Gabe

by Ruth Cardello

  A brilliant, sexy, troubled addiction. He’d never been one to hold on to anything or anyone, which was obvious in his initial reaction to sell the ranch, but he felt different around her. She was a high that energized him, made him feel that anything was possible. His staff joked that ranch life must be good for him because he’d reeled in the key foreign clients and more. He normally worked much slower, methodically, making very few moves he hadn’t thoroughly investigated. He’d taken a few risks this time, and they had paid off.

  Could a real estate man have a muse? She felt like one. He’d thought working from a satellite office would hinder his ability to oversee his team, but instead it freed him to focus on the bigger picture and delegate the mundane aspects of relocating to Silicon Valley. He’d never considered himself a micro-manager, but his teams were thriving under his less controlling direction.

  As his company had grown, his role had changed. He brokered multi-million-dollar estates and corporate land deals. In the beginning he’d been involved in all aspects of moving the properties, but he’d moved to more of a spearhead role. He cleared the way for his people to work in a new market. He dealt with politicians who might try to block a sale or purchase. Most recently that role had gone international, involving governments and growing his network internationally.

  I can do all of that from here for a month.

  And then what?

  He slid out of bed, careful not to wake her, and threw on a pair of sweats. He headed to his father’s office. The hour of night was irrelevant; Gabe had things he needed to set into motion, and they would be easier to organize while Josephine slept.

  He called Andre Woods, the head of his security team, who was smart enough to pick up.

  Gabe had a great respect for Andre’s ability to get things done and to do so without the need of time-consuming social niceties. “What did you find out about Frank Muller?”

  Andre’s voice went from groggy to businesslike as he spoke. “Small-time inventor of household conveniences. Lives mostly off the grid. Supplements the small income he makes from the sales of early inventions by working as a caretaker or house-sitter. He was hired as a caretaker of the ranch five years ago by the property management company your father used. That business went under, but Frank stayed on.”

  “His connection to Roy Ashby?”

  “Nothing beyond that they grew up in the same town.”

  “Anything new about Raymean and Roy Ashby?”

  “No one’s talking. First responders to the scene are tight-lipped. There is nothing to disprove Raymean’s version of what happened, but also nothing that confirms it. No photos. No video. It’s all too neat. Too tight. Sounds scripted that they’re all saying the same thing. Want me to dig deeper?”

  Gabe thought about the woman sleeping in his bed upstairs. Mostly believing her wasn’t good enough. “There was or is a video of what happened in Ashby’s lab the night he died. What would you need to get me either the video or proof of what was on it?”

  Andre answered without hesitation. “Money. The people I talked to didn’t look scared, they looked bought. Throw sufficient cash at them and someone will talk. But know that there might be consequences.”

  “I’ll handle the consequences. What kind of money are we talking about?”

  “I won’t know for sure until I make them an offer and see their reaction. My guess is you’re looking at five, maybe six figures. How high do you want me to go?”

  “For a first-hand account that’s reasonable, stay in five figures. For the video, go to seven figures if you need to. I want to know what happened that night, but I want to see it with my own eyes or it’s worth next to nothing to me.”

  “Understood.”

  “And, Andre, I need more men down here. Well-paid and well-armed.”

  “You’ll have them by tomorrow morning. Something happen? My last report said all was quiet.”

  “It has been so far, but I may have just given her location up. I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure out exactly how dark that dark web is.”

  Andre cleared his throat. “I have to throw this out there. Are you sure she’s worth it? This isn’t a dirty politician you’re taking on. Raymean not only has money, it has an army of lawyers. You’re waking a giant.”

  “Do you think Raymean had Roy Ashby killed?”

  “They’re hiding something.”

  “Find out what and make sure it doesn’t get us all killed.”

  “I need a raise,” Andre joked.

  “Bring me that video and you’ll have it.”

  After hanging up with Andre, Gabe went back upstairs and slid into bed beside Josephine. She moaned, turned over, and threw an arm around his waist. He ran his hand lightly through her hair.

  Andre said I might be waking a giant, but the giant took something that didn’t belong to him. When he thought back to Josephine’s impassioned plea, he was moved. Again. “Protecting the men and women who protect us is what got my father out of bed every morning. And finishing this for him is all I have left.”

  Gabe thought about his brothers who had served in the military. He wanted to believe that there were good people out there who supported the armed forces—supported what his brothers had done out of a sense of duty.

  This isn’t about money. Not for her. Not for me.

  I believe her.

  You’re safe now, Josie.

  And we’ll find out what happened to your father.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Midday the next day, Josephine paused while inputting data into her computer. She wasn’t used to smiling as she worked, but she knew she was. Gabe had made a place for himself in the corner of her lab. Everything felt possible with him by her side. Hope had replaced desperation. Passion had eviscerated loneliness.

  He looked up from working online and returned her smile. From the way his gaze ran over her, she wondered if he was remembering the slow lovemaking they’d started their day with or the rough and wild sex that had followed in the shower. She couldn’t have said which she’d enjoyed more because every time with Gabe was different and wonderful in its own way.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked in that deep, gravelly voice of his.

  “Naughty, naughty thoughts,” she joked and winked.

  His smile widened. “Great minds think alike.” He nodded at her computer. “Are you making any progress?”

  “Not yet, but I’m turning my testing to the relationship between electrolytes and the magnesium ions when they shed their coordination spheres. Primarily the first sphere since that has the greater influence on the reactivity and chemical properties.”

  He cocked his head to one side. “Coordination spheres?”

  “The metal atom plus the ligands that are bonded to it,” she added and waited. “The molecules that attach themselves to the metal.”

  “Ligands?”

  “A molecule that binds to another molecule.”

  “Molecule?” he asked with a straight face, and she realized he was playing with her. If she’d had something to throw at him, she would have.

  Instead she decided to give him some of his own medicine. “Let me see if I can explain this better.” She made her voice low and sexy. “Hi, I’m a metal atom, and I want to bond with an ion. I want it so, so bad. I crave his electron pairs. I want him around me. Not just any ligand. It has to be the right one or my performance won’t be stable. So I’m stripping and inserting different solvents because too hot/too fast is disappointing. I want this coupling to go all night when I need it to.”

  Gabe loosened his tie. “You can talk science to me any day. That’s how all science classes should be taught. I was expecting the atom to add: Although if you were my teacher, I’d want you naked.”

  She laughed both because of his joke and because being with him made her feel young and sexy. It was not only exciting, but also fun.

  She didn’t allow herself to fixate on the situation that had brought them together. He wasn’t
stopping her from moving forward with her goal, but in fact, by encouraging her to reach out to her network, he’d given her project new life. Her online contacts hadn’t solved her problem, but they’d asked questions that would broaden her testing.

  “How is your work going?” she asked.

  He glanced down at his laptop and then back at her. “A failed government coup in a country where a client of mine was hoping to relocate one of his factories put the deal on hold.” He rubbed his chin. “I would try to make that sound sexy, but what if I just flex?” He lifted an arm and reached for a water bottle while flexing the muscles in his arm. “Does that do it for you?”

  She laughed again. Gabe was as beautifully complicated as the atom structure solution of any decagonal quasicrystal. Just when she thought she understood him, she saw another side to him. He was physically stunning, which should have given him a huge ego, but hadn’t. He was intelligent and successful but had a limited working understanding of the nature of what she was trying to do. Some men might have been intimidated when involved in something outside their area of expertise, but Gabe took their differences in stride—even found humor in them. That required real confidence and, man—that was sexy as all hell.

  She had a hard time finding a single fault in him, outside of the fact that he hadn’t said he believed her. It felt too good to be true, but she didn’t question it because she didn’t want to. She already knew what it was like to be afraid, completely alone, and to have had her heart broken by those she thought she could trust.

  Even if I discover that Gabe isn’t the man I think he is, I need this. I need to remember what it was like to believe in someone—anyone.

  “You’ll notice a few more men around here today,” he said.

  She didn’t want to ask, but she needed to. “Why? Did you hear something?”

  He stood, walked over to where she was sitting, and held out a hand to her. She took it and rose to her feet before him. “I told you I’d keep you safe. That’s what I’m doing. You don’t have to look over your shoulder anymore. Work on your battery. Prove what your father said could be done is actually possible. Let me worry about the rest.”

  She searched his face. She’d never had anyone look after her. Even with her father, Josephine had always been the caretaker. She’d never had anyone she could lean on. She didn’t have the words to express how much she wanted what he was offering, so she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers.

  She put all of her feelings into that kiss: her hope, her fear, her gratitude. She’d never been in love, but she felt herself falling into that kiss, into him. His kiss was bold and consuming. It left no room for anything but complete submission and ownership, but it created a need in her that only he could fulfill.

  As her clothing fell to the floor, his mouth worshipped each new area revealed. She was quivering with desire and blindly undressing him when she heard him softly tell her to slow down. She didn’t. She couldn’t. She was afraid if either of them stopped long enough to think about what they were doing together it would end.

  She sank to her knees and took him deeply into her mouth. He moaned and dug his hands into her hair. “Don’t listen to me, Josie, go as fast or slow as you want. Just don’t stop.”

  Over the next two weeks, Gabe and Josephine fell into a deeply satisfying pattern. During the day they worked side by side in her lab, spicing the day up with work breaks that left both of them sweaty, sated, and smiling. Every evening they enjoyed another aspect of the ranch. Slowly, in ways that disturbed neither their work nor their pleasure, Gabe was having the ranch updated. The pool was cleaned and filled. Fresh coats of paint brought a shine to areas that had begun to show signs of neglect. On the outside the ranch was beginning to look the way Gabe felt on the inside—new, fresh. Losing his father and finding Josephine had brought life to a part of Gabe he hadn’t known he’d starved.

  Two weeks and he wanted to be with her every bit as much as the day he’d met her. The sex was amazing, but their connection was deeper. He’d dated intelligent women, but Josephine was a genius. A humble one. When she’d said the greatest minds of their time turned to her for advice, he’d thought she was enhancing the truth to impress him. Time beside her at the lab had taught him that if anything she undersold herself and her network. No wonder her father had kept her out of the limelight. Someone like her would be gobbled up by a government agency, especially if they knew how much influence she had in everything from biochemistry to satellite technology. They’d want to control her.

  Our kids will be brilliant.

  One evening, during a walk, he asked her what she wanted after she cleared her father’s name. “Would you start your own company? Go after a military contract? The world knew your father. They could know you now.”

  She skipped a stone across the creek and took a moment before answering. “I had a very brief taste of what people would call normal when my dad and I lived in Connecticut. I had friends and a home for the first time. I don’t want to be known, I want to be normal. Is that crazy? Christmas has always been about just my dad and me. This will be my first one without him.” She blinked back tears. “I hope I don’t spend it alone.”

  He took her hand and raised it to his lips. For a long time, the holiday had meant next to nothing to him, but he wanted to give her what she’d never had. “We’ll spend it together.”

  She smiled sadly. “You don’t have to promise me anything. I’ve been living day to day for so long I’m used to it. I wouldn’t even be thinking about the holidays if you hadn’t asked what I want.”

  He turned and kissed her lightly on the lips then. “You need to believe in me.”

  Another small smile. “I do? Why?”

  “Because I believe in you.”

  She burst into tears and threw herself into his arms. He’d grown up in a household of men so he wasn’t entirely sure but he thought that was a good sign.

  They made love near the spot where he’d once broken his arm, proving conclusively that the view from the ground had more potential than the treetop ever would. On the way back to the main house, Gabe’s phone rang. When he saw the caller, he froze. Andre. He’d said he’d call as soon as he knew something. Gabe’s expression must have revealed something because Josephine’s hand tensed in his.

  “Who is it?” she asked in a concerned tone.

  He dropped her hand and waved for her to go inside. “Work. I’ll join you in a few minutes.”

  She looked like she wanted to ask him more, but she didn’t. “Is everything fine with the office move? I know some people who could help with the computer system if you’re still having issues with it.”

  The call went through to his messages unanswered. He wasn’t about to take that call in front of her. “No, we resolved the glitch. Go inside. I’ll be right in.”

  “Okay,” she said reluctantly. Her instincts were too damn good.

  As soon as the door closed behind Josephine, Gabe returned Andre’s call. “Did you find anything?”

  “Yes, but it’s not what I expected.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Josephine paced the living room floor while waiting for Gabe to join her. She liked to think she was a confident, modern woman who could face anything. Her stomach had twisted into a ball of knots as soon as Gabe had turned his phone away so she couldn’t see the caller ID.

  Two weeks of working side by side had given Josephine a false sense of security. She’d thought Gabe hadn’t hidden anything from her. He’d talked to his team, his clients, even some adversaries. She’d heard him negotiate, placate, and threaten. Until that moment she’d thought they didn’t have secrets from each other.

  But we do.

  If Josephine had been the paranoid type, she would have bugged his phone. She’d had enough access to his technology and knew people who could help her hack into them without him ever knowing. She hadn’t done any of that, though, because she trusted him.

  Who would he n
ot want me to know he’s talking to?

  Someone at Raymean?

  Another woman?

  Both possibilities played to fears she’d tried to convince herself she didn’t have. She’d stabilized her power cell, at least in computer simulations. It was time to test it out on the bike itself. Although she’d told Gabe she was close to the solution, she hadn’t told him exactly how close. She wanted to surprise him by whizzing by him on the StealthOff. When she fantasized about that moment, she’d imagined two versions—one where she rode by looking amazing in an all-black, skintight suit and the other where she was naked. Both scenarios culminated in an erotic celebration of her discovery.

  Does he know how close I am? Is he reporting to someone who wants the power cell?

  Or worse.

  Well, not sure if it’s worse, but it would kill me in another way.

  Two weeks into a four-week stay on the ranch, is he getting sick of me? Is he talking to whoever he’ll return to when he goes home?

  Why would he say all the wonderful things he does if he doesn’t mean them?

  Isn’t that what all women ask themselves when they discover the man they’re falling in love with isn’t falling in love with them? What the heck am I doing?

  Falling in love?

  She sat on a chair. She let her head hang between her legs and took several deep breaths. Oh, my God. I’m falling in love.

  Should I tell him?

  Would that change his mind if he’s just about to turn me and my research over to someone in exchange for money?

  Josephine hadn’t grown up with girlfriends she confided in. She grasped wildly at dark questions. Does he have someone else? Would hearing that I love him keep him out of the arms of another woman?

  She felt like she was going to throw up, so she rushed to the downstairs bathroom and bent over the toilet. When nothing came up, she washed her face off with a wet cloth and looked herself in the eye in the mirror above the sink. Don’t do this. Don’t assume something is bad simply because he doesn’t want to share it.