Page 37 of Gabe (Blue Team #2)

Ambush.

A motherfucking ambush.

That was what went through my mind when I came to. That and extreme anger but I needed to be smart. Not for me, for Evette.

I was awake but kept my eyes closed getting my bearings.

My hands were cuffed over my head, pain radiated from my shoulder.

I’d been shot. I could feel tape pulling at my skin.

Someone had dressed the wound. That meant they wanted me alive.

I didn’t know if that was good or bad but what I was, was grateful.

I continued to take stock of my surroundings. My ankles were bound, the room was cold but not freezing. Nothing in my mouth. The room smelled musty and old.

“You’re wasting time.”

Male. No accent. Standing close.

“The more of it you waste the more fun I’ll have with Miss London.”

My eyelids popped opened and nausea roiled. After I swallowed down the bile and the haze cleared Evette came into focus.

Tied to a chair, gagged, and bleeding. Forehead. Nose. Lip.

The motherfucker would pay for each of those.

“Mr. Harris.” The guy smiled and stepped close, off to my left. “Nice of you to join the party. As you can see we started without you. Seems my associate got your dose wrong. We’ve been waiting a long time for you to wake up.”

The associate circled Evette, then stopped behind her and lifted both his hands.

“Don’t touch her.”

The Asshole Associate dropped his hands on her shoulders and Evette’s eyes widened. Her fear so stark I decided his punishment would be losing his fingers. I was going to chop them off one by one and set the digits in front of him so he could stare at them as I sawed off the next one.

“Now that we’ve established you’re not in charge let’s talk about Delilah Watts.”

No such goddamn thing had been established but if Dickhead needed to believe that to get on with his questioning I wouldn’t quibble. The more questions Dickhead asked the more I could ascertain what he wanted.

“What about her?”

“Where is she?”

“No clue.”

Asshole Associate slid a hand into Evette’s hair and jerked her head back until she whimpered.

“Perhaps you wanna amend that?” Dickhead asked.

“I will only to add, Delilah Watts is more than likely dead in a ditch somewhere. Which is where that motherfucker’s gonna be if he hurts my woman.”

A swift punch to my kidney had me sucking in air and likely I’d be pissing blood later.

“How about you, sweetheart? Are you ready to talk yet? Where’s Delilah Watts?”

Evette shook her head the best she could considering Asshole hadn’t let go.

Her denial earned me two more punches. One landed the same as the first. The second higher up and I didn’t need to hear the rib crack to know it was. The next lungful of oxygen I inhaled burned like a sonofabitch.

“We’ll leave you two lovebirds to talk amongst yourselves.

How ’bout a few minutes to come to your senses and tell me what I want.

But before we leave you to it, I’ll give you my promise after you tell me where Delilah is I’ll let Miss London walk out of here.

If you’re swift about it, I might feel generous and give her a ride to the nearest gas station so she can call for help.

You waste my time, I’ll let her leave but she’ll be walking. ”

Asshole shoved Evette’s head forward and let her go. As soon as he did her pain-filled eyes came to mine.

Fucking shit .

Dickhead started for the door but stopped at Evette’s side, yanked the bandana out of her mouth, let it fall around her neck, then tapped her temple.

“Be smart, Miss London.”

She licked her lips, kept her gaze cast down, and didn’t answer.

Once the men were out of the room and the door was shut I took a moment to cool my rioting temper. I needed Evette calm and ready for what was to come. I had to prepare her for what she was going to see.

“Evette, honey, look at me.”

She shook her head and pinched her eyes closed.

“I can’t.”

What the fuck ?

My anger resurfaced, this time at myself. I’d fucked up and now she was tied to a chair and scared. I’d failed at the one thing I’d promised her. Now she wouldn’t even look at me.

“I can’t,” she repeated then stopped to clear her throat. “You’re chained up and hurt because of me. I can’t—”

“No, Evette. We’re here because I fucked up. Me. You didn’t do anything but trust me to keep you safe. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I need you to listen to me. When they come back this is gonna get ugly and when it does you need to close your eyes and stay silent.”

Evette’s gaze snapped to mine and she damn near shrieked, “What?”

“I cannot protect you from them while I’m chained.

They’re gonna use us against each other and I want their focus on me.

I don’t have the information they want and that’s gonna piss them off and they’re gonna communicate that.

I want their anger directed at me, not you.

So you keep your eyes closed. No matter what you hear, you don’t watch, you don’t speak. ”

“Maybe if you tell them—”

“No. We don’t tell them anything. What we do is stay quiet and give my team time to find us. As soon as they get anything from us, we’re dead. Both of us, honey. They’ll do me first thinking if you see that, then you’ll talk. We stay quiet.”

“And what, let them beat on you?”

I sighed and my lungs protested the exhale, reminding me I already had one broken rib and I’d have more before this was over.

When Dickhead came back, he wasn’t going to beat on me, he was going to beat the ever-living fuck out of me and Evette was going to be forced to listen. I didn’t want her to watch it, too.

“Yeah, honey, they’re gonna beat on me and when they do I want your eyes closed and for you to slip away somewhere into that smart mind of yours. Someplace outside of this room. Think about anything but what’s going on in front of you.”

“You can’t ask me to let them hurt you.”

“I just did.”

“But—”

“There’s nothing that you can do to stop it. I need you to give this to me.”

“But—”

“I’m fucking chained,” I snapped, losing the loose hold on my fury.

“Chained, Evette. I cannot stop them from hurting you. I want them to forget you’re in the room and concentrate on me.

If they touch you I will lose my fucking mind and get us both killed.

I need to focus on buying us time and to do that I need you to keep your eyes closed and your mouth shut.

No matter what they do to me. You stay silent. ”

Evette lifted her head and when her tear-filled eyes caught mine I struggled to lock down my emotions.

Powerless.

Goddamn powerless .

A feeling I swore to myself I would never feel again.

And this time around it was worse. So much fucking worse.

My Evette had been taken against her will, tied to a chair, gagged, and she was scared and bleeding.

Yet I couldn’t do fuck-all about it. I couldn’t go to her and hold her as she cried.

I couldn’t protect her against what she was going to hear and see.

But more, I couldn’t protect her from bodily harm.

I’d utterly failed.

All my pent-up anger grew and swelled until I couldn’t contain it.

Fear and fury swept through me, blazing a trail of destruction, causing a tightness in my chest that I was also powerless to stop.

That was when my mind blanked and I felt no pain as I struggled against the cuffs binding my wrists.

I wrapped my hands around the chain and yanked.

I twisted and fought to break free with the singular intention to get Evette to safety.

I couldn’t let her see what was in store for me. I’d gladly take the beating but not with her looking on, not with her listening.

“Stop.”

I heard her plea turn into a sob but I couldn’t rein in the rage.

“Gabe! Stop.”

But it was too late.

Too late for me. Too late for her.

Dickhead and Asshole were back.