“Defrauding the non-profit system,” Gabe says slowly. “And you two bozos know about it before we do? Which department are you with, exactly?”
“Regulations and licensing department,” the younger of the men replies. “And the regulation abuses in this place are absolutely insane.”
“Sounds like someone is doing something dirty, but it’s not us,” Gabe says dryly, still holding onto my arm. “There’s good news here.” He looks at me, understanding in his eyes. He gets the panic I feel. He knows I’m about to blow. “Really good news, Abbie.”
“What’s that?” I ask, following along.
“You know I’ve been bored lately.” He turns his attention back to them. “I love playing these kinds of games and nobody has wanted to play with me.” He smiles. “I’m in. Let’s do this.”
The older man’s eyes harden. “You don’t want to play this game.”
“Yes,” Gabe says. “I assure you, I do. Now, it’s time for you two to either go to the back and help dry off some wet dogs, or leave. Take your pick.”
The older man glares at Gabe and then the two men eye each other and turn to leave. Gabe and I watch them until they exit and the minute the doors shut, I turn to Gabe. “My mother didn’t do what they said. This is going to destroy her in all kinds of ways.”
His hands come down on my arms. “I won’t let that happen. I know she’s being set-up. I just need to find out why. And if you know anything that you aren’t telling me, tell me now. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.”
“There’s nothing more to tell,” I say, and I want that to be the truth. I don’t want to lie to Gabe. I’m not. I’m not lying. “I know this is my ex. I know he’s behind this.”
“He is,” Gabe confirms. “Give me a few minutes, Abbie. I need to make some calls. Go help your mother while I protect you both. Okay?”
“How? How are you going to protect us from this monster of a man?”
“Ah now, Abbie,” he says softly, brushing my cheek. “You underestimate me. I am, without question, my father’s son, which is exactly why your ex is going to hate me, and then lose.” He kisses me. “I’ll be back in a few.” He releases me and heads for the door.
I watch him exit and then it hits me that I’ve forgotten something larger than life here for just a minute. My ex now knows that Gabe and I are together. He will go after Gabe. He will hurt Gabe. I can’t let that happen.
I rush forward and exit the building, but I can’t find Gabe. He’s not headed toward the parking lot. His voice lifts, a low, deep rumble—God, I love his voice—that I follow down a path to the right. He’s behind a huge dumpster, and when I would round it to speak to him, I hear, “What the hell don’t I know? Why would a billionaire go to this much trouble to hurt an animal shelter?”
I lean against the wall and squeeze my eyes shut. It’s not about the animal shelter. It’s about me and that’s what I haven’t been honest about.
My ex wants to hurt me and there are reasons. There are things I did, things that make me need to end this with Gabe before it’s too late for him to survive this and me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Gabe
The cold New York City winter chill cuts through me where I stand outside the shelter talking to Royce Walker from Walker Security behind a damn dumpster of all things. The cold cuts like a blade, but I don’t bleed with its impact, not yet at least, but some part of me is certain that is where I’m headed. I’ve been cut by a woman. I’ve bled for her. I’ve bled because of her and that’s not what I intend to live through again, but no matter how many warning bells I hear, I can’t seem to turn away.
“What do you think is going on with this woman?” Royce asks, cutting through the bullshit and getting right to the point.
“Who goes after a shelter?” I ask. “It’s bad press. Even asshole billionaires know this.”
“Well, he could disconnect himself to avoid the press and if you point fingers without evidence, he could sue you. Assuming that’s his plan, we have to assume either this is about your new woman or that property is worth a hell of a lot more and we don’t know it yet.”
“It would have to be substantial,” I point out. “Because if he takes the shelter, bad press won’t be as easy to hide from as it is now.”
“What are you thinking, Gabe?” he presses again.
“That this is about Abbie, not the shelter.”
“What does she say?” he asks.
“That it’s about the shelter.”
“But you don’t believe her?”
“I just need answers,” I say, avoiding one of my own.
He doesn’t push me. “We’re resourceful,” he says simply. “If there’s a reason he wants it, we’ll find out and fast.” He’s silent a moment. “What aren’t you saying?”
What am I not saying?
That I’m thinking with my dick and maybe even my heart, not my head, and that scares the fuck out of me. “My father is involved. This might not be about Abbie. It might be about Reid and I kicking him to the curb.”
“And he used Abbie to get to you?”
“I don’t want to believe that.”
“Because she did?”
My lips thin. “Yes, you fuckhead. Because she did.”
“There’s one that gets to us all, man. Welcome to the club. I’ll make sure she’s worthy. More soon.” He disconnects and I repeat those words “make sure she’s worthy.” If she is, I’m not. That’s the problem. I shove the phone back into my pocket. What is it about this woman that makes me ignore every promise I made to myself to fuck, get fucked, quite literally, and then fucking walking away?
I scrub my jaw and cut around the dumpster I’ve been standing beside. I enter the walkway leading to the shelter, only to have Abbie step in my path. “You don’t trust me.”
I feel that accusation like a punch in the chest. “You heard my conversation.”
“Yes, I did, and you know what? It’s okay. You shouldn’t trust me. You shouldn’t be in this. You need out, Gabe.” She tries to turn away and I catch her arm and pull her to me.
“I don’t want out. I don’t even come close to wanting out.”
“But I want you out. I’m not ready to have anyone take over my life, and that’s what you’re doing, Gabe. You’re taking over. Stop. Just stop now. Thank you for all you have done, but stop now. We’re done.”
The cold air can’t cut me like those words. Words I should welcome. Words that protect me. Words that get me the hell out of what could very well be my father’s trap. But I don’t want her to walk away. I don’t want to walk away. “Is that what you really want?” I demand.
She cuts her gaze. “Yes. It’s what I really want.” She tries to pull back.
I tangle my fingers into her hair and drag her gaze to mine. “Say it again and look me in the eyes when you do it.”
Her eyes glint with anger. “Don’t bully me. I’ve had enough of that for the past five years.”
“I’m not bullying you, Abbie. I’m holding onto you.”
“We’re over, Gabe.”
“Is that what you really want, Abbie?” I press. “Tell me.”
“I already told you.”
“Then if I kiss you, you won’t kiss me back? Because you’re done with me. Right?” I lean in, my lips near hers, our breath warm, the promises of kissing and fucking this woman too good to walk away from. “Because we’re done, Abbie?”
“Don’t kiss me, Gabe,” she whispers, but the push is gone from her words.
“I have to kiss you.”
“You don’t have to do anything,” she says.
“Then I don’t have to let you go, now do I?”
“You have to.”
I kiss her, my lips finding hers, my tongue licking hungrily into her mouth, and I taste her barely-there resistance and I don’t like it. I deepen the kiss, letting her taste my hunger for her, my need to make her mine, and still, she tries to resist, but it’s a heartbeat before her sexy moan fil
ls the air. Suddenly, she’s kissing me back, her fingers clutching my shirt and pulling me closer.
Her submission stirs every male part of me. I’m hot. I’m hard. It’s all I can do to not press her against the wall and find a way to fuck her right here in the walkway. I rotate her, and her back lands against the concrete wall, my legs shackling her legs. “Are we over?” I demand, my eyes meeting her eyes.
“Yes,” she says. “We’re over.”
“Do you want us to be over?”
“I heard the call, Gabe. Why would you want to be with someone that’s hiding something?”
“Are you, Abbie? Are you hiding something?”
“Yes. Now we’re over.”
Voices sound, growing closer and I recognize them. They can’t be ignored. “We’re not over,” I promise her, but I lift off of her, my hands settling on my hips, my attention holding hers, as I call out, “Over here, Grayson!”
Abbie inhales and breathes out. “We can’t,” she whispers.
“We are,” I promise, and it doesn’t matter exactly what she means. We can. We are. We will. To everything, including beating her ex.
Grayson and Mia round the corner, both dark-haired, a gorgeous couple worth billions, who now present themselves in sweats and rain boots ready to work. Both greet Abbie and promise her help. She gushes her appreciation. “Where do we start?” Mia asks.
“I’ll walk you to the back,” Abbie offers when Grayson’s phone rings.
He answers it and listens. “We’ll have someone meet you in the parking lot.” He disconnects. “The trucks to transport the animals are here. They need to know where to park.”
“I’ll go show them,” I say, meeting Abbie’s eyes. “Just tell me what you need and you get Grayson and Mia started.”
“We’ll wing it inside,” Grayson says. “You two deal with the trucks.” He grabs Mia’s hand and they head inside, leaving me alone with Abbie again.
She cuts her gaze again but not before I see the fear in her eyes. She’s afraid. I’m not sure of what. Maybe it’s me. Maybe she’s trouble and feels like I busted her, but that’s the cynical Gabe talking and thinking. This Gabe, the one standing with her, says she’s afraid of her ex, and I’m not allowing her to live that way any more than I’m allowing her to push me away.
I drag her to me. “There are too many ways you want to fuck me for us to be over,” I say softly.
She blushes and then laughs. “That I want to fuck you?”
“Yes, Abbie. And I’m going to let you.”
Her eyes narrow. “I’m not sure how to take that.”
I kiss her, long and deep, before saying, “We aren’t over and you aren’t getting out of telling me what just made you try to run, but do it later, when we’re alone and naked.”
“When you have the advantage?”
Exactly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Gabe
With Abbie still standing outside the shelter with me, and that vow to make her tell me why she tried to run again between us, time is not on my side; not with the trucks pulling into the shelter lot, and my need to go direct them where to park. “Tonight,” I add. “You’re going to tell me tonight.”
“Gabe, you—”
I kiss her. “Yes, me. You’re going to tell me.”
Abbie’s mother shouts out something from the door not far from us and Abbie’s fingers curl on my shirt. “I have to tell her that she might be in legal trouble.”
I close my hands over hers. “Not yet. I’ll call back the company I have digging into your ex, and ask them to find out if there’s really an action coming down on her.”
“They can find out?”
“Anything about anyone.”
“Anything?”
Does she pale at that word? Or is my past causing me to question her, to doubt her when I shouldn’t? “Anything,” I say, watching her closely and she doesn’t pull back this time.
“Please call them. I need to know. I need to know badly.”
Anything didn’t scare her after all. I dial Blake Walker, this time for his hacking skills, and he answers on the first ring. “I need to know if there’s a pending legal action to be filed next week on a Shannon Tanner.”
“Two seconds, that might be thirty, but I like to sound impressive.”
I don’t laugh. He’s a beast of a hacker who probably could do two seconds. It takes him ten this time. “Nothing. All clear. I’ll keep an eye out.”
“Can you dig deeper? Connect the dots I gave Royce about another situation directly linked.”
“He told me about it, and yes. I will. More soon.” And just like his brother, with those words, he hangs up.
“Nothing pending,” I say. “They were just trying to scare you.”
She breathes out, her face relaxing, her arms wrapping my waist. “Thank you, Gabe. For everything.”
“Thank me with your mouth, and by that I mean by talking to me, and well, use it for anything else you like.” I wink. “I won’t complain.”
She laughs, but her eyes warm. “I do believe I can live up to at least a portion of that request.”
And with that promise, she departs, and for a moment, I admit, I think of her mouth on my cock. The next, I realize quite clearly, that she’s also promised to deny me the answers I want. That won’t work. She can try but she won’t win. I need to know the truth about what’s happening and the whole truth.
***
An hour after I kiss Abbie and promise her that she’s going to tell me why she tried to run yet again, I’m loading dogs up in the trucks. One by one, we ensure the pups have a warm, safe place to go tonight, and from what Grayson says, indefinitely. That’s good and bad news. Moving the dogs could be just what Abbie’s ex wanted. Move them. Pull the steam out of the media’s ability to turn him into a bad guy when he takes this place.
In between loading, I meet a hell of a lot of adorable animals and I find a few I’d like to take home. One in particular—a German Shepard named nothing but Dog—steals my heart. Seems there’s a lot of stealing my heart going on these days. I name him Dexter because he’s snappy with a lot of people but not with me. With me, he’s so damn sweet that he must be a killer beneath all the sugar and much like me, he only goes for the jugular if the person really deserves it.
We’re about done and ready to leave, and I have yet to put Dexter in a cage. He follows me everywhere and we’re inside the lobby after dropping off another dog at the truck when we both spot Abbie coming our way. He starts whining and crying, wanting her to pet him. She laughs and kneels, giving him love. “You’re new and so very sweet.” He licks her to show approval.
Smart dog.
“He’s not that sweet,” I say. “He snaps at random people, but not me or you.”
“He’s just scared, and we’re special.” She eyes his tags. “Dog. That’s unacceptable.”
“He’s Dexter. I named him and he’s keeping the name.”
She laughs. “Are you adopting him?”
“Me? No. I don’t have time for a dog, but he can come hang out with us until we find him a home.”
“Us?” she queries, standing up, her hair a disarrayed, sexy mess around her pale perfect face.
“We’re spending our time together,” I say, catching her hip and dragging her to me, with Dexter on a leash and sitting by our side. “And you’re going to stop running from me.”
“I wasn’t running.” Her hands settle on my chest. “Not really.”
I stroke her cheek and her mother rushes to our side. “We’re done and Grayson’s wonderful. He arranged to have us stay in one of the ranch mini-houses on the property.” She eyes us both. “Are you two coming?”
You two, I think. I like that we’re now connected. “I have a house not far from the ranch,” I say. “Why don’t you both stay with me there?”
“My word, that’s generous,” her mother says. “But I need to stay with the animals.” She eyes Abbie. “You stay with Gabe.”
“I can help—”
Her mother catches her arm. “You have, baby girl. The mini-houses are very mini. You two stay where you need to stay to feel good to fight the good fight and get us back our property.” She winks and pats Dexter, who gives her a pleading look.
She eyes Dexter and then me. “He wants to go with you two. Take him. With assholes like Kenneth around, you might need him,” She says no more and then heads for the front door.
“Are you going to fight me and refuse to stay with me?” I ask Abbie.
“No, actually,” Abbie says. “I think you need someone to help you with your new serial killer dog who is too cute to kill anyone.”
“Only the bad guys,” I tell her. “Dexter kills the bad guys.”
“And you?”
My lips thin. “I do what I have to do.”
She studies me several intense beats, in which I fear she sees more of her ex in me than I’d hoped, but if she does, she disregards it. She offers me a soft smile that could charm even an angel right out of the sky. “What you did today was really special,” she says.
She’s fucking special.
I’m the guy who’s going to gut her ex, and when I’m done, that will be fucking special.
She pushes to her toes and kisses me, an angel blessing the devil himself with her attention, and as expected of the devil, I take what she offers. “I need to go by my place.”
“I’ll take you,” I say, more than eager to look inside the life of this beautiful, amazing woman.
Dexter barks and I laugh. “Your place it is. Dexter and I can’t wait to get a look.”
“It’s boring and nothing like yours.” But she links her arm with mine. “But it’s mine.” On the word mine, her voice lifts, and she cuts her gaze.
She wants something that is hers.
She felt like nothing was hers.
This tells me much about this woman. She didn’t want her ex’s money. She didn’t want to stay with him, but she did. The question is why? And does it have anything to do with why she tried to push me away? The bigger question is: does it have anything to do with why her ex is coming after her and her mother right now?
His Demand (Dirtier Duet Book 1) Page 10
