Raphael (Deadly Virtues #1)(22)

No one was getting in the way of his kill.

Needing a distraction, something to occupy his brothers’—and especially Gabriel’s—minds, Raphael reached into his pocket. He pulled out the rosary and dropped it in the center of the table. With the sound of metal hitting the wooden surface, his brothers stopped eating and drinking, and all talking stopped.

“Lynn, can you please give us a moment?” Gabriel asked and smiled at the cook. She left immediately. The minute she was gone, Gabriel’s smile dropped. Bara reached forward and took the rosary in his hands.

“Bastards,” he hissed and passed it to Uriel. When each of his brothers had studied the red beads and “B” emblazoned crucifix, it finally landed in Gabriel’s hands. Gabriel’s face was neutral as he studied the artifact.

“Where did you find it?”

“In the club. Last night.”

Gabriel’s blue eyes snapped up. They widened, and Raphael watched something like panic flash across Gabriel’s face. “Did you see any of them? Did they see you?”

“I found it in one of the private rooms. I never saw any of them. I don’t know if they saw me.” It wasn’t entirely a lie. The woman upstairs was associated with the Brethren somehow, but she wasn’t one of them, this Raphael knew. They refused entry to women. They believed them inferior and easily swayed to the side of evil. Weak and pathetic, and unable to be as spiritually pure as men. Women bled once a month, making them spiritually unclean. And in the Brethren’s eyes, they were the root cause of all evil. Eve and the Fall plunged mankind from paradise and out of God’s embrace.

Raphael didn’t know how they got her to do their bidding, but he knew one thing—they wouldn’t care if she died.

His little captive upstairs was perfectly disposable.

“You don’t go back there.” Gabriel dropped the rosary into his pocket. “This is the first time in ten years we’ve come this close to being discovered. We can’t allow it to happen.” He turned his blue eyes on Raphael. “Did anyone follow you? Tail you to the manor?”

“No.” That was true. He had kept his eyes on the road. He had been trained well in the early years by the experts Gabriel had employed to keep them all safe. He had mastered disappearing from plain sight. Sinking into the shadows that always welcomed him home. He’d been extra vigilant that night. He’d had precious cargo in his back seat. He’d made sure they’d got away unseen.

“I need times and locations of where you were. If the Brethren have somehow figured out where we are, we have to be diligent. The last thing we need is to have them back in our lives, coming for our blood.”

“Maybe we should let them,” Diel said. All of the brothers focused on him. He rolled his neck, the bones clicking under the heavy weight of his electric collar. “Maybe it’s time to face them. To show them who we are now.”

“I agree,” Sela said. Sela would always agree with Diel. He and Sela were best friends. Just like Bara and Uriel were, Raphael and Michael the same. It was only Gabriel who sat on the fringes of their group. He was their older brother. But he kept to himself or in the company of John Miller, the lawyer who used to work for Gabriel’s grandfather. The grandfather who was a killer too.

“We’re stronger than them now. We can fight them and win. If they’ve found us or at least are looking again after all this time, maybe it’s a sign we finally need to face them,” Diel argued. His neck tensed under his collar. His head twitched as the collar hummed, reacting to his quickening pulse.

“It could be a sign from your beloved God, Angel,” Bara added, smirking at Gabriel. “Maybe he’s returned to his Old Testament wrathful self and craves a bit of good old-fashioned violence.” Bara gestured around the table. “We’d all be his willing soldiers if it meant bringing down those Brethren cunts.”

Gabriel got to his feet, ignoring Bara. “I’m getting surveillance on that club. I want to know who exactly is looking for us. Once we know that, we’ll make plans.” Gabriel sighed and faced Raphael. He looked tired. He always looked tired. “Raphael, the kill is off. For now, at least.” Gabriel braced himself, body tense, clearly waiting for Raphael’s wrath. But Raphael just nodded. Gabriel’s eyebrows pulled down in confusion. Then, without another word, he left the room.

Uriel was staring at Raphael like he was looking at a stranger. Even Michael had looked up from his black coffee. “Why aren’t you more pissed? He’s taken away your kill,” Uriel asked.

“I’ll get it back.”

“Are you insane?” Sela asked.

“Or, in our case, have you found your sanity?” Bara laughed darkly at his joke and put his hand on his chest. “Raphael . . . have you found God too?”

His brothers smirked at the redhead.

“The whore was rancid. There was nothing exciting about being inside her overused pussy, even if it meant I got to snap her neck at the same time.” Raphael shrugged. “She held no appeal to me. She was a bad target. Nowhere near my type. When I go back, it’ll be a quick and unsatisfying death for the slut.” Raphael stood up. “I’m going to sleep.” He left the room and walked up the stairs. Michael never turned up to hang out until dark fell and dinner was done. He had time with the woman. Hours where he wouldn’t be disturbed.