“Skye? You okay?”
“I’m fine. Just a bit groggy. What’s up?”
“You feel up to talking?”
Wariness hit her. “About Kendra?”
“Yes … and about your abduction. I need to know everything you remember.”
She sat up and stretched out the stiffness. “Okay. What do you need to know?”
“You said they knocked you out when they took you. What do you remember from after you woke?”
She rubbed her forehead and tried to recall. The drugs she’d been given blurred a lot of those memories. “I remember being cold. I thought it was dark … but I think that’s because I had a hood over my head.”
“How many of them were there?”
“Two … at the beginning. One grabbed me around my neck. I managed to scream and kick behind me. Then, just as Malcolm ran out of the building, he was shot. The man who held me had both of his hands on me, so he couldn’t have shot a gun. The other man did it.”
“What happened after Malcolm was shot?”
“That’s when they knocked me out.”
“And then, once you woke up?”
She remembered their voices and her terror. “Three … all males … two were young … early twenties. The other one was late thirties … early forties.”
“Do you remember what they looked like?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “One was tall and skinny, with long blond hair and glasses. Early twenties. He had a small goatee, and a really prominent Adam’s apple that jerked a lot when he talked. His name was Joey.” Excitement zoomed through her as she realized she’d remembered everything. She knew she’d wanted to commit their faces to memory but wasn’t sure she’d been able to.
“That’s great. What about the other two?”
“There was a guy named Aaron. He was about five-ten. Short, dark brown hair, hazel eyes … maybe about twenty-two. Clean-cut. I remember thinking he looked like an average, normal guy.”
“What about the third man?”
She shivered. The other two had scared her, but the third man had terrified her. “They called him Styx. He was the older one. Almost completely bald. Had a large gut and yellowed teeth, except for a big gold tooth on the upper front.”
“Hell, how long did you see these guys?”
She shrugged, feeling an odd sort of victory at being able to give such apt descriptions. “A couple of minutes here and there.”
“Anything else?”
Her eyes shut tighter as she tried to force another memory. Blowing out a disappointed breath, she opened her eyes and shook her head. “That’s all.”
The admiration gleaming in Gabe’s eyes sent a thrill through her, easing her somehow.
“That was damn good. With those detailed descriptions, we should be able to get a good composite. Anything else you remember?”
She swallowed hard. “They enjoy their work. The two of them, Aaron and Joey, threw me around the room, playing with me. You know, kind of like a cat plays with its prey?”
Gabe’s eyes went flinty hard and his jaw worked, but all he said was “What else?”
“They kept mentioning ‘the man.’”
“‘The man’?”
“Yes. Apparently the man who was in charge. They said he wouldn’t like that they’d grabbed someone so well known.” Her eyes widened as a memory hit her.
“What, Skye?”
“One of them … it was Styx … he said that with ‘the man’s’ connections, he might even know me.”
“He used those exact words?”
Skylar nodded. “I didn’t really pay attention to it then, but do you think it means something?”
Gabe shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time a respectable citizen was involved in something like this.”
Skylar shivered at the thought of actually knowing someone who could be involved in such a disgusting trade.
“What else … did you ask them any questions?”
“I asked about Kendra. They didn’t want to tell me anything. Finally one of them said that she’d already been spoken for … that she had it good. Better than most.”
“They said those words—she was already spoken for? And had it better than most?”
She jerked her head up. “Yes. Why? Do you think that means something?”
His expression revealed nothing. “Maybe. What else do you remember?”
“They were all excited about who I was. Joey wanted to—” She swallowed hard. “Joey said he wanted to fuck me and kill me. Aaron wanted to wait and see what Styx said first. Styx was the one who knew someone they could sell me to.”
“What else?”
She was noticing something interesting about Gabe. The angrier he became, the quieter his voice was. Though rage glinted in his eyes, his words had become softer, more controlled.
“Styx hit me … knocked me out. The next thing I knew, I was lying on a bed and that horrid man named Victor was taking pictures of me.”
“Was it Styx that caused those bruises all over your face and gave you the black eye?”
“No.” She shivered at the memory of how she’d received each bruise. “I knocked Joey down … rammed my head into his stomach. It made him mad. As punishment, Aaron held me up while Joey hit me.”
Gabe’s jaw clenched, but he said softly, “What else?”
“They’d put tape on my mouth and were throwing me around. I started to vomit and began to choke. They pulled the tape from my mouth and it went all over Joey.”
Skylar stopped when she saw the anger in Gabe’s eyes increase tenfold.
“Go on, Skye.”
She shrugged. “They threw me in the corner, kicked me a couple of times.”
“And?”
“And then Styx hit me … said he’d always wanted to hit a rich bitch.” Without realizing it, she was almost lying down again. The retelling of her abduction had taken a toll she hadn’t expected. Exhaustion slammed in on her. “That’s all I remember.”
Gabe’s face was a mixture of controlled emotions she was too tired to fathom. Her eyes fluttered as she tried to blink back exhaustion.
With the old gentleness that she remembered so well, Gabe pushed her all the way down to her pillow and whispered, “Sleep, Skye.”
Skylar closed her eyes and felt a soft kiss on her forehead. She told herself she was probably dreaming, but she didn’t care. Gabe was here, and for the first time in eight years, she felt whole.
Gabe made it out to the street again without shouting with rage. Seeing Skye’s horror through her eyes made him want to find the bastards and beat every one of them to death.
After several controlled breaths, he pulled his cell out and called Cole.
“Make a call for me. Sounds like her friend might have been targeted from the beginning. Also, the main man might be wealthy and well connected. Maybe from her neck of the woods.”
“Will do. You okay?”
“Fine,” Gabe lied.
Cole snorted. “Yeah. Sure.”
“I will be once we find the bastards.”
“I’ll make the call. See you on Monday.”
Gabe closed the phone and looked out at the busy milling streets of the giant city. This was one of the few large cities he didn’t mind spending extra time in. Even though there was plenty of poverty and sadness, the people were always friendly and filled with the joy of being alive. He admired their ability to find happiness in the simple things.
Today none of that joy penetrated the coldness of his thoughts. Seeing Skye again had reopened some old wounds he’d thought long healed. And it had reignited feelings he’d thought were smothered years ago.
Not that any of that mattered. It couldn’t matter. He wouldn’t let it matter.
Pulling in one last deep breath, Gabe turned to go back inside. By the time he returned Skye to New York, he was sure he would have convinced himself that these feelings were just an illusion. He ignored the little gremlin inside his head that laughi
ngly taunted him with Yeah, right.
ten
Three days later
“Skye, it’s time to go.”
Skylar jerked awake and sat up in bed. “Okay.”
Her bleary eyes gazed around the room she’d been incarcerated in for the last few days. She wouldn’t miss it, that was for sure. She’d been by herself ninety percent of the time. Where Gabe went, and what he did, was a mystery.
At first she’d thought he hadn’t wanted to be near her so he’d gone somewhere else to sleep. But she didn’t think so. He may well not have wanted to be near her, but he wasn’t getting sleep somewhere else. The dark shadows under his eyes and the paleness of his face beneath his tan proved that. But for some reason, he couldn’t stay for more than a few minutes at a time in this room. When he was here, he paced constantly. She knew his dislike of enclosed spaces had something to do with it, but this seemed to be much worse. Had his condition worsened over the years?
“I brought you some coffee, a roll, and some fruit. Eat it, because our transportation is not as deluxe as what you’re used to. No first-class food service or free drinks. You’ll actually be treated like a regular person, not a princess.”
This wasn’t the first time he’d made a snide remark about her wealth. Though the remarks stung, they also grounded her. This was exactly the attitude she’d expected years ago when they’d first met. One of the biggest reasons she hadn’t told him who she was. She had wanted to be seen as just another young girl on vacation. Having him see her as nothing more than that had given her a freedom she’d never experienced. It had also created a deception she sorely regretted.
Unwilling to get into an argument neither of them would win, she took the coffee from the bedside table and headed to the bathroom. No use trying to defend herself against his remarks. He was right. When was the last time she’d flown like a normal person? Of course, she really couldn’t fly like a normal person because of the media frenzy that always surrounded her, but what he said was true. She was used to the best.
Closing the door, Skylar sipped her coffee and proceeded to get ready for what lay ahead. Gabe had given her few details about who they thought had Kendra. But she was glad he didn’t just plan to send her back home without at least letting her try to help in any way she could. He’d told her they were going to Florida to meet with Noah McCall. She just hoped she could find a way to help more.
Yesterday she’d made the dreadful mistake of offering LCR a large reward to find Kendra. That hadn’t gone over well with Gabe. The money hadn’t been offered to him personally, but with his hang-up about her wealth, he’d been the wrong person to say it to.
When she met Noah McCall, she planned to offer what help she could, including money. And if Gabe didn’t like it … that was his problem, not hers.
Gabe glanced over at Skye in the seat next to him. When he’d told her their accommodations wouldn’t be what she was used to, he wondered if she knew how right he was. Even though she wore a black wig and sunglasses and he’d provided her some stage makeup to add some fullness to her face, he wasn’t willing to take chances. So here they sat in what could be called an airplane only in the broadest sense of the word—it had an engine, propeller, two wings, and a few ratty seats. Thankfully, it would take only a couple of hours to get them to São Paulo. Then they’d trade for a more accommodating ride.
“Are you all right?” Skye’s soft, concerned voice pulled him away from the misery he always suffered from. Stupid to think she wouldn’t notice how sweat beaded on his face, his breath rasped from his tight chest, and he continually swallowed to abate the nausea rising to his throat.
“Yeah. Fine.” He shot her a look. “You?”
He hadn’t intentionally sounded condescending, but he couldn’t blame her for flinching. Hell, in the four days since he’d rescued her, he’d done nothing other than try to avoid or demean her when she’d been close. It was a wonder she hadn’t slapped him upside the head half a dozen times. It was no less than he deserved.
His only defense—and a piss-poor one at that—was he literally couldn’t be around her and act naturally. If he went on those natural instincts, then he’d kiss her until they both passed out from pleasure. It had been eight years. Eight cold, damn lonely years.
His cellphone vibrated. Gabe grabbed it, eager to think about anything other than this crazy desire that could never be met. “Yeah?”
McCall’s voice growled back, “Kane is safe. He’s already back home.”
“And McKenna?”
“She’s alive.”
Gabe closed his eyes in regret. How he hated those grim words. Yes, any time an LCR operative was successful in rescuing a victim and managed to stay alive in the process was a good thing. But the term “alive” meant something more. It meant there had been a cost. If it had been a clean rescue, without cost to the operative, Noah would have answered with “She’s good.”
“Alive” meant still breathing but hurting … and not necessarily hurting in the physical sense.
“She take off?” Gabe asked.
“Yeah. Not sure we’ll see her for a while.”
For some reason, maybe because the pain he saw in McKenna’s eyes was a reflection of his own, he always felt a bit more protective of her than he did of most LCR employees. She was young … probably about the age he was when he met Skye.
“Victor taken care of?”
“Permanently.”
Noah’s grim voice held a tinge of satisfaction. A satisfaction Gabe shared. Still, there was a downside. Despite the fact that he was glad that the bastard who’d dared touch Skye was no longer living, McKenna had no doubt done the deed. That was never easy, no matter how lowlife the bastard had been.
“We should be there sometime early morning,” Gabe said.
“You don’t want to get a room or take Skylar to your house … let her relax a day before bringing her in?”
Skylar in his house? Hell no. Once she left, he’d never get her out of his mind. Out of his house. He’d have to move and it’d taken years to find a place he actually liked living.
“No. We’ll head to the office as soon as we land.”
“See you then.”
Gabe hung up the phone and glanced over at Skye, who was pretending to stare out the window, even though he knew she’d heard every word he’d said.
She turned to look at him. Figuring she was about to ask him about his phone call, he was caught off guard with her question.
“When are we going to talk about the gorilla in the room?”
She didn’t have to explain what she meant. They’d yet to address the fact that they were still married. Of course, he’d known that for years. She had just learned about it.
“What’s there to talk about?”
“We’re still married, Gabe.”
“I realize that, Skye. Known it for a long time.”
Her eyes flickered with hurt. Yeah, she knew he was a prick, but seeing her hurt tore at him. He’d much rather have her spitting fire at him. Pissing her off would accomplish that. “What’s the matter? You worried some of your society friends are going to find out you’re married to a former coal miner? Too bad, princess. We’ve got a young girl to find. That’s our priority. If the cat gets out of the bag, you can always say I was one of your charity cases.”
Her eyes narrowed into an icy glare. “I am sick of your thinly veiled innuendos about my wealth. I know exactly what the priorities are. You, however, seem to be able to pick and choose yours whenever the mood hits you.”
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
She stood. “You figure it out … you’re so damned smart. I’m going to the ladies’ room.”
Skylar stalked toward the tiny closet masquerading as a minuscule bathroom. She’d already visited it twice. She didn’t have a choice. If she stayed sitting beside Gabe, she’d find something heavy and exceedingly lethal to hit him with. How in the hell could she ever have thought she loved him? He w
as such a jerk.
The tiny mirror attached to the wall showed a distorted image of her face. The blur was from the tears filling her eyes. Dammit, she hated to cry. The makeup Gabe had made her put on would run and she’d look even more ridiculous. Not that it mattered. The only man she cared about could barely even stand the sight of her.
How different things were now. They had both changed so much. Not only in looks, but in attitudes. Eight years ago, Gabe had been such a gentleman. Though he’d talked little of his childhood, she always figured his father and stepmother must have been exceptional at instilling good manners in him. He’d treated her with respect; had been wonderfully kind. And he’d been so gentle. The first time they’d made love had been her first time. It had been somewhat awkward … and absolutely beautiful. He’d been so sweet. So loving. She’d loved him before they made love. And had loved him a thousand times more after.
“Skye?”
Skylar jumped as Gabe called her name through the thin door.
“Yes?”
“You okay?”
“Yes, I’ll be out in a minute.”
Without asking permission, Gabe pushed the door open. Damn door didn’t even have a lock.
Skylar turned away from him and snapped, “I said I’ll be out in a minute.”
Gentle hands landed on her shoulders as he turned her around. Skylar kept her eyes focused on his broad chest. She would not let him see how much he’d hurt her. He would think she still cared. She didn’t.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’ve been behaving like a bear with a sore paw. You’ve been through hell and I’m not making it any better.”
Oh hell. Now why did he have to go and be nice? Sobs built up and suddenly she couldn’t hold them back.
Muttering another apology, Gabe pulled her against his chest. Skylar buried her face against him and let go. She cried for so many things. Kendra. Malcolm. The trauma she’d gone through. Her father’s cruel betrayal. And Gabe … what they had lost … what no longer existed.
No Chance Page 12
