Page 120 of The Beast

“Don’t.” He’s out of bed now, moving out of the tiny bedroom and into the hallway where he can pace. I slide into my robe, then stand in the doorway and watch him, naked and furious, every muscle coiled tight.

“Don’t what? Don’t involve the authorities? That’s nuts.”

His eyes flash to mine. “Don’t tell me to let the system handle it.”

“Why not? That’s the point. It’s why we have a system in the first place.”

“Bullshit. Did the system keep Leo’s informant from almost dying?”

He stops pacing and faces me. “Sterling already tried to kill me. Now he’s eliminating witnesses. How long before he decides you’re too dangerous to leave alive?”

“So your solution is to what? Emulate him and kill, too?”

“My solution is to end a fucking threat against me and the woman I love.”

He stalks toward me, and I have to fight the urge to shrink back. “He sent that message, Bella. The AI voice. You think that was an idle threat?”

I step toward him, my hands clenched at my sides. “I think going after him is exactly what he wants you to do. “He’s baiting you. Pushing you. Hoping you’ll do something stupid so he can⁠—”

“So he can what? Have me arrested? Kill me?” Gabriel laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “He’s already tried to kill me once. And he’ll try again. The only question is whether I get to him first.”

“Listen to yourself.” My voice is shaking now. “You sound exactly like him. Eliminating threats. Ending problems. That’s his language. That’s how he thinks.”

Something flickers in his eyes. Pain, maybe. Or recognition.

“If you do this, you really will become a monster. Just like he is. Please, Gabe. Please do the right thing.”

“Goddammit, Bella,” he says, his voice barely a whisper. “They tortured me. They left me for dead. Your father was walking around like a modern-day prince while I had Death holding me by the scruff of the neck. How the fuck can letting that prick of a man live be the right thing?”

“But it is,” I say, gently taking his hands. “You already know that.” I move my hands to his cheeks and force him to look at me. “If you kill him now, he becomes a martyr. A victim. But if we do this the right way—with police and courts and news reports and evidence—he’ll lose everything. His reputation. His freedom. His legacy. Everything he’s spent his whole life building.” And for a man like my father, that’s a fate worse than death.

Gabriel is quiet. I can see him struggling, the beast and the man at war behind his eyes. His hands have come up to cover mine where they rest on his face, and for a moment, I think I’ve reached him.

“He’ll find a way out,” he finally says. “Men like him always do. Money. Lawyers. Connections. He’ll slither free, and then he’ll come for us. For you—not just because you sided with me, but because you’re how he can hurt me.”

“Maybe he will,” I concede. “But at least you won’t have blood on your hands.” I soften my voice, stroke my thumb across his cheekbone. “I just got you back. I can’t lose you again. Not to death. Not to prison. And definitely not back to the darkness.”

For a moment—just a moment—I see the real him. The man who painted me sleeping, who whispered “day by day” against my hair, who’s trying so hard to claw his way back to the man he used to be.

Then his expression shutters. Goes cold. His hands drop back to his sides.

“You’re asking me to let him live.”

“I’m asking you to let justice happen.”

“There is no justice for what he did to me.”

The silence stretches between us, thick and suffocating.

“I can’t do this,” I say quietly. “I can’t stand here and listen to you plan a murder. If you do this—if you kill him—the beast wins. And I won’t watch you disappear into it.”

“Bella.”

“No.” I’m gathering my clothes now, pulling on whatever I can find. Shirt inside out, doesn’t matter. Slacks wrinkled from where they landed on the floor last night. I can feel his eyes on me, but I can’t look at him. If I look at him, I’ll stay. And staying means watching him destroy himself.

“Don’t go back to the Monarch,” he says, his voice barely a whisper. “Your father will have people there. You’re not safe.”

I draw in a breath. About that, at least, we agree. “I’ll stay with David at the Mercer Casino.”