The Sinner's Club [18+] Complete

chapter twelve.

"SOMEONE ELSE IS here."

My hand seizes Gabi's arm, and I drag her past the kitchen and into her bedroom just as the front door completely opens. The sound of footsteps enters the apartment, followed by Dario's suspicious voice.

"Check everywhere. The front door shouldn't have been open," he says.

My hand is still clamped around Gabi's arm, holding her body close to my own. The arousal that was pulsing through me only moments ago is buried beneath this sudden swell of adrenaline.

"In here," I mutter, pushing Gabi toward the closet. Someone is approaching the bedroom.

We both slip into the closet. It's a tight fit, the clothes digging into us, darkness enveloping us. Only a few slivers of light filter through the slats of the door. Gabi is crowded against my body, and despite everything, my mind still registers how satisfying it is to have her pressed to me. The softness of her body, the sweet scent of her, the silkiness of her hair.

She clutches the front of my shirt and looks up at me with wide, terrified eyes.

Fury at Dario overlays the pleasure of having her in my arms.

He dies today.

She opens her mouth, and I quickly clamp my hand over it, shaking my head. I don't know how many men he has with him, but I'm going to need the element of surprise regardless.

I am constantly armed with at least a single handgun and a few knives. But after Nathaniel called me to tell me Gabi thought I was stalking her and was afraid of me, I decided it was best to approach her completely unarmed. I did not want to frighten her further...Now that decision does not seem quite as clever.

"It's ok," I mouth at her, trying to keep her calm. She's shaking, her pulse beating wildly beneath where my fingertips stretch to her neck, under her jaw. Her lips try to move against my palm but I press down harder.

How do I communicate to her—without speaking—that I will die a hundred times over before letting Dario touch her?

Dropping my head slightly, I squint through some of the slats on her closet door, watching two armed men pick through her room, filling a duffel bag with some of her things.

I can take them both, then dispose of Dario. I'll leave Gabi in the closet so she doesn't have to see it.

But then Dario comes into the bedroom...and he's flanked by two additional guards.

Five against one. Not great odds, though perhaps doable. But to keep Gabi safe at the same time?

I glance down at her.

"She isn't here," one of Dario's men says.

Wearing a black Armani suit, Dario smooths his hands over his hair in frustration. Then he smacks the lamp sitting on Gabi's bedside table, causing it to fly and crash against the wall.