Page 106 of Tattletale

“Gabriel can have any woman he wants. Why is he so obsessed with you?”

“Love,” she answers simply. “It makes you do things you shouldn’t. It makes you hold on when you should let go. Gabriel is a lot of things today—a liar, a sadist, a murderer, and a terrorist. But I look at him, and I still see what could be…not what is. I’ve excused his antics for so long.”

I understand the sentiment. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t forgive, excuse, or do for Cricket. “Which one of you is having trouble letting go?”

“When I fell in love with Gabriel, it was swift. After a couple of weeks, I was ready to spend my whole life with him. He was so beyond his years. Even at nineteen, he was more eloquent, cultured, and intelligent than men three times his age. But I married Sal because it was my job to. He was to become the president one day because he had something very unique in politics—a moral compass. The best way to ensure he made it into the Oval Office, was to stay close and become his wife. It became too much to balance my real life, and my other life. So, I broke Gabriel’s heart.”

“Do you love Sal?”

“He’s a good man,” Vienne answers cryptically. “He deserves a good woman.”

“So, everything Gabriel is doing today is just a giant revenge mission against you?”

Vienne shakes her head, freeing a tear from her eye. “I told him my allegiance was to Aeon, and I had to do whatever necessary to fulfill my duties. I explained Aeon to him exactly as Vesper understands it—an elite, powerful criminal organization against humanity. I thought it would scare him off, but instead, Gabriel became obsessed. He made it his life goal to challenge me for authority. He has this idea that if he takes Aeon away from me…we can be together. Without Aeon, I would’ve chosen him, not Sal.”

“Well, it’s true, isn’t it?”

Vienne nods. “I shouldn’t have told him anything. Not about Aeon, not about me. I should’ve told him he was a stupid little boy for thinking a woman eight years his senior would ever take a relationship like that seriously. If I would’ve walked away, he wouldn’t be the monster he is today. Now, he’s angry, powerhungry, and with a weapon like that, he really would be the most dangerous man in the world. All the lies I told him came back to haunt me. He is exactly what I made him becauseIcouldn’t let go.” Vienne buries her face in her hands and takes a few deep inhales.

A sharp ding sounds between us as Gabriel’s phone lights up. The message is simple.

Unknown

Time to trade.

I reach over the console to pat Vienne’s knee. “I’m going to do everything I can to protect you, Vienne. But I have to get Cricket back first. Nonnegotiable.”

She wipes under her eyes. “Let’s end this.”

“Will he be violent toward you?”

“I don’t know. Once I know the whereabouts of the bomb, I have to cut him loose. For good. He’s done far too much, most of it unforgivable.”

“Do you still love him?” I ask.

Vienne’s bottom lip quivers before she presses them together tightly. Instead of answering me, she reaches into the center console and pulls out the black hood. “Am I to put this on?”

“Couldn’t hurt if we’re going to sell this.”

She slips the hood over her head, buckles her seat belt, then leans back in her seat. “I’m ready.”

Me

Drop the location. I have her. Let’s make this quick.

THIRTY

CRICKET

I wishthe room would go completely dark. Then, maybe I could rest. Instead, the hanging lights lining the walls of the basement are dimly lit and flickering, making peace impossible.

There’s a difference between sleeping and resting. Over the past few days, sometimes sleep sweeps over me because my body is starving and deprived. But my mind is running rampant, and I can’t actually rest. Images flash in my head of memories that I’m not sure I made. I’m having trouble deciphering what’s real and what’s fabricated.

Gabriel didn’t bring me any more water. Nor has he been back. On one hand, it’s a privilege not to look at his disgustingly smug face. On the other, he really was probably my last hope. Convincing Gabriel to free me was the last tool in my arsenal, but I can’t exactly convince him if he’s not here.

The hunger pains are similar to all those years ago when Luca left me. The way my stomach is in agony every time it growls…I expected that.

But something else is off.

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