Taken (Thornton Brothers Book 3)

by Sabre Rose

  I rolled my head off her shoulder and leaned against the bathroom tiles. “What’s there to sort out? She kissed Gabe.”

  “You don’t really believe that do you?”

  “I saw it, Sades. It’s a little hard to deny it happened.”

  “But you believe she kissed him back? You believe she wanted it?”

  “It sure didn’t look like she was complaining.”

  Taking me by surprise, Sadie grabbed my face between her hands and pushed her lips against mine, kissed me firmly and aggressively, before pulling away and looking at me, eyebrows raised, my face still squished between her hands.

  “What the fuck did you do that for?”

  She shrugged and grinned wickedly. “You didn’t appear to be complaining.”

  “I also didn’t encourage it.”

  “Nor did you pull away,” Sadie replied, letting my face go and wiping the back of her hand across her mouth. “That was gross. You’re breath smells of vomit.”

  “That’s stupid. It’s different.”

  “Different how?”

  “How? It was Gabe.”

  “So if she had ‘kissed’,” she put air quotes around the word, “someone other than Gabe, you’d be fine?”

  “That’s not the point and you know it. I stole her from Gabe. There was always the chance she’d change her mind.”

  Sadie pulled herself up from the floor and stood staring down at me, hands on hips and scowling. “You’re being stupid. Lauren loves you and you know it.

  “Thanks for your support,” I mumbled, reaching across the flush the toilet bowl and getting to my face. Another wave of nausea washed over me, but I pushed it aside.

  “You should find her and apologise.”

  “What for?”

  “For not giving her the chance to explain. For yelling and embarrassing her in front of all those people. For not believing her.”

  “Cheers for the advice. I’ll think on it,” I replied sulkily.

  ***

  Dad was released after spending the night sobering up in a cell. They charged him with drunken and disorderly conduct, assaulting a police officer and drunk driving. At the minimum he’d end up losing his license and doing community serve. At the most severe he could serve time. The lawyer assured us that was a highly unlikely scenario, given his standing in the community and his criminal record. Other than one other DUI, he was clean.

  I threw myself into work. I knew I should call her but I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t get the image of them kissing out of my head no matter what I tried to drown it with.

  Three days passed before Gabe sauntered into my office. Sadie, working out the final days of her notice, skipped in after him, apologetic that he had passed without her warning me. I waved, dismissing her, but she raised her eyebrow, questioning me before closing the door behind her when I gave a firm nod.

  Gabe looked foolish in a suit, a child playing dress up. His hair was tied back in a ponytail, but it only served to make him look younger. Stupider. The cut on his lip had healed a little, and the bruising around his eyes had a tinge of yellow.

  He stood with his arms crossed over his chest, but the tapping of his foot gave away his nerves. “We need to talk.”

  I didn’t look up. I continued to stare at the screen, one that blurred with black and white numbers because I had been staring at them so long while trying not to think of Lauren.

  “Tyler?” Gabe stepped forward. I caught the movement in the corner of my eye, but still refused to look up. “Tyler?” he said again, this time more forcefully.

  “What do you want, Gable?” I lowered the lid of my laptop. Using his full name would annoy him. It was something our father did.

  “We need to talk,” he said again, this time pulling back the chair and sitting down. Memories of when Lauren sat in that exact position flashed across my mind but I pushed them aside. Thoughts like that wouldn’t help anyone. I spent enough time dreaming of her at night, I didn’t need her image haunting me during the day as well.

  “Well, talk,” I ordered.

  “Look.” He sat forward, hands clasped together between his knees. “I’m sorry about Lauren. I don’t know what—”

  “Don’t speak about her,” I ordered. I couldn’t even stand for her name to be on his lips. I didn’t want him talking about her, thinking about her. I didn’t want him having anything to do with her.

  “I just wanted to explain that—”

  “There is nothing to explain.”

  “You’ve talked to her?”

  I shuffled some papers on my desk. “No.” I picked up a pen and started flicking the tip, leaning back in my chair, and crossing one ankle over my knee in an attempt to appear as relaxed as I could under the circumstances. “Have you?”

  “Well.” Gabe shifted uncomfortably. “I called her to make sure she was okay, yes.”

  My teeth clenched together hard enough until my jaw ached. “And she answered?”

  “You’ve hurt her, Tyler.”

  “I hurt her?” Anger started to course through my veins again. I took a deep breath and swallowed. “What do you want, Gable?”

  He looked at me a while longer, as if weighing up his options, and then sat back in the chair, leaning with his hands behind his head. “Dad was the one who was going to show me the ropes. He had begun, in fact, you know, before. But now that’s he’s unavailable—”

  “He’ll be back soon.”

  “He’s being sent of a 60 day rehab and anger management course,” Gabe replied.

  I didn’t know that, but I wasn’t about to let him know. “And your point is?”

  “I’m left a little uncertain of my role within the company.”

  “And you would like me to do what, exactly?” I looked up at him openly this time, meeting his eye and glaring with as much hatred as I could muster.

  “Help,” he said. “I’m not sure what to do. Dad had only just started with the—”

  I lifted the lid of my laptop and turned my attention back to the screen. “See Sadie on your way out. She’ll tell you someone that will be able to help.”

  “But don’t you think with all that’s going on, the media fishing for more stories, we should at least pretend to have a unified front, for the sake of the family, the company?”

  “I would hardly call a local online gossip rag the media. And as for a unified front?” I said, the anger causing my cheeks to flush. “You kissed my girl, how unified was that?”

  “After you stole her from me.”

  “I never once kissed her while she was with you. Well, not that I initiated, anyway.”

  The muscles in Gabe’s jaw bulged back and forth as he gritted his teeth together. “I’m trying here, Tyler. I’m trying to—”

  Slamming the lid of my laptop down, I stood and leaned over the desk. “I don’t care what you’re trying to do you little piece of shit. Go grow up somewhere else. Right now, I can’t stand the sight of here so please fucking leave before I give you matching black eyes.”

  Gabe rose from his seat without a word and walked out the door, leaving me to draw in a ragged breath at his departure.

  Sadie walked in as soon as he left.

  “I supposed you heard all that?”

  “You suppose right.” She crossed her arms and glared at me in the way only Sadie could.

  “And you think I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did?”

  “I think it’s time you went to see Lauren.”

  “She told me to leave her alone. I’m a man of my word.”

  “You’re stupid, is what you are. You’ve been trying to hide it but I can smell the alcohol on your clothing in the morning, I can see the lack of sleep in the dark patches under your eyes. I see the mounds of leftover food. You need to go sort this.”

  I sat back down in my chair. “And what do I say? What can I say?”

  “The truth.”

  “Which is?”

  “Tell her you were wrong. Tell her
you’ve been lost without her. Tell her everything and anything that’s on your mind. But most of all, listen.”

  “And if that doesn’t work?”

  “Well, at least you would have tried. It’s been three days. She’s had time to think, now it’s time for you to go and see her before you lose her completely.”

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