Julian's POV
The hallway was frozen in a state of total and suffocating silence. The air was heavy, it was like the oxygen had been sucked out of the corridor the moment Gabriel walked away.
I stood there, my chest heaving, the taste of blood from my split lip coating my tongue. I watched Richard's confused stare and waited for him, for the explosion that would follow.
What Gabriel did really left his mouth hanging open. Richard had always never been the one to handle defiance well, and he certainly did not handle being spoken to like a subordinate in front of his household staff. But the explosion didn't come. Instead, he remained uncharacteristically quiet, his eyes fixed on the empty space where Gabriel had just stood. It was far more dangerous than his shouting. I could see his ego bleeding out in real-time, his face pale and his jaw set so tightly that the muscles were pulsing.
