“There are regulations for buildings and rescues,” she says. “We can’t just move them to someplace random.”
“Trust me, Abbie. I got this.” I pull out my phone and dial a large client of mine, billionaire Grayson Bennett, who unlike most billionaires I know, isn’t a pretentious ass. He answers on the first ring. I explain the situation, including the regulations. “Give me half an hour. Mia and I,” he adds, speaking of his fiancée, “are in town. We’ll come help. Text me the address.” We disconnect.
Abbie gives me a hopeful look. “Anything?”
I tell her who I called and why. “I’ve heard of him. Of course, my ex was competitive with all those who might be considered a threat.”
“Like me? Because I’m the one who gets to fuck you now?”
“He barely fucked me when he had the chance. I don’t know why he would care now.”
“Men tend to want what they can’t have. The challenge stirs that primal side of us. He’ll come for you again, now that he knows I’m in the picture.”
“I don’t want him, Gabe if that’s what you’re asking me again. Because you asked in the car.”
“What do you want, Abbie?”
“What I shouldn’t want.”
I snag her waist and pull her to me. “What do you want, Abbie?”
“You, Gabe. I want you, but you have to see now how dangerous he is. He threatened you and I saw your face. He hit a nerve. Whatever, or whoever KM is, is a problem for you.”
“No,” I say. “KM is not a problem for me.” But she will be for Abbie, if I allow her to be, but I won’t.
My cellphone rings and I pull it from my pocket. “Grayson,” I answer, and listen as Grayson details the solution that I knew he’d find. “And text me the address,” he says. “I’m sending over transportation. Mia and I are on our way.” We disconnect, and I text the address while Abbie eagerly waits.
“Well?” she prods.
“Not only did he convince a friend that owns a ranch in the Hamptons to shelter the dogs, he’s sending transportation, on his dime, to get them there. All of this is free of charge.”
Her eyes go wide, excitement bubbling from her voice. “Really?”
“Really.”
“Gabe,” she says. “Like for sure. Really?”
I laugh. “Yes, sweetheart. Really.”
“Oh my God! I have to tell mom.” She turns and shouts. “Mom!” as if her mother was still close enough to hear, and then turns around to face me.
“Gabe.”
“Abbie.”
She wraps her arms around my waist. “You are a miracle. You are incredible. You are not an asshole after all. Thank you.” Her green eyes are warm with appreciation, little flecks of gold in their depths.
“My pleasure, Abbie,” I say, stroking her hair. “Your pleasure as soon as I get you alone again.”
“About that,” she says. “I’m still not staying with you beyond tonight.”
I arch a brow. “I didn’t know we had a limit on nights.”
“Yes you did, because I’m trouble for you. I told you that. You’ve seen that now. I’m not dragging you into my trouble. And I’m definitely not falling for you.” Her lips curve. “Though you make it very tempting.”
“Good,” I say. “Because I’m definitely not falling for you, no matter how tempting you make it.” But I don’t smile to finish my tease, as she has. I kiss her instead, and as always, she drugs me with the sweet taste of her, with the delicate, sexy strokes of her tongue. I’m not a man to deny anything, good or bad and I’m not about to deny where I’m at right now with this woman. I’ve already fallen for Abbie when I promised I’d never fall for anyone ever again.
Not after the hell that was KM.
Abbie thinks she’s trouble.
She doesn’t know what kind of trouble I am. And she can’t. She can’t know. Not now. Not ever.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Gabe
The minute Abbie and I walk inside the doors of the shelter, there are cages, people, and animals everywhere. There is also water on the floor, even here in the lobby. Not a lot, but enough to tell me this problem is a massive one. I’m just trying to get a grip on how bad things are when Abbie intervenes. “This way,” she says, snagging my hand and tugging me forward. She does so with the ease of someone who knows we’re together. And I fucking love it, which is another one of those astounding moments with this woman for me. I want her to act like we’re a couple. I want her to want to be with me, when normally, I just want a woman who knows we’re fucking. Nothing more. Nothing less. But this time, it’s more. I could lecture myself as to why that’s a bad idea, but why? It’s happened. It’s not going to un-happen. She happened.
“Mom!” Abbie shouts as we enter the office, racing toward one of several exam rooms as her mother comes running out of one of them, looking frazzled.
“What is it? What happened now?” her mother exclaims.
“A good thing,” Abbie exclaims, her hands adorably animated as she adds, “Gabe knows Grayson Bennett, you know, the billionaire who owns half the city? He landed us a ranch in the Hamptons and transportation to get the animals there.”
Her mother blanches. “What? Are you sure?” Her attention goes to me. “Really?”
“The trucks are on the way now,” I offer. “Grayson and his fiancée are even coming here to help.”
Her mother stares at me like I’ve just spoken another language and then wraps her arms around me, giving me a big hug. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” She pulls back. “Really, I do appreciate this, but I do need to say something to you.”
My brow furrows. “O—kay.”
“The help you give us won’t get you out of trouble if you hurt my daughter. She doesn’t need another man who plays the nice guy right up until the moment when he lures her to a place of no return.”
She’s just told me more about Abbie’s history than Abbie herself has told me, in just those two sentences. “Mother!” Abbie admonishes. “Stop it.”
“I mean it,” her mother says, focused on me, ignoring her daughter. “I watched her go through five years of misery with her asshole ex. I’m not watching it again.”
“I’m not going to hurt her,” I promise. “She might just be the one who hurts me. She keeps trying to get rid of me.”
Her mother smiles. “Then I guess you need to work harder.”
My lips curve. “I guess I do.”
“Oh Jesus, mother,” Abbie groans. “And you too, Gabe. I’m here. Stop talking like I’m not.”
I grab her and pull her to me, kissing her soundly on the lips. “I’m quite aware of your present location.”
Her mother laughs while Abbie gives me an incredulous look.
“Wait,” her mother says, pulling us back into the present problems. “What about the staff we need to care for the animals? Can they stay at the ranch?”
“Grayson and I didn’t talk about this, but he’s a smart man. He knows they need care. I’ll donate the room and board for whatever staff you need to be there and I’m more than willing to go help myself.”
“Gabe—” Abbie begins and I shut her down. “It’s a tax write-off, Abbie, of which I need my share of this year, considering it’s almost over.”
“Abbie, huh?” her mother comments. “I haven’t heard anyone call her that in decades.”
“So I hear,” I reply, as a yipping sound comes from one of the rooms followed by more yipping.
“Puppies!” Abbie exclaims. “Are the puppies here?!”
“They are,” her mother says. “Back room.”
Abbie grabs my hand again. “Come. We have babies to attend to.”
Babies.
Fuck.
Why did her saying that just make me get hard? I don’t want babies. I have never wanted babies. I will never want babies and for reasons I intend to tell no one.
Abbie leads me to a back room and before I know it, we are both on the floor next to a bed with a mama p
up and her babies. I watch Abbie fuss over the sweet little things and I swear everything this woman does undoes me. “Do you have a dog of your own?” I ask.
“No,” she replies, and there’s a tightness to her voice and expression that says more than the words, but she offers nothing more. She simply refocuses on the pup in her hand.
“Why not?” I press and she sets the little ball of cuteness down.
“Kenneth doesn’t like dogs.”
My brow furrows and I don’t like where my mind goes. “Wait. Are you telling me that you married a guy who doesn’t like dogs, despite your inherent love of animals? Why would you do that?”
Her gaze sharpens and she stands up. I’m there with her in a heartbeat.
“Why do you think I married him, Gabe?”
“Easy, sweetheart. I’m just asking a question.”
“No. There was an accusation again in your voice, in your eyes. Your eyes tell a story even if you think they don’t.”
My eyes tell a story. Fuck. Is my past that damn present? Of course, it is. KM. Kendall. Fucking Kendall is now between us because of her damn ex.
“You’re right,” I say. “There’s a story behind all of us and behind how we react to things. If mine is showing—”
“It is,” she bites out. “Big-time showing, Gabe.”
I shackle her waist and pull her to me. “And no one else even knows I have a story. You are only seeing it because you rock my world like no one else.”
She’s stiff in my arms, her hand barely resting on my chest. “I don’t think I like how it feels to rock your world.”
I lean in and brush my lips over hers. “I do,” I murmur. “Too much. That’s the problem.”
The tension in her hands eases, her body slowly softening against mine. “Stop judging me by your past because if I judged you by mine, we wouldn’t be together right now.”
“Duly noted and understood,” I say, easing back to look at her. “I’m sorry.”
“Who wanted your money, Gabe?”
I cut my stare and try like hell to block out the demons clawing a path through my damn heart. Her hand touches my jaw. “It’s okay. Tell me when you’re ready, if you’re ever ready.”
I catch her hand and look at her. “The past is the past. You’re the present. You’re what matters.”
Her gaze searches mine, probing, intense, and I have this sense she’s trying to climb inside me and see all those demons clawing away at me, but finally, she says, “He pretended to like dogs.”
He lied.
She’s been lied to.
I’ve been lied to.
“Whatever you get from me,” I vow, “good or bad, will be honest. That’s a promise.”
She swallows hard. “Says everyone who lies.”
“I’d be insulted by that if I didn’t understand it so well. I hate that you do.”
“I wasn’t trying to insult you.”
“You didn’t,” I assure her. “I’ll earn your trust. I’m up for the hard work.”
Now she cuts her gaze, her lashes lowering as she does, blocking out whatever emotion I’ve stirred that she doesn’t want to feel. I slide a finger under her chin and pull her gaze back to mine. “What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know if I can ever trust anyone again. I don’t know if I even want to try.”
“Another something we have in common,” I say. “Another something I wish you didn’t understand as well as you do. Another something that should make us both walk away, but I’m not, Abbie. And I don’t want you to either. Don’t walk away. Don’t let him get in the way.”
“Don’t be an asshole,” she says. “Translation. Don’t let her, whoever she is, get in the way.”
But she can get in the way, I think, because Abbie’s damn ex knows about her. And my father knows everything about her, which is information I have no doubt he’ll use. My father knows that KM is Kendall, a woman who’s my buried past. A woman who was the devil I destroyed.
An act that was brutal, even if deserved, and I’m not sure Abbie can handle just how vicious I was, and am, when I have to be. And I had to be, but I doubt that’s how she’ll see it. Bottom line: I’m the devil who wants her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Abbie
Gabe and I stand in the patient room with Gabbie and her puppies at our feet, a happy little animal family, but we’re focused on each other, on the sins of our past, or the sins committed against us.
But what’s really between us is my ex and his. He knows about mine. He knows who he is, but Gabe doesn’t give me much about his ex, about “her,” whoever she is, but I know she exists. I know she hurt him. I know she’s the reason that he’s single and never been married. It’s a daunting idea. Maybe he still loves her. Maybe he’s damaged. A man who will never want me forever, but in truth, I’m damaged as well. We are two damaged, broken people who have perhaps found each other to heal. In this I find liberation.
I reach up and touch his face. “I don’t need to know your past, Gabe. I don’t need to know who she is.”
He takes my hand. “There’s nothing in my past that does anything but make me want you more, Abbie.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“You will,” he promises, his words cryptic, a hint of rawness to his tone, but before I can press for more, Gabbie paws at Gabe’s leg, breaking the spell between us.
“I have a problem,” my mother declares, rushing into the room.
“Another problem, you mean?” I ask.
“My God,” she breathes out, pressing her hand to her forehead. “There’s someone from the city here who says they’re going to shut us down.”
“Shut down?” I demand. “What? How? Why?”
“And here I thought I didn’t get to play attorney today,” Gabe says. “I got this.” He starts for the door.
My heart lurches and I grab his arm. “Gabe. I got this. I’m the attorney for the shelter.”
“And so am I. I hereby donate my services.”
I step closer to him. “Gabe,” I warn, eyeing my mother with a silent command for privacy. She nods and exits the room. “I don’t need you to protect me,” I say, my voice low as the door is still open.
He strokes my hair, tenderness in his touch. “I know. You’re a tough one, Abbie, and it’s sexy as hell.”
I’m warm and cold at the same time. That’s how crazy this man makes me. I want his help. I think I need it, too, but fear depending on him. I fear how damn vulnerable he’s making me. I want to heal with him, not hurt for him. “I need—”
He kisses me. “Me. You need me. Or you will if I get my way.” He turns and walks out the door and I know he doesn’t know what he said wrong. I know he doesn’t mean he wants me to need him and be captive to his money and power. I know that is not what Gabe means and I mentally kick myself. He just told me to get my ex out from in between us and he was right to make that request. I need my ex gone. I need him to stop making my decisions.
I follow Gabe through the doorway and he’s already facing off with two men in slacks and collared shirts, sans the ties. My mother turns to me, arching a brow. “What is he doing?”
I shove aside all those feelings of fear as they relate to the Gabe’s “need him” comments. We do need him right now. “Gabe and his brother run the firm I went to for help,” I explain as I’d told her about Reid Maxwell. “Reid’s his brother.”
“Shannon!” one of the staff yells, appearing at a doorway leading to the kennels, calling my mother. “We need you.”
“Go,” I say. “Gabe’s good. Really good. We’ve got this.”
Understanding fills her face as does relief. She feels like we have armor and I owe Gabe for this. She has been panicked and beside herself. “You’re just as good,” she says, being the great mom she is, never allowing me to forget I have skills, even when Kenneth did everything in his power to do the opposite. She held me up. She always holds me up.
I touch her arm. “
Go, mom. Take care of the animals.”
She nods and rushes away while I join Gabe as he hands the two men each one of his cards. “Name is Gabe Maxwell, of the Maxwell firm. We’re representing the shelter as of today.”
One of the men takes the card but doesn’t look at it. “I know who you are. You’re expensive.”
“My services are free to the shelter,” Gabe says, and I know why. They’re basically assuming we can’t afford him for long. “Lucky for the shelter, I’m a sucker for a cute Golden Retriever and they happen to have a whole litter of those cute pups.”
“Cute pups and your name can’t save this place,” the older of the two men says, his gray hair slicked back. “The list of violations is too long and the fines are too big. Unless you plan to donate the fees.” He looks at me. “Who are you?”
I ignore his question. We both know he knows who I am. My ex sent him. “We’d like a full list of these violations in official format.”
“Of course,” he says. “All twenty-five thousand.”
It’s all that I can do not to gasp with the magnitude of that number and thank God Gabe steps in and takes control. “Do you have identification and cards, gentlemen?” Gabe asks. “Because I’d like to know whose ass I’m kicking in court, even before I kick it.”
Meanwhile, my mind is playing the number in my head: twenty-five thousand, twenty-five thousand.
“I don’t seem to have a card on me,” the man taking lead says, but he doesn’t even make an effort to look.
The other man, younger by about twenty years, with pitch-black hair, pats his shirt pocket. “Me either. I guess you’ll have to wait for the court filing Monday morning.” He glances at me. “Or wait. I think that’s when the documentation proving your mother’s been defrauding the non-profit system hits the DA’s office.”
My anger is instant, a charge in the air, I cannot contain. This is Kenneth’s doing. This is him setting us up, destroying us because I wouldn’t lay down for him. Because we didn’t just give him the property. I’m about to explode on these men when Gabe grabs my hand, a warning in his touch, a calming effect right along with it, that I don’t expect.
His Demand (Dirtier Duet Book 1) Page 9
