Page 47 of The Beast

He looks at me, and my gut curdles. “Me.”

He nods. “You. Your father. He’s certain your father arranged his death. And he believes you were complicit.”

“Believes,” I repeat. “Not certain?” Maybe it’s silly, but I’m grasping tight to that tiny bit of hope.

Leo shrugs. “Honestly, who knows. But it makes sense to me. He’s been focused on the money. The properties. The businesses. Thus, the fucking with your dad. I don’t think he’ll hurt your father himself, but he’ll joyfully raze the Hart businesses to the ground. Because your father without his reputation and power? That’s punishment enough.”

“He wants to hurt me, too,” I whisper, then feel a tear slide down my cheek as Leo nods.

I wipe it away, then tilt my head up so that my eyes meet Leo’s. “I hate him,” I say. “I hate him for believing for even a second that I could hurt him.”

“No,” Leo says. “You don’t. But you wish you could.”

I nod as Harper pulls me close, stroking my hair as Leo shoots me one more sympathetic look, then turns back to the group. “Gabe’s a fucking genius, you all know that. Brilliant and strategic. He could always see twelve moves ahead, right?” He glances around the room, and everyone nods. “But this doesn’t feel like strategy. It feels like obsession. Stealing a painting? That’s an unnecessary risk. Showing up at the engagement party. Actually, taking Bella to his home?”

“So what does it all mean?” Ruby asks.

“First, that he’s running on fury.” He looks directly at me again. “But he loves you. So this is killing him.”

“He hates me.”

Leo shrugs. “One coin, two sides.”

“But this is Gabe,” Harper says. “I mean, I get why he’s upset. But he’s gone off the rails. Gabe would never in a million years believe that Bella would send someone to kill him.”

“Except someone did come to kill him,” I say quietly. “He was shot and left to die. That changes a person. The last thing he heard was probably that I betrayed him. And I don’t know if he was hallucinating or what, but he swears I was there, too.

I hug myself, stifling a shudder.

Leo turns to me. “If I thought you’d done that, I’d kill you myself. But I don’t think it. And he wouldn’t either if his head was on straight. Whoever tried to take him out set a pretty convincing stage and fucked him up good. So I get what he’s doing. But that doesn’t mean he gets to keep doing it.”

“The question is whether he can still hear reason.” From his corner, Alexander speaks for the first time, his voice low and smooth as silk. “Or whether he’s too far gone.”

Everyone turns to look at him.

“Gabriel had a mean temper and a fierce sense of loyalty to the family. Father used to play on that. Push him hard. Have Gabe be the one who did the family’s dirty work. We all know that. And we know that Gabe did what Father asked.”

Alexander pauses, taking a sip of whiskey as his eyes rake over us. “But we also know that in the family, he was always the one who held things together. When Father was at his worst, Gabriel was the buffer. The strategist. The one who kept the rest of us from falling apart.

His eyes lock on mine now. “I think you’re the one who kept him from becoming what Father was.” He draws a breath. “And all that shattered when something shifted, and he believed—truly believed—that you’d betrayed him.”

“But I didn’t,” I whisper, tasting my tears.

“Moot at this point. Because if Gabe’s lost his grounding—if he’s become what Father always wanted him to be—then talking him down may not be enough.”

“But it has to be enough,” I say, my eyes still locked on Alexander’s. “You can’t hurt him. You can’t cage him without breaking him. But I can’t give up on him.”

For a moment, I see something flicker in Alexander’s dark eyes—respect, maybe. Then he simply nods. “In the end, we’ll do what we have to and hope you get him back. That we all get him back.”

“Okay, then.” Leo stands, rolling his shoulders as he looks at me. “Ready to go talk some sense into my brother? Who knows? Maybe today’s the day we get him back.”

“You’re coming with me?”

“Hell, yes.” His expression is grim. “He might not let you in alone. But I’m betting he won’t keep me out. If he does, we’ll find another way in.”

Ruby pulls me into another hug. “Go get your man,” she whispers in my ear. “Or at least knock some sense into his thick skull.”

Harper squeezes my hand. “I’ll be here when you get back. With wine. Lots of wine.”

Even Alexander unfolds from his corner, crossing to stand near the door. “If reason fails,” he says to Leo, “call me. I speak his language.”

I’m not entirely sure what that means. I’m not sure I want to know.

Leo and I take the elevator down and step out into the Atlantic City evening. The sun is setting over the ocean, painting the sky in shades of orange and purple. It’s beautiful—the kind of light Gabriel would have loved to capture on canvas, back when he still believed in beauty.

Back when he still believed in me.