The men shifted forward, their boots scraping the concrete, their eyes glittering with sick anticipation. Lena’s heart seized. Panic clawed at her throat, breaking through the thin shield of defiance she’d tried to hold onto.
“I don’t know anything!” she cried, her voice high and desperate now. “I swear—I don’t know!”
The laughter broke off. The room froze. Gabriel’s sharp gaze cut into her like a blade, his head tilting as he studied her. He saw it. The raw, unpolished edge of terror in her eyes. The kind that couldn’t be faked.
Slowly, he raised his hand. His men stopped instantly, their excitement dying into silence. Gabriel’s lips curled again into that slow, terrible grin.
“There it is,” he murmured, almost to himself. “The truth.”
He straightened, dragging in a long pull of his
