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Dedicated to __julieee ! My rock, my friend, my virtual sister from another mother from the number of things we relate to, I love you!

Chapter 13

Callista

She slumped back into Blake's chest, heaving from exhaustion. After all, pain was the fastest way to deplete someone's energy.

Blake was still tense underneath her as he shifted to situate her more comfortably on his lap. He was glaring at Gabriel viciously.

"You know she had to be punished, Blake." Was Gabriel's only comment, rubbing a hand underneath his jaw as he flexed it. Calla was quite smug about it if she was being honest. Everyone underestimated Blake, but he had a mean uppercut. She could see a small bruise forming.

Blake only growled in reply. Calla knew the consequences when she left her hotel room a while ago, yet some part of her hoped she could get away with it.

A fool's hope.

"Now, see here," Gabriel started with a drawl. "I was stopping by hoping to talk more about your little plan for tonight. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the room sans Callista Drakos." He sat down on one of the plush seats scattered around the area, his eyes trained abjectly on hers.

She only shrugged in response, breathing hard. A battle of wills ensued when she stared back at him defiantly, not backing down.

"I tracked you down, you see, though I don't know the specifics of what intel you were trying to get." He continued when it became evident she wasn't going to deign his earlier remark with a response. "Care to share?"

Calla didn't know if she should tell him the truth, and she was all the more disinclined to relay it to him after he dislocated her shoulder. In any case, there were still too many puzzle pieces that needed to be figured out, the picture was still too murky. She knew what kind of arguments he would make; she was hearing the voice of a brother she wholeheartedly wished to hear, it was a trick of her mind, etcetera.

She couldn't afford to lose any more of her credibility in front of his eyes.

"Nothing interesting to report." She raised a shoulder in indifference. "It was a waste to leave."

"A mistake, you mean." Gabriel raised his eyebrows at her.

"A mistake." She relented, despite having yet to find out if it really was. She needed to be alone to find out.

In her pocket, the USB she had poked, almost as if in reassurance, into her skin.

Evidently, with nothing else to say, Gabriel got up from his seat and strolled to the open door next to where she and Blake still sat, with her on his lap.

"I'll expect to meet you at the Lexington an hour before what you originally planned." He declared, stopping as he held onto the door handle. "You'll brief me then." He said before walking out, leaving the door open behind him.

Silence followed Gabriel's departure as Blake leaned back against the wall behind them, bringing her with him as he finally relaxed, presumably since Gabriel was gone. A familiar quiet settled between them.

"You have to go with him, don't you?" She stated more than asked, glancing up at him as she leaned her cheek against his chest. She would never admit it to herself, but she was savoring the moment to remember. It registered to her belatedly when he called her 'baby' so quietly a while ago while she was delirious with the sudden pain of a dislocated shoulder. That too, she will tuck into her memories.

Blake moved his head down slightly in a nod, his gaze far away. If she hadn't known him as she had all those years before, she would've missed the minute movement. He continued to stare at the wall in front of them and it was definitely not because of the incredibly interesting wallpaper.

He was lost in his thoughts, silent and brooding.

The real him.

Calla remembered with sudden clarity the years before her mission in Japan. Blake had been on assignment in the Netherlands for months by then when he should've only been gone a few weeks. When she had asked Cassandra about it, she only said he had to continue to stay there for his mission and, like any other job they had, they didn't share it with others.

She had come back from Tokyo, exhausted, but when she found out Blake was back, she couldn't have raced any faster than possible to his quarters.

Gone was the man who had looked at her with such affection her heart nearly burst. Gone was the man who kept to himself at all times, but always made her feel welcome.

Here was the man who looked back at her with dead eyes and sent her away without a backward glance.

It was almost as if Blake hadn't just jumped in to pull Gabriel off of her before he could do any more damage. She could feel Blake drawing within himself, retreating. From what, she never knew, but in a last-ditch attempt at the closeness she secretly craved, she nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, breathing in his scent. He smelled of warm wood, heated in the sun, with just a small hint of spice.

"I have to go." He glanced down at her. He was a good few inches taller than her so his chin could comfortably settle on the top of her head. She nestled herself closer to him still, but she knew this was goodbye, until next time.

Slowly, she moved back, still seated on his lap. They stared at each other, her eyes searching while his were blank. His hand reached up to caress her cheek with such tenderness, it was shocking. A stark contradiction to how withdrawn and indifferent he looked as he gazed at her.

He moved her gently off of his lap, before carrying her in his arms to the bed a few paces away. There, he settled her, fluffing a pillow underneath her head and taking the time to remove her chunky sweater and her jeans.

"You should sleep off the pain." He said when she looked at him questioningly. She only nodded.

Against her will, her eyes started to droop from exhaustion. The fighting earlier, along with the dislocated shoulder, was slowly bringing her under.

"Sleep, my flower." She distantly heard against her ear before she finally succumbed to sleep.

***

Gabriel

He regarded Blake warily. This is the first time he ever treated him in such a manner other than with ease.

Blake was easy to love. He was that one charismatic man everyone was just drawn towards, with brown hair and those baby blue eyes of his, he was just lovable.

Although, he noted, lately his brown locks have given way to a more ashy kind of brown, with blonde roots peeking out whenever he would run his fingers through his hair restlessly.

But the man standing in front of him now was anything but lovable. The energy coming off of him was just so... unlike him.

Sure, you could still call him charismatic in a sense, but it wasn't a bubbly personality that drew the hotel concierge or the other men and women they had passed on their way back up to their hotel room to him.

It was the dark and predatory look on his face that he had never seen before. Gone was the life of the party and the man who had winked and stared at passing blonde girls only hours before. Here was a man with such a dark vitality, he couldn't help but take a small step back.

"How's your jaw?" Blake asked, looking unaffected by the tension in their surroundings from where he leaned against the far wall in the small living space.

They stared at each other for a moment, sizing each other up. With deliberate ease, Gabriel strolled towards the minibar and made himself a drink.

"I could hardly even feel it." He said with his back turned towards him. That was a fat fucking lie if he'd ever heard one, he thought to himself. It hurt like a bitch and the drink barely numbed the incessant throbbing.

He downed the whiskey straight, not bothering to find a decanter. The sweet, toasty notes of the particular brand dulled the otherwise dry aftertaste.

"How's your side?" He asked in turn, a little smugness peeking through his otherwise indifferent tone. He was aware he got a couple of hits in before Blake decked him.

"Oh, you mean this side?" Blake raised an eyebrow as he lifted his shirt to reveal his torso.

Gabriel's eyebrows shot up, the only indication of his surprise despite the stone-cold expression he knew he wore on his face right then and there.

Blake never went around anywhere topless; not when they were training in the height of summer and most certainly not while getting in and out of the shower stalls in the men's locker room on the CHAOS compound. He always came in with a shirt barely drenched with sweat, despite the intense training sessions they did, and out with a fresh shirt the next.

They always made fun of him for it.

Now, he couldn't even begin to imagine what would make him want to hide that body.

Gabriel, despite being a straight man, can appreciate the appeal of both men and women in their appearance and charm. Blake, however, was in a whole different league than he has ever seen.

He was ripped. Sinews of pure, hard muscle wrapped around with tattoos of all sizes, shapes, and meanings. Blake's figure was nowhere as big as his, no. Where Gabriel was built like a wrestler, big with cording muscles, Blake was lean despite packing a lot of power.

And after a brief, glancing observation, he barely saw any kind of discoloration where he was sure he landed a couple blows for his insubordination.

Silently, Blake dropped his shirt, hiding his torso once again. "I hardly felt a thing." He said, his face void of emotion. Gabriel couldn't tell what was going through his mind and it bothered him immensely.

Here in front of him, stood a man who had the power to draw within himself so fully and fool the rest of the people in his surroundings.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at the statement. "Oh? Pray tell, since when did you train that hard, never mind find the time when you're always up in that stuffy office." He scoffed.

Questions raced across his mind a mile a minute. He wasn't sure who was the man standing in front of him anymore, and he didn't like not knowing.

Blake shrugged. "You'd be surprised." He replied. He already was.

He raised an eyebrow, prompting him to explain himself further. When he kept silent, just standing there, Gabriel let out a small sigh.

"Would you like a drink?" He asked, offering an olive branch. He was eager to get this little inconvenience in their partnership over and done with. He had a difficult time working with people who didn't cooperate with him.

Despite knowing as little as he did, he just knew that Blake wouldn't let go what he had done to Callista.

He had to do it, he tried to convince himself. Everything that had happened up until that point has thrown him off-kilter, his days spinning madly on its axis. He craved some type of normalcy, procedure, anything. Punishing her for not following the rules seemed like a good idea then and brought on a small sense of control back in his arsenal when he asserted his power over her.

But he didn't expect to be overpowered back.

The small, immoral act, had backfired in more ways than one.

He could still hear the sound of her scream when he lunged for her and snapped the bone out of place. The air had been ripe with tension, the blood rushing through his head making his ears ring.

"I'll help myself to a shower instead." Blake answered, straightening up before walking towards his room, leaving him alone.

In the suite he had booked without him knowing. The playful Blake at the time had cost him more money than necessary.

This Blake, that Blake, he didn't know anymore. He raised his hand to his temple, the callouses on his hand from years of use gripping onto the skin as he tried to massage the headache away.

Closing his eyes, he turned away. They needed each other's cooperation to continue this already damned mission.

And who wouldn't want to cooperate? They didn't have to like each other; they just had to follow the chain of command.

Gabriel was among those at the top of that chain.

Now, he wasn't so sure anymore.

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