Chapter Twenty-Two
Unknown Location
Somewhere In New Orleans
Thursday Four A.M.
F or the whole flight, Poe said not a word. He was held at gunpoint, and he knew he was three days beyond screwed. They were taking him back into NOLA. There was no way Gamble would find him.
Maybe it was for the best.
Honestly, Poe didn’t want to go home, and he wasn’t strong enough to do this.
His family was dead.
He was all alone.
And now, he was going to die.
Truth be told, he hoped that Gamble never found his remains. He’d caused him so much pain, and to make him live through that again…
Poe prayed it didn’t happen.
This sucked.
He’d dragged Gamble into this, thanks to Hemmingway doing something impulsive. Oh, he understood why, but it had cost so many people their lives.
And their futures.
Yeah, he was in the anger stage at that moment, and it was probably a good thing the man was dead.
He’d throttle his own flesh and blood.
When they arrived at some strange building, on the roof, he was roughly dragged inside by a bunch of military guys who didn’t give a shit about him.
Once inside, he was separated from Von and the box of his brother’s things. In fact, he was shoved down a flight of stairs, into a hallway, and tossed into a room.
Jesus.
They were assholes.
When he heard the door lock, he knew he was trapped and this was where he’d die. They’d likely dump his body somewhere later.
‘God,
Please don’t let it be where Gamble would find me. Spare him of that.’
As he sat on the floor, he stared around the room. The wall had one shelf, and there was a tv and chair.
That was it.
Well, someone wasn’t really using this room for much, now were they?
It was a prison and nothing more.
As he sat there, he thought about Gamble, and how much he missed him. Sniffing his sleeve, he smelled like the man.
“Gamble, Mate, how the hell do I get out of here?” he asked, talking to himself.
Well, he was pretty sure the man wouldn’t be sitting on the floor staring at the door.
He needed to move before the assholes came back for him.
Going over to the shelf, he lifted the wood part off of the wall, and touched the metal bracket holding it up.
Then, he looked at the door.
It was time to be brave and be more like his brother and less like himself.
Removing it from the piece holding it up, he walked toward the door, and saw the crack between the door and the lock.
Shoving it in, he wiggled it, twisted it, and jammed it down. He cut his hand doing it, but the door opened.
Taking off his flannel, he put it on the floor.
Why?
So if Gamble came for him, he’d know he had been there. Since he knew he wasn’t dead, and his friends had saved him, at least he’d have a chance.
When Poe peeked out into the empty hallway, he knew no one would likely be around at this time of the day. He also knew they weren’t worried about him.
To the mercenaries, he was just a weakling and a doctor. That was going to work in his favor.
This office building had to be up pretty high, and that meant there was likely an exit on the ground floor. To Poe, that was his way out.
Creeping out, he headed toward the stairwell.
On his way down, he saw a box to break the glass and pull an alarm.
There was also a fire extinguisher and an ax.
Grabbing the ax, he headed down the stairs, listening for any sounds in case he needed to use his weapon.
Fortunately, there were no sounds or people.
Could he get this lucky?
Had they underestimated him that much?
Or were the mercenaries that dumb?
Well, Von said good help was hard to find.
As he got down to the main entrance, there was a guy standing guard. He had a gun, and he was blocking his way out of there as he watched the doors to make sure no one came inside.
Creeping up behind him, Poe swung the blunt side of the ax, cracking the guy in the back of the skull.
He heard the sound of bone breaking, but knew he needed to survive. It was every human for themselves at this point.
When the man dropped, he grabbed him by the feet, and dragged him into the room nearby. When the door behind him closed, he leaned against it, breathing deeply.
Someone needed to get some cardio.
Clearly.
Outside the door, he heard footsteps, and he waited.
Not a sound was made, but he knew there had to be five or six people. He watched their shadows go past the room he was in with the now-dead-asshole.
Oh, he’d just avoided being caught.
Thank.
Freaking.
God.
That had been way too close.
As they entered the building, it was oddly empty. There wasn’t even a guard at the front, alerting anyone to being there.
The Marines silently rushed past a bunch of doors, making it to the stairwell without a solitary sound.
The whole time, Gamble was keeping up, running on adrenaline and the fear that Poe was hurt. His family told him to stay with Elizabeth, but he had to find Poe.
That was the bottom line.
The sun was coming up soon, and they had to get in, find Poe, and get to Von.
As they climbed up the stairs, Gamble saw blood on the floor in the stairwell. There were little drops heading to a doorway.
“That has to be Poe,” he whispered, pointing to Maura. “He has to be injured.”
She jerked her head toward Eve.
“Go with Gamble. Help him secure the doctor. We’ll take out Von. We’ll rendezvous downstairs in the limo for pickup.”
The two nodded, and headed after the blood droplets on the floor.
As they reached the doorway, Gamble was praying that Poe wasn’t hurt badly.
If Von Donore had hurt him…
He.
Was.
Dead.
There was no doubt that he’d make Von Donore suffer for any injury inflicted on his man. There wouldn’t be a place in Hell deep enough for him to hide away.
As they traced the blood droplets to the doorway, Gamble pushed the door open with his gun, and the whole time, Eve was right beside him.
What he expected to see was Poe lying there bleeding and unconscious. What he found was his flannel shirt and more blood.
He was confused.
Had they moved him?
Bending over, he picked up a piece of metal, and there was a sharp part on it. Near that, there was some blood.
And some blood on a piece of metal.
“Where is he?”
Eve began putting it together, and the only way it added up is if they had it backward.
“G man, he wasn’t bleeding coming up here. He was bleeding when leaving. He broke out,” she whispered. “He cut his hand on that piece of metal, and escaped.”
Holy.
Shit.
Poe had managed to escape!
That was good.
“Go help the others,” he said. “I’m going to track the blood down, and find him.”
That was probably for the best. Gamble wasn’t focused on anything but Poe, and they had a fight ahead of them.
Eve nodded, and they went back to the door and their separate ways.
It didn’t take her long to catch up to the rest of the Marines. They were in a holding pattern outside a main door.
When she approached, they glanced over, saw it was her, and chilled out.
“The doctor escaped,” she whispered. “Gamble is hunting him down.”
That worked for them.
They could move now that the man was safe, and not in harm’s way.
From where she knelt, Maura had glasses on, and there was an eyepiece. On it, she could see intel coming in from MATE.
She had the layout of the place, in three-D model. It moved when her head moved, showing her where to go next. It was high tech, and in that moment, they were freaking grateful for their AI.
Screw the fear of it taking over. It was saving them a lot of time.
“MATE has all the security cameras down. Once we go in, this room opens up, and Von will be there. We’re to execute him.”
No one was saying no to that.
The man was a scumbag.
Handing Jagger her eyepiece, she pulled her mask down her face, and then gave him a fist bump. She was handing over ops control until the man was dead.
She wanted him to have this.
“You stay safe,” he ordered, as he now was driving the schematics bus.
Pushing the door open, they headed in. It didn’t take long for them to creep, staying low to the ground. All the way down the hallway, and to a different wall.
It was glass and behind it was Von’s office.
Unfortunately, something alerted the man behind the desk, and it was likely a green laser beam emitted from the high-tech monocle.
Up to that moment, he had been going through a box of things, but no more.
Quickly, he stood up and the chair behind him flipped backward, upending itself.
His eyes went huge, and he ran out onto his balcony.
“We have a runner!” Zayn said.
Between them and Von, there was a wall of glass. The Marines began firing into it. It spiderwebbed, but it didn’t shatter.
That wasn’t going to work for them. They needed to get to him before he got back into that helicopter.
“Zayn,” Maura said.
Oh, and that was all she had to say.
The big man ran at it, full force, and used his body to shatter through it like it was nothing at all.
The wall exploded apart, no match for the big man and he monkey rolled to his feet on the other side.
It was time to follow the asshole. They’d seen Von taking a flight of stairs up on the balcony, and that meant they were too.
All they could hope was they had the superior fire power. Already, Jagger was keeping his body in front of the major.
When they reached the top, they saw a helicopter taking off, and the man waving goodbye to them.
Then, he flipped them off.
Oh, well, they failed their mission.
Von Donore had escaped.
It looked like he’d been one step ahead, and for the first time ever, The Hunters had dropped the ball.
This was mission failed.
* * * Hunters * * *
Downstairs
Ten Minutes
Earlier
Freedom
The second the shadows passed the door, he peeked out, seeing no one. Now, Poe was almost free. As he pushed through the doors, and stepped out into the freedom, he only made it two steps.
Then, his escape was done.
Someone grabbed him from behind, picked him up from where he was, and carried him toward a limousine parked not far away.
Oh, fuck.
They caught him. There was no doubt in his mind that he as a dead man.
Poe had been so close.
He wanted to cry.
As he fought, the man holding him had him in a death grip, and he couldn’t do anything but kick his legs.
When the door was opened to the vehicle, and he was shoved inside the limo, he prepared for a fight for his life.
Only, he was surprised.
“Hello, Doctor,” Elizabeth said. “Fancy meeting you here.”
Poe blinked and was caught off-guard.
“Elizabeth?” he asked.
She patted the seat beside her and held out her hand to help him from the floor.
“I’m sorry they were rough. They wanted to get you somewhere safe before the shit hit the fan. The Marines went after Von. I’m surprised you guys didn’t cross paths inside the building. They just went in.”
He could have wept tears of joy.
He.
Was.
Safe.
Elizabeth hugged him.
“It’s okay. You’re saved.”
Not far from her was Rufus, and he was asleep on the seat, as she was petting him.
Apparently, his dog was safe too.
“Gamble is okay?” he asked. “I saw him when they took me from my house, but he looked beaten up.”
Oh, he was, and the man needed a trip to the hospital. That would be next—whether he liked it or not.
She explained what happened, and the whole time, he listened. By the time she finished, he was relieved.
“You’re safe now,” she said. “We’ll get you back to the Hunter’s base and…”
He stopped her.
“I can’t go back with you. I can’t stay here.”
She lifted a brow.
“Doctor, why? You’re not safe wandering around. If Von slips past them, you’re going to die. He’ll keep coming for you.”
He was honest.
“Are my parents dead? I need to know.”
She closed her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Doctor, but they are. I called an inspector in the UK, and he confirmed what the news is already saying. The Duke and Dutchess of Gordon passed away.”
He felt that sucker punch again, and he wondered if that feeling would ever end.
Probably not.
It was all kinds of ironic that he helped people work through trauma, only to not know how to work through his own.
“I have to go to the UK. I have no choice but to head back. I’m the last Seville alive. I have to do it for my father.”
She said nothing.
A part of her was worried but not for this man.
For Gamble.
She had an earpiece in, and she knew exactly what the man felt for Poe. She’d heard him begging the other Hunters to save him.
No.
Matter.
What.
She heard him admit they started a relationship, and now the man was bailing.
“You want to leave him behind?” she asked, getting angry. The doctor crossed a line, and now he was bailing on the man?
On Gamble?
Poe was honest.
“I have to go back to handle my parent’s estate and the mess there. I’m going to be under scrutiny. Gamble is a ghost. He’ll never want to live that life. I have nothing to give him, Elizabeth,” he said, the tears coming. “I love him so much, and I know I shouldn’t have fallen in love with him, but my heart…”
She stopped getting angry.
In that moment, she saw it wasn’t a fuck and run. It was a man who was trapped between two worlds.
Love and duty.
Oh, she’d been there and fought that for a very long time herself.
She believed that he wasn’t leaving to abandon Gamble, and it hadn’t been a fling.
As for what he was saying, Poe was making a valid point.
“Shouldn’t Gamble be able to make that decision?” she asked. “Maybe he would…”
He stopped her.
“I did you a favor taking him on, and shuttering my business. You asked me for a favor, and now, I’m going to ask you for one.”
Well, she didn’t expect that.
“What?” she asked.
“I need you to get me back home. I need to do this. My whole family has been wiped out, and I am it. I’m the last Seville heir. I have to go. I don’t want to, but duty...”
She worked with Marines.
Elizabeth of all people understood duty, and she knew she needed to warn him.
“This will hurt him. He’s going to feel abandoned by you.”
Poe touched her leg.
“Being scrutinized, in every tabloid as my gay lover, and being outed will hurt far more. I know. I ran from that life for a reason. I’m the Seville that was an embarrassment, but now that my whole family is gone, I have to take over.”
She knew she wouldn’t change his mind.
This was a dead end.
The man was mourning, and everyone was entitled to that time to heal after losing a parent. When Charlie died, she left the FBI and headed home to hide out for a year. She understood that pain.
“Okay, Doctor. I can have one of my Marines get you on a flight to England.”
He needed one more thing.
“Do you have a piece of paper?”
“To say goodbye?” she asked.
He closed his eyes.
“No, to say I’m sorry for all of this. He was hurt because of me, and…I need to tell him I love him one last time. Because I do. I’ll never love anyone but Gamble. He will forever have my heart.”
She pulled paper out of her messenger bag, and handed him a pen.
For the next five minutes, the man wept as he wrote the words down.
Elizabeth watched, and this was a man in love. This was a man haunted by his duty.
There was no doubt there.
It was also a man protecting Gamble in his own convoluted way. It was clear he didn’t know the man very well.
When he folded it up, he handed it to her.
“Thank you for giving this to him.”
She tapped on the window, knowing the team was about to breech the upper floor.
When Gunny opened the door, he peeked in.
“Yeah, boss lady?”
She pointed at Poe.
“Get him to a transport. He’s going home. We can’t wait. We need him to be moved now.”
Gunny nodded.
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Poe was confused.
“I don’t have my passport…”
She stopped him.
“I’ll have it sent to you. Don’t worry, Doctor. All of your personal things will make it to you by special messenger. I’m very thorough when I pay back a favor. Expect them in a few days.”
He thanked her.
“I appreciate this.”
She went on the record.
“You’ve never loved a Marine before, have you?” she asked.
He was honest.
“I’ve never loved anyone but Gamble. Maybe he’ll forgive me, and if I do get the chance to come back, he’ll speak to me.”
Oh, she suspected that wasn’t going to be the case.
He definitely didn’t know Marines.
They were stubborn.
As he went to get out, he paused by Rufus.
“Take care of him, and give him lots of love whenever you can, Rufus. I’ll miss you, too, and I’m sorry you were hurt because of me,” he said, kissing the sleeping dog on the head.
He glanced over.
“Make sure he gets help, please. I’ll pay for his bills. Just let me know how much it costs.”
She patted his arm.
“I’m a dog lover. He’ll see a vet this morning. Just be safe, Doctor. I’ll make sure someone takes care of your horses too.”
“Thank you, Elizabeth,” he said.
Then, he was out of the limo and the door closed.
And Poe Seville was gone.
* * * Hunters * * *
Outside The Building
Same Time
Gamble found the traces of blood, and he followed them down to the main floor. Behind one door, he’d found some dead dude.
It looked like his Poe could hold his own when he needed too.
That made him proud.
Now, he only had to find him.
When he exited the building, he saw Raphael standing there.
“Where’s Poe?” he asked. “Did he come through here?” he asked.
Raphael nodded and only told him what he had to tell him.
“He was put in the limo with Elizabeth.”
There was that sudden rush of relief that they’d survived this ordeal, and now, they’d be back together again.
“I have to see him.”
The man limped past Raphael, his body battered, bruised, and beaten.
None of it mattered.
Why?
They survived.
Oh, it was by the skin of their teeth, but they were alive. As he was almost at the limo, he heard a helicopter taking off, and gunfire from the top of the building.
Well, shit.
It was crystal clear that Von Donore got away.
Hopefully, they found the crypto key, and he didn’t. Only, that would have to wait.
When he opened the door, Gamble got in, and Elizabeth was alone in there.
“Ivan, lock the doors and get us to a hospital,” she said, as her bodyguard did just that.
Gamble was confused.
“Where’s Poe?” he asked, looking around like he’d been fooled.
“Poe is safe,” she said. “He came out of the building, and we put him in here with me.”
Uh, okay.
Only, that didn’t explain where he was.
Not.
Even.
Close.
“Where did he go? The hospital? Are you taking me to him?” he asked.
Oh, someone was about to be cranky.
“Give me your gun, Gamble,” she said, and he handed it over without a second thought.
She shoved it through the open window between her and Ivan, and he rolled up the glass.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“You’re going to the hospital. Poe was fine. He’s also gone.”
Here’s where it was going to suck.
She expected a fight.
“What do you mean he’s gone?” Gamble asked. “I came to save him.”
Oh, well, the ironic part was that someone was trying to save him right back.
These two men...
“He is on his way back to England. He has things he has to handle there.”
Gamble sat there.
As his brain processed that, he suddenly got that feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was like when he had to say goodbye to his child.
“Wait. He’s not coming back, is he?”
She sighed.
“Gamble.”
He stared at her.
“He left me?” he asked, his heart taking that blow, and believing he’d not survive it.
This hurt.
He’d fought to survive, only to be blindsided and lose Poe anyway.
By his choice.
She touched his leg, and he flinched. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt this man.
“His family was just killed, Gamble. He needs some time. He didn’t say he wouldn’t be back.”
Gamble’s heart hurt.
“And he didn’t say goodbye? He just left me?” he asked, feeling overwhelmingly hurt by that. “He just walked away without saying a word?”
Yeah, well, about that.
She pulled a note from her bag.
“He left you this.”
Gamble held it, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to read it. He wasn’t sure he could.
“I don’t want to read a goodbye, Elizabeth.”
She put it in his hand.
“He cried writing it, Gamble. He doesn’t want to say goodbye. Just read it. You’re both fighting a war. You’ll understand how he feels.”
Slowly, with shaking fingers, he opened it. He dripped blood from the wound on his scalp where he’d been pistol-whipped in the woods.
When he saw the handwriting, he knew it was Poe’s. He’d seen his notebook where he made notes.
‘My dearest Gamble,
First, I’m okay. Thank you for coming after me. I know you’re probably angry with me right now, but I have a good reason as to why I’m gone.
I love you too much.
If I saw you, and kissed you one more time, I wasn’t going to be able to do what I needed to do. I’m going back home. I don’t know when I’ll be back, or if I’ll ever be back, but know this.
You were the love of my life, and my one and only. I have never loved anyone like I love you. Over the three months we spent together, you got behind that wall, and I was lucky to have those moments.
You are an amazing man, and I am so proud of you. You’re a survivor, and the last day we spent together will be my most cherished memory. I swear to my grave.
I won’t ever marry or take on another person to be my partner because for a full day, I had my soulmate. I looked into your eyes, and I knew… you were the one born for me.
I have no choice but to go back. I have duties there, and while I want to walk away from them, and stay with you, I have to do the right thing. With my parents dead, I am the new Duke of Gordon. People rely on their employment, and I have to bury my mother and father to put them to rest with respect beside Hemmingway.
Don’t hate me.
Please.
I know that walking away without seeing you was horrible to do, but again, I wouldn’t have left. I wouldn’t have been able to do it.
Over the last three months, I learned something about myself. That I, too, am worthy. It is a lesson I try to instill in each soldier I help. I didn’t know that I needed to learn it too. The moments we shared were so special to me.
When I woke from that nightmare, I knew I had to leave. I should have not had sex with you again, but I wanted to be selfish and feel you one last time. I wanted to taste you, and hold you, and know that I wasn’t so empty for that moment.
What lies before me…
It's daunting.
And I can’t damn you to that.
Please know that if I get back here, I hope you won’t hate me. I hope you’ll see me again, and you’ll not want to pretend I never existed. If you do, I understand. I left after I begged you to stay and got angry with you for wanting to do what I ended up choosing.
I’m not as strong as you.
Not even close.
What you’ve survived…
I’m envious, Gamble. I don’t know how I’ll survive this. I just buried Hemmingway, and now, I have to go look at the bodies of my parents and put them in the ground.
I’ve never felt so alone and scared in my whole life. You don’t need me to save you anymore, Gamble. You saved yourself. Now, I have to be as strong as you and face my fears. I’m afraid of what this place will make of me, and how it will twist my soul into jagged pieces. Going back there will hollow me out, and the only thing I’ll have left is that one perfect day on the run with you.
It's all I’ll hold onto.
I can’t make you live through the hell that’s coming for me. I can’t make you experience how horrible the upper echelon of that society is, and how they’ll torture you every single second of the day for loving me.
They’ll eviscerate you to the point you’ll grow to hate me. I can’t bear that.
I love you too much.
Like you said, Gamble, my love, you’re a ghost. Being with me would be like forcing you into the view of every tabloid, every paper, and every gawking asshole who wanted to benefit from our love. You’d be forced to live in that light.
In the spotlight.
My burden is to carry my father’s title. It’s not your burden to bear. Know that every night, I’ll dream about you, and I’ll think about what I had, and how I miss it. I’ll go to bed lonely and empty knowing what we shared. My vow to you is that I’ll never love again.
You were it.
I promise.
You’re the most amazing soul, Gamble Holloway. I didn’t deserve a second with you, and I was given the gift of a lifetime.
I got to experience true love.
Please take care of Rufus and the horses. I’m leaving the house, the farm, and everything to you. I know they’ll be loved with you, and safe.
In case I never get back.
I’m sorry that I hurt you, and please know that this breaks me in ways I’ve never felt in my life. I was free, and I found the most amazing love, only to have it destroyed by duty.
And that kills my heart.
I love you, Captain Gamble Holloway.
~You are my heart, my life, my one and only thought.~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Forever,
Your Poe.’
When he read the words, he closed the note.
“So it was a goodbye. He went home? Without me?” he asked, still not believing it.
Elizabeth knew this could go one of two ways. In the favor of love, or in the favor or rage. So, she began fighting for both of them.
“He loves you, Gamble.”
He wiped his eyes.
Truthfully, his heart hurt. Now, Poe was out there alone.
Without him.
She touched his leg.
“What would you want Poe to do if it was you who walked away?” she asked.
He thought back to what they’d discussed. Gamble thought about what he’d said when they discussed him leaving.
Poe said if Gamble left, he would come find him—no matter what.
“I’d want him to come search for me. I’d want him to come find me so we could be together.”
She figured as much.
“He would want you to do that because he loves you,” she admitted. “He cried writing that, and you cried reading it. That tells me that the letter has a lot of love in it.”
He needed her to lead him, so he shared that last piece of Poe with her.
“Do you think he wants me to follow?” he asked, trusting her with Poe’s goodbye.
She read it, and looked up at him.
It was time to play cupid.
“He absolutely wants you to follow. He just wants it to be your decision, Gamble. He can’t force it on you because he knows what you’ve been through. He feels guilty asking for more. There is no doubt that he wants you by his side. He mentions coming back, and you still loving him.”
Gamble trusted her.
Elizabeth had gotten him to Poe, and she was the reason he was alive.
“Can you get me there?” he asked. “After Rufus gets his leg fixed?”
Oh, well, she had news for him. Someone was seeing a doctor himself, and a little visit to the Hotel Medical Intervention —AKA the emergency room.
“If that’s what you want, Gamble.”
Oh, he did.
He wanted his man.
“He saved me, and now, I’m going to do the same. I can’t leave him out there alone. For three months, he fought to give me a chance, and now, I’m going to fight to give him one.”
She smiled.
“That’s a good choice, my friend.”
He needed something.
“Von Donore saw my military file. He knows me. I need a new life.”
That was easily handled.
“Do you want to pick your name?”
He smiled and thought about Poe as he considered a suitable new name.
“Yeah, I do. I do think I need a doctor though, Elizabeth. I think I have a concussion. There are two of you.”
She didn’t doubt that.
He was dripping blood all over the limo.
“We’re almost there.”
“Can you get me and Rufus there? And maybe some more passengers?” he asked.
She was curious.
“Who?”
When he told her, she laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
“Gamble Holloway! You’re batshit insane.”
Yeah, he was, but he was a man in love, and if he’d learned anything it was that the heart made you do crazy-ass things.