Forbidden

Gabriel prowls like a caged lion in the deserted corridor outside the dance hall. “Are you completely insane?” he rages at William. “How could you leave Rose with a stranger?”

  The longer she goes missing the more panicked he becomes. Why did she act like she knew this guy? He had sensed her turmoil, felt it spilling over into his own veins. She had been angry, very angry, and then it all stopped and he had felt her mood shift. The “why” question is nearly enough to drive him insane.

  “Stop ranting!” Sadie cries. “It’s making my head ache.”

  She holds an ice pack against the large bump forming on her head. The bleeding has stopped but the pounding is getting worse. Gabriel’s shouting is not helping anything.

  William shoves Gabriel back as he rounds on Sadie. “Back off. I get that you are worried, we all are, but attacking my sister is the last thing you should be thinking about right now.”

  Gabriel’s fingers clench into a fist at his side. The idea of smashing William’s face in is a bit too tempting. “Fine,” he says, sinking onto the plush couch. Laughter and music spill down the hall as the double doors open and close. Their classmates’ carefree banter makes him nauseous. Don’t they know Rose is missing? Shouldn’t the dance be stopped to find her?

  No one in that room is as intimately aware of Rose as he is. When he went to tell the teachers, they laughed it off as a classic prank. Since Roseline didn’t scream or make a scene, it made his case that much harder to prove. Even the hotel management didn’t seem concerned about a missing girl since one of their hotel guest’s vehicles have been stolen. Gabriel tried to tell them she was probably in the car but they had already turned him away to wait for the police.

  He leans his head back against the cushion. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Sadie. I just don’t know what to do. No one will listen to me.”

  “Well, duh. You’re running around like a raving lunatic. I wouldn’t listen to you either,” she snorts. “But he does have a point, Will. Why’d you leave her with that guy?”

  William shrugs. “She said she knew him. They seemed pretty friendly to me so I didn’t think anything of it until I heard Gabriel yell.”

  “But how did she know him?” Sadie asks, settling on the couch next to Gabriel, moaning as she slips her boots off.

  “He said they go way back.”

  Sadie chews on her lower lip. “If he is from Romania too, I wonder if Nicolae might know him. Hang on a second. Where’d he go?”

  Gabriel growls. “Is that really important right now? I thought you didn’t even like the guy.”

  “I don’t,” Sadie snaps. “Well, I mean I guess he has his moments. He was okay tonight, actually, but I think he disappeared around the same time Rose did. He went to the bathroom and never came back. Do you think he went with them? I mean, he is from the same country and all. Maybe he knows the guy.”

  William thinks it over. “I guess it’s possible.”

  “No, it’s not.” Gabriel adamantly shakes his head. “Nicolae wouldn’t go anywhere with Rose unless he had to. You both know how weirded out he gets around her.”

  “I’ve been wondering about that…” William trails off, scratching the back of his head. The styling wax has begun to lose its effect from all of the sweating on the dance floor and his usual scruffiness has returned. “Everyone seems to like Rose, right? I mean, she is the sweetest person I’ve ever met. So why does he always seem so intense around her? There’s definitely a bad vibe between them.”

  Gabriel rubs his jaw. His brain hurts as he fights to remember any clues to explain Nicolae’s strange behavior. “I don’t know. When we find him, we can ask. Right now all I want to do is find Rose.”

  “You mean Roseline,” William mutters.

  “What’s that?” Gabriel asks, sitting up straighter.

  “That guy…he called her Roseline. I’ve never heard anyone call her that before.”

  Sadie rolls her eyes. “She probably changed it when she moved here. It’s not exactly a popular name, is it?”

  Gabriel frowns. Something doesn’t feel right. He saw Rose and the stranger talking, laughing, and then everything changed. The man’s face had darkened and he looked furious with her. What if Roseline was in danger? “I can’t take this anymore. I’m getting out of here.”

  “What about Claire?” William asks, glancing at the sequined figure racing toward them from the ballroom.

  “I don’t care about her. Let her find a friend to give her a ride home,” Gabriel says, surging to his feet. “I’ve got to find Rose.”

  Sadie nods, rising too. She clutches her biker boots under her arm and stares at her brother with firm resolve. “I’m going with Gabriel. He can drop me off once we find Rose.”

  “What about your car?” William protests. Sadie rolls her eyes. There is no way he cares about her car. Besides, it was sure to be safe in valet parking overnight. He’s just trying to cover his backside.

  “Just deal with Mom and Dad, alright? I’ll owe you.”

  “You’re darn right, you will!” he calls as Sadie runs to catch up. Gabriel ignores Claire’s furious shouts as he slams through the front door, startling the door attendant. Instead of waiting for the car to be brought around, he grabs his keys and rushes into the parking garage, frantically searching for his car.

  “Try the alarm,” Sadie suggests, struggling to catch her breath. She might be slender but she is far from fit. Working out is for jocks and cheerleaders and she certainly is not one of those.

  Gabriel pushes the alarm and rushes toward the end of the row where his silver Range Rover is parked between a Hummer and a Lincoln Navigator. He pushes the alarm button again and deafening silence fills the concrete prison. “Get in,” he commands, unlocking her door.

  Sadie leaps inside and tosses her boots into the backseat. She shoves her seatbelt into the lock just before Gabriel throws his car into gear and races out of the garage on squealing tires. The SUV slides wildly on the ice before righting itself. “Where are you going? She could be anywhere.”

  White knuckles grip the steering wheel as Gabriel winds in and out of traffic. He is too focused on his mission to answer Sadie. There is only one place that he can think of to look.

  The drive to Roseline’s house is tense with an oppressive silence blanketing the car. When they arrive, the two-story bungalow stands dark. There is no sign of movement. The driveway is empty apart from a fresh set of tracks are ground into the snow.

  “She’s not here.” Gabriel roars, slamming his hand against the steering wheel. Tingling numbness races up his forearm but he refuses to acknowledge it. “I was sure she’d still be here.”

  “Yeah, well, it looks like you were wrong,” Sadie snaps. Her anger and concern for Rose are making her very irritable. “Where to now, Sherlock?”

  Gabriel yanks on the door handle and spills out into the snow. His dress shoes slip underneath him as he races for the porch. Gabriel works his way up the icy steps with far more ease than Sadie could have managed.

  “What are you doing?” Sadie calls. There is no way she is going to leave the warm comfort of Gabriel’s car to go bang on an empty house in the middle of the night.

  Gabriel pounds on the door until his fists go numb. Tears of frustration slip from his eyes as he cups his face to look through the window. The same bleak emptiness stares back at him as he saw the day before, but there is something new this time.

  Leaning closer to the windowpane, Gabriel breathes in deep. The scent burns as it slides through his nose and down his throat. Cinnamon and vanilla mingle with pine and dirt—the stranger.

  “She’s not home,” Sadie calls again, leaving only enough room for her head to fit through the raised window. She shivers against the frosty night air. The windshield is slowly freezing over, courtesy of the sleet that began falling not long after they left the dance.

  Gabriel rushes ba
ck to his car, annoyed with Sadie’s lack of help. “Thanks for stating the obvious,” he snaps as he clicks his seatbelt in place. “Is that all you’re good at?”

  “Don’t yell at me,” Sadie snaps. “I’m not the one that pushed her into some stranger’s arms.”

  Gabriel’s mouth drops open. “I didn’t…it’s not my fault,” he stammers.

  “Oh no? We both know how you betrayed her. Rose was crushed.”

  “Right,” Gabriel growls, backing down the drive. “Did she also tell you about the email to her boyfriend back home?”

  Sadie frowns. “Boyfriend? What the heck are you talking about?”

  “Fane. The guy she’s in love with,” Gabriel spits out the words. Even now they feel like poison on his lips.

  “Are you insane? You’re all Rose has been able to talk about since the first time she met you. No way is there another guy,” Sadie protests.

  “You didn’t read the letter.”

  Sadie’s eyes bulge. “And you did? You actually violated her privacy?”

  Gabriel winces. “Yes, but I never meant to…she’s been lying to me, Sadie, and I needed to know why.”

  “So you think that gives you the right to go snooping? Un-freaking-believable. I was so right about you. You are a jerk!”

  “Hey,” Gabriel objects. “I’m not the one with secrets.”

  “Well, maybe she had a good reason for keeping her secrets. Ever think about that?”

  Gabriel sighs. He has thought of that, but the idea of Rose trying to protect him doesn’t allow him to excuse away his anger. Gabriel blows out a breath, imagining the anger flowing out of his body, riding on the ripples of heat flooding from the vents. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I’m just worried about Rose.”

  Sadie begrudgingly agrees, crossing her arms over her chest. “So what’s the plan now?”

  Gabriel shrugs, feeling a heaviness settle over his heart. “What about a phone? Did she ever give you a cell number?”

  Her squeal drives Gabriel’s foot into the brake. They lurch forward and slam back into their seats. Sadie scowls at him. “Smooth, genius. Real smooth.”

  “Well, why the heck did you scream?”

  “Because she bought a phone not too long ago. She called once to give me the number. Said it was for emergencies only.”

  Hope flares to life. “Great. Give her a call.”

  Sadie rolls her eyes. “Do I look like I have a purse?”

  Gabriel glances at her form-fitting dress. He really did not want to guess where she would have to hide a phone in that. “Where is it?”

  “My house.”

  Thirty-Three