Page 11 of Gabe (Blue Team #2)

I was such a fool.

I’d spent the last three days trying to rid myself of thoughts of Gabe instead of concentrating on my problems.

It was as if I knew the faster they were solved the sooner I’d go back to my life and I’d never see him again.

Can you say, stupid?

Or maybe self-sabotage.

It didn’t matter what my reasons were, I had to pull my head out of the sand.

“What else has happened?” Gabe asked.

I thought about all the stuff that had happened after I first found my way to the deep web.

That was different than the dark web. The internet was multilayered; the deeper you went the scarier it became.

On the surface, you had the nice places to visit where you could watch cute kitty videos and post about your fake life on social media.

Then you went a step down and you found information—things like leaked medical research, hacked bank accounts, and credit cards.

Criminal activity but in the grand scheme of things these crimes seemed petty in comparison to what you found when you descended into the vile and twisted underworld of the dark web.

A place where you could literally buy anything. Any. Thing.

Five months ago I would’ve been shocked such a thing existed.

Now it didn’t surprise me. And I was no stranger to the ugliness that lurked in this world.

But I hadn’t fully understood the level of depravity.

Criminals negotiated freely on the dark web.

Humans and drugs were bought and sold unhindered.

It was truly scary what went on out there in the abyss of the internet.

It was the wrong place for a person like me to be. I knew it, yet I stayed down in the dregs looking for…what? What was I looking for exactly?

A confession?

God, I was stupid sometimes.

But I didn’t tell that to Gabe. Instead, I told him about the next mishap.

“Right after the car thing, I wound up in the hospital.”

“Hospital?” Gabe grunted.

Damn him and his growl that gave me a crazy case of the shivers every time I heard it.

“Yes. I’m allergic to peanuts. There are a few places I order lunch when I work in the office that I know are safe.

Anyway, my lunch came and by the second bite, I started feeling funny.

It had been a long time since I’d had an allergic reaction.

I pulled the bottle of Benadryl I always keep with me out of my purse and took a slug.

But not even a minute later my throat was scratchy, which is not a good sign.

I gave myself my epi shot and waited another minute.

I called emergency, explained what was going on, and gave myself a second dose.

Thankfully, that worked but I still had to go to the ER.

The weird thing is I couldn’t smell the peanuts. ”

“Smell them? You mean taste?”

“Both. But I can smell a peanut a mile away. I know it sounds a little crazy but I’ve had the allergy my whole life.

I’m like a bloodhound; the smallest amount and I can sniff it out.

And as far as taste, normally as soon as any peanut product touches my tongue I can taste it.

When I was younger it actually made me throw up almost instantly.

But I didn’t smell or taste the peanuts in my food that day. ”

Gabe was studiously staring at me but instead of wanting to squirm, I wanted to jump on his lap and curl into him .

Down, girl.

“That makes sense about being able to smell them. What else?”

The peanut incident I could pass as a restaurant error but this next one I wasn’t so sure I could explain away.

“My car caught on fire.” Gabe’s eyes blazed damn near as hot as the flames had. “With me in it.”

“Say again?”

Oh, boy, he looked pissed.

“Thankfully, I was stopped at a red light. But I heard a pop. Not loud like an explosion, but a pop, then all of a sudden smoke was billowing from the front of the car. So much I couldn’t see anything.

So maybe it didn’t catch on fire as much as it smoked.

The police and fire department showed up and there were flames but not big ones, I mean it didn’t engulf the car.

” I knew I was rambling but there was one more thing Gabe needed to know so he didn’t think I was a total nitwit.

“My car was towed and the mechanic said the reason for all the smoke was because oil had sprayed under the hood.”

“Blown head gasket?”

I shook my head. “Mechanic couldn’t pinpoint the reason.”

Gabe was silent for long moments and I took the opportunity to think back over the last few months.

Those were the big things that had happened.

The car, the allergic reaction, and the fire.

That was until the coup de grace—well technically I hadn’t been finished off…

but still, it was the final blow that had led me to Maryland—the gun to my head.

But there had been one other strange occurrence.

“I think someone broke into my apartment, too,” I told Gabe. “I wasn’t home. And I don’t know for sure because I couldn’t find anything missing, but the mail I had stacked on my counter was moved. Of course, I could just be paranoid and maybe I don’t remember moving it but something felt off.”

I watched as the muscle in Gabe’s jaw jumped and his lips flattened to two thin lines.

“Anything else?”

“No. ”

With a nod, Gabe stood and asked, “You ready to go to the office?”

Closed down tight.

That was Gabe. Hot then cold.

Smiling and teasing then stoic and distant.

His moods shifted so quickly I had a hard time keeping up.

Why did I want to keep up ?

“Yep. I’m all set.”

“We’ll leave in five.”

Then he moved away from me as fast as he could without it looking like he was running.

I stayed where I was and forced myself to think about my day and what lay ahead instead of dwelling on a man who very obviously wanted nothing to do with me.

It was a difficult task seeing as my natural inclination was to examine his every word.

Pick apart his expressions. Get to the bottom of why Gabe was so closed off.

My thoughts went to Anaya and how angry she was at me.

Surprisingly she wasn’t mad I’d looked into what was happening in Timor-Leste.

No, she was over-the-top pissed I hadn’t told her what I was doing and asked her for help.

I had a good reason for not involving her—Kyle and Maxine.

She had a family. She was happy. I had none of those things.

But the one part of the conversation that stuck out the most was what she told me about Gabe. “Stick with him, no matter what.”

I knew I was grasping for straws but I couldn’t help thinking there was a deeper meaning behind her statement.

Obviously, my friend wanted me safe and Gabe and the rest of his team could make that so.

But it was the way Anaya had specifically singled out Gabe.

And she’d gone from yelling at me to softening her tone.

Most days my inquisitive mind was what helped me excel as a reporter. However, the downside was my brain never shut off. I never stopped thinking. And that got me into trouble.

Hours later I was sitting in Garrett’s office checking my email on a borrowed laptop when Garrett broke the silence.

“The account in Dili belongs to a John Smith.”

“That’s a fake name if I ever heard one,” I groused.

“Is there a reason you looked into Paul Solberg?”

Kaylee’s father. The change of topic had me glancing up from my email to find Garrett staring at me.

“Mr. Solberg spent a lot of time in Washington. And he had lunch with senators and congressmen. He has a lot of high-powered connections. I mean he pulled in a lot of favors to have a SEAL team go to Timor-Leste to rescue Kalee. I guess I just needed…” I drew in a lungful of air and rushed out the rest. “I needed to make sure.”

“Make sure Paul Solberg was clean?”

“Yeah.”

The admission made my heart hurt. Deep down, I was certain that Mr. Solberg would never harm Kalee or put his beloved daughter in danger.

At least not on purpose. Neither did I believe he’d be involved in anything criminal.

But he was the CEO of a large corporation with several subsidiaries.

Some of those businesses were in the defense industry and so was Abrams. He had a lot of employees and I didn’t trust that one of them hadn’t turned to the dark side.

Before I handed my information over to…well, I hadn’t even figured out which agency I would turn to, but before I did, I wanted to make sure that Mr. Solberg was in the clear.

And if I had found Solberg Industries caught up in this mess, what would I have done?

The answer to that still plagued me. I wanted justice but if I’d found something shady in one of Mr. Solberg’s businesses I would’ve killed my investigation immediately.

For Kalee. I would’ve deleted everything if it meant protecting my friend from knowing the truth.

Luckily, that was not what happened and Mr. Solberg and his businesses were squeaky clean.

“I would’ve done the same thing.” Garrett smiled.

I took in Garrett’s flirtatious smile and gave him one of my own. Of course, the guy had to be gorgeous. It seemed I’d been surrounded by good-looking people since I’d been ushered up to the inner sanctum of Z Corps.

“Have dinner with me?” Garrett blurted.

What the what?

My eyes flared at his invitation but before I could figure out a way to decline the offer a stack of papers slammed down on Garrett’s desk and my insides froze.

“Owen asked me to drop these off,” Gabe seethed.

Yes, seethed. His tone was lethal and there was no missing it.

“Thanks.” Garrett’s voice was smooth, unruffled, and completely calm when he went on. “Has Myles checked in?”

“Yeah, they’re still Richmond. No sign of Delilah Watts,” Gabe returned his voice to tight and gruff.

For a man who wanted nothing to do with me, he sure sounded mad that he’d walked in on Garrett asking me to dinner.