by Codi Gary
They stared at her until, as a group, they each took a sip of their drinks, except Travis, who had the only longneck. A few of them nodded their heads in agreement.
Caroline checked the time on her phone again, and Mike asked, “You got somewhere to be?”
Before she could answer, Gracie finished her song, and their table broke into thunderous applause and obnoxious whoops of encouragement. Gracie sashayed back to the table, demonstrating a courtly bow as she said, “Thank you. Thank you.”
She sat down next to Caroline and wrapped her thin arms around her shoulders before giving Caroline a smacking kiss on the cheek. “And how are you enjoying Hank’s?” Her smile was slightly silly, and Caroline guessed she had started the party early, especially when she moved on before Caroline could answer. “Did you know that this woman is an honest-to-God hero? She freaking crawled into a Dumpster to save a gaggle of kittens—”
“I don’t think kittens come in gaggles,” Mike said, earning a scowl from Gracie.
“Whatever. The point is that she is amazeballs, and if anyone messes with her”—Gracie thumped her chest and almost fell off her chair—“they are messing with me.”
“Lucky you,” Gemma said from across the table.
Caroline wasn’t sure how she felt about Gracie’s admiration but decided it was better than Gracie’s hating her guts.
“So are you one of those crazy animal lovers, then?” Travis asked, yelping when Gemma pinched him. “What? I didn’t say anything about you.”
“Actually, I like animals but have never had any desire to own one. I moved around too much. But now, the reason I keep checking the clock on my phone is because the kittens have to eat every two hours.”
“Wait, you aren’t an animal lover, but you’re keeping kittens that you found in the trash?” Mike asked. “How many are there?”
“Two, and I’m not keeping them. I’m just fostering them until they can be put up for adoption,” Caroline said, trying to picture handing over her babies to someone else. In just the few days she’d had them, they had already started to gain weight, and the minute she picked them up, they started that clicking purr she’d come to love. Last night, as she’d watched “The Big Bang Theory, she’d let them cuddle against her chest. It was hard not to love the little squirts.
“Uh-huh, and how does your roommate feel about that?” Travis asked, a smirk on his face. “When I showed him the apartment, he didn’t exactly seem like the warm and fuzzy type.”
Travis’s opinion irked her. It was true that Gabe wasn’t Mr. Sunshine and Roses, but he had saved the gray kitten. He had his moments of actually being a human being.
Too bad they were few and far between.
“Actually, he helped me save them.”
“It’s true. I was there,” Gracie said.
“How?” Callie asked.
“He stimulated the little grey one’s heartbeat by rubbing him and even breathed into his nose and mouth.”
“Huh. I guess people do have layers,” Mike said, mimicking Shrek.
How had the conversation turned toward the very man she was trying to forget?
Standing up, she gave everyone an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry I have to go, I had a lot of fun, but I’d better go feed them.”
“Do you need me to walk you home?” Mike asked with a flirtatious smile.
This is the type of guy you should be thinking about, not infuriating Neanderthals who don’t know how to treat a woman.
“That’s okay. I’m right up the street,” Caroline said. She patted Callie’s shoulder. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Callie said.
Grabbing her coat and purse, Caroline headed for the door. The cold wind hit her face as she walked outside, and she struggled to get her coat on as she made her way back toward her apartment. The streetlamps were lit up nicely, though, and despite the two drinks she’d had, she was nowhere near being drunk.
As she rounded the alley corner, she thought maybe she’d open that bottle of merlot in the cupboard and have a glass before bed. She just hoped luck was on her side and Gabe was asleep or out. She wasn’t quite ready to face him yet.
Suddenly, strong hands grabbed her from behind and slammed her into the brick building next to her. Her cheek hit the wall and pain exploded in her skull.
“What did you tell him, you stupid bitch?” A dark voice hissed in her ear, and hot breath dampened her skin. Through the painful haze, she realized it was Kyle. Fear ripped through her as he pressed his body into hers, flattening her between him and the hard, cold surface.
“What—”
“And don’t even think about fucking lying to me,” he growled low.
“Ky . . . Kyle . . . I—”
“Whatever you said to him, you’d better fix it. I’m not going to have the life I’ve built ruined by some slut who wants to clear her conscience,” Kyle said, gripping her hair in his fist until she cried out in pain.
“What the fuck is going on out there?” Gabe’s voice called from above. Caroline heard the heavy fall of his feet on the metal stairs and tried to cry out a warning, but her throat had closed and all that came out was a whimper.
“Remember what I said,” Kyle warned before he let her go. She heard the clip of running, the sound becoming fainter in the distance.
Tears seeped from the corner of her eyes, and she tried to breathe, to calm her quaking body, but she was scared. And angry, so angry. Her conscience? She hadn’t done anything wrong. Did he actually think she felt guilty about what he’d done to her?
Don’t you? You are constantly telling yourself that you should have known, should have seen through his charm? Isn’t that a guilty conscience?
Suddenly, hard hands grabbed her arms, and she turned, swinging, prepared for Kyle coming back, but Gabe caught her fists instead. “Shhh, it’s okay. You’re okay.”
Unable to hold herself up any longer, she collapsed against him, hating the weakness. She could take care of herself—had been doing so since she was a kid—but she couldn’t seem to fight this one fear: the fear of being Kyle’s victim again.
Without asking, Gabe gathered her up in his arms, holding her tightly against his chest as he strode toward the apartment. She tried to remember that he was a jerk, a man whom she shouldn’t trust at all, but his hard body and comforting arms helped her shaking subside. He made her feel safe, and if he hadn’t been upstairs, hadn’t been listening . . .
“Thank you,” she whispered against his shoulder as he climbed the stairs.
He didn’t respond, just adjusted her in his arms to open the front door. The living room light hit her eyes and stung for half a second. “Yowza, that’s bright.”
Still he said nothing. Gently, he deposited her on the couch, and before she could miss his warmth, he had dimmed the lights.
Stretching her mouth open, she winced when a lightning bolt of pain shot through her, and she touched the spot where her face had collided with the building. “Well, that’s gonna bruise.”
“Who was he?” Gabe asked, his voice almost too low to hear.
“He works for my father,” she said.
“Your father hired someone to rough you up?” he fairly shouted.
“No, no. This was something . . . else,” she said, unwilling to get more personal than that. Despite his timely intervention and rescue, he was still just her roommate. If she hadn’t even told her own sisters about what Kyle had done, there was no way she was going to share her feelings with a man she hardly knew.
Silence stretched in the small room, and she looked away from his intense, searching eyes to check on the kittens, sleeping peacefully in the box. “I’m surprised they’ve slept this long. I figured they’d be up and crying by now.”
“They were, which is why I was out here in the first place. The little bastards were pitching a fit, and I fed them so they’d shut up. Then I heard something outside and decided to see what in the hell was going on down there.” He reach
ed out to brush her hair back, and his fingertips grazed her forehead, leaving a trail of tingles in their wake. “I’m still trying to figure that out.”
“Why do you care?”
“I told you. Your crazy became my crazy the second I let you move in.”
“You mean when you stole my apartment.” A small smiled stretched his full lips and before she could stop herself, she said, “You should do that more often.”
“What?”
Boldly, she placed two fingers on his bottom lip. “Smile.”
“I smile,” he said.
“Not that sarcastic grin you use or the one you think is charming,” she said, dropping her hand from his mouth. “I mean a real smile.”
He paused. “I guess I don’t have a lot to smile over.”
The conversation was fast becoming personal and intimate, two things that made Caroline squirm.
“I appreciate the help, really, and I’m sorry that I sort of fell apart on you, but this really isn’t your problem. There’s no roommate code, nothing in our little arrangement that says you have to step in and take on my issues.”
“When your issues follow you home and assault you in the alley below our apartment, it becomes my business.”
She bent over and picked up the kittens’ box. “It’s going to be better for both of us if you stay out of it, okay? Besides, aren’t you the guy who said you’re not a hero?”
Chapter Fourteen
“What’s the point of living in a small town if you can’t get up in someone else’s business every once in a while?”
—Miss Know It All
GABE WALKED OUT of Honey’s assisted-living facility, carrying the painting she had made for his new place in his hands. He’d grabbed a protective bike bag to transport it home, once Sharla had given him the heads up. Honey had been in a good spot today, almost like her old self, asking him about his motorcycle and what girls he was interested in.
It was a good day when she remembered nothing of the accident and still looked at him with hero worship in her eyes.
He usually called before heading up for a visit, but he had needed to get out of the house this weekend. Since he’d started asking questions of Caroline about the man who’d assaulted her last week, she had been avoiding him like the plague.
And he’d made it easy for her. Not because he didn’t want to see her, but because of the emotions her attack had stirred in him. He’d wanted to wrap her up and keep her close, to never let her out of his sight.
Too bad he hadn’t gotten a good look at the fucker. Whoever he was, Caroline was clearly scared of him. Holding her in his arms, he could still remember the way she’d trembled. Caroline was a strong woman, and to see her so vulnerable made him want to tear someone apart.
By the time he parked on the street two hours later, it was close to five thirty. He had planned to stop by Chase’s tattoo shop to go over the logo design for Moriarty’s Custom Bikes, but feeling grimy, he climbed off the bike and pulled out the painting. He would hang it and then get cleaned up.
Gabe walked through the alleyway and took the stairs two at a time. The draw of a hot shower was so exciting, he pushed open the door too quickly and hit the wall behind with the knob.
“Crap, what are you doing?” Caroline yelled as she came around the corner. “I do not want to pay a massive bill at the end of this lease because you come through the door like the Incredible Hulk.”
Gabe didn’t say a word; he simply stared at her as he set the painting down gently against the wall. She looked good all the time—she had been a knockout in that black dress at Buck’s—but tonight . . .
Tonight, she was like a damn siren in a pair of fuck-me heels.
Her long dark hair was swept back and to the side, her brown eyes surrounded by smudgy black eye shadow. Her lush lips looked wet, and it gave him all kinds of ideas of how they’d feel, kissing their way along his body and around a certain part of his anatomy that was suddenly standing at full attention. The dress she had on was royal purple with a light shimmer to it, the heart-shaped neckline creating a deep V of cleavage that made his hands eager to squeeze and test the weight of her breasts. And then there were her shapely legs, sliding down into leopard-print heels. Leave-them-on-while-you-screw-me heels.
He wanted to throw her over his shoulder and carry her back to his room, where he’d strip her out of everything but those shoes.
Suddenly, it occurred to him she wasn’t dressing for his benefit, and his jaw clenched. It was hard to deny the sudden urge to pound whoever she’d had in mind when she’d dolled herself up, and he knew it was unreasonable. He had no right to be jealous; she was a free agent who could go out with whomever.
He didn’t have to like it, though.
“Where the hell are you going, dressed like that?”
Well, if her pissed-off look meant anything, that had been the wrong thing to say. “I have a part in a Bond movie.”
“It’s forty degrees outside,” he said, trying to gentle his tone and be the voice of reason.
“So?” she said, eyeballing him like he’d lost his damn mind. “I’ve got a jacket.”
“Your tits are going to pop out of that dress if you bend over.”
“Gabe,” she said as she pulled her jacket off the back of the couch, “when you can manage to put your dishes in the dishwasher without leaving food on them, I might take your advice. No, wait, why would I ever take your advice on fashion? You’re idea of style is a T-shirt and jeans.”
He ignored her passive-aggressive criticism. Damn, he liked the way she said his name. He’d like it even better in another, more sultry tone, but he’d take what he could get.
Wait . . . When had he started wanting anything from Caroline?
She was heading right for him, probably so she could escape out the front door, but he was having none of that. Stepping into her path, Gabe asked again, “Well, you have to admit, your girls are popping up and saying howdy in the friendliest way I’ve seen yet.”
“Well, they aren’t saying howdy to you,” she said, moving to his right.
Grinning, he side-stepped with her. “Then who are they saying howdy to?”
Caroline let out an exasperated breath. “Are you trying to irritate me?”
“I didn’t know I had to try. I thought you just woke up, and the annoyance was there.”
“Oh, no, some mornings I wake up thinking, I must’ve imagined it. He can’t be that bad. And then I see you, and it all comes flooding back like a drunken night of idiocy.” When she tapped his chest with a long, glittery purple nail, he resisted the urge to grab it and nibble the tip. “Only it’s not my idiocy I’m remembering.”
When she tried to out maneuver him again, he caught her around the waist and said, “Speaking of idiots, who’s your hot date?”
“How do you know I’m going on a date?”
“ ’Cause a woman doesn’t dress like that unless she’s trolling for a man or going out with one,” Gabe said.
“You don’t know him,” she said, struggling against him.
“What kind of man asks a woman like you out and doesn’t even bother to come to the door?”
“He’s coming to the door. I just didn’t want the first thing he sees to be you,” she snapped.
“Why? I’ll be nice to him,” Gabe said.
“Would you let go? He’s going to be here any minute, and you’re wrinkling my dress!”
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, and Caroline pushed him away. Gabe leaned back against the couch and waited as she opened the door.
“Hey, Mike,” she said to the guy on the porch.
“Wow, you look amazing,” the unknown guy said.
Gabe’s good humor fled. Heat curled in his stomach, easing out into his limbs until he wanted to punch someone, most of all the faceless guy in his doorway.
That churning in your gut feels a lot like jealousy.
Stepping up alongside Caroline, Gabe leaned his arm on the doorfr
ame and gave the man on the porch his best “don’t fuck with me” glare. “Hey, Mike. I’m Gabe.”
The guy was average height with brown eyes and short dark hair, and instead of being intimidated, he stuck his hand out with a smile. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“You have?” Gabe asked suspiciously, looking down at Caroline.
“Don’t look at me. I avoid talking about you.”
“Actually, Travis told me about you, that you make custom motorcycles. I was thinking I’d come by your shop and see what you can come up with for me.”
The guy was lethal; Gabe would give him that. He’d charmed and disarmed him in five seconds flat. Taking Mike’s still-outstretched hand, he said, “I’m by appointment only until I get all the equipment moved in, but you can usually get me on my cell.”
The two of them exchanged numbers, and as he slipped his phone back into his pocket, Gabe caught Caroline’s irritable expression.
“What?”
“Do you think my date and I can leave now?” she asked.
“Sure, take him. Get him out of here,” Gabe said, but as they started down the stairs, he saw Mike’s hand move to the small of her back.
Gabe knew what she felt like, right there at the curve of her back, and he didn’t want any other man’s hands on her, even if that man seemed like an okay guy. Then Gabe realized he was halfway down the stairs, ready to remove Mike’s arm from the socket if he didn’t stop touching her, and froze.
Caroline turned a few steps down and looked up at him. She must have heard his footsteps or felt the vibration. “Was there something else, Gabe?”
Damn, there was his name again, but this time it had been spoken softly. Their eyes met, and he wanted to close the distance and claim her.
“I just wanted to know if you need me to feed the vermin.”
The small smile she gave him unnerved him and made him feel like a kid, trying to please his teacher by asking for extra credit. “Only if they cry. I just fed them half an hour ago.”
“All right, then,” he said, searching for something else to say. As they started climbing down again, he called out, “Hey, Mike?”