“Do you think you are in the position to negotiate right now? There are five of us and one of you,” the half-dead looking man in the chair finally spoke up. He laughed as he said the words, dirty strings of hair hanging in his sallow face. The open hand slap came out of nowhere, knocking him sideways and almost completely out of the chair. He groaned and folded in on himself again. “Sorry, Boss,” he whined, head hanging down contritely.
“I apologize for Bernard, he has some personal problems that he has yet to overcome,” the man who had issued the blow said as he wiped his hands on the leg of his pants. If I had just touched something so dirty I would wipe my hands, too. “Bernard here is under punishment, he knows better than to touch the merchandise, but he just couldn’t keep his hands to himself. She is unharmed, don’t worry, “he assured me hastily. “This one is a little feisty, she might need to be restrained until she is properly trained. I’m Chaz Malone, and you are?”
“I’m Gabriel Anderson,” I said as I shook the offered hand. It was so…normal. Like we were shaking hands on a deal in a boardroom and not over some illegal as hell shit in a dirty warehouse in Detroit. “I’ll do as I please with her, because after you have the money, she is mine, correct?” I was trying to make a point, and blunt talk was going to be the only thing that worked with a man such as Chaz Malone.
His eyes widened slightly at the introduction. Of course, he recognized my name, guys like him probably kept a running tab of all the money in the area. Always scouting clients with cash, I would imagine. Under normal circumstances, he was not someone I would ever do business with, but I had no choice in that moment.
“Anderson Investments, Gabriel Anderson? My, my, aren’t we slumming it today? I wouldn’t imagine you would be the type who would have to buy female company. But then again, I don’t judge.” His words made me want to punch him in the face. Instead, I laughed.
“Oh, I don’t, I assure you. But Angel and I go way back. Way, way back. So you see, this is a bit of a rescue mission, I am afraid.” I leaned in conspiratorially like I was sharing a secret with Chaz, and mock whispered, “I will be taking every penny of this payment out of her ass, you can trust me on that.”
He laughed at that and I laughed with him. The red-headed guy next to him ghosted a smile but no one else moved. I opened the case to show Chaz Malone just how serious I was about this purchase.
“There is six hundred thousand dollars in here. The extra hundred is to make sure whatever problem Angel caused to land herself in this mess, goes away. When Angel leaves with me, you all forget her name, what she looks like, or that any of you ever met her. Does that work?” Friendly businessman Gabe was gone. As I gave my instructions, I let a little of the edge creep into my voice and looked at all of the men in the room with a dead expression, especially that little dickhead groaning in his chair. I knew I was a dangerous man. I could dispatch everyone in this room if I felt like it. I had experience in this sort of thing. Well, I might have a little trouble with Dino if he felt like putting up a fight, but these other guys, they didn’t know what they were dealing with. I hoped I didn’t have to show them. I just wanted to get Angel and get out.
Chaz’s eyes widened again, the only hint that he might have understood the underlying threat I was throwing in his general direction. “Angel who?” he asked, as he took the case from my hand and gestured down the small hallway. “Eddie and D, take him to her. See that the transaction is properly carried out.” Chaz turned and gestured to the greasy man mumbling to himself in the chair. “Get up, Bernard. It is time we had a little talk about the meaning of the word, subordinate.” I didn’t wait to see what was going to happen to him, that was none of my business. My business lie behind the locked door at the end of the hall.
7
Angel
Turns out I had been taken all the way to Detroit, and I only knew that from the signs on the expressway as we drove. Gabe did not say a single word to me when we got in the car. He drove a silver Lexus SUV because, of course he did, and I was too afraid to move around in the passenger seat lest I sully the leather with my dirty peasant self. The dash was polished smooth and everything was so modern inside it looked like a damn spaceship.
I snuck a look at his profile as he kept his eyes on the road. His jaw was set in a hard line, and the muscles in his shoulders were drawn up tight. He was angry, so angry, at me, I knew. I had been back in his life for minutes before I brought calamity on his house. I’d messed up pretty bad, and even though when I asked for his help it was in a completely different capacity, I could only be grateful that he had come to that warehouse to find me. I was either going to die or be sold to recover that money. Chaz Malone may have had a handsome face, but he was a terrifying man.
I wanted to say something to Gabe, anything to make him understand how much I appreciated my rescue, but he wouldn’t look at me, and the silence of the car was a thick blanket that covered me from head to toe. All of the adrenaline from earlier left my body, and that exhaustion coupled with the heated seats of Gabe’s fancy ET vehicle lulled me to sleep before I could break the silence.
The sound of the passenger door opening jerked me awake, and for a moment I was back in that other car, with those other men. It was only the soft sound of Gabe saying my name that brought me out of the nightmare and into reality.
“Angel,” he said firmly. “We’re home.”
Well, we were somewhere, but it wasn’t my home.
In the dark I could see nothing but trees surrounding a very long driveway that we had apparently followed into the woods. A two-story wooden house sat directly in front of me. I couldn’t call it a cabin, it was much too modern in construction. It was like a cabin on steroids with what looked like a three car garage attached to the side, and the most amazing looking wrap around porch, or so it seemed from what I could see in the dark. The night sky was pitch black and the only light came from the pale wash of the moon. It was breathtakingly beautiful, but I didn’t live here. I even said as much to Gabe.
“I don’t live here.” I couldn’t see his facial expression in the dark, but I assumed he was looking at me like I was an idiot.
“I know, Angel, but I do.”
I hadn’t agreed to go to his house. I had just assumed he was taking me home. “Why am I here, though? I want to go home. I want to take a shower and I want to go home.”
“Get inside, Angel.” He sounded as tired as I felt. “We’ll talk about it when you settle down. It’s been a long, weird day, and to be honest, I am not really comfortable letting you out of my sight right now, so if you could abstain from arguing with me for five minutes, that would be awesome.” I had busted into his office after fifteen years like a whirlwind, got into a snit with his assistant, then him, and then gotten kidnapped right in front of him. I don’t know what he had gone through to find me, but I do know that he had just somehow magically shelled out $500,000 to save me from being sold into slavery, and I had no hope of repaying that. I was still going to have to find Melody, find out where she went, and how to get that money back. It didn’t belong to her and it didn’t belong to me, but here we were in the middle of a shit hurricane anyway. I decided not to fight him anymore and followed him into the house.
It was all wood inside, not the cheaper, laminated stuff that had a finish to look like wood. No, this house was made from polished heavy beams with an open floor plan. Forget a house, it looked like a vacation ski lodge. Large and comfortable looking brown leather furniture took up space to the right, where a stone fireplace was built into the wall, and a big screen TV was mounted above it.
Stainless steel appliances gleamed from the open kitchen to the left, and only a counter with four barstools lined up under the ledge like dominoes separated the kitchen from the large room. A hallway ran down the left past the kitchen, and a large winding staircase in the middle of the room led to a second floor. The place was huge.
“Do you live here by yourself?” I mean, I knew he wasn’t married. His
mom would have told my mom, and there would have been some fancy invitations in the mail for us, I was sure of it. But this house was so big, did he have roommates? Pets? A giant St. Bernard to help fill up some of the empty space?
“It’s all mine. I had it built after Dad passed and I knew I would need to come home to run the company.” His dad had passed less than a year ago. Who was able to get a house like this built in that amount of time? Oh yeah, rich people.
Gabe threw his keys in a little dish on the counter that separated the kitchen from the main room. Scrubbing his hands over his face and then through his hair, he leaned over the counter, head resting on his arms. He stayed there for one long moment, and then another. It looked like he had no intentions of moving from his spot and I thought he had fallen asleep that way.
“Gabe,” I said softly, wondering what I was supposed to do next. I walked up to him and put my hand on his shoulder. “Gabe, hey, Gabe, can you hear me?” I asked, giving him a gentle shake.
The arm underneath my hand was made out of solid rock. It had to be. A human limb did not become that hard on its own. He moved really damn fast, too. One moment, he was leaning on the counter with his head in his hands and then next he had me pinned in front of him with my back pressed against the same counter he had just been leaning on. His eyes were wide, angry and dark, and for a minute I wondered if he was going to be physical with me.
But no, that wasn’t Gabe. No matter how angry he would never be that way. What he did was pull my arm and place my hand, palm flat against his chest so I could feel his heartbeat through the expensive cotton of his crisp white shirt. Gabe may not have been moving, but his heartbeat was crazy. It pounded and jumped erratically, his heart trying desperately to climb straight out of his chest.
“Angel, I was afraid today. A different kind of fear than I have ever felt in the field or on any assignment. I didn’t know what I was going to find in that warehouse. Jesus Christ, you could have been in pieces in there. Hell, if I was any later, you could have been in the belly of a freighter on your way across the ocean. This is serious.” Gabe let go of my hand but didn’t back up, just looked at me with those dark eyes snapping with electric emotion.
“But I’m okay, Gabe. Relax. I’m fine.” I had meant my words to be soothing but they had the opposite effect.
“Chaz Malone!” Gabe exploded and with such close proximity I winced as his words boomed in my ears. “Chaz fucking Malone, Angel. Jesus, we aren’t talking about some two-bit hood. This is an honest to God bad guy. He doesn’t kill people, Angel, he has a payroll of crazy people that will do it for him. He is the type of bad guy who doesn’t even have to get his hands dirty, for fuck’s sake. Angel—you could have died.”
“What do you want me to say, Gabe?” The day finally caught up with me and I snapped, meeting his anger with some of my own. “I didn’t go looking for trouble, I ended up ass over elbows in it anyway. I told you I needed help. I wouldn’t have come up there unannounced otherwise. It’s not like I don’t know what you really do for a living, or at least did. Your mom has been bragging about your exploits since you left home.” I ticked off the list of his accomplishments one by one. “Decorated hero in the military. Sought after Special Forces, bodyguard, investigator. Finder of lost people. You were a bodyguard for a foreign princess, Gabe, we heard all about it. I am sure if your mom knew about that, then there is probably a shit ton that she doesn’t know. I needed that kind of help. I needed someone to help me find Melody so I could get that money back and not end up fish food or being some gang leader’s sex pet. I was doing my best. I was trying…”
My words were completely swallowed by Gabe’s mouth on mine. I didn’t even seen him move but he was there, pushing my body back into the counter with his own, his arms holding mine down tight to my sides in a crushing embrace. His kiss was quick, hard, and punishing, bruising even. Nothing like my sixteen-year-old mind had imagined. I knew he was angry, and that I shouldn’t enjoy what he was doing, but it was my first taste of Gabriel Anderson and I had been dreaming of it for over fifteen years. His mouth was life.
Too soon we broke apart and stood there, chests heaving and fighting for air. That kiss had been like two people boxing, getting in hits, trying to make a point. What point he had been trying to make, I don’t know, but I had such a crazy emotional day that I just couldn’t take it anymore, so I yelled about it.
“What in the hell was that? Why did you kiss me?”
“Because you wouldn’t be quiet and it seemed like the most appropriate method to get you to stop talking.” Damn him for being calm now, like he got his ya-ya's out and wasn’t angry anymore. Well the hell with that, I was pretty fired up now.
“I can’t believe you can think about sex at a time like this.” I hadn’t meant to use the word sex. I had meant to use the word kiss. I can’t believe you can think about kissing at a time like this. Yes, that’s what I meant to say, but the words flew out of my brain and out of my mouth before I could stop them. I could tell I had shocked Gabe, too, because his eyebrows almost flew off his forehead in surprise.
“I didn’t say anything about sex—why did you think about sex?” Gabe seemed very interested in my particular answer to that question. The corners of his mouth twitched a bit as well, but I wasn’t in the frame of mind to question what he thought was amusing.
“I wasn’t. I’m just saying, that sure as hell wasn’t a friendly peck on the cheek. That wasn’t flag football, Gabe that was full contact, holy shit.”
“It wasn’t meant to be friendly Angel, and stop poking at me tonight. We have unfinished business, you and I, but I think after today, what would be best for us would be to shower and sleep.” We seemed to be at a stalemate, and I wasn’t going to argue with him, so I zipped my lips, although tomorrow we were definitely going to have it out. The door had been opened, and it seemed like we both had some things we’d been bottling up.
Gabe pointed me in the direction of the bathroom, along with an extra toothbrush from under the sink and a change of clothes. I wasn’t a small woman by any means. I had a large chest and a round butt, and even though I worked out a lot I still had more in the middle than some other women did. I blamed it on my two personal vices, wine and Doritos, but I wasn’t going to give either of them up. Even so, his clothes were going to be way too big, I could tell just by holding them up. There was no way I was going to be able to put my grimy clothes that had been covered in warehouse grease and dirt back on. I would probably burn those clothes, which sucked, because I had paid a good amount for my sweatshirt with the flash dance shoulder. It looked good on me, but I knew I would never be able to wear it again without thinking about what had happened while I was wearing it.
The bathroom was large and open, with a walk in shower on one end and a large claw foot tub against another wall. I eyeballed the tub with interest. I bet it was deep enough where I could fill it with water that would cover my knees and my boobs simultaneously. The ultimate girl fantasy. I didn’t have time for such luxuries today, though, and if I wanted to wash my hair, I would need to use the shower anyway. And I definitely wanted to wash my hair.
The shower was another fantasy come to life. There were two damn showerheads in there, on opposite sides of the wall from each other. Slate gray tile formed the floor and the walls. Bench seating decorated one wall, just in case I wanted to sit and shave my legs. I didn’t have a razor and my legs had just been shaved the day before, but damn, if I had a shower like this I might be tempted to do it more often. There was something about a stream of water hitting both the front and the back of my body that was pure bliss, and I lingered under the spray longer than I normally would have. There was no conditioner in the shower. I doubted Gabe used any, as his hair was short, but I knew that my long blonde locks were going to be tangled without it. I did the best I could with the shampoo and wrapped my hair in the towel after I dried off.
Gabe’s clothes were ill-fitting, like I knew they would be. I pulled the dra
wstring of the black sweatpants as tight as I could, but they still hung embarrassingly low on my hips, and the legs were so long that they flopped over my feet when I walked.
I’d better not trip or I will pants myself.
The t-shirt was ridiculous as well, the short sleeves hung down past my elbow, and the hem of the shirt was more like a tunic than anything. I really didn’t have cause to complain, though, I was just wearing them for the night. Tomorrow I would be going home and could wear whatever I wanted. Like a clean bra and panties. But I wasn’t going to go commando in Gabe’s sweatpants, so I did put back on the panties I had been wearing before I got in the shower.
Padding barefoot down the hall, the smooth wood flooring warm under my feet, I pulled up short at the site of a sleeping Gabe. He was sprawled on the large leather couch, legs splayed out like he had been sitting but fallen asleep and just kind of slid down. One arm was over his eyes as if to shield them from the light of the room and the other was flung up next to his head. It didn’t look comfortable, and I wondered if I should wake him.
Nah, I thought. He will probably just yell at me again.
I was exhausted, too, and I had planned on sleeping on the couch that was now occupied by Gabe. Trudging back down the hall by the bathroom, I found the first room with a bed in it, a king size with a thick chocolate brown comforter, and collapsed face first into it. Without a doubt, I was going to become tangled up in the too large pants and shirt in the night, so I ditched the pants on the floor and climbed back into bed, wearing the oversized shirt like a nightgown. It was just for one night, it would do. I had no idea what time it was, but I was asleep in seconds, snuggled into the large mattress and swaddled in the soft comforter like a cocoon. If any bad men were going to try to get me during the night, I would never know. It was lights out.
Gabe (Glass City Hearts Book 1) Page 5