by Lily Danes
Gabe could take him. Even a fit septuagenarian was no match for a man in his prime. And Oliver…well, Gabe could kill him just for fun.
And if Maddie wasn’t there, he’d be running at one of them right that moment. The men could empty both their guns into his chest, and Gabe thought he would keep going. Nothing so inconsequential as a bullet would stop him from destroying this family.
Except Peter didn’t point the gun at him. The barrel was now aimed directly at Maddie’s heart.
He’d broken that heart once today. There was no way in hell he’d let anyone else touch it, not before he had a chance to put it back together.
Not ever.
So instead of rushing Hastings with no plan in his head but revenge, once more he placed himself between them and Maddie and tried to think his way out of this.
“So which of you was it? Which of you bastards likes to set up innocent men?”
Peter Hastings snorted. “Innocent? You’re nothing but a street thug. If you hadn’t been convicted of that crime, it would have been something else a few months down the line.”
Gabe tensed, becoming as hard and sharp as a knife’s edge. Behind him, he could practically feel Maddie vibrating with anger—anger for him. If it wasn’t the worst timing in the whole damn world, he’d have kissed her.
There was no point arguing with Hastings. Men like him were always right. They created their version of the world, one that justified how they destroyed lives in pursuit of their own happiness. No one else’s opinion mattered.
But somehow, he needed to stall. Think, you bastard. Think!
“What about you, Oliver? You just do what daddy dearest tells you?” Gabe sneered at the man.
Oliver returned his stare, eyes cold. “It doesn’t matter who did what. Only the end result matters.”
This time, there was no stopping Maddie when she darted around him. “What end result it that? Putting more illegal guns on the street? Heroin available to any addict with the money? Or do you mean the end result where the people you pretended were friends are blown up on your own damn boat?”
Oliver closed his eyes for just a second, though his gun never wavered.
“We’re wasting time. End this, Oliver.”
“No!” Maddie stepped in front of Gabe, trying to shield him with her body. He wanted to kiss and throttle her at the same time.
“There’s a reason you didn’t have Harold kill me,” she said. “Why you’re here now, instead of in your warm home. You need to know if I told anyone, don’t you? Because I did. The secret’s out. Too many people know.” Maddie’s tone was dangerously close to taunting.
“Not so many as that, I’m sure.” The man was unbothered. “Three people can get into a car accident easily enough.”
This time, Gabe needed to pull her back before she launched herself at Hastings. Her hands were curled into claws. She probably envisioned tearing the skin from his face in ribbons. That’s what he was picturing, at least.
“Oliver already informed me, young lady. There are no secrets between us now.” The old man nodded at his firstborn. “You picked an excellent time to join the family business, son.”
Gabe blinked, uncomprehending.
“So you see, there’s no reason to delay. Good-bye, Miss Palmer.” With a disinterested shrug, Peter Hastings placed his finger on the trigger.
Gabe’s world narrowed until all he saw was the man’s finger. He watched it squeeze the trigger and send a bullet toward Maddie’s chest.
“No!” Gabe couldn’t scream loud enough, couldn’t move fast enough. The world slowed to a single second, and an eternity passed while he leapt in front of Maddie, praying he caught the bullet intended for her. His upper arm ripped across the edge of a glass table. The skin split open and blood poured through his t-shirt, but that was his only wound.
He landed hard on the ground, the breath rushing from his chest in a sudden gust.
Somehow, Maddie remained standing. No bullet holes. No blood. Nothing.
Peter Hastings had been too close for the shot to go wide. One or both of them should be bleeding right now.
Except…he hadn’t heard a gunshot.
Oliver set his gun on a side table. He held out his hand, the fingers wrapped in a fist. One at a time, he opened them. A stream of bullets poured out.
Hastings stared at his oldest son, and if Gabe hadn’t despised the man with every fiber of his being, he’d have almost pitied him. At that moment, he looked every one of his seventy years. “Ollie?” His voice trembled.
“I didn’t want to believe it. Not when I found out there were shipping routes I never heard about. Not when cargo kept slipping through the docks. Not even when the feds showed me their files. I couldn’t believe you were capable of this.” There was no softness in Oliver’s voice. No mercy.
“The feds? Son, what did you do?”
Oliver scratched behind his ear, then held up a dot so small Gabe had to squint. “I said I’d help prove you were innocent, and if that wasn’t the case, I’d help them prove you were guilty. They heard it all. They’ll be here soon.” Oliver raised his voice. “If you don’t want to spend twenty more years behind bars, Vince, I suggest you stop setting the explosions. One charge for attempted murder is probably enough.”
Peter Hastings strode to the side table and grabbed Oliver’s gun. His son made no move to stop him when he turned it on Gabe and fired. Again, the chamber was empty.
“It’s over, Dad. Give up.” Oliver only sounded tired.
His father paced the room, refusing to settle. Oliver never looked away from the father who betrayed him.
It was the moment Gabe dreamed of for years. Now that it was here, it felt like a hollow victory. Revenge meant nothing. All he cared about was that Maddie and her friends were safe. That Oliver was making a terrible sacrifice.
“You’re really going to send your dad to prison? Expose your family to the scandal?” he asked.
Oliver stood and visibly shook off his fatigue. “It’s where he belongs. Besides, this town needs a new scandal. Someone has to distract them from Maddie’s condom purchase.” He managed a weak smile, and Gabe couldn’t help returning it.
“For god’s sake,” muttered Maddie. She’d found a strip of cloth and busied herself wrapping it around Gabe’s bleeding arm. “You wouldn’t think a woman having sex with her boyfriend would be so shocking.”
Gabe stared at her, certain he’d misheard. It was the letdown after the crisis, and now he was hallucinating. Maybe she’d finally snapped from the stress of the day. Whatever it was, it wasn’t real.
And yet somehow, it felt more real than the ship he stood on, more real than the rain still pelting the roof above them. Had he been a boyfriend before? He couldn’t remember ever wanting to be. Now it sounded like a decent start, a prelude to other things she might someday call him.
“Gabe?” Oliver’s fingers snapped before his face, summoning him back. “The feds are here. You ready to tell your story?”
He managed a dumb nod. “I mean, yeah.”
Gabe wrapped his unhurt arm around Maddie and pulled her against his side. He didn’t plan to let go for a very long time, but there was something he still needed to say. “I’m sorry, man. Sorry for assuming the worst.”
Oliver waved it off. “You couldn’t know. I’m just glad I had the chance to make things right.”
“So you went undercover?” Maddie teased.
Oliver’s smile contained more sadness than humor, but he was trying. “What do you think? Do I have a future as the next James Bond?”
Gabe considered the man before him. After racing through the rain to make sure the yacht reached his father’s ship in time, Oliver’s thick hair was damp and unruly, and his suit was ruined. Even so, he managed to look debonair, the very picture of wealth and privilege.
But he was also a damn good guy, even if he was a Hastings.
Another boat came alongside theirs. As soon as the walkway was moved into plac
e, a familiar face strode onto the yacht. The last time Gabe saw him, Agent Glover was interrogating him about his involvement in the gun shipments. Now he was grinning ear to ear. With glee, he snapped handcuffs on Peter’s wrists. The man’s dark scowl only made the agent smile wider. “I’ve been waiting six years for this, Hastings.”
At last, with Maddie wrapped safely in his arms, Gabe allowed himself to appreciate the moment. It filled him slowly, a relief so profound it took over his entire body.
“Me too,” he whispered. “Me too.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Maddie stabbed the spade into a thick mound of soil. Gardening was supposed to be soothing. Calming. She was nurturing life, damn it.
It had been a week. Seven days. That’s how much time had passed since she’d seen or heard from one Gabriel Reyes.
The feds separated them while they took statements. Because of his history with the Hastings, Gabe’s took a lot longer, so Oliver drove her home. Gabe was supposed to join her in the middle of the night. Instead, she woke to a handwritten note promising he’d return, but it hadn’t contained any specifics.
She sent a clod of dirt flying, then sat back on her heels. There was no point taking her rage out on her plants.
Somehow, she’d believed him when he said she was forgiven. He’d come to save her, hadn’t he? Swooped in like some damn hero and led her…well, he led her right back to Peter Hastings, but it worked out in the end. And afterwards, with his arm wrapped so tight around her, it felt like everything was exactly the way it supposed to be.
Maybe he felt guilty. Maybe he cared just enough that he didn’t want her to die because of his quest for vengeance. It was the least a decent man would do, and Gabe was far more than a decent man.
But decent men didn’t try to take a bullet for you. They might try to patch you up afterwards, but they didn’t sacrifice themselves for no good reason.
She thought she knew what that reason was. Hoped she did, at least. Then a week passed. A week where her phone was silent and no one knocked on her door. A week where no one in their tiny town reported seeing the ex-con who’d taken down Peter Hastings.
And that was all people were talking about. Some talked openly over breakfast at the diner or hair cuts at the barber shop, about the scandalous history that took place right under their noses. Many more were worried, wondering what this meant for their homes, their businesses, their futures in a town owned by a man who now sat behind bars.
And then there were those who whispered and cast suspicious glances at their neighbors. Everyone knew Peter Hastings hadn’t worked alone. Harold and Vince had already been arrested, but it was obvious more people were involved. The investigation had only begun. Lost Coast Harbor had been cracked open, and for the first time, people saw the filth that lived just under the surface. Somewhere in town, there were guilty people who went unpunished.
While the town whispered, Maddie got back to her life.
Maybe Gabe was doing the same. When the feds took him, no one placed him in cuffs or even stared at him with narrowed eyes. The feds treated him kindly, with deference even, and Oliver made sure the local prosecutors were working to clear his name. The life waiting for him now was a far cry from the one that greeted him when he first left prison.
The last time she saw him, he was passing the room where she was being questioned. Their eyes locked, a moment that lasted for ages and ended far too soon. He mouthed something with a lifted brow, but she didn’t figure out what he said until much later, when they were both free and he was long gone.
“Boyfriend?” he’d asked.
Maddie stood in frustration, setting the tools on the nursery’s potting bench.
She’d apologized profusely for spending two hundred thousand dollars of her boss’s money just to prove to Gabe that she wasn’t a coward, but Oliver found the whole thing funny and insisted the money was intended for her anyway—and he’d much rather she spent it building a life in Lost Coast than hiding from his family in Palo Alto.
Despite his generosity, she insisted he take it back. The bank gave her a loan based on years of excellent credit.
Oliver agreed to accept the money on one condition. “There was a reward from the feds,” he told her. “I’ll put it toward the down payment on the nursery.”
Maddie doubted that was how reward money worked, but no amount of protesting convinced Oliver to change his story.
She couldn’t help smiling as she glanced around her nursery. She was delaying school for a semester while she got everything set up, but she would have that associate’s degree next year. She might even get her business degree after that, to help her run the nursery.
She was going to build something here, something that grew and flourished. Something that was all hers.
The thought wasn’t quite as satisfying as it should have been. Maddie didn’t want her life to be all hers, not anymore.
“I was hoping to see a help wanted sign.”
Maddie’s smile caught. She didn’t turn around. Not yet. Hearing his voice was hard enough. She wasn’t ready to see his face, see those dark eyes fixed on her. This was still the man who left without a word.
Still the man who made fun of her for calling him her boyfriend.
“How long are you in town?” Maddie busied herself with the gardening tools, moving them around in random patterns.
His voice was a little closer. “What do you mean?”
His genuine confusion pissed her off. A smart man shouldn’t act so stupid. She spun to face him, too annoyed to continue avoiding him.
“What do you think I mean? You’re done here. Hastings is locked up. Everyone knows what he did and what you didn’t do. Your conviction will be overturned. I know you’ll be leaving to meet up with your brother soon. I understand. I mean, he’s family. Your true north. So I’m just asking, how long are you here? Because it would be nice if you said good-bye this time, unless you think so little of me.”
She couldn’t seem to stop talking. The words poured over each other, and the more she fought to keep her dignity, the less she felt she had. At last, she shut her mouth and glared at the man who, in such a short time, had proved her ruin.
“I…think so little of you?” Gabe stepped closer.
“Do I need to remind you what you said?” Even now, the words stung.
Gabe never took his eyes from her. “You knew when you met me that I was a man who’d made a lot of mistakes.”
Maddie managed a nod.
“Well, I’m still making them, and calling you a coward was one of the stupidest mistakes I ever made.”
“There might have been a grain of truth to it.”
Gabe lips lifted into that close-mouthed smile. “You were brave enough to believe in me when no one else did. To help me when it was easier to walk away. That’s what I should have focused on, not some mistake you made long ago. Too many of us fucked up in one way or another because of Hastings. I’m tired of blaming myself for what I did, so I’m sure as hell not going to blame you.”
“What about you? How brave are you these days?” She couldn’t look away from him.
“As brave as you need me to be,” he said.
Perhaps she didn’t look convinced, so he continued. “I don’t know if I’m okay, but I’m a lot closer than I was. So, I’ve decided I’m the man you need. You said you wanted reliable. I think racing across the ocean to save you should count. A guy who remembers your birthday? I don’t know when it is, but—”
“May twelfth.”
“—But now I’ll never forget it. Anniversaries? Happy twenty-fourth day since we first met. I’ll do that every day for the rest of your life, if that’s what you want.”
“The rest of my…” Words failed her. She couldn’t form a single coherent thought.
“You said I didn’t like myself, and you weren’t wrong. I thought prison made me into a man no one could love. I hated being the asshole ex-con, and I didn’t think anyone would ever see me
as anything else. You proved me wrong. I’m not that guy anymore. I’ve started making the right choices again, and I don’t plan to stop. Though I should warn you that, as soon as my conviction is expunged, I’ve decided to apply to law school. I might as well do something with that 3.8 GPA I got in prison.”
“Law school?”
“It won’t be one of the big fancy ones, but there’s a school a couple hours from here with a program for working students. I’d go once a week, so it’ll take a few years. But I said I wanted to do some good in the world, and I think I’d be a pretty good defense attorney. There are a lot of people who need someone to believe in them, or help them get a second chance after they make a mistake.”
“But…”
He kept talking, like he needed to get everything out before she made a decision. “So this means I won’t have a lot of money for a while, and I have no idea if I can do this. I’m taking a risk, and if you want to be with me, you’re taking a risk, too. I know that’s not your favorite thing, but I was hoping to convince you that we can be brave together.”
Finally, he stopped for a breath. He said nothing else, only watched her with dark eyes full of hope.
“Are you telling me you’re staying?” The words were hesitant. She couldn’t think of anything she wanted more.
“Where do you think I’ve been the past week?”
“I don’t know! You didn’t bother telling me. I know you were in prison for a while, but you know how texting works, right?”
The jibe had no effect. “I didn’t want to say anything until I was certain Mateo would come back with me. He’s down at the docks right now, filling out new employee paperwork. Oliver really does have a weakness for strays, doesn’t he?”
Maddie understood the words immediately, though it took her longer to believe them. “You’re really staying?” she ventured.
Gabe wrapped a single arm around her waist. “If you’ll have me after everything that happened.”
At that moment, she couldn’t remember a single thing he’d done.
