“They are. It was a scam. That’s what you heard Reid talking to me about at Cat’s place. The entire thing was a set-up, a money grab. The father of the woman’s child was an attorney who hates Reese. Long story short, he was stalking Cat. He was crazy. He was a fucking lunatic. He was also a gambler who owed money to a bookie.”
I blink, not sure where this is going. “And that connects how?”
“I called and told the bookie where to find him. He, in turn, ended up in the hospital, where he couldn’t hurt my sister anymore.” He stands up, his hands settling on his hips, over the waist of his pajama bottoms. “I don’t feel guilty. He was a bad person. He could have attacked or killed my sister. She was a mess. She could have lost the baby. It was destroying her and Reese. So, that’s what I would do to protect someone I love. As you said: anything. Not even Reid knows for sure that I did this. He suspects, but I never admitted it. Now you and I know. And if that makes me like your ex, if that makes me someone you can’t live with, I need to know now.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Gabe…
I stand there staring at Abbie as she sits on her knees on my bed, my T-shirt clinging to all of her soft curves, the way my body had been a few minutes ago. The way I want to hold her again, but I don’t know if I ever will. I had no choice but to make that confession. If she’s going to end up hating me, if that’s where this ends, it needs to end now. Because if she can’t handle this, she can’t handle what happened with Kendall.
She scoots to the edge of the bed and stands up, walking toward me, stopping a lean from touching me. “What happened to him? The man you handed over to the bookies.”
“He survived,” I say. “But he could have died. I was clear on that point when I handed him over, but it was him or my sister and her unborn child. I chose my sister and that baby.”
“There was no other way?”
“We tried. Walker Security tried. The problem was layered and complicated and time wasn’t on our side.”
She studies me for a few more beats, but still, she doesn’t touch me and I don’t touch her. Why would I touch her if she hates me now?
“No one else knows this?” she confirms.
“No, Abbie. No one else knows this.”
“You trusted me with this information? Or you’re using it to try to push me away.”
“Both,” I admit. “If you can be pushed away, you should walk away sooner rather than later. I don’t want to be all in and you’re toeing your path with me.”
Suddenly, she’s stepping to me, her arms wrapping my waist, her chin tilting upward, her eyes meeting mine. “I’m not toeing anything with you. You’re not like Kenneth. He hurt people to help himself. You were just protecting your sister.”
“You say that now, but—”
“I’m not going to change my mind and you have no idea how much it means to me that you trusted me with this. My God, Gabe. It’s honest. Honest is what I want. Honest is what I want us to be. This means everything to me.”
I cup her head and lower my forehead to hers. “Don’t change your mind.”
“I’m not going to change my mind.”
I pull back to look at her. “If you do come to work for us, and I hope you do, you need to know that in business—”
“You’re brutal. You play to win. Gabe, it’s business. It’s what you need your attorney to be when you hire one. I’m not naïve. And I hate that you put yourself in the same space as my ex. There is no comparison.”
“You compare me to him.”
“You’re right. You are right, and I’m wrong to do that. You aren’t him.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Are you going to corner me in a closet and beat me while you rip my clothes off, Gabe? Are you going to tell me someone is dead, and you did it, and I’m next while beating me?”
I go cold inside, pure ice. “Holy fuck. If he was alive, I’d kill him.” I cup her face. “I spanked you. My God, I spanked you. Abbie, I’m sorry. I—”
“You asked me first. It’s not the same. I liked it.” Her hand flattens on my chest. “Me telling you what he did to me—that was me trusting you like you trusted me. Don’t turn me into a delicate flower and make it backfire on me. If you do that—”
“No delicate flower,” I say. “Got it. And you want to be spanked again, sooner than later.”
“You’re ad libbing.”
“Very well, I might add.”
She laughs and I kiss her, because I can’t not kiss her, that’s what she does to me. And when the kiss ends, it’s not really over, but rather a pause, waiting for more. Because nothing is ever enough with this woman. “I’m going to fall in love with you, Abbie. Then what?”
Her eyes soften. “We aren’t going to fall in love, remember?”
“And if we do?”
“I don’t know how to be in love, Gabe.”
“Maybe there’s a good how-to book online.” I wink. “I’ll get on Amazon tomorrow.”
She gives me a small smile and I drag her back to bed with me, turning down the lights and holding her close, her head settling on my shoulder. “We’ll be afraid together. Just don’t let me fall in love alone.”
“I’m not going to fall in love with you, Gabe,” she whispers. “You’re not going to fall in love with me, either.”
I smile because, one: she says those words with all kinds of love in her voice, and two: I’ve learned that with Abbie, she says we’re not when we are. And we are. We’re falling in love and yes, it’s scary as fuck, but so is bungee jumping and I did that once. It was a dare with no endgame. Now, I have an endgame. Abbie in my bed over, and over, and over again. Every single night.
***
Morning comes far too soon with Abbie curled to my side but duty calls, as in Dexter, who is whining beside the bed. I sneak out of bed and Abbie snuggles into the pillow deeper, still asleep. To me, this is about comfort and trust and it matters. It matters a whole hell of a lot especially under the circumstances she’s living right now and has lived in the past.
I sneak into the bathroom, throw on sweats and a tee, and quickly brush my teeth. Dexter waits impatiently and the two of us head downstairs. We’ve barely made it to his pee spot at the corner when I’m accosted by damn reporters. Apparently, the news of Kenneth’s murder has led back to my doorstep. I keep my head down and dodge questions while Dexter does his best serial killer impression for one particularly rude man. That’s my cue to pick up the pace. I run Dexter down a side street and escape. New dog parent problem. I’m going to have to hire a dog nanny just to avoid the press.
Once we’re back at our building where we repeat the hell of being accosted again, but escape quickly with the help of the building staff. Dexter and I tip well with cash and doggy kisses, and we head upstairs. Once we’re there, I feed him, and while he eats, I make coffee and intend to wake up Abbie when Blake calls.
“I’m in hell over here, man,” I say when I answer. “I can’t even take my dog out to pee because of the press.”
“Considering the new developments in the case, that’s expected, don’t you think?”
A bad feeling rushes through me. “What developments?”
My cellphone buzzes with another call. “That’ll be Reese.” Blake says. “He wants to meet you as soon as possible.”
“What the hell is going on, Blake?”
“They have footage of the killer leaving Kenneth’s house.”
I stand taller. “And?”
He hits me with the bombshell details, hard and fast. I listen and remotely remember a promise to call Reese back and something about more security. We disconnect and I’m still shell-shocked, trying to process what I just heard when Abbie walks into the room, looking sexy as hell in a silk robe, her hair a mussed-up mess, her face clean, a smile on her lips. “Good morning.”
Only it’s not. It’s really not. I now have to tell her what Blake just told me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
&
nbsp; Gabe…
Abbie gives me one long look and her smile fades. “What’s wrong?” She hurries forward and stops on the other side of the island with Dexter making some crazy chirping sound at her side.
She’s worried, really worried, but she manages to look at Dexter, cup his face and whisper, “I love you, too, boy,” because apparently, dog chirping means “I love you.” Who knew?
She continues to rub him and looks at me. “What’s wrong?” she repeats. “Tell me before I go nuts here.”
I offer her the cup of coffee I made for her. “I was just bringing you a coffee in bed. You ruined the surprise.”
“Gabe,” she warns. “Please. Tell me what’s going on. I know you well enough at this point to read you.”
A profoundly impossible statement that she’s made possible. I set the cup down. “Let’s go sit down.”
“No. Let’s not go sit down. Tell me now.”
My cellphone rings and I glance at it where it rests on the island to find Reese on the caller ID again. “What does he know that I don’t?” Abbie asks.
“I need to take this, baby. Give me a minute and—”
She pushes off the island and walks toward the window, which is a win, considering a few days ago she would have run for her clothes and the door. Progress, it seems, is the bright side of this morning gone wrong. She kneels to love on Dexter, letting him comfort her, and I swear my cold heart warms.
I answer the call. “Reese.”
“You heard?”
“Yes.”
“And that one-word reply tells me that Abbie is there and doesn’t know yet.”
“No. She doesn’t.”
“Why?” Reese presses. “She needs to know.”
“I’ve known about ten minutes, man. I need at least ten minutes and thirty seconds.”
“We should meet sooner than planned. Let’s have coffee. It might calm Abbie enough for her to really talk to me.”
“We have the press all over us.”
“You’re resourceful. Meet me at the coffee shop on 15th. No one will be looking for us there.”
“That’s not secure enough. We’ll stick to the plan. Your office.”
“We’re swarming with press.”
“But not press intended for us and it’s secure there. We need secure.”
“Right. Have it your way. I’ll send Walker to get you. I’m about to get on the phone with Abbie’s mother.”
“Does she know?”
“Not yet. That’s why I’m about to get on the phone with her. More soon.”
“When do you want us?” I ask.
“I have ten piles of disaster growing in my office. The sooner the better.”
“An hour.”
“One hour,” he agrees. “Cat’s joining us.”
“I’m going to bring Reid.”
“Expected.”
We disconnect and I text Reid: Problem. Reese’s office in an hour.
He replies with: I have a meeting in an hour we don’t want me to miss.
I grimace and type: Fuck the meeting.
He answers with a quick: WTF is going on? Call me.
I reply with: Call Cat. I can’t talk.
His answer is instant: FUCK.
Yep. That about sums it up. I slide my phone into my pocket and walk toward Abbie, who abandons Dexter to stand up but she doesn’t turn to look at me. I step behind her, wrapping my arms around her.
She rotates to face me, those green eyes search mine in earnest, her expression stretched tight. “Gabe?” Her hands flatten on my chest, warm and soft, delicate and sweet. “Why do I feel fear right now?”
“The police have a video of a woman leaving your ex’s apartment on the night he was murdered.”
“Okay. Why is that bad? It feels like closure. Do they know who it is?”
“They called Reese, Abbie. They want to talk to you sooner than later.”
“Me. Why me? I wasn’t there. I was with you.”
“I know that. You know that, but—”
“But what?” She pales. “She had red hair.”
“Yes. She had red hair.”
“It’s a set-up. You know it’s a set-up. I was with you. You can tell them. Right? You’ll tell them.”
“Easy, baby. Breathe. Yes. I’ll tell them, but they could easily decide we’re in on this together and that I’m covering for you.”
She twists out of my arms and tries to take off. I catch her and pull her back to me. “Where are you going?”
“We can’t be together. Not until this is over. And you can’t tell them I was with you.”
“Of course we can be together. Of course, I’m going to tell them—”
“No. No. No.” She pokes my chest. “No. I’m breaking us up. I’m crazy about you, Gabe, but I won’t see you anymore. Not now. Not—”
I cup her head and kiss her. She resists, holding herself stiff in my arms for several seconds until finally, she not only kisses me, she’s kissing me back and doing it like it’s our last fucking kiss.
“No,” I say, pulling my mouth from hers. “Do not fucking kiss me goodbye. The police already know we’re together. Hell, the reporters out front sure as hell do.”
“What reporters?”
“We’re surrounded,” I say. “Obviously Kenneth’s murder investigation is now fodder for the press. But fuck them. The point is, that saying anything different about us will not help us. In fact, it might hurt us. I have camera footage that I can turn over to the police. I have a security system. We can prove where we were that night.”
“What if it doesn’t cover the right times? What if it’s when we were sleeping or at dinner or at my place?”
“Panicking does us no good.”
“When do the police want to meet?”
“Reese has court this afternoon. I’m assuming this evening, maybe even at the courthouse. Go get dressed. We need to get moving.”
She gives a choppy nod and I manage to get her to the bathroom. Once we’re there, I turn on the hot water, strip her naked, and pull her under the water with me, wondering when she’s going to have the last piece of this puzzle hit her. It doesn’t happen until she steps out of the shower. She’s holding a towel when she drops it. “Oh God. It wasn’t me but—Gabe.” She swallows hard. “You know what I’m thinking, don’t you?”
“Your mother’s a redhead.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Gabe…
“I have to call her. I have to go see my mother.” Abbie tries to pull away from me but I hold her close, folding her naked body into mine.
“Not yet. Wait, baby.”
“Why not yet? No, no waiting. Let me go.”
“Not yet,” I repeat. “Stop and think.”
“I need to know if she was there.”
“One: you don’t want to talk to her on the phone that can be listened in on. Two: we’ll know more when we get to Reese’s office. Neither Blake nor Reese wanted to tell me much for the same reason. The phone is a dangerous communication method.”
“There’s more to tell?”
“Nothing big or they would have warned me. They didn’t.”
“Gabe,” she breathes out, torment in her voice. “She isn’t a killer, but would she confront him? What if she was there? What if they blame my mother?”
“She has the best legal counsel possible in Reese and so do we.”
“I’m scared.”
“I know you are.” I tilt her face up to mine. “I’ll protect you and your mother. That’s a promise. And remember what I told you last night. When I protect someone, I don’t fail.”
“And who protects you?”
Dexter barks and my lips curve. “Dexter, the resident serial killer.”
She wraps the towel around her and leans down to hug the big pup, tension easing from her shoulders. Damn if that dog isn’t earning his keep and earning it well, but right now, I’m thinking about the redhead. It’s an obvious set-up. I pull Abbie to her feet. “
Someone is trying to take us down, baby. We won’t let them. Dress for the office. We need to make damn sure we go on with our life. We need them to know that we have nothing to worry about but they do.”
***
Abbie…
Lies.
They cut like knives. They create wounds that don’t just bleed, they fester. I’ve been cut. I’m still feeling the pain and the sense of betrayal never to become trust. But Gabe is changing this, changing me. Someone is attacking me and my mother, and yet, I trust him. I trust him so much that when he says he’ll handle this, I believe him. That promise from him is what brings me down ten notches. It’s what gets me through my morning routine, as does him, by my side, shaving, and casting me concerned looks and well-timed smiles.
Still, I hurry through my routine, eager for answers, and dress in a lilac dress with a cinched waist. I’ve just pulled a black jacket over the top when Gabe steps out of the closet in a perfectly fitted gray suit and heads to the mirror to knot his tie. I pull on my knee-high boots and step between him and the counter. “Let me.”
“I don’t believe I’ve let anyone but my mother knot my tie.”
This pleases me, as does the possessiveness of his hands settling at my waist, under my jacket. “Now you have,” I say.
“Did you do this for Kenneth?”
I glance up at him, aware that he’s thinking of those years when I was another man’s wife. “No, I didn’t.” Because my ex and I didn’t have intimate moments like I do with you, I want to add, but I’m feeling rather vulnerable and exposed right now.
“Then how did you learn?” he asks.
I glance up at him, the knot frozen in my hand mid-pull. “One of the only memories I have of my father living with us was him putting on his tie in the morning.” I finish the knot and pat his chest. “All done.” When I would scoot away, he tightens his grip on my waist.
“How did you learn to knot a tie?”
My lashes lower and then lift. “I begged my mother to teach me to impress him.”
“Did it work?”
I shake my head. “The night I was going to show him I could do it, he didn’t come home.”
Her Submission Page 9
