Page 33 of The Wolf and his Witch

“I don’t think so.” She glared at him across the center console. “We’re not going anywhere until you level with me. Why are you really here? And what has any of this got to do with Isobella?”

“Annabelle,” he ground out, irritation flashing in his eyes. “I don’t want to have this conversation with you sitting in a parked car on the street. Buckle up. We’ll go somewhere—your flat, my hotel suite—I don’t care where, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know. Everything you want to know. I promise.”

“Tell me what this has to do with my sister, or I swear I’m getting out of this damn carright now.”

She locked gazes with him, her hand fumbling with the door handle.

“You are one stubborn witch.” Gabriel reached over her, grabbed the seatbelt and snapped it in place across her body. He gunned the engine and pulled out into traffic.

“Damn it, Gabriel.”

He focused on the road, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “You’re not going on this mission into the past, Annabelle. Isobella is.”

“Excuse me?”

He glanced at her, dark eyes serious, before turning his attention back to the road and driving. “It’s the way it’s going to be. It’s the way ithasto be.”

“Sayswho?”

His hands clenched around the steering wheel. “Me. I do.”

She threw up her arms. “Who died and putyouin charge of things? This isourmission.” She stabbed herself in the chest with her index finger. “The High Priestess has setmethis task,not Dutton, not anyone else, and certainly not Isobella. Oh, I see what this is about.” She turned to stare out of the car window at the buildings as they drove past, but not really seeing anything. Typical bloody shifters. Dominant and bossy. He was almost as bad as Dutton. Telling her what she could and couldn’t do. Believing shewasn’t up to this task. This was a side to Gabriel she’d never witnessed in Paris.

God, she was so sick of people thinking she wasn’t strong enough. The coven, the Kings, Aunt Marjory and now Gabriel. He obviously hadn’t meant a single word he’d said to her last night.

Stupid, stupid Annabelle.She’d confided in him her secret fears, and he’d said all the right words, but now he was using it against her.

“You think you can come over here and tell me what to do? After leaving me in Paris? After three years and not a word, a text, a phone call, you think you have some say in my life?”

To hell with that.

“Stop the damn car, Gabriel.” She flung off her seatbelt. “Right now.”

“Putain,Annabelle.” Gabriel wrenched the wheel, cars honking behind them as he pulled the car out of traffic and against the curb.

He grabbed hold of her arm. “Are you crazy? What were you going to do? Throw yourself out of a moving car?” He punched the steering wheel. “Merde.I will explain everything. I promise. Just let us get somewhere priv—”

A screech of tires in the traffic drowned out his words. It didn’t matter. She was getting out of the car right now. The smart thing to do would be to hear him out, but Annabelle was too keyed up to do the smart thing right now. She needed some space to think, to sort through the mess of emotions and thoughts in herhead. To put things into perspective. To calm the hell down. That wasn’t going to happen sitting so damn close to Gabriel.

“Yeah, maybe I am crazy.” She shook off his grip, a loud roaring in her ears. “I don’t—”

Behind Gabriel, coming straight for them, was an enormous grill. A truck. She screamed.

“Annabelle!” Gabriel roared.

Then it hit them with a screech of metal and breaking glass. The impact threw Annabelle against the door, the shattered windscreen raining down on her. Agony flared through her shoulder, her side, her head. She was still screaming when her door flew open, and hands grabbed for her.

“Gabriel!”

She couldn’t see him, her vision fuzzy.

“Gabriel!”

The hands holding her were dragging her from the car, carrying her and tossing her into another vehicle. She cried out, pain radiating through her shoulder. The door slammed, someone gunned the engine, the tires squealed and they were moving.

Where was Gabriel? Was he okay? Alive? Wasshegoing to be okay? Those were the last thoughts she had before she succumbed to the fuzziness, and everything faded to black.

Chapter Fifteen

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