by Louise Dawn
“Yes,” she replied softly.
“I’ll erase you from existence like a dirty smudge if you pose a threat to my team.”
“I understand. I screwed up, but I’m not working with any extremists.”
Max stared at her a second longer and glanced out the window. “Slater, find the closest secure spot, no boxing in and no audience.”
“Sir.”
“And make sure we’re not being followed.”
“Always do.” Slater deftly maneuvered into traffic.
The last time Max lost it this badly was when his team had been blown to shreds in the mall bombing. He was always cool and in control in the field, and that was why he was assigned the team leader position. Evans snatched away that control, and he didn’t like the feeling.
Tension fogged up the vehicle, making it hard to breathe. The wounded look plastered on her pretty face when he’d manhandled her in that bedroom probably meant she’d had a flashback to the attack at La Coraggio. Max also had a freaking flashback. When frisking her, running his hands over her firm buttocks, his flashback had been of her wet naked body orgasming in the shower, and that angered him.
Screw her; this was her own doing. She gently clasped her hands in her lap. Red marks marred her right wrist, marks he’d put there. Slight tremors ran through her, rippling up the side of his arm.
Guilt weighed heavily. Guilt that he couldn’t save anyone. Not Sully, not Mike, none of the victims in the mall attack, not Abigail Evans from herself and, God help him, he couldn’t save himself from getting sucked into this mess and dragging his team along with him.
◊ ◊ ◊
Max glanced at her wrist for the second time. Looking down, Abby saw the red swelling that throbbed in time with her racing heart. Minutes passed as she stared at her still hands, her heart suddenly feeling lighter than it had in years. Max truly cared; the driving force behind this formidable man wedging her into her seat was honor.
Abby had never been this close to someone this fine before. And what she meant by “fine” was a person who displayed integrity, bravery and most of all loyalty to those who deserved it. Stomping all over the scrap of trust he’d bestowed meant that he probably would never believe her, but Abby knew that she could trust him. She’d known it from that first night when he’d comforted her on a cold floor, she was just too stubborn to accept help.
Abby was done with all the secrets, her plans were shot to hell, and she needed expert help. Max stiffened as she touched his leg. That look of contempt would’ve shriveled most humans. “I’m not hurt.”
“What?”
“My wrist is not that sore.”
Slater sniggered up front.
“I don’t give a shit. If you were carrying a weapon, I would’ve broken your twiggy arm in a heartbeat.” He clicked his fingers.
Damn, he was pretty scary when he was mad; she’d literally almost peed herself. He’d do nicely as her right-hand man.
The setting sun bathed the quiet industrial park in golden light. Sunday evening meant the place was deserted. Slater chose a business under construction, just a shell of a building which hadn’t yet had electronic gates installed. There were two exits, one at the front and one around the rear for deliveries. Slater parked around the side of the building near concrete stairs that accessed a side entrance, and Max ordered Abby to sit on them.
Slater remained in the car with the engine running while Max and Johnny took charge of the interrogation.
The industrial park sat on a hill, and the setting sun silhouetted the two men. Both men striking in their own way, John, a colossal mass of muscle and Max, all sinewy strength vibrating with silent energy. His keen eyes seemed calm, but Abby knew better.
Max rubbed a hand over his mouth before folding his arms. A quick scan of the perimeter and he then focused all his attention on her. “Your five minutes has already begun.”
She wouldn’t rush, this was too important. Bowing her head, she expected Max to push, but instead he waited. John turned his back and kept watch. A small stone bit through the coolness of the concrete and she flicked it out from underneath her awkward seat.
“I told the truth about that night.”
“Did you?” Max sneered.
“I never lied about anything, but I left one important thing out. Where do I begin?” Abby rubbed her eyes.
“At the part where you do a good job of convincing us that you’re not a traitor to your country.” Max looked skeptical.
◊ ◊ ◊
“I left out some details of the physical damage done to me that night and the challenges I’d face.”
He’d thought long and hard about that; it was a miracle that she could function at all, yet here she was holding down a job and trying to live a healthy life. Brave. At least that’s what he’d thought until she snuck a phone call on a damn burner…
“The clinic in Dubai took evidence photos, did a rape kit, started me on antivirals and gave me the morning-after pill.”
Max’s stomach always churned with anger when he saw what men on this earth were capable of. He’d come across many atrocities on women during his SF days. Villages raped and pillaged, women mutilated and left to die. They’d rescued girls along the way, but the dead look in their eyes would haunt Max for the rest of his days.
She forged on in a robotic voice. “A security officer stayed by my side the whole time. She held my hand and told me everything would be okay. Her name was Noleen; she was a trained bodyguard assigned to protect any South African dignitaries visiting the UAE. She volunteered to accompany me on the flight to Johannesburg. Noleen and I just clicked, we had this intense connection. She felt like the sister I never had, and I told her things I never told anyone. About that night. About my childhood.”
She swallowed back tears. “Noleen listened and made it her priority to protect me.”
Max didn’t know where this was leading and kept silent. She seemed so lost sitting on the stairs in her pretty dress as the sharp wind blew up wisps of hair. He fought the outrageous urge to sit down next to her and drag those silken tresses off her face. As if hearing him, her hand came up and swiped at the loose strands, tucking them behind a delicate ear.
“I chose to stay in Cape Town for my recovery and rented a beach house from one of Noleen’s friends, using a different name. Those were my darkest days, sleeping mostly or sitting on the beach staring at the ocean. One hot day I remember getting horribly sunburned and not even caring, instead welcoming the pain. I didn’t bother with my healing wrist and missed doctors’ appointments. I wanted to die.”
Max would give anything to rip Khalid’s throat out. Savage bastard.
“Six weeks in and I woke up one warm afternoon needing to use the bathroom but had no energy to move. I’d slept for over fourteen hours. I knew I was depressed but thought abstractly that I was unusually tired. A medical check-up was scheduled for later that afternoon, and I mentioned the lethargy to the doctor. He asked me some interesting questions.” Abby looked directly at Max, a distant emotion littering her eyes. “I’d missed my menstrual cycle, and in my emotional state hadn’t taken note.”
Max took a second for that to sink in and couldn’t stop himself from reeling back. What a fuckup.
“God, Abby.” What this woman had gone through.
She spelled it out for him. “I was eight weeks pregnant.”
Max stood rigidly, contemplating the new scenarios that came into play, fitting the pieces of the puzzle together.
“‘Tell him I love him.’ That’s what you said on the phone. You weren’t talking about Khalid or any other man; you were talking about a child. Khalid has a son.”
Abby’s broken demeanor changed in a heartbeat. “He’s my son,” she spat at him with blazing eyes. “Not Khalid’s. Mine! You hear me? Gabe is mine!”
“Ab’s.”
Wrapping arms around herself, Abby unconsciously rocked on the stairs. Unheeded tears rolled down her cheeks. “If you take the morn
ing-after pill within 24 hours, it is about 95% effective. I guess I fell into that five percent bracket. The doctors and my counselor kept saying that it would probably be wise to abort the baby early on, it would be easier for me, for the healing process. That I didn’t need to go a day longer like that.” She sobbed. “What they meant was a day longer with a monster’s spawn growing inside me.”
Max stepped forward, and Abby raised her hands. “I thought there was something wrong with me because I considered keeping the baby. I swung between abortion, adoption and the horror of keeping a child who might grow up to look just like Khalid. I had crazy thoughts of walking off a cliff and ending it all.”
Ah shit. Max lowered himself gently at the other end of the step.
“Noleen came home for her annual leave and came to visit. I broke down and told her everything. She took me back to her apartment that night, fed me a home-cooked meal and tucked me in. Told me I could only make a decision when I felt well enough. We took long walks, swam in the ocean, and she dragged me to the cinema. Noleen saved me from myself; I felt more human than I had in months. We spoke about the fact that the baby was developing into a unique person who’d be defined as being more than just bloodlines.”
Abby played with a piece of gravel as she spoke. “I thought about my father, how his character has never defined who I am. I’ve succeeded in spite of it.”
She was right.
“Noleen said something to me one day. ‘Sometimes when you’re in a dark place, you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted.’ She’d read it somewhere and liked the quote. That little seed developing inside was my saving grace.” Abby etched a flower on the step with the gravel stone. “The moment my life changed was at the first ultrasound. I heard his little heartbeat and heard the sound of innocence.” She glowed as she talked of her subsequent visits and of feeling him move for the first time, and Max saw how love could transform a pretty woman into a breathtaking vision of radiance.
“When my baby boy was born, Noleen organized home birthing to stay off Khalid’s radar.”
“What’s his name?” Johnny asked.
“Gabriel. Named after the archangel. He’s my angel; he saved us both.” Her sweet smile floored Max; her lashes still damp with tears, she was the fallen angel. Her face bathed in golden light made Max’s heart turn over in awe.
Suddenly growing serious, Abby grabbed his hand. “I have proof. I buried it in the yard. Birth certificates, ultrasound pictures, photographs. I couldn’t risk keeping them in the house.”
“Where is he?” Max asked.
“When did you start watching me?”
He raised an eyebrow and kept silent.
“For goodness sake, it couldn’t have been longer than five months ago because I had Gabe with me in March.”
“We started surveillance in June.”
“Once Gabe was born, I knew I had to get on with my life. He was growing up quickly into an energetic toddler. The design work lay up in Johannesburg, and I knew I could earn more money in a bigger city. I moved here around Christmas. I already had an apartment, which I’d bought as an investment while living in Dubai. I tried to keep to myself but one morning in late February, I ate breakfast at a cozy little coffee shop in Edengate Mall while Gabe slept in the pram. The waiter brought the bill, and when I opened it up, a napkin fell out with a warning written in red.” She paled as she recalled that fateful day.
Max angled towards her. “What did it say?” Had Khalid reestablished a connection? Was this the comms they’d missed?
“‘He knows. Run.’”
“What?”
“The note just said ‘He knows. Run.’ I knew what it meant. Khalid knew about Gabe, someone was warning me.”
“You don’t know that,” Johnny chimed in.
“I do. Because if Khalid had found us I would’ve been dead, and Gabe would be with his father. Khalid desperately wants a son to continue his legacy.”
She had a point.
“That night, I sent Gabe to a safe place. The worst moment of my life was saying goodbye to my baby. He was nineteen months at the time and very much aware of what was happening, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to hide forever, Khalid would eventually track me down, and I’ve been preparing for that confrontation ever since.” Her body stiffened with determination. “If Khalid gets his hands on Gabriel, he’ll raise an extremist soldier, the heir to his evil legacy. Gabe will become like his father. He has to be protected at all costs.”
Max cupped her shoulders. “Khalid is a powerful man. You cannot hide Gabriel forever.”
“He’s with Noleen at a safe house. Gabe knows her, she’s his godmother and will defend him with her life. The call I made was to Noleen.”
“People can be coerced into saying anything. For all you know, Noleen had a gun to her head.”
Abby blanched. “We have code words. She would’ve said something.”
Max leaned back on his elbows. “How often do you communicate?”
“This was the first time.”
Johnny grunted.
“I wouldn’t risk Gabe’s safety. I even missed his second birthday.” She rested her face in her hands. “It’s been seven months since I’ve seen Gabe. He hasn’t seen or heard from his mommy since the day Noleen took him out of my arms.”
“You used a burner phone. Where did you get it from?” Max asked.
Abby raised her head and pursed her lips stubbornly.
“Abby, this isn’t a game.”
She answered reluctantly. “It was placed in the drawer next to the bed.”
“Who put it there?”
“Max—”
“Who put it there?”
“Lizzy,” she said glumly.
Johnny surged forward. “She’s helping you? She knows about Khalid?”
“Kind of…”
Johnny looked keyed up. “What the hell does that mean? She either does or doesn’t.”
“Lizzy thinks I’m running from an abusive ex-boyfriend. Given how we met, I told her a half-truth.”
Now fully invested in the conversation, Johnny knelt on the step, giving her his full attention. “How did you meet?” he asked carefully.
Abby looked directly at Johnny, smiling slightly. “My dear Lizzy never told you, fancy that.”
“Lizzy said she’d met you at an art class.”
“Well, well. My little friend is more guarded than I thought.” Abby grinned. “Your charming interrogation tactics not working for you, buddy?”
The jibe hit home. “Tell me how you met?” The words came out of gritted teeth.
The sky bathed in reds and golds drew her gaze. “When I moved to Johannesburg, I battled to sleep, with recurring nightmares and all. I found a private support group for female victims of violent crimes. We met twice a month.”
Johnny quickly stood up, shoving a finger in her face. “You’re telling me that Lizzy was part of that kind of support group? Bullshit. Her background check doesn’t include any records indicating abuse.”
“Easy, bro.” Max frowned at Johnny.
“Her father is a wealthy man and has connections. After the trial, he made sure the legal evidence was sealed up. He wanted his daughter to have a fresh start without it following her through life. I guess Lizzy isn’t as open as you’d like to think, huh? Maybe lying to her about who you are isn’t the best strategy.”
“What trial? There’s no evidence of trauma, Lizzy is a ray of freaking sunshine and bounces from place to place like a happy Care Bear. She’s a goddamn angel.”
“It’s her story to tell, and you don’t deserve to know it, but yes, Lizzy is an angel. An angel who had an abusive boyfriend who choked her and shoved a gun in her face when she tried to leave his evil ass. She’ll move heaven and earth to help me out, but that doesn’t mean Lizzy deserves any of this. Your deception and lies will destroy her, and she’s barely started living again. So screw you, John. Screw you all.” Abby turned to face the wall.
“Some abusive fucker tried to kill her? Fuck.” Swallowing hard, Johnny turned and walked a small distance away. Max stared at his brother-in-arms. This was getting messy at a rapid rate; Johnny obviously cared more for Lizzy than he was letting on. They were in the damn Twilight Zone.
Shifting his attention back to Abby, Max asked, “Is that the only method of contacting Noleen? The disposable phone you’ve used?”
Abby shook her head. “There’s a second phone in Lizzy’s spare room, hidden under the mattress. Noleen has both numbers listed. If I call her from any other number, she won’t answer.”
“Why keep them at Lizzy’s place?” Max asked.
“In case Khalid breaks into my house or captures me, I don’t want him finding the phones or tracing the calls. I’m just using them to check in.”
“Your plan is full of holes. Noleen would have no idea if you were found or killed by Khalid. She’d have little warning.”
“She wouldn’t need a warning. Khalid would never find them,” Abby vowed.
“You believe that? That you wouldn’t break under torture?”
“I would never give up my baby. I’d die first.”
Max shook his head. “Torture is an ugly game—once the pain gets too much, family turns on family. Terrorists are experts at inflicting pain.”
“I’m a mother; I’d die a thousand times over for my son.”
“I won’t allow it to come to that. Does Gabe carry your last name?”
“Noleen pulled some strings when he was born. We used my grandmother’s name. Capello. Gabriel Capello.”
Max smirked. “Appropriate.”
“What do you mean?”
“Capello means ‘Cloak or Cape.’ Since you’re cloaking Gabe from the world. Well, it’s kind of appropriate.”
Abby looked at Max blankly and then started giggling. “Well, aren’t you a fountain of knowledge.” Her sweet laugh caught him unawares; Max smiled and massaged his temples.
“Johnny, did you catch all that?” Max asked.
“Yeah.”
“Communicate with the rest of the team. Tell Donnie to retrieve the evidence. Abby, where did you hide it?”
