Gabriel (Legacy Series Book 2)

by RJ Scott

  And all Gabriel could do was wait for the ax to fall. This was worse than Stefan punishing him and reassuring him of his place in the world. This was different. Wrong.

  “You remember I took you in,” Stefan said calmly, collected and focused.

  What was Gabriel supposed to say? That question had been asked so many times, and it seemed he never answered the right way. If he said a simple yes, then he wasn’t thankful enough. If he said yes and thanked Stefan, then that was too submissive and pathetic.

  “I do,” he finally said, and waited for the explosion that always occurred after this trick question.

  Stefan nodded. “It wasn’t enough money,” he said. “That pitiful amount you paid me wasn’t enough to pay for everything I’ve given you. A place to sleep. A career. You get that, right?”

  Everything always came back to money. The PI who’d tracked him down had given him a check with the name Darren Castille on the bottom and a letter, and Stefan had taken the check and the letter. He’d never seen either again. But he knew Stefan had cashed that check somehow, because he’d told him over and over again that it hadn’t been enough.

  Nothing Gabriel did was ever enough.

  Why don’t you stand up to Stefan? The peace in this room, this fragile peace that could snap into violence at any moment, was a space for him to think, to pray that maybe this time the violence would be enough to end everything for him.

  He wanted to say goodbye to Cam, though, and maybe watch one more film with him and eat all his chips. Because Cam meant something to a broken man. Not that Gabriel deserved it.

  “I’m sorry,” he murmured, because that was what Stefan expected whenever money came up.

  “You should sign over your savings to me. That will make us even.”

  Gabriel’s insides knotted. The money he’d saved was to pay back Darren Castille the blood money he’d been given. And he was so close to having it all. “No,” he said, and tried to make himself smaller in the chair.

  Stefan half rose to his feet, temper in every line of him, then he subsided back onto the sofa, and he was smiling.

  “I’ll take it anyway,” he said. “What are you going to do to stop me?” He laughed at his own statement, like it was some huge joke.

  “That isn’t even my money,” Gabriel said, aware he was pushing this too hard. Why was Stefan just sitting there? Why didn’t he beat Gabriel, or hurt him in some other way? He could handle the pain, but he didn’t know how to handle this weird face-off. Was this just another way to mess with him? Something new that Gabriel hadn’t had time to build a mental wall against?

  “Doesn’t matter,” Stefan said, and examined his nails. “I have the bank of Cameron Stafford ready to bankroll you.”

  Cam’s name made his spiraling thoughts come to a grinding halt.

  “What?”

  Stefan casually looked at his watch. “He’ll be here soon. Two million for your sorry ass, and there will be more where that came from.”

  “Leave Cam alone,” Gabriel said softly, a low warning that made him feel sick to the stomach. Stefan couldn’t touch Cam.

  “I’m not touching Cam,” Stefan said with a grin. “I just need to hurt you.”

  “That won’t work, he doesn’t care about me.”

  “You’re wrong, Angel, he thinks something of you,” Stefan said. “He’s a rich man who can pay for your used ass for a very long time.”

  “No,” Gabriel said, and he pushed himself shakily to his feet. “Leave. Him. Alone.”

  Stefan stood as well, and a grin split his face. “What are you going to do to stop me?”

  Gabriel clenched his fists and took an unsteady step forward. “No,” he said.

  “What will you do? Hit me?” Stefan laughed. He was a big man, strong, and Gabriel was nothing against him, but he was close to losing it.

  The thought of Stefan hurting Cam, taking money from him, was wrong.

  It was all fucking wrong.

  There was a knock on the door, and Stefan’s grin expanded even more. “Showtime,” he said.

  He crossed to the door, but as soon as he’d opened it, the door flew in forcefully, knocking him to the floor.

  Six stood there, cold focus in his eyes, and he glanced briefly at Gabriel. Then he picked up a floored Stefan and pinned him by his neck to the wall, his feet dangling. Stefan was scrambling to pull Six off, but he’d finally met someone bigger and stronger than him.

  “You have belongings here?” Six asked, and Gabriel realized he was talking to him. “Snap out of it, Gabriel. You have stuff you need to collect?”

  “Yes, I…”

  “Get them.”

  Stefan made a choking sound, but Six didn’t move, even when Stefan’s foot connected with his knee. He just moved to pin him bodily.

  “Gabriel, get your fucking stuff.”

  Gabriel did as he was told, going to his room, looking wildly at what he had. Nothing.

  He had nothing. No photos, no books, no clothes that he wanted. Nothing.

  He came back out. Stefan was quieter, still pinned, his eyes closed.

  “Cam is downstairs. Get to the car and wait for me.”

  Gabriel sidled past Stefan, who opened his eyes and stared right at him. “I’ll kill you,” he spluttered, but Six pushed him harder, and this time his eyes rolled back in his head.

  “Get. To. The. Car.”

  “Are you killing him?” Gabriel asked, and he couldn’t believe those words had left his mouth. What was he asking? It was like another man was inside his head.

  “Do time for a piece of shit like him? We’ll see. Now go.”

  Gabriel scrambled out of the room, down the stairs, and burst out onto the early morning street, coming face to face with Cam leaning on the hood of a large SUV that had been parked haphazardly up on the sidewalk.

  “Cam,” Gabriel murmured. The shock of what he was seeing, of what had just happened, was too much. He stepped back and turned on his heel. He didn’t know where he was going to go, but Six would look out for Cam.

  “Gabriel? Wait.”

  He turned back and saw that Cam had moved away from the car, his hand out in front of him like he expected to feel Gabriel there.

  “I have to go.”

  “What happened?” Cam asked, and took a step toward him, knocking into the fire hydrant on the corner. He stumbled a little, but righted himself immediately. “Are you okay?”

  “Six is talking to Stefan.” He didn’t know how else to explain what was happening inside that apartment. Was Six going to kill Stefan? Would Gabriel’s life end with that of the man who’d shaped him? Tears came unbidden to him, rolling down his cheeks, and he couldn’t believe he was standing there in the middle of the fucking street bawling like a baby.

  Cam moved closer, and Gabriel was frozen in place.

  “Come here,” Cam said—not an order, just a plea.

  Gabriel took a step closer to Cam, then stopped. “I have to go,” he said.

  “Okay,” Cam said, and nodded. “I’ll take you wherever you need to go.”

  Where was he going to go? He had his savings, but he wanted them to repay the awful debt that Stefan had made him take on. He didn’t want blood money from his time at the Bar Five. He wanted nothing from his childhood.

  Except his mom.

  “I really want my mom,” he said.

  “We can take you anywhere,” Cam said immediately.

  “Mom’s gone. She died when I was a kid. You can’t give me my mom.”

  “How can I help you? I can take you to the hotel?”

  “No.”

  “Legacy, then.”

  Legacy would take him in for a while so he could get his bearings, and he knew that the place was close to the ranch where Darren worked. He could take out all his money, pay Darren, maybe get some sleep before he fell to the ground and slept right here.

  “Legacy,” he agreed.

  The door to the building slammed open and Six came out. He wasn’
t covered in blood, he didn’t seem in a hurry, and he didn’t say a thing about what had happened.

  “We’re taking Gabriel to Legacy Ranch,” Cam said. Seemed like he wasn’t questioning Six about what had happened either. Like maybe he didn’t care what Six had done to Stefan.

  “Is he dead?” Gabriel asked. Half of Gabriel wanted Stefan dead so he’d be free. The other half was ashamed of feeling that way. Stefan had saved him from the streets.

  He saved me.

  And now Six and Cam have saved me.

  Why can’t I save myself?

  “No, I didn’t kill him. Get in the damn car.”

  The journey to Legacy Ranch took enough time for Gabriel to think about everything that had happened. The pain and the fear and the self-loathing. By the time they reached the place he hoped he could call home for at least a couple of days, it was eight a.m. and the light was too bright on his tired eyes. Six pulled up at the end of the road and stayed in the car. Only Cam and Gabriel got out, and the door to the ranch house opened, Kyle standing in the doorway with Jason at his side.

  “You know where I am,” Cam said, and held out his right hand. “When you’re ready, you know how to reach me.”

  “Why would you want that?” He couldn’t help asking the question. Why would this strong man want someone who was as broken and twisted as Gabriel?

  In answer, Cam moved into his space, sliding his hands up Gabriel’s arms and finally cradling his face. Gabriel was frozen in place. He couldn’t even breathe. His chest felt tight. And then Cam did the unthinkable. He pressed a soft kiss to Gabriel’s lips, then slanted his mouth to deepen the kiss. Taken by surprise, Gabriel reciprocated. He’d never tasted anything like this, never felt the connection in a simple kiss.

  And then Cam stepped back. “I’ll visit. You don’t need to see me, but I want to know you’re okay.”

  “I’m not staying here that long.”

  Cam kissed him again, right on the tip of his nose and then each eye before resting his lips on Gabriel’s again, then he moved away.

  “You know where I am,” he said.

  Gabriel watched him get into the car, and then as Six backed up the drive, until all that was left of them was a trail of dust. He rubbed at his chest. He wanted Cam to come back, wanted selfishly to have another kiss, to depend on Cam to fix this, to have Six next to him all the time to stop anyone hurting him.

  But he wasn’t worth that kind of love.

  So he walked to Kyle, who extended a hand, which Gabriel shook.

  “We have your room ready,” Kyle said.

  And completely mortified, Gabriel followed him in.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Kyle was quiet. He had this way about him that was serious and thoughtful, and he was the direct opposite of Jason, who seemed to bounce from one thing to another. But they balanced each other and they seemed genuinely happy.

  Jason was Kyle’s right-hand man, and it was Kyle who ran Legacy Ranch and handed out chores. Like today it was Gabriel’s turn to muck out and brush down the horses, all four of them. Including his horse.

  Yep. His horse.

  Day three, and a man he half recognized from his last abortive visit to Legacy had arrived atop a horse, another on a rein behind him.

  “This is Pixie,” the man had said as he’d dismounted. He’d extended a hand. “Jack,” he’d introduced himself. Gabriel had wiped his hands on his pants and shaken Jack’s firmly. “Now, don’t be fooled by the cutesy name, you can blame my youngest daughter for that; everything is called Pixie at the moment.”

  “Okay,” Gabriel murmured, because Jack appeared to expect a response, and that was pretty much all Gabriel had. The horse had been big, a dark brown, with huge melty eyes and a twitchy nose. Then it had hit him. Jack wanted him to take the reins and put Pixie in one of the empty stables.

  He could do that. It was his third day, and he’d moved up from hating the sight of the horses and the barns to actually stepping foot inside. He hadn’t lasted long in there—the scent of hay and horses, the noises, and all he could recall was pain.

  “She’s all yours while you’re here,” Jack had continued.

  “I don’t want a horse.”

  “Every person who stays here helps out with the charitable side of the ranch, looking out for rescued animals.”

  Oh. Now he got it. The broken human got paired with a damaged horse and magic happened. Gabriel had thought at that moment that the chance of a horse doing anything for him was remote.

  Day five, though, and he’d managed to stable Pixie on his own, and even allowed her to nudge at him without flinching.

  And now Kyle was standing there looking in on him, and he was quiet and deadly serious.

  “Clair is here,” he said as he moved the wheelbarrow a little to help as Gabriel worked at the back of the stall.

  For a brief moment, Gabriel didn’t know who Kyle meant. And then he did. He moved another pile of manure from floor to barrow, then stopped and leaned on the shovel.

  “I’m supposed to talk to her.” Like I’m supposed to bond with my horse.

  “No,” Kyle said with a smile, and leaned over the stall wall to fuss at Pixie. He ran his hands over the scars on her flanks; marks put there by owners who’d abused the poor animal. Pixie carried scars that were visible, but under it all she hadn’t lost the ability to trust.

  She relied on Gabriel. Trusted him. Showed affection.

  How could an animal forgive being shown nothing but pain? He couldn’t forget it, let alone forgive.

  “No I don’t have to see her?”

  “Not at all. That isn’t what Legacy does. This isn’t forced counseling—this place is all about peace.” He glanced out at the land beyond the barn door and gestured toward it. “A man can get lost in all this space.”

  “I used to love the horses,” Gabriel said. Then realized he’d said something that might invite a discussion and he set about shoveling more manure.

  “She’s here all day. Jason is giving her riding lessons, which are going well. So if you want to talk, I think she has a ride planned this afternoon, or maybe you can grab her and have a quick chat if you need her.”

  “Thank you,” Gabriel said, because that was the polite thing to say.

  “Right. I’m fixing the bathroom in pod eight, so you know where to find me.”

  He tipped his hat and left. Pod eight was right next to Gabriel’s seven, and was an empty room. Some girl called Marianna had been and gone the week before he’d arrived. She’d run here, and then run away. He knew, because Jason had told him that Kyle had taken it super personally that she’d left, like he should have known. Before she left, she’d trashed the room—written all over the walls, apparently, and taken an ax to everything inside.

  How fucked up was it that Gabriel could understand that kind of anger?

  He was consumed by anger and his own self-loathing, and the idea of taking an ax and destroying everything in this room made him itch with need.

  His cell vibrated, and like he’d been trained to expect it, he smiled. Cameron had taken to texting him at weird times of the day, stupid little anecdotes about what he was doing, about the hotel, Gidget, and about how Six asked about him.

  Probably to make sure he wasn’t coming back, was all Gabriel had thought when he’d heard that last bit of news. He pulled the cell out of his pocket. Reading the text would be a welcome distraction from having to think about Clair and her up-in-the-air counseling.

  “Six is grumpy as fuck,” the text began. “Send help.” After that was a selection of emojis, including one of a smiling poop. Not sure what that’s supposed to mean.

  He texted back a smile. That was mostly what he sent. There were never questions in the random texts. Never a “how are you” or questions about Stefan. Nope, everything was chatty. Happy. The first time he’d got a text, he’d freaked out and it had taken him an hour to open it, and then he’d had to make sure he was entirely alone in case Cam was text
ing to tell him Stefan had caused problems.

  A small part of Gabriel wanted to know what Stefan was doing. Had Six scared him off? Threatened him? Buried him in some remote Texas field?

  But mostly he wanted to know for sure that Cam was safe.

  Another text came in. “I want to take you to dinner,” it said.

  “What?” Gabriel said out loud, Pixie looking at him and huffing at his shoulder. Idly, he patted her coat and re-read the text. Those seven words made him feel weird. Really weird.

  And he had nothing to say.

  So he finished his chores, ignored his cell, and went inside for lunch. Only Clair was in there, sitting at the big table with papers spread out in front of her. She looked hot and red in the face, her long, dark hair pulled back from her face in a messy ponytail.

  She looked up at the door and smiled. “Hello, Gabriel.”

  “Hi,” he said. “I’m making lunch.”

  Everyone was responsible for their own lunch here, and that was part of the day Gabriel enjoyed. His appetite was still for shit, but he liked rummaging in the fully stocked fridge for ingredients to make up sandwiches.

  “There’s coffee there I made earlier.”

  He nodded and opened the fridge, pulling out salad and ham, then found the bread, and all that time Clair was reading through papers and tutting and sighing. He almost asked her what was wrong, but he didn’t. Instead he thought about it being lunchtime, about making his lunch, and about her maybe not having eaten.

  And that was the thought process that led to his first session with Clair. He offered her lunch, and before he knew it the clock showed four p.m. and they’d filled the entire time talking.

  “No two relationships are the same,” she summarized as they sipped fresh coffee.

  “So why do I feel like I miss Stefan?”

  “Because you still feel like he saved you from a fate that was so much worse. He was better than the options you had, and maybe when he first took you from that corner, he had your best interests at heart.”

  Even knowing that wasn’t true didn’t push away the insistent nag of need he had to see Stefan again.