Page 8

Chapter

Seven

GABE

“ G abe, this is?—”

“I didn’t ask you for your fucking opinion. I asked if you wanted to come,” I say, forgetting that there are two little boys listening to everything I say.

“Language,” Ali scolds me as she points to Caleb and Jacob, her twin boys playing in the living room.

“Shit, sorry,” I say and proceeding to mess up again.

I sigh and blame all of this on the fucking woman who is messing with me.

I shoot Ali another apologetic look only to find her smiling at me like she knows something I don’t.

I turn my attention back to Reed.

“Are you coming or not?”

“Do you have any idea who Elio Altobelli is?” Reed asks.

“No, I don’t, and I don’t really care right now. All I care about is the fact that there is another Tara-shaped hole in my life. I had her for a few hours, and now she is gone again. Do you have any clue how that makes me feel? No, because you have the girl you love, safe here in your home. While mine is out there,” I point behind me, “on a mission that could lead to her being hurt or worse, actually dead. So I don’t give a shit about who this guy is. I’m going to get my girl. With or without you.” My patience with my best friend is wearing really thin.

First, he demanded that Tara was actually dead, and now he is acting like the biggest chicken I’ve ever seen.

I’ve seen this man cut a man’s throat without blinking.

What happened to that version?

“I’m not saying that we shouldn’t go get her, but I think going in there without a plan and guns blazing isn’t the smartest move,” Reed says, crossing his arms over his chest.

“This was a waste of my time.” I turn around and stomp out of his house toward my truck.

Fuck him. Reed yells my name, but I don’t stop.

I can’t stop, not now that I’ve had her back in my arms. I refuse to live another moment without her by my side.

I meant what I said last night: she will get her revenge and justice, but she will do it with me beside her.

Even if I have to handcuff her to me and swallow the fucking key.

This morning, when I woke up to empty arms and cold sheets that were once warmed by her, I lost it.

I knew there was no use searching the house for her.

Just like I knew she was still alive.

I knew she was gone again.

So, instead, I grabbed my computer and looked up Elio Altobelli.

It didn’t take me long to find his home address.

I didn’t bother showering.

I pulled on the first pair of clean clothes and jumped into my truck.

I wasted time stopping by Reed’s, but I can’t change that now.

I have a two-and-a-half-hour drive ahead of me, and I’m hoping to tame my anger in that amount of time.

My phone rings, and I answer it without taking my eyes off the road.

I figure it’s Reed calling, so I say, “Listen here, you motherfucker. I’ve already told you I’m doing this my way, and nothing you say will change my mind.”

“Gabriel Matthew Mariano, watch your language,” Grandmama says, and I flinch.

“I’m sorry, Grandmama, I thought?—”

“Oh, I can make out who you thought I was. Now tell me why you didn’t come over last night for supper and why you are mad at Reed.”

“I had some things to take care of last night for work.” The lie comes to me easily because I don’t think Tara wants anyone to know that she is alive.

It’s too dangerous for her right now, or at least she thinks it is.

On the other hand, I’m not so sure because she didn’t stick around this morning for me to find anything else out.

The people that we have talked to truly believe she is dead, but that doesn’t matter because if anyone thinks that they can lay a finger on her, I will steal their life away quicker than they can blink.

“You couldn’t take an hour away from work to come see your Grandmama, and don’t think I didn’t notice that you only answered one of my questions.” Grandmama uses the same tone she has always used when I’m in trouble.

I might be thirty-two, but that tone always makes me feel like a child again.

“I really couldn’t, Grandmama, but I promise I will make it up to you. As for Reed, he is just being an ass.” Guilt from lying, even if it’s by omission to Grandmama, makes me feel dirty.

I have never told her a lie since I was five and saw the look of disappointment in her smokey gray eyes the first time a lie slipped from my lips.

She knows what I do for work, and if it is something that could potentially put her in danger, I tell her as much as I can.

She knows not to ask too many questions.

Grandmama has been the one constant my whole life.

My earliest memories have her as the star.

My mother was young when she had me, basically a baby herself.

She had me at sixteen.

Grandmama stepped up to help raise me, thinking that as Helen—my mother—got older, she would grow into motherhood, but that never happened.

By the time I was five, Helen was too far gone, lost in the world of drugs and alcohol, not caring that she had a son at home.

Grandmama was the one that provided everything I needed and the things I wanted in life.

When I was scared, hurt, and, yes, even in trouble, I would run to her.

Running to Helen never crossed my mind.

As for my father, he was never in my life.

To this day, all I know about him is that he was Italian.

I don’t even know his first name because I genuinely just didn’t care about him.

He was an out-of-sight, out-of-mind kind of thing.

Helen met the same fate when I was ten, and Grandmama came home from a work trip to find me all alone, scared, and hungry because Helen had disappeared for the entire week.

Grandmama told Helen to pack her shit and never come back.

I remember standing on the stairs of Grandmama’s house, feeling nothing as I watched the woman who gave birth to me walk out of the door.

Grandmama sold the house and moved us into the apartment she still lives in.

She got another job, one that didn’t require her to go on as many work trips.

She saved enough to put me through college, and once I got my first big paycheck, I offered to buy her a house, but she refused, saying that she liked her apartment.

When I built my house, I offered to create a mother-in-law suite just for her, but she once again refused.

When I met Tara, I told Grandmama all about her and how I had met the one.

The day that the police declared Tara dead, I showed up at Grandmama’s and cried in her arms all night long.

She cried with me, telling me how much she loved Tara and how she wished there was some way to take my hurt away.

So, to keep the fact that Tara is alive a secret doesn’t sit right with me.

“You boys will work it out. You always do,” Grandmama says in her all-knowing voice.

“I know we will. Look, Grandmama, I hate to cut this call short, but I’ve got to go and handle a few things. I’ll call you tonight, and we will have dinner as soon as I’m back in town. I love you.”

“Love you more,” Grandmama says, and then the line goes dead.

The whole drive, my phone pings with messages, and Reed calls multiple times, but I ignore it all, focusing on getting to my girl.

Following the directions from my GPS, I pull up to an unassuming white split ranch-style home.

You wouldn’t know from the outside that a man who makes Reed Black hesitate to show up lives here.

I pull up into the driveway, parking behind a silver Ford Taurus, and shut my truck off.

I always carry a pistol when I leave my house, but I choose to leave the gun in the truck.

I’m not here to cause trouble; I just want my girl.

Stepping out of my truck, I shut the driver’s door but don’t get to turn around before I hear the front door of the house open and shut.

“You lost?” Elio asks from behind me.

If I hadn’t heard his voice last night, I wouldn’t have a clue who was standing there.

Slowly, I turn around, and my hands raise up in front of me because, unlike me, Elio didn’t leave his gun inside.

Pointing straight at me is the business end of some sort of pistol.

I’m too far away to tell the make and model, but that doesn’t really matter right now.

After quickly looking at the gun, I lock my eyes on Elio’s and don’t move my gaze.

I’ve always found it weird that when we look someone in the eye, we have to pick one eye to stare at.

“I will only ask you one more time, you lost boy?”

“No, sir. I’m not lost. In fact, I’m right where I need to be, considering my girl is currently inside your house.” My voice is even, calm, but a little rough.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had a gun pointed at me, and it’s surely not going to be the last. While I want to rush him and take the gun from him, I resist because the way Elio spoke to Demon last night about Tara means that they have formed a bond in the year she has been living here.

I really don’t care how people view me, but I want this man to like me because I feel his opinion will mean a lot to Tara.

“Your girl? The last time I checked in with her, she wasn’t yours. In fact, if she was anyone’s, I would say she was mine.” Elio’s eyes turn ice-cold and narrow.

Those are fighting words to someone like me, but I grind my teeth and try to keep my breathing even.

“No,” I say. That simple word comes out much harsher than I wanted it to but fuck him.

“Excuse me. I don’t think you know who I am.” Elio steps forward, and I match his one step but take an additional three until I’m standing with my chest against the barrel—of what I can now see is a Glock 22.

My actions must have surprised Elio because for a second, his eyes widen, and his jaw goes slack.

But he quickly recovers and hardens his facial expressions.

“Sir, with all the respect in the world, I don’t give a shit who you are, what family you work for, or the fact that you could put a bullet in me faster than I could blink. All I care about is that you are standing between me and the woman I love. Let me make it very clear: that is not a place anyone wants to be standing. You could be the fucking devil reincarnated, and I wouldn’t blink or cower away from you. So either shoot me or move the fuck out of my way. I have some things that Tara needs to be reminded of.” I raise one eyebrow at him and wait.

I might have wanted his seal of approval, but the consequences of not having it isn’t going to keep me from getting what I want.

Elio processes my statement very fucking slowly, but after a minute, he lowers his gun, nods his head, and says, “That’s what I like to hear. Come in.” He turns around and heads inside, leaving the door open for me.

I quickly shake my head and follow him inside.

I don’t have time to look around at the furnishings before I’m pulled into the arms of a woman waiting right inside the door.

“What a speech,” she says, patting me on the back.

My arms hang loosely by my side.

“Ava, let the boy go,” Elio says, staring at the woman, squeezing me with adoration in his eyes.

“She’s upstairs. The second door on the left.” He nods toward the stairs.

“Thank you,” I say after Ava lets me go and steps back.

I don’t pause to look at the woman before racing up the stairs.

I take them two at a time, and the whole house seems to shake under me.

Looking left, my eyes stare at the door like I could open it with just a single thought.

I pause for a second to take a breath but then cross the small landing and throw open the door.

Tara screams as she jumps back against her headboard.

Her hands slide under the pillow, but before she can pull whatever weapon she has stashed under there out, I’m already across the room and pulling her off the bed.

“Gabe, what the fu?—”

“No, the time for you to talk is over. Now it’s time for you to fucking listen to me. You don’t get to do that. You don’t sneak out of our house in the middle of the night and run away. You don’t leave my fucking arms without me knowing ever again. Do you understand?” Tara’s blue eyes tell me that she is pissed that I’m here.

Well, that makes two of us, sweetheart; I’m pissed that I had to come find you.

When she doesn’t answer me, I grit my teeth and growl at her like her dog growled at me last night.

“Tara! Do you understand?”

“Oh, I get to talk now. Who the fuck do you think you are coming into my house and speaking to me like that,” she growls back at me.

My hands are holding onto her shoulders, meaning she doesn’t move an inch when she goes to step back.

Leaning down to close the distance between our faces I growl, “I’m your fucking man. That’s who I am, or did you forget that? Because I have no problem reminding you who you belong to.”

“Let me go, Gabe,” she demands.

“Never,” I say before shutting her up in the only way I know how to right now.

I can’t stand hearing those words come from her beautiful, full lips.

Tara is stiff and rigid against me, her lips unmoving under mine.

She is fighting what is between us, but that’s okay because I love a good fight, and she is worth fighting for.

I gently bite her bottom lip, and a small sigh comes from her.

Her lips turn pliant, and she finally starts kissing me back.

Her hands latch onto my shirt, and she pulls me forward.

We tumble onto the bed, and the springs groan under our combined weight.

I didn’t come here to fuck her, so when she tries to take my shirt off, I break the kiss and hold my weight off of her.

“Gabe,” she pouts, and I can’t help but smile at the sight of her under me.

“Are you done running from me?”

My question takes a second to break through the lust that must be consuming her because she just stares at me for a second before her eyes slide close.

“I’m not running from you per say. There is just so much hurt between us. Plus I have to do?—”

I move fully off her and sit back, but I wrap my hands around her calves and pull her until she is straddling my lap.

“You are running from me. Last night–”

Her blue eyes narrow.

“Last night meant nothing. I took back something that was stolen from me. I might trust you with my body but my heart… That’s another story.”

Hearing her say that what happened between us last night meant nothing kills me.

“Princess–”

“You hurt me, Gabe. What they did to me that night was horrible and painful, but what hurt the most was seeing you look at me the way you did.” A single tear falls from her closed eyes, and the sight of it kills me.

It steals the air from my lungs and restricts my heart.

“Princess, I’m so fucking sorry for the way I acted that night. I told you that I had a shitty ex, but I never told you what happened.” I take a deep breath before telling her about Lindsey.

“Lindsey and I were together for three years. We met when she hired us to install her security system for her. I fell fast and hard. I wanted to ask her to marry me by the end of our second date, but she always talked about how she had planned out her life in detail. Meet someone, wait four years to get married, then have kids. She spoke about her dreams, and I wanted to make them all come true. So I waited.

“I thought we had the perfect relationship.

Hell, everyone thought we had the perfect relationship.

Until one night when Lindsey wanted to go out to some club that had opened in Matthews.

It was some hot, upscale club where you had to be invited, and Lindsey scored two invites somehow.

I really didn’t want to go because we had just finished a tough job and I was exhausted, but I agreed anyway.

Before I continue, there is something you need to know about me.

I have a brother, well half brother.

He is a few years younger than me.

”

Tara’s eyes fly open.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me you had a brother?”

My jaw locks when I grind my teeth at the thought of him.

“Because out of everyone in the world, he is the one person I hate more than my mother. His name is Chase. Helen had him when I was four years old. When I found out about his existence, I asked Grandmama if she knew. Of course, she didn’t. The year Helen had him she disappeared, and no one knew where she was. Unlike me, Chase had a good father who gained full custody of him right after he was born. He didn’t know Helen had another kid either.”

Tara’s hands rise to cradle my face.

I’m sure she sees the pain that Chase and Lindsey’s betrayal caused written clearly in my eyes.

“You don’t have to finish the story. I can figure it out. I just don’t?—”

I shake my head.

“No, I do. The night we went out, I lost Lindsey in the crowd and spent thirty minutes trying to find her. When I finally did, she was pressed against the wall in some dark hallway fucking some random guy. I pulled him off her and proceeded to beat the shit out of him. The cops were called, but I was the only one arrested. Nick bailed me out, and when I got home, I found the same guy sitting on my couch. Luckily, Nick was there and kept me from killing him.

“It turns out that Chase had shown up two months prior to all of this like you did with Reed, but I never knew because I wasn’t in town.

Lindsey said she invited him to stay and wait until I got home.

She said she didn’t mean to fall for him, but she did.

I had no clue that they had been together for those months.

I stood there completely silent as she told me she was leaving me and marrying him the next day.

She had already planned their whole wedding while still living with me.

”

Tears are racing down Tara’s face, but it’s also hard as stone showing how pissed off she is.

“It took me a while to see all the clues that I was too blinded by love to pay attention to before. The biggest one is that we hadn’t had sex during those months. I thought it was because they were the busiest for our business, but now I see the truth. She didn’t want to cheat on him but had no problem leading me on. I sold the house and lived with Reed until I was able to build our house. So when I came out of the bathroom and saw that guy with his arm around you?—”

“You saw her. It doesn’t make the words you spoke to me that night go away or lessen their hurt, but I understand. Gabe. I just don’t know how to trust that you won’t see her again when you look at me.”

“I’m so fucking sorry, Tara. My love for you is a world apart from what I felt for her. I just freaked out because the thought of losing you…” I pause and take a shaky breath.

“Losing you almost killed me. Please let me help you make this right. All of it. My actions. Their actions. Everything you went through that night. God, I love you, Tara, and don’t want you to push me away like I did you. I’ll do whatever you need me to do in order to prove that I will never look at you and see her again.”

I hold my breath and pray that she says she loves me, too.

That she loves me and that I can stay by her side for the rest of my life because if not, I don’t know how I’m going to survive.