Page 22 of Adored

Always.

His man was curious.

“What were you both like as kids?” Gamble asked, knowing that Poe had done something similar when he’d been lost in the grief.

He distracted him with good memories.

“Trouble,” he stated. “Hemmingway was the brave brother. He’d fallen out of countless trees, and into many ponds. He could swim, and liked to do dangerous shit. Thus, why he was the man he was. Flying Apache helicopters with American Marines was fun to him. When they said he went down in one, and that he’d held it steady to give the Marines on board a chance to bail, I believed it. That sounded like him.”

Gamble let him talk.

Poe needed this.

“I never expected him to have died onboard, and the Marines he trusted to break his neck and kill him for some stupid code. Honestly, for his life, my father would have paid them the money. Hemmingway was worth so much more to us than money.”

Gamble understood.

“It’s because he stole it,” he said, and when Poe looked over, he explained. “Men like Von Donore…they are vain. He insulted him by being able to take the money, and outsmart him. That’s why he died. It had nothing to do with the money. Oh, he’ll say it did, but the bottom line was Hemmingway insulted his masculinity. In this case, Von and his ego had to win.”

Poe knew he was right.

Still, his father would have given him that money for Hemmingway to live.

“Did the Hunters find it?” he asked, suddenly since Gamble just said Von escaped.

Gamble shook his head.

“No, they didn’t. We just missed you,” he admitted. “We came into the front of the building, and you snuck out the same way. I traced your blood,” he said, pointing to the bandage on his palm. “I was so close to catching up to you. When I got to the limo, Elizabeth told me you were gone.”

Poe remembered being in the room where he dragged the dead Marine who stood between Poe and his freedom.

“I cut it getting out of the room,” he admitted. “Prying the door open.”

Yeah, they were aware.

“Anyway, we came in, and I found your blood. Eve and I tracked you, and it was coming down. I found the dead Marine. Good shot.”

He was honest.

“I wanted to live to get back to you. I didn’t like taking anyone’s life, but I had no choice.”

Gamble went there.

“But you ran.”

He nodded.

“I couldn’t ask you to do this,” he said to Gamble. “I couldn’t dump the burden of this on you. Maybe it was the trauma of the whole day, or maybe I just lost my bloody mind, but I couldn’t saddle you with this.”

Gamble was confused.

“What is the burden, exactly? Because if it’s being rich, oh, no…”

Poe was serious.

“I’m going to be scrutinized. If you’re with me, the world is going to know about you. If Von Donore sees you with me…”

Gamble stopped him.