“I apologize for Lady’s ... misunderstanding.” Tiberius broke the silence. “As bad as she’s had it, she has an incredibly kind heart.”
I told myself I didn’t care, that it wasn’t my place to ask, yet I found myself doing the opposite.
“Why did she do it?”
To an outsider, the question would have most likely sounded odd. Most would have thought I should have been thankful for Lady’s actions. She had quite possibly saved Gabby’s life. But, although I’d only met the women the once, she didn’t strike me as the sort who disobeyed her ... Sir. Her behavior seemed uncharacteristic.
Tiberius sighed. “Memories.” He paused, and just when I was beginning to think that that was all the answer I would get, he continued. “When she was twelve, her stepfather started coming into her room at night. It went on for a year before he got her hooked-on heroin and started selling her to anyone who would pay. Her mom was an addict herself and barely remembered she had a daughter. It was ten years later before I came across her, high, broken, badly beaten and raped behind a dumpster in an alley. A lot of damage had been done to her in a single decade. It took years to prove to her that I would never hurt her. Like you, she’s my Gabby. I would do anything for her, but even I can’t erase all the scars.”
Part of me wanted to apologize, a knee jerk reaction. How the kidnapping of my woman affecting his woman was my fault was beyond me, but it seemed like the right thing to do.
“I’m sorry.”
Tiberius shook his head. “Not your fault. Lady hasn’t been herself since Gabrielle was brought to us. I should have seen it. I’m usually much more observant.”
My fingers curled and uncurled reflexively around the wheel in time to the anxious gnawing in my stomach.
“Did he touch her?”
I didn’t elaborate, nor did he seem to need it when he went silent. My gut seized with every passing second that slipped by as easily as the yellow strips on the road. I almost wished I hadn’t asked, but I knew his answer would be the deciding factor on what I would do next, on whether or not David would live another day.
“Not in the sense you’re thinking,” he murmured at last. “Lady wouldn’t let me leave him alone in the room with her. She was quite insistent that something about him bothered her. I just never imagined it would be this.”
How could I fault him when I hadn’t seen it, not once in seven years? I had willingly sat idly by while she’d been tortured and hurt right under my nose. I had been so blind, so foolishly oblivious to her pain. How was I to live with that?
“I let her stay there.” The confession burst from my mouth before I even knew it was happening. The words spilled into the car, disturbing the silence and birthing my ignorance. “I let her live with that monster, let him hurt her. I could have protected her. I should have.”
“There are many things we could have and should have done,” my companion surmised. “Knowing what we know, there are always things we think we could have changed, but we know life doesn’t work that way. We can only better things for them now.”
His wisdom did nothing to pacify my inner demons. While logical and simplified, I had still failed Gabby. I had allowed atrocities to befall her and done nothing while she’d suffered. How could she possibly love me?
“Men like him have a talent for blending in like normal people.” He broke into my thoughts as if he could sense my spiraling self-loathing. “But you can always see it in their eyes. There’s just something wrong with them, something missing. A vacancy where their soul should be. I see it a lot, unfortunately. Men who hide behind the guise of a Master to conceal their true motives. So many women have been hurt because of men like him.”
I tried to fathom where he was going with his explanation, but he’d ceased speaking and sat staring out the window. I didn’t have the energy to press him. Whatever the cryptic words meant, I would deliberate them another day.
“Where’s Jeremy?”
Tiberius slanted a glance in my direction. “Jeremy?”
“Gabby’s bodyguard.”
I caught the shake of his head from the corner of my eye. “She was alone when he brought her.”
I risked scrubbing a palm over my face and back into my hair. “How did he get her?”
I didn’t expect an answer. I didn’t expect Tiberius to have one, not for this, but he raised a shoulder.
“She was unconscious when he brought her. He never gave an explanation and I didn’t ask.”
“You didn’t ask?” Leather squeaked beneath my white knuckled grip. “He brought her to you, unconscious, and you didn’t think to ask?” Outrage brewed deep in the very pit of my stomach, a frothing indignation that threatened to suffocate me. “What sort of person wouldn’t wonder why a man would bring an unconscious woman to a place like that?”
“The kind accustomed to a great many different tastes and fetishes,” he bit out tightly. “I have seen stranger. And for the record, he had the paperwork for her.”
I shot him a quick glance. “The what?”
“Paperwork,” he repeated as if, if he said it enough, it might click, but bafflement must have shown on my face, because he continued. “I run a legal and quite profitable business, Mr. Kincaid. I built it with money I made, not inherited, not given or borrowed. I made every penny on my own and I turned a single backroom operation into a billion dollar enterprise. I did that and I did it by running a clean house. So, yes, he had the papers I require all parties to sign, giving consent.”
I turned the words over in my mind, categorizing what he was telling me.
“He must have forged it,” I decided. “Gabby would never—”
“She did,” he cut me off. “She confessed to it.”
That didn’t make sense. Why would Gabby agree to such a thing? I didn’t believe she would.
“Then he forced her,” I concluded with the same unwavering certainty.
“That I do agree,” Tiberius mumbled. “Knowing what I now know, and having met with him that final time, yes. I have no doubt. Also, Gabrielle said as much when I spoke to her.”
“What did she say?”
The quiet hiss of fingernails scratching over a five o’clock shadow followed my question. I wasn’t sure if he was determining whether or not to tell me, or trying to remember the exact conversation.
“From what I understand,” he began carefully. “She had hoped to be gone by the time the date on the contract began. Its sole purpose was to get her away from him until she could make her escape.”
“She told you that?”
“Basically.”
It was something I would need to ask once I had her safely home. Whatever her reasons were for signing that paper, I knew it wouldn’t matter. She had done what she had to and I wouldn’t judge her for being alone and trying to survive.
My focus shifted the moment we turned up my street. The familiar stretch of road loomed far into the distance, a dark stretch of concrete glittering under dim lamplight. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I ripped into my driveway and couldn’t suck in anymore air.
I barely came to a full stop. Adrenaline coursed through my veins in solid thumps that rivaled the pounding of my heart. I prayed even as I threw myself from the car. I begged whatever divine force was listening to please, please let her be home. Loose bits of stone crunched beneath my shoes, the only sound in the night.
I took the steps two at a time to the top. I reached the doors only to remember at the last second that I’d left the keys in the ignition. I cursed and started to turn back.
Tiberius stood at the bottom, my keys jagged pieces of silver dangling between us from his fingertips. Neither of us said a word when I took them and faced the doors once more.
The foyer lay dark, vacant, absent of another living soul. Its cavernous silence echoed from room to room and filled my chest.
“Gabby?”
I locked wisps of air in my lungs, too afraid of making a sound and missing her voice.
“Baby, you home?”
I reminded myself there was a chance she couldn’t hear me. The manor was enormous. It was why Mother insisted a network of speakers be built throughout the place. Shouting didn’t do anyone any good. Plus, there was a good chance she hadn’t made it back yet, which meant she was lost somewhere in the dark woods, at night, alone and possibly hurt.
“We need to alert the authorities,” I decided, no longer capable of keeping this quiet. “Gabby could be lost—”
“While I understand your concern, Mr. Kincaid, I must insist that my doll factory not be brought into this matter.”
I pivoted on my heels and faced the man in my doorway, astounded by his gall.
“Excuse me?”
To his credit, Tiberius never so much as batted an eye under my murderous glower.
“I have a reputation to uphold and a client list who will not take too kindly to accidentally falling into the wrong hands simply because—”
“Gabby is out there, lost, alone, and scared because of you. I don’t give a shit about you or your client list. I want her found!”
His mouth opened, but I was no longer interested in anything he had to say.
I twisted back into the endless void, the sprawling catacomb and silently swore that I would move Gabby from that place. I would build her a new home somewhere far away from that city and those people. I would make it just large enough for us and the children she’d give me, a cozy safe haven. Not like this place that needed cameras and crackling speakers to find each other.
But first, I needed to find her. The rest could wait.
I headed towards my office.
“Kieran?”
Tiberius’s questioning mumble didn’t stop or slow my progress. He was crazy if he thought I would relent on my decision. If anything, I should have phoned the police hours ago, the moment I knew something was truly wrong. At the time, I had been kept company by my arrogant need for revenge. Now, I wanted to kick myself for being so utterly stupid.
“Kieran!”
The urgency this time gave me pause. I glanced back to find him exactly where he’d always been, only he was no longer looking in, but facing the driveway.
My heart leapt even as I sprinted back to him. My shoulder clipped his and he staggered under the impact, but I was on the front steps, breathing slightly out of control.
The figure darkened the start of the driveway, a solitary silhouette stamped against the pale lamplight behind her. It could have been anyone, but I would have known her shape anywhere.
“Gabby.”
Her name hitched on my tongue, a choked little prayer unsteady with longing that spurred me down the front steps.
Hard, rigid lines went slack at the sight of me. Her tiny frame softened in relief. I almost heard her muffled sob a split second before she closed the distance at a run.
Then I had her. My hands, my arms were full of her weight, fisted in her hair, her coat. My face was in her shoulder, inhaling the familiar scent of her, a dying man at his final meal.
“Jesus, sweetheart.” I breathed into the side of her head. “I’ve been worried sick.”
She made a soft choking sound against my chest and she tightened her arms around my waist.
“I think he killed Jeremy,” she croaked after whole minutes had slipped past. “I don’t know what happened to him.”
I shushed her gently. “Don’t think about that right now. You’re home and safe. That’s all that matters.”
She raised her head and the lights from the house glittered on her wet cheeks. They illuminated the ocean in her eyes and the full curve of her mouth. The very sight of her enslaved me. I was mesmerized with the artwork, a beauty unlike any other in the world.
“God, Gabby.” I framed the soft lines and hills of her face between my palms. I smoothed away the tears with my thumbs, all the while drowning in her eyes. “I would die without you.”
I’m unclear who moved. Might have been her. The weight of her body increased and her arms went from my waist to my shoulders. Her fingers locked in my hair, slender anchors dragging my face down to hers.
But I kissed her. I hauled her up and captured her offered mouth in a brutal and almost violent claim. I twisted locks of her beautiful hair around my hands, threading strings of silk through my fingers. I gripped her tight, afraid she might vanish if I gave her space.
“Kieran.” Her soft, little whimper nearly destroyed me.
“I’ve got you,” I promised her. “He’ll never touch you again.”
She lifted her chin and met my gaze. Her small fingers combed through my hair in light strokes that sent shivers scattering down my spine. Her lips parted, housing a concern I could just make out in her eyes.
“He’ll know I’m gone,” she breathed. “He’ll come looking for me. I shouldn’t be here. I’m putting you in danger.”
Although she made no move to step back, I tightened my hold; I had absolutely no intention of letting her go anywhere without me.
“He’s not coming anywhere near you,” I stated simply. “I promise you that. I’ll end him myself if I have to.”
Her lips parted, and she was ready to protest when the subtle rustle over my shoulder caught her attention. I had forgotten about the other man and Gabby hadn’t noticed him, but she did now as Tiberius slipped down the steps towards us.
Gabby choked on her gasp. Her frame turned rigid in my arms, the panicked uncertainty of a frightened bird.
“What is he doing here?”
I tightened my hold, not to confine, but assure.
“He was helping me find you.”
Her gaze shot up to my face, narrowed in fear and suspicion. “Find me? Bullshit!” she spat, twisting murderous eyes towards Tiberius. “He had me locked naked in a box all this time. David’s paying him.”
Being a wise man, Tiberius paused when there was still a reasonable amount of room between us and him, but still close enough for us to talk.
“I assure you, Miss Thornton, your father and I are no longer doing business.”
“He came to tell me where you were,” I chimed in.
“And why would you do that?” I released her when she tugged to be free. “You refused to even listen to me when I tried to tell you.”
“If I hadn’t listened, would we be here?” he pointed out calmly.
“You didn’t help me,” Gabby shot back. “You left me there and told me not to cause trouble or you’d beat me.”
From over her head, I narrowed my eyes at the other man, who met it with a downwards twist of his mouth.
“I said punish,” he retorted drily.
“Regardless,” I interjected before another word could be said. “Tiberius took me to his warehouse, but you were already gone. We only just returned.”
“Why?” The question was snapped at Tiberius. “Why not bring me home instead? Why bring him to me?”
“The rules in my world are a bit different from yours,” Tiberius said evenly. “You are the submissive, and not one of mine. It’s not my place to listen to you without your Master’s permission. In your case, that was a bit more complex.”
“I’m not a submissive and I don’t have a ... a Master,” Gabby snapped.
“In my doll factory, you are and you do. Him.” He jerked a chin in my direction. “So, I came to ask him what he wanted to do with you. As I mentioned, Ms. Thornton, my records are impeccable and everyone plays by the rules, even me.”
Gabby’s jaw muscles tightened. “If you’re expecting a thank you, you’re not going to get one.”
A ghost of a smile moved over the man’s mouth. “I wouldn’t dream of it, but I must return. I have a doll that requires punishing.”
“If it’s because of me getting out, I did it alone,” Gabby blurted before he could finish. “The door didn’t lock. No one helped me.”
A half grin twisted Tiberius’s lip. “I’ll let her know you tried, but my doll doesn’t lie to me. I know everything.” He l
ooked past her to me. “I’ll be in touch tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
With a bow of his head, he headed down my driveway. I started to call out and ask if he needed a ride, but a black Lincoln rolled up just on the other side of the gates and he climbed in.
Then it was just me and Gabby and the rest of our lives. That was a fact I was eternally grateful for. I couldn’t imagine my life without her. Going on just seemed so bleak and empty.
But I had her back. That was all that mattered.
Without a word, I scooped her up into my arms. I waited for her arms to circle my shoulders and for her weight to settle comfortably against my chest before I carried her inside. I took her all the way up to our room.
“I lost my book bag,” she murmured into the side of my neck. “It had all my books and papers inside.”
“We’ll get you new things,” I promised. “And we’ll work the rest out with the school.”
“A new science department?” she teased.
“If that’s what it takes.”
She chuckled and shook her head. Her warm breath whispered along my skin, a welcome sensation I’d missed.
“What about Jeremy?”
I’d hoped she wouldn’t worry about that. I had wanted to deal with it without bothering her with the details.
“I’ll look into it.”
“I can’t believe he’s dead.”
I shushed her gently. My lips brushed her brow. I inhaled her scent, assuring myself I wasn’t imagining her.
“How long has it been?”
I hesitated answering by taking her into the bathroom. I set her gingerly on the bath bench and moved to start a bath. I took my time measuring the bath salts and bubble, careful to make sure everything was just the right amount.
“Kieran?”
I must have taken too long.
I faced her. “A day.”
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