Marguerite gave a small smile. “That was funny, wasn’t it? Gabriel has always been so aloof, so untouchable, so sure of his superiority, of his talent, yet he has no reason to be. He can’t function with other people for more than a minute, and he’s a total drunk. It’s fun to fuck with him. It’s too bad he was acquitted for Anne’s murder—that would have been the ultimate joke. But Raphael was too nice. He testified for Gabriel and got him off.”

Marguerite was blending past and present, talking about the men as if they had been involved, alive, for the Anne Donovan case. It was making Sara’s skin crawl and she wanted Marguerite gone. “What do you want?”

Sara was sorry she asked. Because Marguerite’s smile grew wide and maniacal.

“I want you to stay away from my boyfriend. And to make sure that you do, I’m going to kill you.”

Gabriel was exhausted and worried sick that he was too late. Sara wasn’t answering her cell phone, and neither was her friend Jocelyn, whose number she had given him as a contact. It had taken longer than he had expected to secure a rental car at the airport, and the whole process of traveling had been unnerving. He’d never flown on a plane before, and it had felt claustrophobic, agitating. He had found he was actually grateful for Raphael’s presence, guiding him through the whole check-in and security process. He didn’t want his own ineptitude to delay getting to Sara.

At least he had good computer skills. He had found and mapped the route to Jocelyn’s apartment, and with Raphael driving since he had lived in Naples, they made it to her complex with no problem. It was dark and they missed her building initially, but Raphael backed up and parked and they were out, Gabriel running.

Only Alex stepped in front of him on the walkway to the building. “Gabriel. Raphael.”

Shit. Gabriel stopped running. “Alex. What the hell are you doing here?”

“You know, I’m starting to get the feeling you’re not as fond of me as I am of you.” Alex put his hands in the pocket of his dress pants. “I feel highly insulted.”

“I think you’ll get over it. Now I’m going to assume that Marguerite is in there with my girlfriend, so step to the side please.” Before he lost complete control and ripped Alex’s face off. He was completely out of patience, and his fear was choking him. He couldn’t handle finding Sara like Anne had been. He wouldn’t survive that.

“Oh, now she’s your girlfriend? A week ago she was just someone you were working on a project with.”

“Just drop it.” He started to brush past Alex, but the demon grabbed his arm.