Free Storm Ravaged (Storm Damages 2) (Storm Legacy) by Magda Alexander Page A

roam over the space. Gorgeous as it is, it just isn’t me. “Gabriel, I like Alexandria.” I love my neighborhood with its mix of business and residential and the busy comings and goings of visitors and residents. This luxurious clock tower triplex overwhelms me with its opulence and size.
    “I can’t protect you if you remain there.”
    My head jerks back to him. “Protect me from what?”
    He tosses back his head. “It will take too long to explain. Let’s go to my hotel. You’ll be safe there.”
    Safe. He keeps saying that word which makes me very nervous. What’s going on? What do I need to be kept safe from?
     

Chapter 10
    ______________
    Gabriel
    ON THE WAY TO THE FOUR SEASONS, I keep her close to me. Everything changed once the doctor confirmed our child’s a boy. And Liz has no idea of the ramifications of that fact. I must be careful when I explain things to her. She’s resisting me. Resisting my offer of marriage. Resisting the move to a place where I can keep her and our child safe. And I won’t have that.
    “If it’s okay with you, we can order from the hotel menu and have dinner here tonight,” Taking the raincoat she insisted on retrieving from the front seat, I hang it up on the foyer closet.
    After she drops her purse and briefcase alongside it, she turns back to me, arms crossed. “Stop handling me and tell me what’s going on, Gabriel.”
    This discussion will take a while, so I take her by the elbow and lead her to one of the three sofas in the living room. “The last time we met, you let slip my mother’s name, intimating she was the reason you couldn’t accept my proposal.”
    She takes a deep breath, slowly lets it out. “You didn’t approach her, did you?” Her bravado drains out of her as fear, confusion cloud her gaze. She’s afraid of what my mother would do, afraid for me. My heart spills over with tenderness for this woman I can’t remember.
    “No. Not her. I talked to her maid, Tilly, and got the truth out of her.” She’s shaking with emotion, probably fearing the worst. I pick up one of her hands, hold it my own, to lend her my warmth. “I know my mother blackmailed you. She demanded you break up with me in exchange for her silence about my father.”
    Her hand clenches in mine. “You know about your father?”
    “That he pushed my tutor down the stairs, killing him? Yes. I know. Mr. Snipes was a sadist who enjoyed inflicting pain on me. I don’t condone murder, but I don’t blame my father for his actions.”
    “And you’re not upset about your father’s crime?”
    “No.” I let out a breath, releasing the tension I’ve carried since Tilly’s revelations. Only now, when speaking to Liz, do I realize I’m speaking the truth. I’m not upset, at least not about what my father did. “What I’m angry about is my mother using that information to blackmail you. She kept that secret until she could use it to her advantage and saw her chance with you. But there’s one thing I don’t understand. Why didn’t you come to me? Tell me what she’d asked of you?”
    She shakes her head and her gorgeous hair tumbles loose around her shoulders, the way it did right here weeks ago.
    My hands itch to twine a finger around a curl, pull, and urge her close to me. But that must wait. For now.
    “I couldn’t take the chance. She would have destroyed your family, ruined Storm Industries.”
    “So you terminated our relationship and returned to the States.”
    “Yes.”
    “And you didn’t tell me you were pregnant with my child.”
    “No.”
    “Did you think I would never find out?” How could she believe such a thing? Sooner or later, my sister was bound to tell me.
    “Other than your mother, Brianna was the only one who knew. I hoped she would keep quiet about the baby.”
    And Brianna had, while I convalesced. But once I’d begun to heal, she’d sat me down and explained about my infatuation with Liz and the child we’d created. It’s not hard to see