“Bettencourt’s lost it.” Gabriel breathes slow and careful. “He’s holding her hostage. I’d go there myself, but—” Another measured breath. “I’m a little tied up right now, what with jumping out of a burning building. Can you handle it?”
“Of course I can.” Jacob turns to go.
Dread flares up again. I need both my sisters with me, or at least out of my parents’ house. Before Gabriel, I’d have gone to them myself. I was on my way to do it.I’mthe only person I can trust right now, unless…
“Wait.” He turns back at the sound of my voice. I trust Gabriel with my whole heart, but Jacob? He never turned against his family. He went through the initiation. “How do we know we can trust you? You wanted to join the consortium.”
Wanted to join it enough that even when he realized how screwed up the initiation was going to be, he only put up a token fight. I can’t leave Gabriel’s side, which means I have to be sure about this.
More sure than I am, anyway.
He straightens up. “So did you.”
“Yeah. Because we wanted to bring it down from the inside. Can you say the same?”
Jacob slips his hands into his pockets. I try not to notice his worried energy and the bend in his hair from clutching it in his fist. “I was born for it, Elise. My father spent years grooming me to take over the family company and, yes, join the consortium. I suspected that it was fucked up, but I never knew how much.”
“Do you regret going through with the initiation?”
His eyes flash. “I don’t regret staying alive. I don’t regret all three of us staying alive. But that doesn’t matter right now. That’s not what this is about.”
“What’s it about, then?”
Jacob lifts his hands, helpless. “I don’t know what I would have done if it was somebody else in that room. Would I have gone through with it with some random guy and random girl? Maybe. Especially if they were hot. But it wasn’t someone random, it was you and Gabriel, and I owe him for the past.”
“You don’t,” Gabriel says, his hand tight on mine.
“Yes, I do.” Jacob meets his eyes. “I fucked up before. I should have—there were a lot of things I should have done differently. I can’t ever make it right, but I can do this. Even if it doesn’t make up for turning my back on you, I can still go and get Catherine.”
Gabriel frowns. “Afterward.” A long, slow breath. “You can’t stay in. The consortium—”
“We’ll talk about it once she’s out. Deal?”
Another squeeze at my hand, and Gabriel looks at me. A warm, pleased feeling, like heat released from the oven, breezes across the inside of my chest. It was Gabriel’s idea to call Jacob, but he’s giving me the final say.
No. He’s not giving it to me. Catherine’s my sister. Heknowsthat it’s my decision, in the end. Gabriel’s eyes are clouded with painkillers, but they’re patient.
Jacob’s blue eyes are less patient. He looks like he’s seconds away from tapping his foot on the floor.
Whatever else he thinks about my father and the consortium, he doesn’t want my sister to be a prisoner. That’s our common goal, for one night only.
“Fine.” There’s no more time to debate this. “That was a nice speech, but if you touch one hair on my sister’s head, I’ll kill you.”
A subtle tilt of Jacob’s head. “So murdering runs in the family, is what you’re saying.”
“Absolutely.”
Jacob cracks a big, genuine smile and turns it on Gabriel, who can’t help but smile back. That’s the annoying thing about Jacob Chambers. He has a beautiful, infectious grin. “I like this one.”
“I’m not sure about you,” I call toward the back of his suit.
He pokes his head back into the room and mouthsyour loss.The grin fades. “Has anybody had a chance to call your family, Gabe?”
“Jameson took Lydia down to the cafeteria. Mason will be here any minute with Remy and Charlotte.”
“You need me to call anybody else?”
Gabriel shakes his head. “Just let us know when you have her.”