102

His eyes darted to Zane and Jax that were standing on either side of her. then they were back on her. Something told Ava that he had calculated the risk of being rude or aggressive towards her and come to the conclusion it wasn’t worth it.
“Who I am is really not important. It’s who he is that you should focus on,” Ava told him and took a step to the side to allow Gabriel and Ryder step forward.

The look on Jonas’ face was almost comical as he saw Gabriel.

“Gabriel?” he asked in disbelief. Ryder had his arm around Gabriel, and when Jonas spoke, he pulled Gabriel closer to him. Gabriel was looking down, but took a deep breath and looked up at Jonas.

“Hello, Jonas,” he said. 

“Who are these people, Gabe?” Jonas asked. Gabriel flinched at the nickname and Ava wanted to hurt the tied up man. Zane seemed to sense her mood and put his arm around her and kissed her temple. 

“They are my family,” Gabriel said. He straightened his stance and his voice was now stable. Ava smiled. 

“You don’t have a family,” Jonas said. There was a moment of silence before Ryder let go of Gabriel and walked up to Jonas and punched him in the face. Ava was worried the hit would snap Jonas’ neck by the way his head flew to the side. Zane and Jax had closed in on him as well. First Ava thought they were there to hold back Ryder from inflicting more damage. But she realised they were crowding Jonas to show him they didn’t appreciate his words. Ava walked over to Gabriel and took his hand. He looked at her and smiled, even though he had tears in his eyes. 

“Looks like you don’t know the first thing about Gabriel,” Ava told Jonas. “Why did you contact him again?” It looked like Jonas would refuse to answer.

“You will tell my wife what she wants to know,” Zane told him in a dark voice as he loomed over Jonas. Jonas paled. 

“I just wanted to check in on him and I needed a little help with the boy,” Jonas said. His demeanour had changed now that the three men surrounded him. He looked meek, but he didn’t fool Ava. There was a tension at the corner of his eyes that told her it was all an act. 

“He is not for you to check in on,” Ryder said. Jonas did his best to cover and looked past Ryder and looked at Gabriel. 

“I’m sorry, Gabe. I just wanted to know if you were okay. I just wanted to talk to you.” Ava scoffed, but she was worried Jonas acting would fool Gabriel. Ususally she knew he would never fall for something like it. But it was different with Jonas. Ava could relate to how she had let her relatives walk all over her for years. When people abused you, it was hard to stand up for yourself, even when you were stronger than they. 

“Jonas, we both know that isn’t why you contacted me,” Gabriel said, and Ava was proud of how confident he sounded. “You contacted me because you thought I would come running back to you. You thought things would go back to how they were. But things are different now. I am stronger, and I have people, family. That makes me better.”

“But the boy. I’m only thinking of him,” Jonas tried.

“The boy is doing fine. He is being taken care of until we can locate his mother,” Ava said. She knew at once that something she said had provoked him. His mask fell, and he looked at her with pure anger.

“Who asked you, bitch? I’m talking to Gabriel,” he barked. No sooner than the words had left his mouth, he realised his mistake and the next second a knife was plunged into his thigh. Jonas looked at the knife and then at Zane, who had put it there. 

“That’s my wife you are talking to. The next time, it will cost you a limb,” Zane growled. He didn’t bother to pull the knife out. Ava felt Gabriel squeeze her hand, but other than that he didn’t react. It was his first time seeing this side of what they did. Ryder looked over his shoulder to see how Gabriel was doing. He turned back, looking reassured. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I’m just a businessman. I’m not used to this. I don’t know why you are doing this to me,” Jonas said, his act of scared and meek was back in place.

“Oh please,” Jax huffed and took out his phone. “Jonas Lowell, born Jonas Bishop, there are about twenty aliases that we found. Born outside of London. Your father was a small time con man, your mother helped him. When you were around a year old, your parents ‘emigrated’, aka fled, to the US as your father was about to be arrested. In the US, your father continued his as before and found that the American police were quicker on the uptake. Within a year, he found himself in prison. Your mother turned to selling her body to put food on the table. When you were eight, you father were released but was sent back to prison within a year. You school record show you were a good student, smart and charming. You were on a good path despite your family background. When your father was released, you were fifteen. This time you became his little helper, learning everything about how to scam people out of money. You seem to have kept you grades up, you got a full ride to a good collage. This is where you discover roulette. It went downhill from there. You didn’t graduate due to being expelled for cheating. That didn’t stop you from falsifying the several degrees you have used over the years. You used the skills your father taught you to gain employment on false merits. Making sure you could keep pace with your gambling depths. To get some extra income, you have left a trail of abused people in your wake,” he read out loud. 

“Not so innocent now,” Ryder scoffed. 

“H-how did you? Not even the police…” Jonas seemed to catch himself in the middle of the sentence and stopped talking. 

“The police have to use legal means to gain their information. We don’t. You would be surprised at what we can find,” Jax told him. There was knock on the door. 

“What?” Zane called. One of the men stuck their head into the room.

“The boss of the Rodriguez cartel needs to speak to you. He says it’s urgent.”

“Fuck, okay, I’ll be right there. Don’t do anything here until I get back. I don’t want to miss something,” Zane said and strolled out of the room. Jonas tried to talk to Gabriel, but Ryder twisted the knife in his leg. That kept him from speaking. Zane came back after five minutes.

“So, we have little twist to this game,” he told everyone. “Our new friend here is deep in dept with the Rodriguez cartel. Seems he has had a lot of fun in one of their gambling rooms. We are talking about over five million dollar kind of fun,” Zane said. Jax whistled. 

“I can’t think they are too happy with the idea of us killing him then,” Ryder said in a dark voice.

“They’re not,” Zane agreed. “But they are small fish. They won’t object or ask for compensation if we do. It seems they have had a hard time getting in touch with Jonas. they would like us to hand him over, but it’s not a demand.” Ava knew no other organisation would make a demand toward Zane. Especially not if they thought he wanted someone killed. 

“So what do we do?” Ryder asked. Zane smiled. 

“That is up to Gabriel,” Zane said. Everyone looked at Gabriel. “This little shit is in debt to you, Gabriel. As a member of the family, your debt comes first,” Zane said. Ava gave him a brilliant smile. His love language may be a bit different and grey on the moral scale, but she loved him. Her focused shifted to Gabriel, he was thinking. Looking between Ryder, Jonas and Zane.

“What if we hand him over in exchange for a future favour?” Gabriel asked. Zane looked at him for a second and then burst out laughing.

“This is why you are the best accountant I have ever had,” he said. “We hand him over. He won’t die, but we know he will be severely damaged by the time the cartel releases him, and as a cherry on top, we will have a favour to collect. Fuck, that is a good solution.” Gabriel smiled at the praise. 

“You don’t mind?” Gabriel asked Ryder. Ryder smiled and walked over to Gabriel and kissed him. 

“Not at all, baby. If it makes you happy, I’m good.” Ava walked over to give Zane a hug. 

“W-wait, you can’t do this,” Jonas tried to object.

“No one asked you,” Jax told him and pulled the knife out of his leg and handed to Zane after wiping it mostly clean on Jonas’ pants. 

“They will kill me,” Jonas said. He looked truly scared. Zane laughed.

“Oh no, they won’t. Dead men don’t pay debts. They will take out some of their anger on you. But they will make sure that you are alive enough to pay them. Then they will make sure you start to work so you can pay the money off. If you cn’t make the payments, they will give you a little visit. And because you were a naughty bay and ran from them before, they will make sure to keep a close eye on you. Your life will be miserable. And if that isn’t enough, I will make sure they know how happy it would make me that you remain miserable for as long as possible. And they really, really want to be in my good graces,” Zane said. After that, there was not much more to say. They left the room to Jonas’ sobs. 

“Thank you, Zane,” Gabriel said as they were back on the ground floor. 

“No need to thank me. It was fun,” Zane said. Ava hugged Gabriel.

“Why don’t you stay for the night? We can have dinner,” she suggested. 

“It sounds lovely, but I think we will head home. We still have some things to… talk about,” Gabriel said, glancing at Ryder. Ava grinned.

“You do that. Call me tomorrow.”

“I will,” he promised.