“I’m trying to do what’s right.”
“If anything happens to you, it will destroy him. He doesn’t let himself get close to people, Abbie. He did with you. Let Reese do what Reese does. I’m proud of how damn good he is. Let him do it.”
“Don’t you see? It’s because I care about Gabe that I can’t let him get hurt. That’s why I need him to focus on himself and his family. I need him to come out of this on top.”
“You leaving. That’s the kind of hurt he won’t recover from. I know my brother. If something happens to you, he will not be okay ever again. I know that’s a lot to put on you, but I can’t just let you walk away. Not for the wrong reasons. Get your purse and I’ll get mine. Let’s go back.”
“I need to think.”
“No. I reject that statement. You don’t have time to think. Come back and talk to Reese before he has to go to court. If you think Gabe will focus on Reese when you’re gone, you’re wrong. Your heart is in the right place, but you’re still wrong. Coming back with me is the right move.”
Suddenly, I know she’s right. Gabe is stubborn. He won’t protect himself. I have to be there to make sure he does. “Let’s go back.” I stand up and she pops to her feet.
“Good decision,” she says, and we waste no time heading for the door.
We make it half a block before we’re accosted by the press. We link arms and start walking through the mess and we’re almost back to the building when we’re pulled apart. We’re more than pulled apart. Someone has my arm and is yanking me down an alleyway.
“Abbie!” At the sound of Gabe’s voice, I search desperately for him, not sure how he’s here, or where he’s at, but I need to find him. Everything will be okay if I find Gabe but all I can see is the back of a man’s head while the force of his body pulls me forward.
“Gabe!” I shout, and with blessed relief, I twist around to find him running toward me. I want nothing more than to run to him, but I can’t. I’m yanked around a corner and Gabe’s gone, out of sight.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Abbie…
Gabe’s gone. I can’t see him anymore and that’s all it takes to jolt me into action.
I yank the man in front of me by the hair. He stumbles with the force of my pull and in that quick of a moment, Gabe is there, pulling the man away from me and shoving him against a wall. I reach for my phone to call the police, but I don’t have time to react. Adam is here, stepping in front of me, big and broad, a hand on his weapon under his jacket.
“Don’t call the police,” he orders. “Not yet.”
I blanch and when I would defy him, he’s stepping beside Gabe, and the two of them are speaking to the man. No one is shooting. No one is dying. Relief and adrenaline collide and I sink against the wall.
“Abbie!”
Cat rounds the corner and she’s on full speed, spotting me and running my direction.
Her presence sets me off all over again. She and her unborn child don’t need to be near this. I take off running toward her. “Get back!” I shout.
“What happened?” she pants out when I step in front of her, my hands coming down on her shoulders, her pregnant belly between us. “What happened?” she repeats, inspecting me for injury.
“I don’t know,” I say. “That guy just grabbed me. I have no idea what just happened.”
“Thank God you’re safe. I was terrified. I shouted for Adam. He was close, thank God.”
Two thank God statements in one sentence. She’s rattled. The truth is, so am I.
“He’s a fucking reporter,” Adam says, joining us right as Gabe does the same, pulling me around and into his arms, his hands on my face.
“Are you okay?” he demands, his voice fierce, his hands traveling my body, inspecting me for injury. “Tell me you’re okay.”
“Yes. Thank God you were here. I’m fine and thank you for saving me but don’t do it again.” I poke his chest, thinking about what could have happened. “You could have been killed.”
“He was a reporter.”
“You didn’t know that and he’s crazy. Clearly.”
His hands move to my waist and he pulls me to him, away from the group. “If you need me, I’ll be there. Don’t you see that?”
I swallow hard, emotion balling in my chest. “You can’t be there for me if you’re dead.”
“You have no idea what I felt when that man dragged you down the alley.” He cups my face. “Damn it, woman.” He presses his hands to the wall on either side of me. “What the hell are you doing to me? And why the fuck did you leave? Together, Abbie. Remember?”
“Yes. Do you? You forgot that today on many counts.”
“I know I did and I was wrong, but damn it, don’t fucking leave. Yell. Argue. Punch me if you have to, but don’t leave.”
Don’t leave. This is a hot point of his. This is a trigger and I quickly agree. “Okay. No leaving. I will just punch you instead.”
“Okay,” he says, completely serious right now. “That works.”
I laugh and wrap my arms around him. “You’re impossibly intense right now.”
“You know how to fix that?”
“How?”
“Don’t leave,” he growls.
“I know. I know.”
“And you could get naked.”
“Here?” I smile.
“My office. Let’s go.” He takes my hand but we get nowhere fast.
“What the hell just happened?”
At the sound of Reese’s voice, Gabe and I break apart and watch Reese fold Cat into his arms.
The group of us come together and Cat and I tell our story. The crowd. The reporters. The sudden yanking of me down the alley.
“Where is this asshole now?” Reese demands.
“Going back to his office to have his boss call me,” Gabe says, eyeing Reese. “What do you have time for now? What’s our plan?”
“I have a problem at the courthouse and I’m out of time,” he says. “We’ve—meaning all legal counsel involved—have already called and put the interviews off, pending new evidence provided by Blake.” He eyes Gabe. “Let’s meet tonight just to debrief and be sure we’re ready for anything.”
“Where and when?” Gabe asks.
“Our place at seven Reid wants to be there. I already told him.”
Cat leans over and hugs me. “I’m so sorry that just happened. Reporters can be such assholes.”
“I can’t believe a reporter would put his hands on a person,” I murmur.
“They don’t make a habit of it,” Gabe says. “And they’re going to regret it. I’m going to sue the paper and you can use that money for the shelter.”
My heart falls all over again for this man every day about ten times. His first thought is the shelter and I’m quick to kiss his cheek, and just as quick to whisper, “No. I will not fall in love with you.”
“Promise?”
I laugh and there’s a lot of coordination that follows. Who gets what security protection and who’s riding with who to go where. Funny thing about the next few minutes is that I’m reminded of Cat calling me family. How can it not? This crazy chaos that alternates hugging and fighting, fighting and hugging, that finally leads to me and Gabe being escorted to his office by Adam, feels like family.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Gabe…
The walk back to the building is short and Adam and I keep Abbie between us, out of the reach of random, psycho reporters. This whole mess has been a shit show that leaves us now needing security to go along with legal counsel. The irony of which is that none of these problems would exist if not for her ex coming after her. If not for her ex, if not for my father, I suspect we wouldn’t have met.
We enter the building and leave Adam at the lobby level, to fend off any press that might follow. Abbie and I have just stepped into the elevator, when my phone buzzes with a text and I pull it out, expecting Reid but finding the dog walker, complete with a photo of Dexter shaking her hand.
“Real serial killer there,” Abbie teases, glancing over my shoulder. “The dog walker might need security instead of us.”
“Dexter’s good at fooling everyone,” I say, but I’m thinking of me, not my new furry best friend. I’m thinking about what Reid said to me earlier today, about how I hide behind jokes and laughter. There was nothing funny about what I wanted to do to that reporter for touching Abbie. “Maybe we should bring him to work with us. I bet that dog would kill for you.”
“Dexter would get fat from treats and the staff would be distracted by him. Plus Dexter would tell the world we’re a couple in his jabbering doggy style. Which brings me to a topic we should have addressed already. If I’m working here, no touching, kissing, or familiar stuff at work.” She pushes out of my arms. “I have to earn respect. I can’t do that if everyone knows we’re together.”
“We’ll never be able to hide, Abbie.”
“We will,” she insists. “We have to. This matters to me. I don’t want to be the girl you’re banging, Gabe.”
“Any girl I was just banging wouldn’t be at the office with me.”
“Please.”
That one word undoes me. Holy hell, she undoes me. “Fine. Agreed.”
She gives me a prim nod and a smile. “Thank you.”
The elevator halts and she turns to face forward. I grimace, disliking this new arrangement. “I’ll change your mind about this,” I promise right before the doors open. I glance over at her. “In my office. With my tongue.”
Her lips quirk. “Then I guess I better not go to your office.”
The doors open and she exits the car. I follow, and I don’t touch her, kiss her, or check out her ass as I introduce her to the staff. I do, however, coordinate her meeting with Human Resources for one hour from now. That done, I lead her not to my office, but hers. Once we’re inside, I shut the door, and pull her around, pressing her against it. “This is uncalled for, Mr. Maxwell,” she teases. “None of this at the office.”
I cup her backside and pull her to me, about to prove her wrong, when someone knocks on the door. “You have three seconds and I’m coming in.”
At the sound of my brother’s voice, I pause a lean from kissing Abbie, my efforts to convince her to fuck me on her desk on hold but not for long. Grimacing while she laughs, I open the door to find Reid is standing there, his shoulder on the frame. “We should debrief after the Reese meeting.”
“Come the hell in,” I say, opening the door wider.
Reid pushes off the door, and joins us in Abbie’s office, giving her a quick once-over. “Heard you took a chunk of that reporter’s hair out.”
“Did I?” Abbie asks. “I sure hope so.”
Reid’s lips twitch. “Try harder next time. HR is ready for you now, not later.”
“In other words, get out of my own office,” Abbie says. “Not too subtle there, Reid, but good try.”
“Tell Carrie I tried,” he says. “She won’t believe you, but tell her anyway.”
Abbie laughs. “Right. I’ll tell her. Gallant effort.” She heads for the door. “I’ll find my way to Human Resources.” And then she’s gone, shutting Reid and I inside alone.
The two of us step to the window, our thinking positions, side by side. A window, any window really, always the place where we both overlook the city and let the superpowers flow. And we need fucking superpowers right now. “Do you think dad’s behind this?” Reid asks.
“We drove him out,” I say. “Of course, he’s behind at least some of this. I have a good mind to just go choke the bastard out and call it done.”
“But would it be done? There’s more to this than meets the eye.” We turn to face each other. “The question for me is,” he continues, “does this all come back to that property the shelter sits on, or was that all her ex’s bullshit to fuck with Abbie?”
“Walker can’t find a reason her ex would want that property. I’m thinking he was fucking with her.”
“Or it was a distraction to keep her eyes off something else.”
I lean on the beam running down the window. “Walker is looking wide and coming up dry.”
“And yet Kenneth is dead and Abbie and the shelter are at the core of this.”
“We can’t necessarily connect those dots,” I argue. “Kenneth was a bastard with a list of enemies, Jean Claude included. And as for the red wig, Abbie was his ex. She’s an easy target to place blame.”
“I wouldn’t put that or anything above Jean Claude. She was on his radar and that is not a place to be. Ever.”
The door opens and Abbie enters again, shutting it behind her, her face pale. “Jean Claude just tried to call me. He wants to make an offer on the animal shelter.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Abbie…
“I’m done with this, Gabe,” I say, leaning against my office door. “I just want to save you and my mom, and then get back to saving cute fluffy animals any way I can.” I look at Reid, who I know needs to know I’m worth hiring. “And winning legal battles against jerks like Jean Claude.”
“Fuck the assholes,” Reid says. “No. That’s my job. Save the animals. It’s a hell of lot more fun and it’s a tax write-off for us.”
I swear in this moment, as silly as it is, I want to tear up. Because I know Gabe hasn’t had time to talk to him about this but he replied just like Gabe. “All the more reason for me to call my mother, give her the heads up, and then take whatever Jean Claude offers. She feels like she has a lead on a new place anyway.”
“Jean Claude wasn’t calling you, Abbie,” Reid says. “He was using you to get to me.”
I blanch. “What? Why? I’m confused.”
“He knows things about Jean Claude,” Gabe says.
“In other words,” Reid explains, “anything he can use to control me, he uses. In this case, the shelter, and my brother’s love life.”
My throat restricts. “Translation. He’s using me to hurt you.”
“Don’t answer that, Reid,” Gabe says tightly, his jaw set hard. “I will. Just not now.”
“Now is fine,” Reid says, walking to the door. “I’ll leave you two to fight. I know that’s how Carrie prefers we do battle. And I’ll leave Jean Claude a message. He won’t immediately take my call. That’s how he operates. It may be tomorrow before he calls back. Come see me when you can, Gabe.” In other words, alone, without me. He doesn’t wait for a reply. He opens the door and leaves, shutting us back inside.
The minute it shuts, Gabe cages me against it, his hands on my waist, legs bracketing my legs. “I’ve asked myself over and over why you turn yourself into the monster in the room. After today, I get it. I know why. Because your prick of an ex turned you into that monster. He made you take the blame for everything. He conditioned you to believe that everything was your fault. So you run, to save everyone from yourself. I’m not him. So yes, you were right. You’re being used. Your ex, my father, Jean Claude—all pieces of shit—use people as weapons. We don’t blame ourselves for their actions. We blame ourselves for our own actions, and blaming ourselves is an action, Abbie.”
I’m stunned into silence. He’s right. Kenneth messed with my head, my self-esteem. My self-worth. I do blame me all the time.
“We won’t let them use us, Abbie, but they did us a favor. We found each other. We found Dexter.”
My heart swells with those words. “I don’t want them to take you, or Dexter, away.”
“You underestimate me if you think anyone is taking me from you or you from me. He inhales and presses his hands to the wall on either side of me, lifting his body from mine. “What I want you to remember, Abbie,” he adds, his voice low, rough, “is that I don’t hurt people just to hurt them but when someone tries to hurt me or someone I love, I draw blood. That’s who I am. That’s what I am.”
“One day you will stop talking in code and hiding who you are.”
“I just told you who I am.”
“Is that what that was?”
“You want more?”
“KM, Gabe. Every time you make a statement like the one you just made, she’s in the room.”
“Kendall was my past, Abbie. She’s nothing. Now, stop blaming yourself. That’s an order.”
“Okay. I’ll stop blaming myself, but promise me—”
“Anything you want, Abbie.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Gabe…
“Anything?” Abbie asks.
“Anything? What do you want? An orgasm? Another puppy? A cat?”
“Now you’re just trying to distract me.”
She’s right. I am. Distract her the hell away from the topic of Kendall and a confession that won’t go my way. That’s the problem. She thinks I’m a better man than I am even when I tell her that I’m not. Over and over, I tell her. I warn her. She sees something better in me than I see. She makes me want to be that better man. And I will be. That’s what matters.
“What do you want me to promise?” I ask, still pressing her against her office door, holding her here. Wishing like hell I could whisk her away, deal with this problem, and then bring her back where I plan to keep her by my side. The police complicate that desire, burn it to ruins, in fact.
Her hands touch my face, fingers trail my jaw. “Promises later but food now would be good.”
Aware that she’s let me dodge a bullet, I take the out. “Promises in bed tonight. Lunch now. Let’s order in.” I push off the door. We’ll move to my office and eat there, while you reach out to your mother. When do you have to be back with Human Resources?”
“One o’clock,” she says. “And me in your office is pretty much announcing we’re together, right?”
“I have lunch meetings all the time, baby.” I open the door. “Meet me there in five, if it makes you feel better.” I disappear out of the door.
I’ve just entered my office and sat down and she’s already there. “Shut the door.”
Her Submission Page 11