Chapter 88: I’m All Ears
"You look... pale," Anna murmured as she caught sight of Gabriel’s face for the first time since his arrest. It had only been two days, yet somehow it had taken William that long to pull the strings and arrange a meeting between them in the cramped detention room of the police station.
"Well, of course I do," Gabriel snorted, a flicker of sarcasm lacing his voice. "I haven’t seen sunlight in forty-eight hours! And you know how I am—I’m like a flower. I need the sun to bloom."
"You’re definitely a flower," Anna clicked her tongue, amusement curling her lips despite herself. Her voice, though lightly teasing, was tinged with affection. Then she leaned forward, lowering her voice to a near-whisper. "Let’s switch to French," she added, seamlessly slipping into the language. "I don’t want to risk anyone overhearing us."
"Fine," Gabriel said, nodding as his gaze swept past her shoulder, checking the corners of the room for any signs of listening ears or suspicious glances. "So? What’s the situation?"
"What’s the situation?" Anna’s brows arched high, almost vanishing beneath her fringe. "I should be asking you that! What the hell were you thinking, pulling a stunt like that?!"
"But it worked, didn’t it?" Gabriel replied with a grin that was entirely too self-satisfied. "Thanks to that recording on my phone, you’ve got exactly what you need. You can take her down now—for drugging me and falsely accusing me of sexual assault."
Anna let out a heavy sigh. It was almost pitiful how proud he looked, as if the success of his risky little scheme had made it all worthwhile.
"She could’ve killed you, Gab," she said sharply, her eyes narrowing with a warning that bordered on maternal concern. "What if you’d been allergic to something in that drug? Did you even think about that?"
"Then, she would be a murderer. Again. Killing a foreign millionaire heir is definitely something she wouldn’t get out of that easily. Unless you give her a shovel and a pass to get to your vineyard, of course."
"How can you even say something like that!" Anna was already losing it with him––sure, he was childish, but she still hoped that not to such a huge extent. "You were lucky that Daniel took your message seriously. Anyway..."
"I’m sorry, Anna," Gabriel whispered, his eyes beaming with genuine guilt. "I know it was reckless of me, but I was really just trying to be helpful. And it worked, didn’t it? That’s why you still haven’t bailed me out, right?"
"Yeah..." Anna let out a resigned exhale, shaking her head as she locked her eyes back on his.