped and needing him, where had he been? In his bed, ignoring her calls, wallowing in a pit of jealousy and selfishness and arrogance.
    No, he was not Gwynn at all.
    His hand tightened on the glass. He looked down, swirled it, considered. Squeezed his eyes shut and saw Olivia that morning before she left. Showing Lydia her new tattoo. A moon for Ricky. A moon for Arawn.
    Gabriel had followed her out the door and thought,
I won’t let her leave. I’ll say something.
Then his gaze had dropped to her ankle, where her boots covered the tattoo.
    She’s made her choice. Branded it on her skin. And it’s the right choice. The one that makes her happy.
    The trip had lasted exactly as long as it was supposed to, and when it ended, she’d come back to work with him, as it had been.
    Only not as it had been.
    He’d started losing her when he’d laughed at the notion they were friends. When he