Forever Found

by Allyson Charles

  An engine whined in the distance behind her, and Marla spun. The sound grew, and a light appeared, flickering through the trees.

  “What the hell?” She took a step forward, then remembered the threat at her back. The possum threat, she told herself. Absolutely nothing to worry about. She angled her body between the two unknowns, flipping her head back and forth and shaking her stick in the air. “Maddie,” she whispered. “Come.”

  The poodle pressed her wet side against Marla’s thigh, her growls interrupted by short barks every couple of seconds. Her girl was as confused as Marla was. The monster possum on the right or the mystery lights on the left. She didn’t know which to run away from or where lay the greater threat.

  An engine screamed from close behind and the woods around her were suddenly illuminated. Marla shrieked and swung for the bleachers with her stick as she twisted and went down. An ATV took a hard left, veering away from her and planting its nose into a tree trunk.

  A figure in dark clothes and a black helmet tumbled from the seat and rolled onto the ground next to her.

  He reached for her, and Marla thwacked him on the helmet with her stick. He yanked off the protective gear. “Can you stop hitting me so I can save you, damn it?”

  “Gabe!” She launched herself at him, knocking him onto his back and covering his body with hers. She dug her fingers into his hair and peppered his face with kisses. “Thank God.”

  Wrapping his arms around her waist, he held her tight. Her fears melted away.

  A second engine turned off, and Dax called out from behind them. “This really isn’t the time or place, people. I’m freezing my ass off out here.”

  “Jesus.” Gabe rolled and pulled her to her feet. “Are you okay? You must be an icicle.” He shed his wool coat and draped it around her shoulders. Then he pulled his sweater off and prodded her head through the neck hole. He tried to maneuver her arms into the sleeves with iffy results. The coat fell to the ground.

  “I got it.” She turned the sweater and luxuriated in the warmth as she pushed her arms through. It was a soft cotton blend and smelled of Gabe. Heaven.

  He picked his coat up and shoved her right arm into the sleeve.

  “Wait. What about you?” From the headlights of the vehicles, she could see he was wearing a long-sleeved Henley. Nice, but not nearly warm enough for a rainy Michigan night.

  “I’m fine.” He pulled her wet hair from under the collar and looked her up and down. “Shorts.” He clenched his jaw. “Goddamn it. He left you out here in goddamn shorts and a T-shirt.” He reached for his belt buckle, and Marla stilled his hand.

  “I’m okay, Gabe. Really.” She sucked in a breath and took a moment to try to slow her thundering pulse. She squeezed his hands.

  He dropped his forehead to rest against hers. “Jesus, Marla. I was so scared.”

  “I’m okay,” she repeated, as much for herself as for him.

  “Did he hit you? Are you injured anywhere?”

  She shook her head. Not physically hurt. But looking down the barrel of a gun… A fine tremble wracked her body.

  Gabe straightened. “But you’re freezing.” He pulled the tongue of his belt free.

  “I’m not taking your pants.” She darted a glance at Dax, feeling her cheeks heat. “Besides, they’re probably soaked through. They wouldn’t make me warmer.” But she loved that he was willing to strip for her. She’d heard of people giving others the shirts off their backs, but never their pants. But then, Gabe was always going above and beyond when it came to taking care of the things he cared about.

  Or the people. Her heart flopped like a fish on a pier. Could Gabe—

  Maddie barked, impatient, and Marla’s fear crashed back down. “I know, girl.” They had to get moving. She turned to Gabe, blinked at air, and looked down.

  He knelt in front of her, tugging his gloves off and shoving them in the waistband of his pants.

  She frowned. “Wha—?”

  He chafed her legs, from ankle to thigh.

  Dax coughed, and went to the overturned ATV. He righted it and kept his head down while he checked it over.

  “Gabe,” she said, exasperated. “While that’s all very nice, we don’t have time for it.” The friction he created had thawed her legs from a popsicle to a slushie. “We have to go. We have to save Hoover.”

  That drew his attention off her legs. “Hoover?” He stood. “What happened to him?”

  “Your cousin took him. Said…” Her eyes burned and her lower lip trembled. Gabe placed his hands on her shoulders. She took a deep breath. “He said that Hoover was his. He’d bought him as a bait dog and he was going to use him. Tonight.”

  “We’ll find him.” Gabe’s face was a grim mask.

  “He was so scared when Jethro grabbed him. Shaking like when we first found him.” Maddie leaned into her leg, and she bent over to pet her. “Maddie wanted to go after your cousin, but he had a gun and a hand at Hoover’s neck so I told her to stay.” Maddie licked her cheek, wiping away the salty trail. “I don’t think he saw a poodle as a threat, so he let her come with us.” But a standard poodle could do some damage if provoked. And Marla knew Maddie was itching for her chance at Jethro.

  “Is that thing working?” Gabe asked Dax.

  Dax straddled it and turned it on. He drove in a shaky circle through the trees. “Yep, but the front alignment is wonky. You and Marla take the other one. Me and Maddie have this one.”

  “Maddie?” Marla asked.

  Dax unwrapped a long scarf from his neck. He shook it out to its full one-foot width. “Come here, Maddie,” he called and patted the seat. The dog trotted over and delicately hopped up on the space in front of him. Dax wound the scarf around her side and under her front legs, tied it around his own waist, securing Maddie to him. He revved his engine. “Let’s hit it. It’s about a mile and a half to the van. I’ll call Brad on the walkie and tell him to turn around and meet us there.”

  Gabe nodded and swiped his helmet from the ground. He grabbed her hand and tugged her to the other ATV. “Here.” He handed her his gloves. “Put these on.” He settled the helmet on her head and adjusted the chin strap. Straddling the vehicle, Gabe started the engine and looked up at her. “Can you hold on okay? I’ll get us out of here as fast as possible.”

  She slid behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, burying her hands under his shirt. “Not too fast. I don’t want Maddie flying off.”

  Dax barreled past them. Maddie yipped excitedly and Dax howled at the invisible moon. They both looked as happy as pigs in mud.

  “I don’t think that will be a problem,” Gabe said dryly. He rubbed his palm over her calf. “Let me know if you get too cold.” He eased them forward, slowly gathering steam and chasing Dax’s taillights.

  It was a bumpy ride, rumbling over branches and around trees, taking small hills. The drizzle and night air slapped at Marla’s bare skin until it felt like tiny pins were assaulting her legs. She shivered and burrowed deeper against Gabe’s back. He took a turn too tight, and sharp branches scraped along their sides.

  Gabe cursed and tossed a “sorry” over his shoulder.

  Their headlights filtered through the trees and reflected off a large object. Marla deciphered the words Off-Road Adventures painted on the side of the van. Motoring around a last clump of pine trees, Gabe pulled next to Dax and Brad and cut the engine. Maddie pranced to Marla’s side, her tongue lolling out of her mouth.

  “Good, you’re already here,” Gabe said to Brad as he climbed off the ATV. He turned and helped Marla off. “We don’t have time to waste. After I drop Marla off someplace warm, we need to split up and search for this fight. Have you told Jerome we found her?” He pushed his ATV up a ramp into the back of the van behind Dax’s.

  Brad tapped out a message on his phone. “Jerome knows. He’s redirecting the men who were on t
heir way here. They’re going to search abandoned properties west of Marysville like you suggested.” Brad shoved his phone in his back pocket and looked up at Marla. “Are you doing okay? Maybe we can drop you at my place. Izzy can make you some hot coffee and find you some clothes.”

  Marla narrowed her eyes. There were a hell of a lot of assumptions about her role in all this flying around. Assumptions she didn’t appreciate. “I’m not going to go have a Kaffeeklatsch while you guys find the fight. I’m coming with you.”

  Gabe closed the back door of the van. “No. You need to warm up and stay out of trouble.”

  “If you don’t like coffee, Iz makes a mean hot chocolate,” Brad said. “And I’m sure she already has a fire blazing.”

  Marla squared her shoulders and glared at Gabe. “Do you really think I could drink hot chocolate while Hoover’s in trouble? I’m going, pants or no pants.”

  “Marla…” Gabe growled.

  “Besides,” she said, throwing down her trump card, “I know exactly where your cousin is.”

  “He told you?” Gabe’s eyebrows disappeared under his hairline.

  Marla strode to the passenger door of the van. “Don’t you think it’s time you stopped underestimating me?” Opening the door, she waited for Maddie to jump in before facing the three men gawking at her over the hood. “I just need someone’s phone and Dax’s lead foot behind the wheel, and we’ll be there in no time.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Marla had Brad’s phone pressed tight to her ear, but Gabe could still hear the excited voice coming from the other end. Debbie Garcia was speaking in a foreign language, yammering on about binary searches and bitwise operators until Gabe’s head began to ache. There was no way these were real terms she was throwing around.

  “Yes, but—” Marla got in before the older woman cut her off again.

  Gabe ground his jaw. He was cold, tired, and his body was so tightly wound the slightest wrong move would make it snap. He saw Marla, safe and sound in front of him, but his heart hadn’t quite taken in the fact that she was out of danger.

  “…yoda conditions…”

  And now Debbie was talking about Star Wars? Oh, hell no. Leaning forward from the backseat, he took the phone from Marla’s hand, ignoring her protest. “Debbie,” he said into the receiver, interrupting the woman. “We need an address. Can you provide it or not?”

  Debbie huffed. “Of course I can provide it. As I was telling Marla, the expressions were reversed and the app wasn’t—”

  Placing his thumb and middle fingers on his temples, Gabe squeezed his forehead. “No. Just an address. No explanations. No descriptions. Address. Please.” He’d already heard more than he wanted to about failed beta testing and the app tracking Marla’s phone wherever it went.

  A deep voice murmured ‘come back to bed’ in the background, and Debbie giggled. Gabe dropped his head back and stared at the ceiling. Seriously, shoot him now. “Good God, can I please have the address?”

  Debbie finally gave him a straight answer. Repeating the address to Dax, Gabe ended the call and texted it to Jerome. He ignored the response, something about staying away from the location, leaving it to the police, yada yada.

  He tucked his phone away. “Step on it,” he told Dax, then turned to Marla. “What I want to know is if you got your hands on your phone again after Jethro called me, why the hell didn’t you call the cops?”

  “When?” She threw a hand in the air. “He dropped it in the cup holder then came around the car to get me. I had half a second to push it down between his seat so he wouldn’t be able to find it and dump it after he left me.”

  “How about shove it into your pocket? You should have kept it with you to call me when you got free.”

  She turned on her hip to glare at him over the front seat. “Look, I had very little time to make a decision. I could keep my phone, maybe have reception, and call for help when I got free. Help I could walk to without taking much more time. But then I’d have no idea where the fight was. Or I could leave the phone in his car so we could track where he took Hoov. I went with my best chance to save my dog.”

  Gabe shook his head, his lips pressed tight. Absolutely the wrong call. There would need to be a discussion about priorities. Like the fact that she was his. But that could wait.

  Gabe cracked his neck. “Okay, here’s the plan. When we get to the site, you and Maddie will wait here with Dax and Brad. I’ll go have a little talk with my cousin and find Hoover.”

  The van exploded with objections from every quarter. Gabe held up a hand. “All right, all right. Dax comes with me. The rest of you stay put.”

  Maddie poked her head over Marla’s shoulder and gave him the same stink eye her owner had turned his way.

  “Why does Dax get to go and not me?” Brad complained.

  “Because I need someone here to make sure Marla stays put.”

  “Well, really,” Marla huffed from the front seat.

  Gabe ignored her. “I need someone I can trust watching out for her.”

  The wheel jerked in Dax’s hand and he took a turn too fast. Maddie scrabbled to stay half on Marla’s lap. Dax glared over his shoulder. “Are you saying you don’t trust me?”

  “Not for a second. Marla would wrap you around her finger and you’d be holding the door open for her.” Gabe sat back in his seat and checked his watch. They were getting close and the fight could begin any minute. He clenched his hands, then pressed them flat against his thighs. “Brad has Izzy. He understands.”

  Marla’s fingers went white around the back of her seat. “This is all a fascinating insight into the male psyche,” she said icily, “but you do not get to order me to stay put. I am not a dog. You are not my master. In fact, it is my dog in danger, and I am damn sure going to be doing everything I can to save him.”

  Gabe shifted to the edge of his seat and got in the infuriating woman’s face. “No. It’s my cousin behind this. My responsibility. You’re staying put.” Even if it hadn’t been his cousin, there was no way in hell he’d let Marla go charging in. “There are going to be high rollers at this game. That means big bucks. My cousin could be looking to pull down a quarter of a million dollars. You think he wouldn’t hurt whoever goes in to stop the fight?”

  “What, and you think you’re immune to injury because you have XY chromosomes?” She poked his shoulder. “You think I’m okay with you getting hurt? I know you wanted to have some emotionless hookups, but guess what? Turns out I’m not built that way. Not with you. I happen to care. I wanted more.”

  “You wanted more? You wanted more?!”

  Dax pulled to a stop at a red light. “Guys, maybe—”

  “Shut up, Dax.” Gabe’s head spun. What the hell was going on here? She wanted more? Since when? He grabbed Marla’s finger in his own. “I came to you saying I wanted a real relationship. You were the one who only wanted a fling.”

  “Are you kidding me right now?” She carved the fingers of her free hand through her hair. It caught on a knot and she tugged it free with a frown. “You were Mister More Sex!”

  “And you’re supposed to be smart. I don’t know how you could have misunderstood me but I’ll give you all the clarification you need.”

  Brad rubbed his forehead. “Yeah, I’m with Dax on this. Perhaps you guys should wait—”

  “Not now, Brad!” Marla went nose-to-nose with Gabe. “Continue.”

  “I told you I wanted more from our relationship. I want dinners and birthdays and walks with your dogs.” He threaded his fingers into her mess of a ponytail and clenched his hand. “I want to wake up together, go to sleep together. I want you to explain to me why you’re fascinated with the differences between the two Elvish languages Tolkien invented—”

  “There are three main Elvish languages spoken in Middle Earth, but really Tolkien invented at least fifteen different
ones.”

  “—the fifteen languages he invented. I want to argue with you about the shelter. I want to sit in front of a fire and discuss our days. I want a real relationship. I want you.”

  Her mouth dropped open, and she blinked those mesmerizing eyes. “You want a lot,” she whispered.

  Gabe swallowed. “I don’t want there to be any more miscommunications. I’m laying it out there.” Out there for her to shoot him down again. To break his heart. “I…I love you, Marla. But I need to know what you want.”

  She opened her mouth. Closed it. Then broke into the most perfect smile he’d ever seen. The last of the cold from the ATV ride disappeared as warmth radiated through his body. With that smile, he knew. Marla was his as much as he was hers.

  “What a pair we are,” she said.

  “A pair of idiots,” Dax mumbled.

  Gabe smacked the back of his head, never taking his eyes off his woman. “Does this mean that you’re willing to take a chance on a grumpy bastard whose family is soon to be facing some serious legal trouble?”

  “As long as you’re willing to put up with me and my interfering ways. Because I have ideas for this town.” She raised an eyebrow. “I’m still the same woman you met and disliked on the spot. I like shopping and getting pedicures with my dogs and sticking my nose in things when I think I can help. That’s not going to change.”

  “I don’t want you to change.” He lowered his head an inch. Her breath ghosted across his lips.

  “And I like your grumpiness,” she whispered.

  He bridged the gap and brushed his mouth across hers. The kiss started sweet, soft. He thought about the days that had stretched painfully long when they’d been apart, and he gripped the back of her head and devoured her. God, he missed this. Missed her.

  “Uh, guys?” Dax cleared his throat. “Guys! We’re here. Stop the smoochie face.”

  Gabe pulled back, out of breath. They were in a dirt lot crowded with cars. Unfortunately, none of them were black-and-whites. A barn with lights streaming through the cracks stood on the far side of the lot. “Okay, we’ll pick this up later. Now, stay here with Brad and I’ll go get Hoover.”