Past Sins (West Haven book3): Protector, Action Romance

by Rhonda Lott

  The glare of headlights reflected in her rearview mirror. The once dark and empty road behind her lit up. A car and a motorcycle were closing in fast. Where the fuck did these guys come from?

  The roar of the motorcycle split the silence of the night as it crossed the center line. Fright closed in on Gabby. What was happening? Where did the two vehicles come from so suddenly?

  Mind racing, Gabby gripped her cell phone, then thought better of calling Carter. Maybe she was making too much of the situation. They were probably traveling the road, same as she was, headed into town. She hadn’t noticed them before because she was lost in her own thoughts. No use making up scary scenarios in her head. Shit, she wasn’t that desperate for excitement. Not yet at least.

  Lifting her foot off the gas for the bike to pass, Gabby let out the breath she was holding in. The biker didn’t pass her, he came right up alongside her and Gabby’s heart kicked in her chest.

  The guy was dressed in black leather with a gleaming black helmet covering his head. As she watched, that helmet turned slowly in her direction. Gabby couldn’t make out a face behind the plastic, but it felt like the guy was smiling at her. Creepy and frightening as hell, the biker didn’t pass, he kept pace with her, all the while watching her from behind the dark visor.

  Suddenly, blinding light filled her car’s interior. The car behind her rammed into her bumper, hard. Gabby jerked forward, head colliding with the steering wheel, then she slammed back against the seat. The car rammed her again. Gabby gripped the steering wheel, fighting not to spin out. She slammed her foot on the gas and the biker hit his throttle, blocking her from moving into the other lane away from his crazy ass.

  Real fear held her body captive. She was a good ten minutes from town still. These two, whoever they were, weren’t going to let her get there. She whipped her glance over to the biker. He lifted his arm and a silver revolver was leveled at her window. Sweat trickled down the back of her neck and her knuckles turned white from her death grip on the steering wheel.

  Gabby’s body went into autopilot. She jerked the wheel to the right, cringing within at the clanking sound of the impact her vehicle made with the bike. A gunshot rang out as man and the bike skidded across the asphalt.

  Gabby didn’t hesitate, she punched her foot down on the gas pedal. The car behind her slowed, then stopped. More shots split the air, a few hitting her car with loud, harsh pops and clanks of metal ripping into metal. Gabby didn’t look back, didn’t stop to make sure she was alright, she just gunned it the hell away from there.

  Gabby’s body shook hard, whole body tremors, as her heart beat wildly against her ribs. She drove the last ten minutes home at ninety miles per hour. Gabby’s breath sawed in and out her lungs, eyes darting to her rearview mirror every second. For the second time in two weeks someone had threatened her life. This type of thing didn’t happen in West Haven. Well, there was the crazy Liberian Jonas Morton, who went on a killing spree recently, but he was dead and before that there weren’t any serious crimes committed there since forever.

  Her tires screeched and white clouds of snow billowed into the air as she sped into her parking space at the bar. Elliot was there, sitting on the stairs leading to her apartment. Gabby put the car in park, her headlights beaming across Elliot’s big body. The man of her dreams was there waiting for her. She should have been elated, but she wasn’t. That knot of fear she’d felt earlier tighten in her middle, because in her heart she knew, Elliot was the reason she’d almost been killed, twice.

  **

  She was late. Elliot checked the time on his cell. Twenty minutes late returning from her Sunday dinner at Dean’s ranch. His ass felt like a block of ice from sitting on the stairs waiting those cold, anxious thirty minutes. He knew her routine by heart now. Sunday night was dinner with her family and she pulled back into her parking space at nine pm. Sharp.

  Elliot convinced himself that he wasn’t being a stalker, but he did have her schedule down. He considered it keeping an eye out for a friend. Of course, he didn’t need to be so exact as to know how long she stayed out on Sunday nights, which was five hours and never a minute longer. Gabby was particular about things like that. His knee kept up a steady jerking motion as his eyes scanned the street.

  “Fuck this.” He grumbled.

  He wasn’t sitting around like a love sick pup one more damn second. She obviously had other plans for the remainder of her night. Did she write him off already? Maybe she was out on a date with another guy. That wasn’t her style, but who knows, he certainly couldn’t blame her.

  Before he could stand up, Gabby’s car turned onto the road. She came speeding down the street, hit the turn into the bar on squealing tires and jerked to a stop in her space.

  Elliot ran over and pulled her door open, his heart in his throat. Gabby’s eyes were glazed and locked in the distance. Her body trembling, her face damp with tears.

  He knelt down and unbuckled the seat belt. “Gabby what’s happened?”

  Her head swiveled in his direction, a frown cut deeply across her forehead.

  “You tell me Elliot. For the second time in two weeks some asshole has stuck a gun in my face and I know you know why.” She pushed him away.

  Elliot stood like a statue as she got out the car. Gabby’s body shook. Elliot’s insides twisted at his beautiful woman ate up with fear. More importantly from anger at him. She knew he had a hand in the things that were happening to her.

  Gabby snatched her bag from the car, slammed the door, and marched towards the stairs.

  “Who pulled a gun on you?” He asked her retreating back. Gabby kept walking. “Gabriella, stop and tell me what happened right now.”

  “What happened, friend or not friend, or whatever the hell you are? Someone tried to kill me again. Apparently, I’m the target of gun, pulling men in black, who for some unknown reason want me dead.” She sucked in a breath, opened her mouth to speak, and then clamped her lips closed. Gabby started back towards her apartment.

  “Gabby, please.” Elliot caught her hand and stopped her forward movement.

  Gabby rounded on him. “A car and a bike blocked me in on the road. The biker pulled a gun on me. I swerved into him and got the hell out of there as fast as I could.” Gabby was talking loud and fast, poking him in the chest with her finger. “You know something about all this. Something that you aren’t telling me. So, bring your big ass up these stairs and start talking, because I’m scared shitless.” She turned and stomped up the stairs.

  Elliot let out a deep breath and followed. Gabby was here with him and safe, for now. Things were escalating quicker than he had thought. Night Corp. was in town and obviously targeting Gabby to get at him. He knew that he shouldn’t have started any kind of friendship with her, but he couldn’t stay away and now she was in the worst kind of danger.

  Not from some random crazy, but a sophisticated conglomerate of professional killers who were not going to stop until they had what they wanted from him. Killing Gabby would be a message he couldn’t ignore. If they hurt her he wouldn’t have any choice but to bring the whole damn corporation down from top to bottom.

  Her doorway loomed before him. This would be his first time stepping foot into Gabby’s home. As he crossed the threshold, she was busy flicking on every light in the place.

  Her cozy apartment sported a royal blue and cream color palate, soothing and classy, a reflection the woman herself. A small but comfortable living area, renovated kitchen that took up a lot of the square footage, bedroom off the right and that was all there was of it.

  “I’m calling Carter.” She said, heading towards the kitchen.

  “That’s not going to help.” Elliot told her, closing and locking the door.

  Gabby leaned back against the kitchen island that separated the two areas, her cell phone in hand, eyes searching his face. The very air in the small space pressed in on him. She wanted answers he couldn’t give her.

  His tongue felt huge and his palms itched
. What the hell. One curvy woman shouldn’t have this sort of power over him, but Gabby apparently did. She welded limitless sway on his soul. The fact that she might have been dead on the side of the road or in the clutches of Night Corp soured his stomach.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “What, huh?” Elliot frowned across the space at her. So distracted by his upsetting thoughts that he’d forgotten her question.

  “Why will Carter not help, he’s the Sheriff. Carter needs to know that someone’s out there shooting at people.” Gabby’s voice sounded stronger, but she had that wide eyed look of shock he was starting to hate with a passion.

  “Because, those guys never leave a trace of their presence behind.” Elliot replied, taking a step towards her.

  Gabby shifted away slightly. “How, how do you know that?” She placed her hand over her chest, as if shielding her heart from his answer.

  “Because not long ago, I was one of them. They’re here for me and they think hurting you would hurt me.” Elliot placed his hands on her arms to steady her when she swayed a little.

  Gabby stiffened, placing her palm from her chest to his.

  “They were trying to kill me, not just hurt me.” Voice rising, Gabby pushed him away, rounded the island, opened the fridge and took out a bottle of wine.

  Elliot placed his palms on the cold granite and watched her fill two wine glasses.

  “They wouldn’t kill you Gabby. That’s a mistake they would never make.” He answered slowly, the truth of his statement settled his mind a bit. The absolute truth was, he’d pick up his tools and kill the world for her.

  “Oh yeah, they won’t kill me huh. So what were those things whizzing past my head the other night, pretend bullets?” She lifted one dark brow and took a long gulp of wine.

  Elliot put his glass down, walked around to her and brushed her hair behind her ears gently. The thick tresses felt soft, lush and smelled of wild flowers.

  There were questions behind her beautiful eyes mingled with fear of course. This shit would frighten anybody and her look of fear and confusion gutted him. He hated that it was there because of him. His heart was screaming for him to take her in his arms and tell her everything would be fine, but the lie stuck in his throat. Everything was not going to be fine, not by a long shot.

  Her beautiful brown gaze pleaded for reassurance. He had none, not a damn one.

  “Gabby, the shooter, Brady, missed you on purpose.” Elliot tilted her face up. “If he wanted you dead, you’d be dead. They know that if that happened then there’s nothing on the face of the earth that would stop me from taking them out one by one.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in close. The feel of her against him was absolution to his sin stained soul.

  Gabby frowned up at him, but her arms slid up around his neck. “You can do that, kill people?”

  “If they take you from me, yes. I’ll bring death to Night Corp in a heartbeat.”

  Gabby’s eyes shot wide. Elliot didn’t allow her to say anything, he couldn’t. When her lips parted, he kissed them. She tasted of sweet white wine. He drank her in because she was there and safe. She was in his arms where she belonged. No murderers, no guilt, not a damn thing would keep him from having Gabby this night. Tomorrow be damned. She tasted like hope, like redemption, and he so fucking needed that.

  **

  Elliot’s kiss filled her with heat in every part of her, especially her core. Gabby wasn’t expecting the explosion of lust that rocked her. His strong arms gathering her up against his hard body, lips and tongue working like magic, overloading her senses.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. A little taste was all Gabby would take and then he had to go. But, as her body softened into his embrace, her mind shut down. He tasted so addicting, so good, the thought of stopping flew right out of her mind.

  Was she this starved and wild thing? This groping, empty thing that clung to Elliot like moss on a wall. She captured his low groans and hisses of pleasure, allowing them to fill her, to ghost through the caverns of her desolate lonely soul. Elliot, the silent pursuer, bringer of danger and wicked dark desire. He held her not only with his arms, but with a spell of want. A spell he’d cast years ago when he’d stolen her heart.

  He was loving her with sure fingers that slid down her spine, around to her abdomen and then down the front of her jeans. The glide of his touch along her wet crease destroyed any lingering resistance she might have felt. Her body jerked at the contact of his rough thumb circling her clit. Fuck, she moved against that digit, her climax just out of reach. Guns and killers and impending dangers were there tapping her on the shoulder, but she’d wanted this for so damn long, danger would have to take a back seat for the moment.

  His tongue danced an erotic dance with hers. Sweet and heady, his taste had her toes curling. Her Elliot loving her, touching her. This was her secret dream in the darkest hours of the night. Now he was here. All of him connecting with her.

  Elliot pulled back, his dark eyes burning into hers, churning with emotion that caused her breath to still.

  He took her lips again. With a desperation that seemed to exceed her own, but not by much. His lips trailed down her cheek, across her jawbone, and then onto the pulsing tenderness of her neck. Hot spirals of ecstasy throbbed between her legs.

  Abstinence made her insatiable, rotating her hips to the plunges of his thick finger. First one devilish digit and then another plunged within, bringing her to the peak, and leaving her right there tittering at the crest. The sound of his harsh breath mingled with her pants and mewing cries. The aroma of him was intoxicating, her whole being craved his mouthwatering, masculine fragrance. The man and the pure power of his scent seemed to slide into places within her she didn’t even know existed.

  The stone like feel of his body moved seductively against hers, dick hard and thick against her belly. He enticed her beyond words, working her like an artist and her his human medium. He painted a portrait of lust, an epic prose of desire, all with fingers, tongue, and teeth. Fuck, she was so close.

  Without warning he pulled away, searched her face for a moment, and then popped open the snap of her jeans. “Tell me, tell me you want this. I feel it, but I need the words.” He questioned on a deep rumbling breath.

  Even in her sexual fog, Gabby knew she wanted this night with Elliot. Dangerous, dark, mysterious Elliot. He brought with him no promise of tomorrow. Nothing but the sweet burn of passion. How different would she be when the light of day came? Gabby had no idea, but tonight as the snow started to fall outside her small apartment, insulating them from killers and guns and bullets, Gabby would dive head first into the passion Elliot brought. Gabby grabbed his hand. Gabriella Avila, not a sexy siren, but a woman in love. She led Elliot into her bedroom.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Her bedroom was full of shadows as they entered. Light from the full winter’s moon spilled in through the open curtain. Elliot’s warm, strong hand was wrapped around her, strength encased in skin. He was the silence of the night. The feeling of simmering danger that your mind recognized and left your heart tripping wildly. He was her dangerous friend, her dark obsession that claimed to want her like no other. His promise to protect her and kill to keep her safe still echoed in her mind.

  “Second thoughts sweetheart?” Elliot drawled.

  Gabby took a step away and searched his handsome face in the moonlight. His smoldering dark eyes captured hers. Still as a statue, he waited. Black sweater, black jeans, and dark hair, he appeared as a warrior out of place and time in this world.

  “Yes and no.” She breathed. “My mind keeps telling me that you will cause me pain, steer clear of you. My heart tells me that you’re important to me somehow, and my body just wants you no matter the cost. Which do I listen to?”

  Elliot’s lips turned up at the corners. He sat on the bed and pulled her onto his lap, running his hand up and down her arms. He pressed his forehead against hers.

  “If I w
as a good man, I’d tell you to listen to your mind and kick my ass out.” He pressed his lips against hers and ran his tongue across their seam, tasting her before pulling back an inch. “But, I’m not a good man Gabby. I haven’t been that in a long time. So I say let me love you. Let me in and I’ll try not to hurt you.”

  Gabby gathered his words in her heart. They felt true. Elliot would protect her. After this night her life would change. “Be careful what you wish, mi hija dulce.” Her papa told her when she was a girl. What was Elliot afraid of and what the hell had he brought to her town. She wanted a chance to break up the boredom. But, was it worth it. What was at stake if she gave herself to him?

  “I’ve never felt the sting of lost love El. I’ve never let anyone close enough to hurt me. With you I think it’s worth a shot. That is, if you tell me the whole story.” Gabby pushed on his shoulders and he fell back allowing her to straddle him. “Make love to me, then tell me everything.”

  Elliot rolled them over and pulled her sweater over her head. He removed her jeans and bra next. Soft threads of moonlight bathed over Gabby. She smiled at the flames of raw need in his dark eyes. Lifting up on her elbows Gabby tilted her head. Elliot wasn’t moving, didn’t seem to be breathing.

  “What’s wrong?” Gabby had curves and some men didn’t find them sexy. Confidence in her appearance came with years of self-motivation, but now she felt the stirrings of doubt enter her mind.

  “God, Gabby your perfection.” He praised.

  Elliot stood and removed his clothes in a hurried grace that was so like the man. He stood before her, wide chest, rippling muscles and thick limbs. Elliot was built of power, beautiful to behold.

  Elliot pulled her up next to him and kissed her. Gabby’s heart pounded, both the man and the moment compelling. The air buzzed with emotions. Their coming together felt huge, vital, it felt like fate.