"I don't think this is up for discussion." Gabriel said forcefully.
"You do not get to tell me what I should or shouldn't do."
"I have been to one of your funerals already, I am not risking another."
Claire bit her lip, trying to contain her increasing anger. Gabriel's comment made it clear that he was not going to forgive her any time soon and it showed how deep his wounds truly were. It was a matter of time before they either exploded or imploded.
"I am not leaving." Claire said through her gritted teeth at last.
"Yes, you are."
"You do not get to tell me what to do."
"I long knew that I rather die than live without you. I cannot bare the thought of something happening to you."
"You lived perfectly fine for the last few months!" Claire raised her voice. She wasn't sure whether she believed that. She felt guilty, of course. But…
"Oh, snap." Pierre mumbled.
Gabriel paused. Whatever it was that was brewing inside of him was about to fulminate.
"Perfectly fine? Perfectly fine?!" Gabriel repeated, at first in his normal voice, then he started raising it. "PERFECTLY FINE?!!!" He yelled. Whatever held him together snapped. "Since when was it perfectly fine?! I didn't get up for months! I didn't eat! I didn't live! I was barely a shell of a person that I used to be! You went and ripped out my heart, my soul, my whole being, any shred of me! I blamed myself for your death! Every single night I've bargained with every single god and deity there might be so that I could take your place! I begged your family for forgiveness, for not being able to protect you! I couldn't close my eyes as I saw your death over and over again! The only thing that kept me going was the revenge! My father was to pay for all that he did! That was the only goal I had left! The last one!"
"Gabriel…" Pierre tried to calm him down, tapping him on his arm. But Gabriel shook his hand off and came closer to Claire again.
"The day I thought I've won… I had it all planned, Claire. I had enough! I HAD ENOUGH!!!"
"What do you mean?" Claire asked with her eyes widely opened.
"You literally came back minutes before I was planning to take my life! So, do not dare to say that I was perfectly fine!!!" Gabriel turned red. He was shaken up. Pierre stopped and his eyes widened. Neither him or Claire expected that kind of confession. "I wished to die before but never like this! You were the only thing that kept me whole! You were the only thing that made me want to repair myself! And once you were gone, everything else was with it!" Gabriel's cheeks were wet from his tears and flushed from an anger he felt. "Every morning I woke up and I remembered what has happened, grieving all over again. Every fucking morning! Every waking minute was an agony! Do you understand that?!" Claire was silent. "And now that I know what it feels like to lose you, I cannot go through it again, whether real or not! Because for me it was fucking real!"
Claire reached for the pendant with the ring on it and squeezed it.
"I do not want to go away, Gabriel. I cannot be apart from you again." Claire replied quietly. "You must know that it wasn't easy for me either. I knew you were struggling and I was powerless. I could only watch from a distance how everyone suffered because of me. Never think that it was easy for me!" Claire started sobbing. "I-… I never wanted to hurt you like that. I didn't think it would."
"What the hell did you thought was going to happen?!"
"Honestly? I still thought that you were going to forget all about me within days, maybe weeks and move on." Claire remembered her anger when she saw the news of Gabriel and Francesca and how she thought that he moved on.
"After all this time, you still doubted my feelings for you?" Gabriel's voice lowered as he sounded hurt by Claire's words.
"I doubted my worth as a whole, Gabriel."
"Okay, love birds. There's an actual killer on the loose who wants both of you dead. A minor positive might be that he still may think that one of you is dead. Not so positive, the other one might be the main target considering the recent trial." Pierre interfered, his irritation growing. He didn't have time for their spout.
"What is the easiest way to track someone?" Gabriel asked but his eyes were still fixated on Claire. Claire looked back at him. They definitely weren't done yet.
"I don't know. Phone calls? Transactions? CCTV?" Pierre shrugged.
"So, if I were to make a major purchase, it is likely that this would draw his attention?"
"Well, yes."
"Gabriel, no." Claire protested.
"No?"
"To be fair, I'm with Claire on this. Whatever you're thinking sounds like a bad idea." Pierre chipped in but took a step back as Gabriel scowled at him.
"You do not get to tell me what is a good or bad idea. You pretended to be my friend for the last few months, and as I cried to you, you knew my wife was alive."
"I never said otherwise." Pierre replied and it was the truth. "When you've told me that you think she was alive, I've asked you why you think so. Not even once did I deny it. I even asked about DNA testing."
Gabriel went silent. That was true. Not even once Pierre denied his theories. He almost encouraged the DNA testing. He even told Gabriel that he believed Claire to be capable of faking her death. Indirectly, of course.
"Oh God…" Gabriel managed to say remembering their encounters, how Pierre started choking on his drink after he spoke of Elise Cooper. "And you knew that she was Elise Cooper!"
"Actually, Pierre , you knew Katherine Miller was Gabriel's mother!" Claire had a bone to pick up with Pierre too.
"This argument hit a bit of a stalemate. Can you two focus on the big issue now?"
Claire glanced over at Gabriel feeling the burning anger like a few days earlier, but she pursed her lips shut and looked at Pierre with anticipation. Gabriel remained silent. "Let's go somewhere more private than this dump." They both nodded and followed Pierre down a dark alley. He led them through a maze of narrow streets until they've stood in front of rundown building. Pierre opened the door and let them inside. The pungent smell of rotten wood hit their nostrils. Bags of garbage were placed by the door which only made the smell more nauseating. Pierre led them upstairs past a number of flats, until he opened the door to a flat on the second floor. Somehow they didn't question it.
As they entered the flat they've realised that it was the office with six people inside. There were messy desks with stacked papers, monitors, computers. The boards with tenths of sticky notes. Claire froze as she stepped in along with Gabriel. They definitely were across some invisible line. It felt wrong.
The six people inside, mostly in their thirties and forties, four men and two women, they all looked at Claire and Gabriel in an instant.
"Jacque?" Gabriel uttered.
"Gabriel?" Jacque responded in an equal surprise.
"Who knew that all Frenchmen were connected through some dodgy government work?" Claire said teasingly at which Pierre scowled at her briefly.
"Camille?" Gabriel continued in surprise.
"Oh for god's sake." Camille sighed and rolled her eyes, walking out to the adjacent room.
Claire looked with question at Gabriel.
"Camille? As in Jacques' girlfriend?"
"Yeah?" Gabriel seemed equally confused.
"Nah." Pierre answered. "They're not together. We just needed more people to keep an eye on you."
"Something like that." Jacque walked up to them and looked at Gabriel apologetically.
"Accountants are very sought after by National Crime Agency nowadays."
"So, your new gig is this?"
"Yep. I have retrained whilst abroad."
"What even is this place?" Claire asked quietly.
"We are the task force run against Michael Moore. Of course we have a support from much wider network. Be we specialise and run the operations in regards to Michael Moore."
"This is ridiculous. I need a cig." Gabriel announced as he turned around and walked out of the room. Claire looked behind him with worry but in the same time she was intrigued about everything in the room. She stood frozen unable to decide whether she should follow Gabriel or interrogate Pierre further.
"Good to see you again." Jacque said to her.
"Same?" Claire furrowed her brows. "I'll be right back." She turned to Pierre. "And then you're fucking dead."
Pierre sneered at her obviously empty threat.