by C. A. Harms
Careful in my movements, fearing that Asher may be snuggled at my side, I moved slowly.
I looked up to find Gabby holding Asher against her chest as she fed him, smiling at me as she held my phone out in my direction.
She asked no questions as I took it from her and looked at the screen.
Grayson’s name flashed, and a rush of uncertainty ran through me. I wasn’t sure I couldn’t take hearing another form of disappointment when it came to the capture of the man terrorizing those I loved.
“Hey,” I said as I sat up and crawled from the bed. “Tell me you got some news for me,” I added as I stepped out into the hallway and began walking toward the kitchen.
“Trevor was able to tap into the florist’s system and find the credit card used to purchase the flowers.” He paused, and I braced myself against the countertop, waiting for him to share the news.
“You’re not gonna like this, boss,” he said.
“Didn’t think I would,” I replied as my heart beat rapidly in my chest.
“The flowers were purchased using the corporate card of Anderson, Kline, and Meyer Real Estate Firm.” My breathing instantly became more ragged. “Trevor did a little further investigating, and there are only three people who have access to this card, only one of them being of the female persuasion.”
“Margo,” I said before he could finish.
“Yep,” Gray replied, making a popping sound with the p.
“I want her found.” I was already moving toward the bedroom in search of my wallet and keys.
“We’re on it, Josh. We’ve got a team going to the firm, plus Trevor, Connor, and I are on our way to her place now,” he assured me.
I rounded the corner and my eyes locked on Gabby’s. At first she smiled until she picked up on my mood and her lips changed to a frown.
“Call Brook and Audrey. I want them here with Gabby,” I told him. “I’ll call Terrance and George and get them here until you and I can return. I want her found, Gray. This all needs to end.”
“I agree with ya, brother. We’ll call you when we know something.” He ended the call and Gabby was already moving in my direction.
“What’s going on, Josh? And don’t tell me nothing.” She held Asher close. “Because I know if you do, you’ll be lying.”
“Sit down, baby.” I held my hand out toward the bed, and she immediately starting shaking her head no. “Trust me, Gabby, you’ll want to sit down for this.”
I didn’t really want to tell her what we just found out, but I knew she needed to know.
“We found out who the woman is that’s been helping Leo,” I began to explain.
“I know her, don’t I?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “You know her.”
I watched as she braced herself for the news.
“It’s Margo,” I whispered, and a soft cry escaped her.
Chapter 25
Leo
“How in the hell could you have been so fucking stupid?” My voice echoed off the walls as I charged toward the bitch. Margo cowered next to the desk in the hotel room.
“I said to pay with fucking cash.” Before she could respond I lashed out and my hand connected with the side of her face.
“I’m sorry,” she cried, holding her face. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“That seems to be an ongoing trend with you, Margo. Now those bastards are swarming your office and your apartment in search of you.” I reached out and grabbed a fistful of her hair, dragging her toward the bed. “You’ve ruined everything.”
She tried to console me, making promises to fix everything, but I knew she couldn’t. Nothing could fix this. They would interrogate her until she gave away my position.
She was weak. So fucking weak.
Rage engulfed me, and I began hitting her over and over.
The sound of flesh impacting flesh, mixed with her screams, only drove me further.
Gaining control of my anger, I looked down at her and found she appeared lifeless, blood pooling on the bedspread beneath her.
And I felt absolutely no remorse. She was just a toy in my game. She had served her purpose; I no longer needed her services.
I left the hotel room quickly, leaving behind the shell of who Margo used to be.
It now appeared I may have to move my plans ahead a few weeks.
Chapter 26
Gabby
I now knew what Josh felt when he found out Frank had betrayed them. I couldn’t get past the knowledge that a woman I thought to be my friend was so willing to help a madman terrorize me.
What was her reasoning behind it?
And what in the hell did she have to gain?
I had been sitting in my living room for close to three hours. My sisters were at my sides as I stared ahead at the television, unable to concentrate on what was playing.
My focus kept shifting toward Terrance and George who had now both taken up residence at my kitchen snack bar.
Each man had a laptop before them and their phones within reach.
I hated the unknown. It was fucking eating me alive.
There I sat, pretending to not care that the man I loved rushed out of our apartment in search of the woman who may hold the key to finally being able to pinpoint Leo’s location.
It all left my stomach in knots.
Asher was snuggled up on Brook’s chest as Audrey sat with her phone to her ear. She had been talking to Mike for fifteen minutes, filling him in on the details of the last few hours.
The poor guy was still laid up in bed and I knew it was driving him insane.
I jumped when my own phone rang from its position on the coffee table before me.
I grabbed it quickly and a flutter of hope rushed through my stomach when I saw it was Josh calling.
“Hello,” I said in a rush, my heart racing.
“Hey, babe.” He sounded defeated.
“You didn’t find her, did you?”
“No.” I hung my head as soon as he spoke the words.
Would we ever fucking catch a god-damn break? Or would we be forced to live this way for the rest of our lives?
Hiding out.
Always looking over our shoulder.
“We’ve spoken with almost all the agents at the firm. We went to her apartment. No one has seen her since late last night.” Josh sounded as disappointed as I felt. “We’re not giving up, baby, we’ll find her,” he assured me, and I knew he would do everything he could to make that happen.
“The guys are gonna stay there with you girls.” Josh covered his phone for a moment, yet I could hear the muffled tone of him speaking to someone else before he returned back to me. “We’re gonna be wrapped up here for a while. I want to talk to some more neighbors, and I think we’ll remain stationed outside hoping she returns sometime tonight.”
“I just want you home,” I confessed.
Suddenly I felt needier than I had in a very long time.
I wanted him to wrap me in his arms and tell me that this mess would soon be over.
“I’ll be home as soon as I can, sweetheart,” Josh whispered.
I knew this was tearing him up as much as it was me.”
“I love you, Gabby,” he added. “Give my boy a kiss from his daddy.”
Tears filled my eyes as I whispered in return, “We love you.” My throat felt as if it was made of sandpaper.
***
It was sometime after midnight when I felt the mattress dip at my side, just before the strong arms of the man I loved circled me.
He held me close, just breathing me in.
Neither of us spoke. There was nothing to say.
Being in his arms said it all. And for tonight I completely accepted this moment, without allowing Leo and his fucked up world to taint it.
I wouldn’t give him tonight because it was for Josh and me.
I turned in his arms and buried my face in his chest, falling asleep to the sound of his heartbeat, a steady rhythm beating against my ear.
Chapter 27
Josh
“We found her,” Trevor announced as I crawled out of bed in a hurry, my phone pressed tightly against my ear as I gripped it hard. “It’s bad, man. I actually think he left her for dead.”
My heart hammered in my chest.
“Where are you now?” I asked, feeling my voice crack.
“We started cross-referencing all the purchases on the credit card. When we saw a recent hotel expense we figured it was worth looking into.” I could sense the struggle in Trevor’s voice. “We had to have hotel security open the room, and it was fucked up, Josh. I don’t really know what Margo looked like before, but I do know that she’d be considered unrecognizable to anyone who did know her.”
She was now just another one of Leo’s victims.
“We’re on our way to the hospital now. Gray is ahead of me a few cars. I’ve got Connor here with me,” he informed me as I still stood in the hallway with my hand braced against the wall.
“I’ll meet you guys at the hospital,” I said just before ending the call.
I had to take some time to calm down before I made my next call.
After Gabby’s recent stay in the hospital, I felt Marshall and I had finally reached an understanding. I think he finally knew my dedication to his daughter and just how much she truly meant to me.
“Is everything okay?” was the first thing he said when he answered his phone.
“Actually, I was hoping you and Judith could come over and spend the day with Gabby and Asher.” I had absolutely no doubt he would see right through me.
“Of course we would love to spend the day with our daughter and grandson, but do you mind telling me why you are so eager for us to?” And there it was.
I couldn’t tell him much, but I could give him enough to pacify him. Or at least I hoped it would.
“We may have a break in finding Leo. I need to spend the day working things out, and I don’t want Gabs left here alone all day.” I knew he understood there was only so much I could disclose. I also knew rarely did it stop him from pushing for at least a little bit.
“We’ll be there in about thirty minutes,” Marshall assured me as we said goodbye.
That would give me enough time to get a shower and break the news to Gabby. Yes, her heart was broken by finding out it was Margo who had betrayed her, but I knew she still cared.
***
“What do we have?” I asked Grayson as he stepped away from the doctors just as I entered the emergency room entrance.
“Broken nose, jaw…” he began to give me a rundown of Margo’s injuries, “…concussion, as well as some internal bleeding. She has a few cracked ribs.”
“But she’s gonna make it?” I asked.
“Yeah.” He nodded his head. “She’s sedated right now. They’re bringing in a specialist to evaluate her facial structure, and she needs the rest. But we’ll get to talk to her and hopefully find out what the hell this bastard has planned.”
We’d get to talk to her. I just wasn’t sure when.
I know that was selfish. She was in the other room, broken and battered, and all I could think about was finding Leo’s location. For an instant I felt like a selfish, inconsiderate asshole, but only for a second.
Margo knew what kind of man Leo was, nothing could convince me otherwise. And she knew the chances of something like this happening, or something worse.
I spent hours pacing the hospital corridor, jumping each time the door would open or someone would exit. I was growing impatient.
I left Gabby knowing she was heartbroken with the news regarding Margo. I knew it would hurt her to know the condition we found her in.
A firm hand gripped my shoulder, and I turned around to find Trevor standing behind me.
“Hey man, the doctor said he would take you and Gray back,” he said, and my stomach tensed with what I could only explain as adrenaline. I had to control myself, I knew that, but fuck, I wanted nothing more than for all of this to be over.
I wanted what any normal person would take for granted daily. I wanted to be able to take my family to the park, or hell, even dinner, without feeling like we were in danger.
I wanted Leo to pay for every fucking thing he had ever done to every innocent person. I wanted him to suffer.
And Margo was my key.
Yet the moment I stepped into her room, I felt my knees grow weak. She was beaten to such an extreme it was hard to tell what she looked like. Her face was covered with black and purple bruises. The contours of her face all blended together making it almost impossible to look at.
As we stepped closer, she remained in the same position, not even a flinch. She stared ahead at the blank wall to her right as if she was in a trance.
“Margo.” Grayson was the first one to speak because I was momentarily mute. The words I wanted to speak were lodged within my throat.
She didn’t even acknowledge our presence.
“We just need to ask you a few questions,” Grayson continued. “We need to know if it was Leo who did this to you.”
Her lack of response, hell, even a fucking grunt, was grating on my nerves. She knew what he was capable of, and to remain silent, ignoring us, infused the anger within me.
“How could you?” The words were out before I could stop them. “She looked up to you, idolized your professionalism, and you betrayed her. You were willing to help some sick fuck terrorize her.”
It was then that Margo turned her head and looked at us.
Her left eye was so swollen it wouldn’t even open.
The doctor had told us she wouldn’t be able to answer us with words, but they had given her a notepad and pen for communication purposes. I had not expected full blown conversations from her but fuck, a god-damn nod was the least she could offer.
Her right eye, the one that she could see out of, filled with tears, and she closed it tightly. I watched as she winced and gripped the side of the bed.
“Do you know that even after everything, Gabby was still heartbroken when I told her you’d been hurt? She wanted to come and see you, make sure you were okay.” Margo’s lower lip trembled, and she started to turn away once more, but I stepped forward and Grayson gripped my shoulder. “Just please tell us if this was Leo’s doing?”
Time felt like it passed in slow motion before Margo finally nodded her head and continued to turn away from us.
It was Grayson who dragged me from the room and forced me to walk down the hall.
I could feel the rage boiling within me as I let her lack of effort enrage me even more.
She fucking owed it to Gabby to help us find this bastard.
“Josh, you need to calm down,” Grayson said as he pushed me into the bathroom and closed the door behind us.
“I need to calm down?” My voice boomed through the tiny space as I fisted my hands at my sides. “She needs to wake the fuck up and realize she is protecting a madman. He tried to kill her yet she is willing to hide him.”
“Yelling at her and demanding answers is not going to get us any closer to finding him.” Grayson was calm, and that even pissed me off. How the hell could he be so relaxed about this fucked up shit? “I’m in this man, right along your side. Though I may not be as close to this as you, I can assure you that I’m as invested as you are. I love Gabby, and Brooklynn, and Audrey. They’re all right here, man.” He placed his hand against his chest over his heart. “This man has fucked with us for too long. We’ll get him.”
I know Grayson meant what he said and I had to trust him. I had to remain in control, yet I could feel myself slipping slowly.
Chapter 28
Gabby
I could see the pure determination in Josh’s eyes.
He spent day after day sitting at the side of Margo’s bed, practically begging for the smallest sliver of information.
He tried the consoling friend, the hard FBI interrogation, and even the scare tactic he used on so many others before Margo. Yet she still remai
ned tight-lipped.
Grayson told Brooklynn he believed she feared for her safety.
Well, to me, that would mean him being behind bars where he can’t hurt her anymore. That would be the best place for Leo to be.
Apparently she felt different.
It was as if she had a loyalty to him even her own life didn’t outweigh.
It was sad, really.
I would never understand that kind of connection, how a woman could feel so weakened by a man that she forgot about her own self-worth.
I had an appointment this afternoon with my obstetrician. It hadn’t been quite four weeks since my caesarean, but with my blood pressure concerns, Dr. Bali just wanted to follow up with me and make sure I was healing well.
I originally thought of taking Josh along, but with everything going on, I hated to even bring it up.
Assigning a sister for Asher was the easiest part. Hell, Brook practically leaped off the couch in joy when I asked and snatched him from my arms instantly. She began swaying from side to side, telling him that he was about to get his first lesson on what women truly want in a man.
When I arched my brow and crossed my arms over my chest, she laughed.
“What? It’s never too early to learn to be a gentleman.” She shrugged, turning around and continuing down the hallway whispering into Asher’s ear.
My little boy would never lack in the love department, because everyone within his space absolutely adored him.
I left my apartment with the biggest smile on my face as I made my way downstairs to hail a cab. Audrey had planned to meet me at the doctor because it seemed I was always in need of a bodyguard. Per my fiancé’s instructions, of course.
I texted her as we were pulling away from the curb, but by the time I reached the doctor I still hadn’t gotten a response. I swear, sometimes I had no idea why my sister even had a phone. Half the time she had it on silent and never even realized someone was trying to reach her.