Binding Attractions

Chapter 8

“If you rub your eyes any harder, you might actually blind yourself or something,” Lorenzo said as he walked into the library, barefooted and barely making a sound.

Trick lowered his hands and let out a silent, tired chuckle. “I don’t think that’s possible.”

His friend stopped in front of the large office desk Trick was using and stared at him for a moment with a concerned frown digging a furrow between his brows. “You look like s**t,” he finally said.

Another chuckle left Trick’s lips. This one was a little louder. “Gee. Thanks, man. Just what I needed to hear.”

Of course, Trick felt like s**t, so it was not surprising he looked like it. Not that he wanted it pointed out so bluntly. On the other hand, Lorenzo looked fresh out of a shower, with his black hair still wet and pointing in every direction. He wore a black t-shirt and gray sweatpants. In short, he looked like a man ready to relax. But his frown was all business and so was his tone of voice.

“Cut the sarcasm. I am being serious. How long have you been here?”

Trick glanced at the time at the bottom corner of his laptop’s screen. Eleven in the night? He frowned, confused. How long had he been seated there? He had lost track of time. Hell, he had stopped looking at the clock altogether, like it was insignificant, at some point in the afternoon. And really, it was. Especially now.

“If it’s taking you this long to answer, then you have definitely been here too long,” Lorenzo snapped. “Have you even bothered to eat today?”

“I ate,” Trick snapped back defensively, even though he damn well couldn’t remember the contents of his last meal or how many hours had passed since. He wasn’t even sure if it had been today or yesterday.

How anyone expected him to think of food while Gabriel was missing still puzzled Trick, though.

Fuck. Gabriel was really missing. Trick stared over Lorenzo’s shoulder and blinked as that reality hit him once again. And every time it did, Trick felt like an elephant was seated on his chest.

The last few weeks had felt like a trip through hell for Trick and the rest of the family. They’d had to deal with Trey’s abduction by Danielle’s brother. Chip Marvick had been set on revenge, and Trey had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. However, in a twist of fate, something sparked between Trey and Danielle, and she helped him get away from her own brother.

But the drama had only begun and then the chaos had turned internal when Trey announced that he cared about Danielle and wasn’t willing to let her go.

Trick hadn’t been too shocked. After Lorenzo and Abigail, Edward and Talia, he had come to believe that his friends were possessive and crazy when they found the women they liked. And they seemed to have something against finding a simple, boring woman with no crime or threat of death hanging around them.

But like they swore to each other decades ago, they always had each other’s backs. So if Trey wanted Danielle, they all wanted Danielle.

Rescuing Danielle Marvick from her own brother and a forced marriage sent them guns blazing to an old abandoned chapel in the middle of nowhere. That was when disaster had hit. Again. And this one was proving to be the final straw that would break Trick.

Technically, the whole thing had started months ago when Edward literally ran into Talia on a dark, empty road, in the middle of the night. Talia Jackson, who was now Edward’s woman, had just escaped the claws of the notorious Marvick crime family about to sell her into trafficking after murdering her family.

Trick was still amazed how much had happened and changed since that fateful night. Death had come knocking at their doors more than once, but somehow, each time, they escaped without losing anyone.

That was, until they had to storm a wedding and rescue Danielle Marvick, Trey’s obsession, for lack of a better term. Trick shook his head and sighed quietly as his thoughts continued to spin.

Gabriel had stayed with the helicopter. He was supposed to be safe in the helicopter. Unfortunately, they had miscalculated just how prepared and determined Sawyer, aka the snake, and his men would be. The bird was shot down and Gabriel went down with it.

He wasn’t dead. At least that was what Chip Marvick, Danielle’s brother, had told them when he demanded his sister back in exchange for their friend.

That plan had failed. And now, they had no idea where Gabriel was and in what shape he was in after the crash.

Trick had been burning the candle from both ends. Hell, he had thrown the entire candle together with the candlestick into the damn fire. And still he had nothing. He couldn’t find Gabriel.

Frustrated and exhausted didn’t begin to describe the state Trick was in. No one was pushing him, or accusing him of not doing enough, but he still felt like he was failing his family. It was his job to pull rabbits out of hats and find information no one else could get their hands on. He had designed several programs over the years that were able to gather him any information he required. What his programs couldn’t get, Trick hacked and went digging until he had it.

But none of the programs or skills were able to shine any light as to where their friend might be. And he was just tired. So f*****g tired hi bones hurt.

Lorenzo folded his arms over his chest. “Abigail says you haven’t left this room all day.”

“What was she doing? Keeping an eye on the door?”

His friend’s lips thinned in displeasure, obviously not liking his tone. Trick had the decency to look away as he mumbled an apology.

After a beat, Lorenzo sighed heavily and rubbed a hand through his wet hair. “You have to stop this, Trick.”

Trick immediately looked up. “Stop what? Looking for Gabriel?” If that was what Lorenzo was suggesting, Trick was ready to argue. As though sensing the fight brewing in him, Lorenzo raised a hand, silently telling him to hold his horses.

“You need to stop working yourself to the bone. You have been behaving as though you are an android. I’m all for dedication to work, but this is ridiculous.”

“I’m…”

Before Trick could defend himself, or deny it, or even argue that Gabriel was counting on him to be found, Lorenzo cut him with a stern voice. “When was the last time you slept in your bed? You have been in this library day in and out. In that uncomfortable dining chair, no less. When you can barely keep your eyes open, you sleep on the couch or the damn floor with only the carpet to give you comfort.”

Trick bit his tongue. Everything Lorenzo said was true. He didn’t get what the problem was, though. A moment passed in silence, as though his friend was waiting for him to say something.

Finally, Trick cleared his throat. “I know I can find him. I just need time.”

Another sigh escaped Lorenzo. And then he walked around the desk and stood next to Trick with a hand on his shoulder. “I have no doubt you will find him, Trick. But you won’t do it if you are not at your optimum best.”

“I am always at my best.”

Lorenzo shook his head. “Not if you are not sleeping and eating. I know how that genius brain of yours works, remember? Somehow you convince yourself that eating, bathing, and sleep are all optional needs you can do without until you complete a task.” He squeezed the shoulder he held and continued. “If Gabriel were here, he would tell you about all the harm you are doing to your body and how it will eventually hinder your brain.”

“But he’s not here. And that’s why I am doing this… So I can find him and we can bring him back home.”

“Are you prepared to listen, or are you just going to argue with me?”

Hearing the frustration in his friend’s voice, Trick conceded. “I’m listening.”

Silence fell in the room and stretched until Trick shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Lorenzo’s arm never moved from his shoulder, and it made him feel more like a kid being corrected than a grown man having a conversation with his friend.

Suddenly Lorenzo released him and stepped back. “Stand up.”

Trick looked up and blinked. “What?”

“Stand up.”

“Why?” he asked with a puzzled frown.

“Because it’s late and I should be in bed with my wife getting some while the baby is asleep. But instead, I am here trying to reason with a mule. Stand up. I am walking you to the kitchen. You will eat something and then you will go to bed.”

“You can’t be serious.”

Lorenzo’s face turned to stone. “Do I look like I’m joking?”

Once upon a time, Lorenzo had been a dangerous man. Trick was reminded of that man as he stared at his friend. It was enough to make him blink.

He had thought this side of his friend had long been buried after Abigail became a part of his life. For one thing, Lorenzo had cut ties with the majority of their illegal associates and he no longer went around putting the fear of God in idiots that thought it wise to double-cross them. That Lorenzo had taken a back seat. Not to say his friend wasn’t just as dangerous now, but he hid it better than before.

Except for tonight. Trick had to wonder if the recent events were to blame. They had certainly faced enough troubles to turn a saint into a raging, bloodthirsty lunatic.

But for all the reputation Lorenzo had held over the years, his friend had never been a danger to the family. Actually, it was the opposite. Trick knew Lorenzo’s first instinct was the protection and well-being of the family.

So Trick puffed out a breath and responded with a touch of irritation. “Okay, fine. I will eat something and get to bed. You don’t need to march me around like I’m five.”

But his friend was shaking his head. “I know you. I walk out of this room and you will remain in that chair until tomorrow morning. Nope. I will only leave you when you are back in your room and in bed. And just to be sure you will actually sleep, I will take your laptop to my room. Actually, make that your laptops, tablet, and your phone. Don’t tempt me, or I might just handcuff you to the bed as well.”

A sudden burst of shocked laughter escaped Trick’s mouth. “Now I know you can’t honestly be serious.”

To Lorenzo’s credit, he didn’t even blink when he leaned forward and grabbed Trick’s laptop, tablet, and phone off the desk, and started walking out of the library.

Trick stared at his retreating back, still shocked and, quite frankly, unable to believe it.

“Get off your ass, Trick,” Lorenzo said when he reached the door, but he didn’t even bother to turn around and see if Trick was following or not.

Several beats passed before Trick finally stood up angrily and stormed out of the library after Lorenzo. He knew it would be pointless to argue. Short of physically wrestling his gadgets out of Lorenzo’s arms, he had no choice but to do as he was told. Eat and sleep.

A small voice at the back of his mind told him food and rest would do him some good and maybe tomorrow, with a fresh mind, he would finally find Gabriel. Trick held on to that hope as he made his way to the kitchen.