Fraud

Ivy

I’m not going to lie, the walk back to the cabin with Gabriel is actually fun.

Sure, when I first saw him on the trail, I was terrified about what he might do. We don’t have the best history, and we haven’t technically ever been friends. Gabe had no reason to be nice when I ran straight to him in the woods.

I’d taken off with the very real belief that I had eight men chasing after me, ones who might tie me up like a human sacrifice and carry me out of the woods.

But the first time Gabe caught me and kissed me, I knew it was only him. Don’t ask me how. I just did.

We speak our own language sometimes, one that doesn’t need words and isn’t something that can be learned or taught.

You have to know a person to have the ability to read them. It’s an inflection in their voice, a look in their eyes, the feeling when their hand touches your skin.

It’s all words that aren’t spoken, sentences that don’t require structure, a knowing that develops between certain people that can never be explained.

I know Gabriel. Even if we’ve always been at each other’s throats. Even if we’ve been cruel more than we’ve been kind. I know him because I’ve watched him more closely than I’ve watched any other person.

We watched each other grow up. Even when our circumstances were so insanely different.

So that’s how I knew we were the only two people there, my fear quickly becoming laughter, the terror turning to fun. Ru

That’s what Gabriel meant when he asked me whether I would have felt alive without him before he abducted me at Emily’s house.

Sure, we were enemies more often than not, but we never let each other drown.

He could escape the crap his father was doing, and I could escape the pedestal where my father insisted I stay perched because we had something else to focus on.

We kept each other breathing.

We gave each other a reason for our hearts to pound and our spirits to shine through.

Even if it was only cruel pranks and this bullshit war, we kept going because we refused to buckle beneath the challenge.

I think the truth is that for as much as the spoiled princess and the broken prince hated each other, it’s a simple fact that we wouldn’t let go because we were the only people who could distract the other from the heavy weight of our lives.

Like now, for instance.

I’m currently disowned by my father, and Gabriel’s house is a wreck. And while we’re to blame for that situation, we’re still walking through the woods practically naked, laughing at the sad fact that, to us, it doesn’t matter.

This is us.

It’s what we do.

Despite nobody understanding it.

“This isn’t fu

Tears leak from his eyes as he doubles over, my laughter matching his because we’ve walked the same damn path a hundred times and have yet to find my shirt or pants. It’s like something out of the Blair Witch Project, only without clothes or creepy little effigies hanging from tree branches.

“I swear I left them right here.”

“Uh huh,” I answer. “So what you’re saying right now is that some animal came along and took off with my clothes to build a designer nest or something? It’s obvious they’re not right here.”

His green eyes tip down to meet mine, that damn smile blinding me.

Not the charming smile that is a lie.

And not the evil one that means he’s done something fucked up.

The real one I rarely see.

This isn’t Fraud.

And it’s not the monster.

It’s just Gabe.

The person he would be if life didn’t make it necessary for him to hide.

“I dropped them where I took them off.”

His gaze runs down my body. “You don’t look horrible in my shirt. We should just go back the way we are.”

Smiling in return, I toss up my arms.

“I can’t go back like this. We need to find my clothes.”

Actually, I could. I really don’t care what everybody thinks. I’m just making excuses to stay out here longer because I don’t want to give him up.

As soon as we return, I know the rest of the guys will be waiting. It will ruin this.

Gabe will go back to being who he is in the group, and I’ll be cornered to pay the price being demanded of me. I have no delusions that his first loyalty lies with the Inferno.

Which is why I’m making a bigger deal of this than it really is. I’m stalling.

It’s like when the alarm goes off in the morning and you keep hitting snooze.

Just five more minutes of the dream...

Just a little more time to be who we are without the pressures of the outside world.

When Gabe reaches out to grab the front of his shirt to tug me to him, I don’t fight it. With his fingertip, he tips my face up to his, his truth so open that my breath catches to see it.

This is all I ever wanted.

This is why I refused to let go.

“I don’t think you have much of a choice. We’ve looked for over an hour. They’re going to come looking for us eventually.”

A stupid thought whispers in my head as we stare at each other, one I shouldn’t say because it will only send him ru

“I don’t hate you when you’re like this.”

He shutters the instant I say it, that wall slamming down in defense against anything real.

“You will again,” is all he says with that damn smirk on his face before spi

His hand smacks my ass to march me in the direction of the house, and I know the moment is over.

Just like that.

Gabriel is there and then gone.

I shouldn’t have said anything. But I couldn’t help it. I’m done lying. Pretending. Spi

It only takes a few minutes to reach the head of the trail, Emily’s cabin lit up on the inside and several cars parked in front.

Gabriel’s Jaguar is among them, and I realize this run through the forest had been his plan all along.

“How did you do it?”

“Do what?” he asks. He’s playing i

“How did you make it sound like you were at the office? How did you steal your car out of the driveway without me noticing?”

I spin to face him.

“How long have you known we were here?”

The corners of his mouth curl, his smile as co

Okay. That’s surprising.

“It took you three days to do anything about it? And how did you know?”

“I have a tracking system in my car.”

Damn it. I laugh at myself because I should have guessed that.

“Are you done stalling? We should get inside.”

“I’m not stalling,” I lie.

His brow arches at that. “Sure you’re not.”

Turning back to the house, I march up the steps of the porch, nervousness trickling down my spine because I’m about to walk inside to greet a group of people wearing only a t-shirt that falls to my knees, while also smelling like an interesting blend of sex, sweat and dirt.

This should be fun.

Gabriel steps around me to open the door, the wood partition swinging open to reveal the empty foyer.

Beyond that small room, I can hear several voices, masculine and feminine, the tone of their conversation friendly as if they’re not all here to corner me for information I haven’t yet admitted to know, much less agreed to give.