Page 81 of Crave

Make her mine.

My hand clenched around the hilt of the knife, fighting every cell in my body.

Chapter Twenty-One

ANGELICA

“Let me take care of you.”Gabe loomed over me. He looked down, his dark eyes shimmering in the muted light. The moment he touched the sting on my cheek from Silas’s knife I pulled away. Pain flared, his brows pinched for a second before his stare hardened. That look…that hard, honey brown stare shimmered in my memory.

With it came a thunderous roar.

ANGEL…

ANGEL, PLEASE!

NOOO!

A blood choked bellow filled my head. Flickers came to life…the similar wide haunting eyes of our father returned in a moment of pure terror before…

BOOM!

Warmth splattered my arms. Bright red flecks smacked me in the eye. I turned my head…my mind blurring as in that vision a shadowed figure moved close.

That’s it, Angelica.A low and hypnotic voice followed as the sharp bitter stench of gunpowder returned filling me.That’s a good girl. Let me take that now.

There was a heaviness in my hand. I remember it now. I looked down as I sat on Gabe’s bed and almost saw it. The cold steel in my grip, one splattered with blood.

“Angel.”

I wrenched my gaze upwards as the vision started to blur. No…panic moved in. No, please no. “Are you okay?” Gabe asked, his jaw set hard.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom!

My pulse filled my head. But it was my ragged breaths which hurt the most tearing through my chest leaving a gaping hole behind. I lunged, throwing my arms around Gabe’s neck and clung to him.

That vision faded.

That sick, terrifying vision.

What…the…Hell…was…that?

“That bastard.” He wrapped his arms around my body as I shook and shuddered. “He’s too rough with you. Too goddamn rough.I won’t let him hurt you.” He murmured in my ear. “Do you hear me? Never again. Never ever again.”

My mind was a jumble. That shadowed figure loomed in my mind, until slowly the events of tonight came rushing back. Silas and the knife. A tremor tore through me as I pressed my fingers to my cheek. The tiny sting was sharp and instant, but it was nothing compared to the terror in my head.

It wasn’t a memory. I closed my eyes. It can’t be. That didn’t happen. But the moment the words came they carried a weight that filled my heart.

“I should go back in there and put a goddamn knife against his face, let’s see how he likes it.”

I pulled away, staring into Gabe’s dark stare and shook my head. “No,” I croaked. “Don’t do that. Don’t ever do that.”

“No?” His brow rose. “Give me one good goddamn reason? He fucking hurt you.”

There was real anger in his voice. A hatred I’d never heard before. Gabe didn’t hate. He comforted and loved. He was the quiet one. The loyal one. The longer I stared at him the more I realized that these last months changed us all. They made us lonely and afraid…and now, desperate. That’s how I felt.