by Elena Aitken
“I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, Gabe.” His captain from back home, Rex Williams, a man he’d looked up to and for so many years had helped Gabe get settled into the world of law enforcement, came across the line. “Billy Benson escaped from state prison last night. A manhunt has been mounted and we’re increasing our—”
“He what?” Gabe cut him off. “You’re what?” He shook his head and looked out over the mountain ridge. The moment the call had come in, Gabe knew he’d need to be parked when he took it, so he’d pulled his cruiser to the side of the highway before he answered. If Captain Williams was calling him personally, something had happened.
“I just got the word,” Captain Williams continued. “Sometime last night. It was him and two other prisoners. They apprehended one, but Benson and one other are still on the loose. I thought you should know.”
“Thank you.” Gabe somehow managed to form the words but nothing made sense. “Wasn’t the hearing scheduled for next week?”
“He was never going to win the appeal,” Williams said simply. “And he knew it.” Gabe could almost see the man nodding and chewing on a toothpick he long since should have thrown away. “So he ran.”
“Shit.”
“Shit is right, Wilder. You need to be on alert. We have reason to believe he’s coming your way.”
“My way?” Unable to sit still, Gabe undid his seat belt and stood on the side of the road. He needed fresh air, but no matter how deeply he breathed in, he couldn’t seem to calm down. He didn’t even need to ask why Benson was headed his way. But if there was new information, he needed to know. Now. “What do you know, Williams?” He probably shouldn’t address his former superior in such a manner, but Gabe didn’t care. He needed to know details, and he needed to know them quickly.
“There was a book found in his cell,” Williams said. “It had your name scribbled in it. Repeatedly.” His words made Gabe’s stomach churn, but it was what Williams said next that made him almost throw up. “And through your name, every time, a line. He’s coming after you, Wilder.”
They spoke for a few more minutes, and Captain Williams assured him that he’d contacted his local captain and they were going to put measures into place to protect him, but Gabe knew it was all a bunch of talk. The only thing that was going to protect him and his family from that angry abusive piece of shit was going to be a shotgun.
“Fuck!” He yelled out into the valley and beyond as soon as he hung up the phone. The last thing Gabe needed to worry about right now was Billy Benson and his ridiculous revenge scenario that he’d spent the last few years building up in his head. He needed backup. And the only people he could think of to help him out were the Jacksons.
Gabe had no doubt that the Jackson clan would rally around him. He could take Zoe and Ashton up to the ridge and—
His thoughts and plans were cut off by his cell phone ringing and vibrating in his hand at the same time that a voice cracked over the radio.
“Gabe? Gabe, dispatch. Are you there?” He stared in disbelief for a moment. Dispatch never used his first name. They were never so cavalier about the way they used the radio.
“I’m here,” he said after a moment. His phone still rang in his hand, but he didn’t recognize the number right away. Work first. He needed to stay alert. “Go ahead, dispatch,” he said into the radio.
“There’s been an accident,” Lois said. “You need to come to town.”
“What?” Something was wrong. Lois didn’t make callouts that way. “I’m fifteen out,” he said into the radio. Surely there was someone else closer who could respond.
“Gabe?” Something in the dispatcher’s voice stopped him. “It was a motorbike,” she said. “Two passengers.”
Gabe didn’t hear anything else she said because a second later he was back in the driver’s seat, his foot on the gas, two hands on the wheel, driving as fast as he could to the accident. And Zoe.
It all happened so quickly that Zoe barely had time to process what was happening. But the moment she heard Ashton scream, the reality of what was going on slammed into her.
As soon as she moved, a sharp pain tore through her side. Probably a broken rib but she didn’t have time to worry about it; she had to get to Ashton. Besides, she’d heal quickly. It wasn’t important. Zoe pushed to her feet, ignoring the pain, and scanned the road for Ashton.
Thankfully, when the bike had gone into a skid, he’d fallen off into the grass on the side of the road and hadn’t been pinned under the heavy machine. She spotted him next to a large pine. How he didn’t hit it, she’d never know. Someone was definitely looking out for them. She shot a silent thank-you into the universe and sprinted over to the boy.
“Ashton. Where does it hurt?”
“Everywhere.” His face was streaked with tears, but at least he wasn’t screaming anymore. “Zoe?”
“I’m here. You’re going to be fine.” She kissed his cheek. “I promise.”
That was the last thing that Zoe remembered before the first responders showed up and loaded them both into the ambulance. She refused treatment from the EMT, but there was no way she would leave Ashton’s side. He didn’t appear to have any major injuries, but his arm looked to be badly broken. He’d heal quickly. After all, he was a shifter. But children didn’t heal as quickly as adults. That wouldn’t happen until he went through puberty and shifted for the first time.
But it wasn’t his physical injuries Zoe was worried about. It was the fear she saw in his eyes. Crashing on a motorbike was scary to be sure, but for a child who’d lost his mother in a car crash, it would be downright terrifying.
What had she been thinking?
Gabe was going to kill her. He’d specifically told her no motorbikes. He’d told her. And it didn’t matter whether she thought he’d been overreacting at the time; Ashton was his son and—
“Zoe?”
She spun around and saw Gabe running through the doors of the emergency room. The doctors wouldn’t let her back with Ashton because she wasn’t his guardian. Instead, she’d been pacing just outside of the doors, driving the nurses crazy.
“Gabe.”
He pulled her into a tight embrace and she winced as the pain from her rib shot through her.
“You’re okay?” Gabe held her at arm’s length and looked her up and down quickly. Satisfied with what he saw and with her nod that she was in fact, fine, he squeezed his eyes shut for a split second. “Thank God.” He pulled her in for another tight squeeze. Vaguely, Zoe registered that Chloe and Luke had come in behind Gabe. Word got around in a small town. “I told you that bike was dangerous,” Gabe continued. “We see too many accidents with motorbikes, Zoe. It’s too dangerous. I don’t know what I would have done if…wait, who was your passenger? Are they okay? What happened?”
It struck her that he didn’t know that Ashton had been with her on the bike. But of course he wouldn’t know. And he’d never expect it because, after all, it had only been a few days ago when he’d made it perfectly clear that Ashton was never to be on the back of her bike. He’d never expect her to disregard his wishes so nonchalantly the way she had.
Zoe squeezed her eyes shut and dropped her head.
“Zoe?” His voice was thick with concern. “What happened? Talk to me, Zoe.”
“Gabe, it’s…” She looked up and bit her bottom lip. “It’s Ashton.”
“Ashton?” He pulled away from her so quickly, she took a staggering step backward. “What about Ashton? He wasn’t—”
“He was on the bike with me.” The words started to flow out of her quickly because she knew she only had one chance to convey all the information that she needed to before Gabe would lose his temper. “He’s going to be fine, it’s only a broken arm and Gabe, I’m sorry, I really am, and it was just a short ride, I swear, and I was driving really carefully, we only went to Bree’s to get a costume, and it wasn’t supposed to—”
“He wasn’t supposed to be on your bike, Zoe.” His eyes flared a
nd his jaw set. But the worst part was the way he looked at her. As though she’d done it on purpose. As if she could ever hurt Ashton on purpose.
But she had taken him for a motorbike ride when Gabe had made it perfectly clear never to do that. Did that mean that maybe she…no! She would die herself if anything ever happened to Ashton.
“Gabe, I…” She reached for him, but he turned away.
“Where is he?” He strode away, not waiting for an answer and leaving her standing alone as he went to the nurse’s station and checked in. After a brief conversation with the nurse at the desk, Gabe disappeared through the door into the emergency room beyond and never even looked back.
She stared after him, and hardly noticed when Chloe put her hand on Zoe’s shoulder. “Are you hurt? We heard about the accident.” When she didn’t answer, Chloe squeezed gently. “Zoe? Are you okay?”
Zoe shook her head, tears blurring her vision. “No,” she answered softly. “I don’t think I am.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Dad, where’s Zoe?”
Gabe looked straight ahead as he drove the cruiser down the streets of Boulder Creek, much slower than was necessary, but he wasn’t taking any more chances with his son. It was at least the second time Ashton had asked him about Zoe since they’d checked out of the hospital. But it must have been at least the tenth time he’d asked that day.
And still, Gabe wouldn’t answer him.
“Let’s get you home, bud. You must be exhausted. It’s been a big day.” Gabe glanced in the rearview mirror and let his eyes rest for a moment on the bright-green cast on his son’s arm. And just as it did every time he looked at it, the sight of his broken child squeezed his heart, causing a pain deep in his chest. He shook his head and looked away, focusing on the road ahead.
“I’m not tired, Dad.” The whine in Ashton’s voice said otherwise. “Where’s Zoe? Is she okay?” His voice shook and sure enough, this time when Gabe looked in the mirror, tears were sliding down the boy’s face. “I didn’t see her again, and the bike was…and is she…”
“She’s fine.” Gabe softened his voice. Because as angry as he was with her, he loved her fiercely. “She’s okay, buddy. She was just worried about you.”
“Where is she?”
A flash of guilt shot through him. He’d been so consumed with worry for his son, and then so angry with her for putting Ashton at risk like that when he’d told her…he’d walked away from her.
Dammit.
Gabe swallowed hard. He’d just left her there. She was worried and terrified and had just been in a major accident and like an asshole, he’d turned away from her and—
“Dad!”
Gabe shook himself from his thoughts. “I don’t know,” he answered his son honestly. He didn’t have time to say anymore because they’d just pulled up into the driveway of their house. The spot by the fence where Zoe had been parking her bike seemed strangely empty. Bile rose in his throat, knowing that bike had likely been towed to the salvage yard.
It could have been so much worse. I could have lost them.
Gabe helped Ashton out of the car and hovered as he walked up the steps into the house. He knew he was being overprotective, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.
Once he had his son settled on the couch with a movie he’d already seen a dozen times, and a bowl of ice cream in front of him, Gabe thought maybe that would be the end of the interrogation considering Ashton had something else to focus on, but he was wrong.
“Are you sure Zoe is okay?”
He wasn’t sure. She seemed fine, physically. But emotionally, Gabe had no idea. If he had to guess, or listen to his bear—who knew much better than he did that Zoe was definitely not fine—he’d say no. She wasn’t fine. “She’s not hurt,” he said after a moment. “But I think she was really worried about you.”
“I’m okay.” Ashton grinned, but the smile fell from his face as quickly as it came. “But I miss Zoe.”
“She’s not gone, buddy.”
His words seemed to reassure Ashton and he turned his attention to the bowl of chocolate ice cream and the Transformers on the screen. But Gabe couldn’t help but feel that he might have just lied to his son.
After the hospital, Zoe hadn’t known where to go. Gabe didn’t want her there, and the waiting room had started to fill up as word got around that there’d been an accident. Bree showed up with a woman that Zoe could only assume was Gabe’s mother-in-law. Normally, she’d want to meet her, but things were anything but normal.
Things were only going to be awkward if she stayed, and harder than they needed to be, so after convincing Chloe and Luke that she was indeed fine, she left.
At first she didn’t know where to go, so she just started walking. Pretty soon, her walking took her to the edge of town, where the trees that lined the sides of the road turned into thick forest. So she’d turned and started to walk directly into the forest until she was deep enough in the woods that she took her clothes off, carefully because her rib still hurt, folded them neatly and tucked them into a hollow log so she could find them later, and started to run.
Her body protested at first. The bruises, scrapes, and cuts from the crash ached and stung, but she ignored them and when she finally allowed her bear to take over, she screamed out in pain as her body shifted into her bear form. Her broken rib wasn’t fully healed and she felt every bit of it, but she didn’t care. If anything, she welcomed the pain. She deserved it. She’d put Ashton in danger. She could have killed him. He was hurt and she’d walked away. Pain was the very least she deserved.
Branches broke and crashed around her, but she barely felt them. All she could focus on was the breaking of her heart. Zoe pushed her animal through the trees, going faster and running harder until finally she collapsed in a small clearing. The sun had set and it had grown dark, the sky filling with stars while she’d been running.
She didn’t know where she was, or how far she was from town, but it didn’t matter.
Sadness overwhelmed her. She wanted to cry, to have some form of release for the pain in her heart, but the tears wouldn’t come. Every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was Gabe’s face and the anger when he looked at her.
She’d put his son at risk and it was clear that it was an unforgivable act.
Zoe couldn’t begin to understand the bond between a parent and a child, but she loved Ashton. She was connected to him, too. Maybe it wasn’t the same, but it killed her to think that her actions had put him at any kind of risk. Gabe must know that. He must understand that.
But what if he didn’t?
She rolled to her back and stared at the stars overhead. How was it possible that only a few weeks ago she hadn’t even known that Gabe existed and now…she didn’t know how she was going to live without him?
Gabe was sitting up in the living room with all the lights off when Zoe came through the front door sometime after midnight and turned on the hall light.
“I wasn’t sure you were going to come back.”
She jumped a little at the sound of his voice but didn’t seem too surprised that he was waiting.
He’d spent the last few hours wondering whether she would come back, or what he would say when she did, and that was the best he could come up with. He turned to look at her. “But I’m glad you did.”
“How’s Ashton?” She took a few tentative steps toward him and it broke Gabe’s heart that there was a distance between them.
“He’ll be fine.” His lips twitched into a smile. “He’s pretty excited to show his friends his cast. It’s green.”
“Of course it is.” She gestured with her head to the spot next to him. “Can I sit?”
Gabe nodded, but instead of waiting for her to sit next to him, he reached up, took her hands and pulled her down to his lap. Her legs straddled his so she faced him. She didn’t resist but he could feel that something had changed between them. He knew he’d been harsh with her; he knew he’d screwed up. But he
also knew that what she’d done wasn’t okay.
“Zoe, I…” His hands floated down her sides before finally coming to rest on her hips. “I’m just so…God, I’m so thankful you’re okay. You are okay, aren’t you?”
She nodded. “I’ll be fine.”
“You could have been killed.” The anger and fear and emotion from earlier rose up within him once again. “Ashton could have been…” He dropped his head and shook it before looking up. “I don’t know how I can be so angry with you and so happy to see you okay at the same time. I don’t know how to…dammit, Zoe, I don’t know how to do this.”
“Shh.” She grabbed his face in her hands and held it so he had no choice but to look her in the eyes.
In that instant, looking at his mate, everything else was forgotten. It was only the two of them and they were together and everything would be okay. Zoe kissed him softly. Her lips pressed against his and something inside him snapped. She moved slowly and didn’t release her hold on his face while their tongues found each other.
The taste of her was almost enough to make him break altogether. Too many emotions. Loving her was intense in a way that Gabe wasn’t really sure how to deal with. His hands slipped under her T-shirt so they could feel her bare skin. She gasped a little when his touch skimmed over her side.
“I need you, Gabe,” Zoe whispered in his ear as he lifted her shirt off and over her head. “I need to feel you.” There was a desperation in her voice that made him think she was on the verge of tears, but his own need for his mate was so great, it must have been the tangle of emotions they were both feeling.
