by B. J Daniels
“Why are you trying to see my daughter?” the middle-aged woman demanded, her hands shaking, her eyes red as though she’d done nothing but cry for days.
If she was Gabby’s mother, perhaps she had.
It was the thing that finally woke him up. Really and fully. Gabby’s mother, and a woman who looked to be Gabby’s grandmother. He’d assumed Natalie wasn’t there, but then she walked in from the hallway carrying two paper cups of coffee.
“Agent Alessandro,” she said, stopping short. “Did something hap—?”
“No, Ms. Torres. I merely came by to check on your sister, and I was informed, uh...” He glanced at the women who’d likely seen him get tossed out on his ass. “She wasn’t seeing visitors.”
Natalie handed off the drinks to the other two women, offering a small and weak smile. “She’s asked not to see anyone for a bit longer yet, from what the doctor told me.”
“And her, uh, health? It’s...”
“As good as can be expected. Maybe better. They’ve had a psychiatrist talking to her a bit. Are you here to question her? I’m not sure—”
“The case we’re building against The Stallion will take time, but your sister’s contributions... Well, we’ll certainly work with her comfort as much as we can.”
He looked at the three women who’d been through their own kind of hell. He didn’t know them. Maybe they’d spent eight years certain Gabby was dead. Maybe they’d hoped for her return every night for however many nights she’d been gone.
Gabby would know. She’d be able to figure out the math in a heartbeat, or maybe it was her heartbeat, every second away from her family.
A family who had loved her and taken care of her for twenty years. A family who had far more claim to her than the man who’d spent a week with her and left her behind.
He straightened his shirt again, clearing his throat. He pulled out his wallet, a strange sight. It held his ID with his real name. His badge. Things that belonged to Jaime Alessandro, not Rodriguez.
He blinked for a few seconds, forgetting what he was doing.
“Do you want me to call some—?”
He thrust his business card at Natalie, effectively cutting off her too kind offer. “If you need anything, anything at all, any of you, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’ll be back in San Antonio for at least another day or two, but it’s an easy enough drive.”
Natalie looked at him with big brown eyes that looked too much like Gabby’s for his shaky control.
“I want all three of you to know how strong Gab—Gabriella was during this whole ordeal,” he forced himself to say, feeling stronger and more sure with every word. FBI agent to the last. “She saved herself, and those women, and did an amazing amount of work in allowing us to confidently press charges against a very dangerous man.”
She’d been a warrior, a goddess, an immeasurable asset and ally. She was a survivor in every iteration of the word, and he wasn’t worthy of her. Not like this.
That meant he had to face his responsibilities and figure out how to come back as just that.
Worthy of Gabby.
Chapter 17
Gabby sat in a sterile hospital room dreading the seconds that ticked by. Every second brought her closer to something she didn’t know how to face.
Life.
Her family was in the waiting room. She’d been cleared by both the doctor and the psychiatrist to see them. To be released from the hospital. There’d be plenty of therapy and police interviews in the future, but for the most part she could go home.
What did that even mean? Eight years she’d been missing. Eight years for her family to change. Daddy was gone. Who knew where Mom and Grandma lived. Surely, Natalie had her own life.
Gabby sat on the hospital bed and tried not to hold on to it for dear life when the nurse arrived. Gabby didn’t want to leave this room. She didn’t want to face whatever waited for her out there.
She’d rather go back to the compound.
It was that thought, and the shuddering denial that went through her, that reminded her... Well, this would be hard, of course it would be. It would be painful, and a struggle, but it was better. So much better than being a prisoner.
“Your family is waiting,” the nurse said kindly. “I’ve got your copy of the discharge papers and the referrals from the psychiatrist. Is there anything you’d like me to relay to your family for you?”
Gabby shook her head, forcing herself to climb off the bed and onto her own two feet. Her own two feet, which had gotten her this far.
She took a shaky breath and followed the nurse out of the safety of her hospital room. The corridor was quiet save for machine beeps and squeaky shoes on linoleum floors. Gabby thought she might throw up, and then they’d probably take her back to a room and she could...
But they reached the doors and the nurse paused, offering a comforting smile. “Whenever you’re ready, sweetheart.”
Gabby straightened. She’d never be ready, so taking a second was only delaying the inevitable. “Let’s go.”
The nurse opened the doors and stepped out, Gabby following by some sheer force of will that had gotten her through eight years of hell.
The nurse walked toward three women sitting huddled together. None of them looked familiar and yet Gabby knew exactly who they were. Grandma, Mom, Natalie. Older and different and yet them.
Natalie got to her feet, her face white and her eyes wide as though she were looking at a ghost.
Gabby felt like one. Natalie reached out, but it was almost blindly, as if she didn’t know what she was reaching for. As if Gabby were really a vision Natalie’s hand would simply move through.
Her little sister. A woman in her own right. Eight years lost between them, and she was reaching out for a ghost. But Gabby was no ghost.
“Nattie.” It was out of her mouth before Gabby’d even thought it. She grabbed Natalie’s hand and squeezed it. Real. Alive. Her sister. Flesh and bone and soul. They weren’t the same women anymore, but they were still sisters. No matter what separated them.
Natalie didn’t say anything, just gaped at her. Mom and Grandma were still sitting, sobbing openly and loudly. Two women she’d barely ever seen cry. The Torres family kept their sadness on the down low or hidden in anger, but never...
Never this.
“Say something,” Gabby whispered to Natalie, desperate for something to break this tight bubble of pain inside her.
“I don’t know...” Natalie sucked in a deep breath, looking up at Gabby who remained an inch or two taller. “I’m so sorr—”
Gabby shook her head and cupped Natalie’s face with her hands. She would fall apart with apologies from innocent bystanders. “No, none of that.”
Natalie let out a sob and her entire body leaned into Gabby. A hug. Tears over her. Gabby didn’t sob, but her own tears slid down her cheeks as she held her sister back.
Real. Not a dream. Nothing but real. She glanced over Natalie’s head at her mother and grandmother. She held an arm out to them. “Mama, Grandma.” Her voice was little more than a rasp, but she used as commanding a tone as she could muster. “Come here.”
It only took a second before they were on their feet, wrapping their arms around her, holding on too tightly, struggling to breathe through tears and hugs.
Gabby shook, something echoing all the way through her body so violently she couldn’t fight it off. It was relief. It was fear. It was her mother’s arms wrapped tight around her.
“Are you all right?” Natalie asked, clearly concerned over Gabby’s shaking. “Do you need a doctor? I’ll go get the nu—”
But Gabby held her close. “I’m all right, baby sister. I just can’t believe it’s real. You’re all here.”
“They...told you about... Daddy?”
Gabby swallowed, her chin coming up, and she did
her best to harden her heart. She’d deal with the softer side of that grief some other time. “The Stallion made sure I knew.”
“But...”
Gabby shook her head. She shouldn’t have mentioned that man, that evil. She was free, and she wasn’t going back to that place. “No. Not today. Maybe not ever.”
“One of us needs to get it together so we can drive home,” Mama said, her hand shaking as she mopped up tears. Her other hand was a death grip around Gabby’s elbow. Gabby didn’t even try to escape it. It was like an anchor. A truth.
“I’m all right,” Natalie assured them. “I’ll drive. Right now. We’re free to go. We’re... Let’s get out of here. And go home.”
“Home,” Gabby echoed. What was home? She supposed she’d find out soon enough. But as they turned to leave the waiting room, someone entered, blocking the way.
Gabby’s heart felt as though it stopped beating for a good moment. She barely recognized him. He’d had a haircut and a shave and today looked every inch the FBI agent in his suit and sunglasses.
She stiffened, because she wasn’t ready for this, because her first instinct was to throw herself at him.
Because an angry slash of hurt wound through her. He hadn’t come to check on her, and no one had told her what had happened to him.
She’d been afraid to ask. Afraid he’d be dead. Afraid he’d been a figment of her imagination. So afraid of everything outside these walls.
Now he was just here, looking polished and perfect. Not Jaime, but the man he’d been before the compound. A man she didn’t know and...
She didn’t know how to do all of this today, so she threw her shoulders back and greeted him coolly, no matter how big a mess she must look from all the crying.
“Ms. Torres.”
Even his voice was different, as though the man she’d known in the compound simply hadn’t existed. That had been a beating fear inside her for days and now it was a reality.
She could only fight it with a strength she was faking.
His gaze took her in quickly then moved to her sister. “Ms....well, Natalie, I’ve got a message for you.”
Gabby’s grip tightened on Natalie’s arm, though she didn’t dare show a hint of the fear beating against her chest.
“It’s from the Texas Rangers’ office.”
It was Natalie’s turn to grip, to stiffen. Jaime held out a piece of paper and Natalie frowned at it. “They couldn’t have called me? Sent an email?” she muttered.
Jaime’s gaze was on Gabby and she just...had to look away.
“Agent Alessandro, would you be able to escort Gabby and my family home while I see to this?”
Gabby whipped her head to her sister, whose expression was...angry, Gabby thought. She thought she recognized that stubborn anger on her sister’s face.
“I’d love to be of service,” Jaime said. “But I doubt your sister...”
He was trying to beg off because of her? Oh, no. Hell, no. “Oh, no, please escort us, Mr. Alessandro. I don’t have a problem with it in the least,” Gabby replied, linking arms with Mama and Grandma.
He didn’t get to run away anymore.
Gabby saw the uncertainty on Natalie’s face, but Gabby wanted to be done. Done with law enforcement and the past eight years. “Tie up loose ends, sissy. I want this over, once and for all,” she said, not bothering to even look at Jaime.
“It will be,” Natalie promised before she stalked past Jaime.
When Gabby finally looked at Jaime, his eyebrows were drawn together, some emotion shuttered in his expression. She couldn’t read it. She didn’t want to.
He didn’t want anything to do with her now. Couldn’t even stand to be in her presence? Well, she’d prove that she didn’t care about him at all, no matter that it was a lie.
* * *
Driving Gabby and her mother and grandmother home was very much not on Jaime’s list of things to do today. It, in fact, went against everything he was trying to do.
The FBI psychiatrist he’d been forced to talk to had insisted that any relationship with Gabby had been born of the situation and not actual feeling.
Jaime didn’t buy it. He was too seasoned an officer, had been in too many horrible situations. He knew for a fact Gabby was just different.
But the problem was that Gabby wasn’t a seasoned officer. She was a woman who’d been a kidnapping victim for eight years, and no matter what he felt or what he was sure of, she had a whole slew of things to work through that had nothing to do with him.
He’d only meant to relay the message from Ranger Cooper to Natalie. Not...see Gabby. With her family. The same woman he’d shared a bed with only a few days ago, before the strange world they’d been living in imploded.
She’d been crying, it was clear. He’d had to stand there, forcing himself not to take another step, for fear he would grab her away from all of them.
He glanced over at her sitting in his passenger seat. She was in his car. His car. In the daylight. Real and breathing next to him.
Her eyes were on the road, her profile to him, chin raised as though the road before them was a sea of admirers she was deigning to acknowledge.
He wanted to stop the car and demand she tell him everything, forget the fact her mother and grandmother were in the back.
But those women remained a good reminder of what had knocked him out of the raging idiot who’d nearly gotten himself fired and ruined the rest of his life. Women who’d truly suffered, nearly as much as Gabby, in the loss of her.
She deserved the time and space to rebuild with her family first. He didn’t have any place in that. He would drive her home and...
He had to grip the wheel tighter because if he thought about leaving her at her house and just driving away...
But he’d made his decision. He’d made the right choice. He would keep his distance. He would give her time to heal. If she... Well, if she eventually came to him... He had to give her the space to make the first move.
You know that’s stupid.
He ground his teeth together. No matter how stupid he thought it was, he was trying to do the right thing for Gabby. That’s what was important.
“Natalie tells us you were undercover with the evil man?” Gabby’s grandmother asked from the back seat.
“Yes.” He turned onto the street Gabby’s mother had named when they’d started. He didn’t realize he’d slowed down to almost a crawl until someone honked from behind.
“It’s the blue one on the corner,” the grandmother supplied.
Jaime nodded and hit the accelerator. No matter that he didn’t want to let Gabby out of the car, it was his duty. More, it was what she needed. Her family. Her life.
It would be a difficult transition for her, and he didn’t need to make that any more complicated for her. It was the right thing to do.
No matter how completely wrong it felt.
He pulled his car into the driveway of a small, squat, one-story home. It looked well kept, if a little sagging around the edges.
Gabby blinked at it and it took every last ounce of control he had not to reach over and brush his mouth across the soft curve of her cheek. Not to touch her and comfort her.
She looked young and lost, and he wanted to protect her from all that swamp of emotion she’d be struggling with.
“I got written up,” he blurted into the silence of the car.
What the hell are you doing?
He didn’t know. He needed to stop.
“You...” Gabby blinked at him, cocking her head.
“I think they gave me a little leeway what with just being out of undercover and all, but they don’t take kindly to ignoring orders.”
Shut your mouth and let her go, idiot.
“You...ignored orders,” she repeated, as though she didn’t quite believe it.
<
br /> “They told me not to come to the hospital. Or try to see you. I may have...” He cleared his throat and turned his attention to the house in front of them. “I may have caused a bit of a scene.”
“He got kicked out by security guards that first morning you were in the hospital,” Grandma offered from the back. “A little rougher around the edges that day.”
Jaime flicked a silencing glance in the rearview at the grandma. She smiled sweetly. “Natalie said you must have spent some time together when you were both in that place. Did you take care of our Gabriella?”
Gabby stiffened.
“I tried,” Jaime said, perhaps a little too much of his still simmering irritation bleeding through. If she had come with him, she wouldn’t have been in that standoff with Alyssa. They would have had... They could have...
“Mama, Grandma, will you...give me a few minutes alone with Agent Alessandro?” Gabby asked, her voice soft if commanding.
“Gabriella...” Her mother reached over the seat and put a hand to Gabby’s shoulder.
“Gabby, please. Only Gabby from now on,” Gabby whispered, eyes wide and haunted and not looking back at her mother.
“Come inside, baby. We’ll—”
“I just need a few minutes alone. I promise. Only a few.” She looked back at her mother and offered a smile.
But he was supposed to be giving her space. Not...alone time. “You should go—”
Gabby sent him a glare that would have silenced pretty much anyone, Jaime was pretty sure.
“Come now, Rosa,” the grandmother said, patting the mother’s arm. “Let’s let these two talk. We’ll go make some tea for our Gabri—Gabby.”
Gabby’s mother brushed a hand over Gabby’s hair, but reluctantly agreed. The two women slid out of the back of his car and walked up to the house with a few nervous glances back.
Gabby’s gaze followed them, an unaccountable hurt languishing in her dark brown eyes. He kept his hands on the wheel so he wouldn’t be tempted to touch her.
