Page 34

Brad

“Gabriella,” I manage to say on a struggling breath.

Gabriella, she’s here. She’s the girl in the red mask. The girl I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I laid eyes on her. I came here in hopes of getting rid of my thoughts of Gabriella. She’s plagued my every waking and sleeping moment, and it’s messing with my head. I thought finding this mystery masked girl and having a moment alone with her would alter my brain, help me forget, and move on. Give me a new focus and obsession, but now I know the two are the same woman, I am absolutely fucked.

“W-What are you doing here?” she says, just loud enough for me to hear her over the music.

“What am I doing here?” I hiss in annoyance. “What the fuck are you doing here?” I don’t mean for it to come out as harshlyas it does, but a mixture of emotions is invading my brain, and I don’t know what to think or feel.

Gabriella. It was her all along.

I have so many questions. I step closer to close the strained space between us, but she steps back and rushes to the door.

“Wait,” I yell, and I’m hot on her heels. She runs down the corridor towards the exit sign, her heels clicking against the hard floor.

“Hey. What’s going on?” a man's voice bellows down the corridor, but I ignore him. Gabriella disappears into the darkness of the open door, and I pick up my pace to reach her. She clambers down the steel fire escape, and I take the steps two at a time, my chest burning with a mixture of exertion, fear, and utter confusion.

“Hey.” The voice from earlier is now behind me. A security guard, I assume, rushes down behind me, but I continue.

“Gabby, wait,” I holler as she disappears behind a wall. I never call her that, but I need her to stop and listen to me. I round the wall and find her just as she tears off her mask and tosses it to the ground. Before I can speak, the guy who was chasing us appears, gasping for breath.

“Are you okay? Do you need me to throw this asshole out?” he says, pointing at me.

I don’t give her a chance to answer. “This asshole is her boyfriend, so fuck off.” I don’t know why I said it. I just need him to go so I can talk to her.

“No, I’m fine. He can stay. I’ll be back in soon.” She tilts her head just enough for me to see her broken expression.

The man nods, giving me a suspicious look, and I glare right back.

Once he leaves, I take a few steps towards her and she backs away, holding her hands up in surrender.

“Brad, please, just… just go and pretend this never happened,” she begs, her voice cracking.

“I can’t do that. I want to know what you are doing working here.”

“It’s none of your business,” she bites back, her tone full of anger.

Annoyance swells in my gut. “Well, you made it my fucking business when you gave me a lap dance, Gabriella, so start talking.” Her body flinches as if my words have physically struck her.

“I didn’t know it was you,” she hisses. “If I knew it was you, I wouldn’t have agreed to do it.” Her words cut like a knife, deep and painful.

Any anger I held towards her dissipates as I watch a tear roll down her cheek.

I close the space between us, tugging her into my chest and gripping the back of her head as I press a kiss to her temple. Sobs wrack her body and I hug her.

When her cries begin to settle, she lifts her head to look at me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I just meant, no one knows I work here.” She sniffs.

“No one?” I question, furrowing my brows. She shakes her head. “Ali and Ria don’t know?” I question.

“No, and you can’t tell them, please.” Her tone is pleading as she steps away from me, creating some distance, which I hate.

“I won’t, but you need to help me understand. Are you doing it for the money? Are you in some sort of trouble, because I can help, you can always come to me and—”

She cuts me off. “No, no, it's nothing like that. It doesn’t matter,” she says, trying to end this conversation, but I’m not budging.

“It does matter,” I say sternly.

“No, it doesn’t. You wouldn’t understand,” she says as she frees herself from my hold and steps away.