CHAPTER 20 DEADLY DECISIONS
Gabe.
The coarse, foul-smelling cloth—stiff with dried sweat and something that might have been blood—was pulled tightly around his shoulders and over his head, filling his nostrils with rank odors of mildew and human suffering that he barely noticed anymore.
All feeling had drained from his limbs, his mind, and every part of him, leaving only a hollow shell where a person once existed.
The void consumed him like quicksand, pulling him inch by inch into its bottomless emptiness, and he didn't fight it—couldn't remember why he should.
Life outside the void had ceased to exist. Everyone he loved. .. dead ... each in their own way.
Gabe.
His eyes squeezed tighter shut, lids trembling with the effort, as ghostly voices from beyond the void haunted him.
Cole ... calling to him through the darkness and emptiness, his voice a familiar melody that didn't belong in this hell.
Not tangible, yet his voice felt so real it pierced his soul like a dagger, twisting with each syllable of his name.
Gabe yanked the filthy covering more tightly around his shoulders, desperate to shut out Cole's voice.
The effort sent lightning bolts of pain through his muscles, a searing agony that eclipsed even the ice-pick stabs of cold penetrating his marrow.
His cracked lips trembled with longing to respond, to summon Cole to him across the void, to feel the familiar calluses of his husband's palms against his cheek, the musky scent of his neck, the rumble of his laughter vibrating through their tangled limbs on Sunday mornings beneath their duvet.
Tears carved hot trails down his dirt-crusted face as he buried his nose in the putrid blanket, his body convulsing with sobs as he yearned for the crisp, lavender-scented sheets of their marriage bed with such visceral intensity that his intestines seemed to twist into sailor's knots, forcing his frame to curl inward like a dying spider.
It wasn’t supposed to end like this… we were supposed to live Happily Ever After… All of us… We earned it—we fucking EARNED it.
The Mangler’s question resonated in his mind: Still have faith…? Still believe in God?
Gabe lay still, his spirit empty, his soul barren. Did he still…?
“Gabe…?”
A low ringing settled in Gabe's ears like the aftermath of a bomb blast as the voice cut through his consciousness, yanking him from the void with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel.
It's a trick . But he felt the unmistakable presence—the same electric awareness that would prickle across his skin when he lay half-asleep in their king-sized bed, sensing Cole's silhouette in the doorway before a single floorboard creaked.
Through the nauseating odors clinging to the cover, he caught the scent of his husband: that intoxicating cocktail of musk aftershave, fresh sweat, and something uniquely Cole that had permeated their Egyptian cotton sheets during countless nights of tender lovemaking and desperate, primal fucking.
“Gabe.”
Rolling over, the filthy blanket slipped from his shoulder and matted hair.
His gaze collided with Cole's storm-gray eyes, those familiar irises flecked with silver that now brimmed with horror and desperate love.
Even then, it felt like a cruel hallucination, like some cosmic joke orchestrated by a God who had abandoned His creation to suffer for His divine entertainment.
Still, he heard his husband's name tumble from his cracked lips, the sound scraping through his parched throat like sandpaper over raw wood. “Cole...”
“Gabe.” Cole's knuckles whitened as he gripped the rust-flecked bars, his wedding band catching the dim light. “Gabe... are you okay?”
The question hung in the fetid air between them, so absurd that a hysterical bubble rose in Gabe's raw throat before dissolving into a silent tremor.
He dragged himself across the concrete floor.
His trembling fingers found Cole's—warm, solid, real—and interlaced through the icy metal.
He pressed his forehead against the bars until the cold burned against his fever-hot skin, and then the dam broke.
Tears carved fresh tracks through the grime on his cheeks as he wept for Abel's innocent smile, for Maddy's fierce spirit, for Savannah's gentle touch.
.. for Angel, Devlin, Max, and Horatio and all the others drowning in grief's dark undertow.
“ I’m so sorry…” he whispered through his sobs. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there with you… when you found them… our baby…” He broke down, his words disintegrating.
“Gabe…” Cole’s fingers slid through his hair, and his lips pressed to Gabe’s brow. Tears strained his voice when he whispered, “Abel… our baby… he’s alive. He’s safe at home.”
You’re lying… you’re not really Cole… you’re lying…
Fingers lifted his chin, and gray eyes radiating an unshakable love seized his stare. “Savannah is alive, too,” he whispered. “I saw her. She’s here. She needs us, Gabe. We have to get her out of here. And Maddy… he’s here somewhere, too.”
Gabe’s throat closed, needing to believe his words, but terrified it was all somehow a lie. But when he noticed the killer standing a few feet behind Cole, he knew it was real.
“They’re… They’re alive?”
“Yes.” Cole kissed him. “They’re alive.” He touched heads with Gabe again, his voice dropping, barely audible.
“I need you here. If we’re going to get the kids out of here, we need to have each other’s backs.
” He hung his head. “I know I haven’t been very strong in all this.
I’ve been so fucking scared. But I can overcome the fear… if you’re by my side.”
Gabe pressed his head hard against Cole. “ If? ” His voice trembled. “I’m fucking glued to your side. It would take fucking surgery to separate us.”
Cole swallowed and smiled. “I know,” he whispered thickly. “It’s just good to hear you say it.” He looked at the soiled bandage barely clinging to Gabe’s wound. “Are you in pain?”
“I can handle it.”
“Your arm…” Cole whispered with concern.
“Flesh wound.” Gabe glanced at the killer, his next words shaky but determined, “How do we take this fucker out?”
Byrne entered the room to see Henry hunched down before his husband’s cage. “Let’s be done with this,” Byrne muttered at his dad. “I have a date with the boy. I don’t want to keep him waiting.”
Daniel nodded. “Henry. Come here.”
The man kissed his husband and whispered to him, then stood and walked over to them. Byrne took out a pair of handcuffs.
“That won’t be necessary,” Daniel said.
Byrne cuffed him anyway.
Daniel stared at him coolly. “Get him out of the cage and hook him up.”
Drawing his weapon, Byrne approached the cage and opened the door, then stepped back. “Out.”
Gabe crawled through the door and stood up with some effort, his hand pressed to his side.
Byrne moved him to the center of the room and hooked him to the chains, his arms stretched above his head.
He ripped off the soiled bandage and tossed it aside.
“Won’t be needing that.” Byrne squeezed his wound, his thumb digging into the fresh stitches.
Gabe gasped sharply, and his body kinked to the side.
“Asshole!” Henry barked at him.
Byrne smiled dryly, eyes locked on Henry, and dug his thumb in again, this time wrenching a cry from Gabe.
Henry glared at him hatefully. “Why don’t you remove these cuffs,” he growled, “and we settle this like real brothers. Or are you too chickenshit to fight me?”
“Enough,” Daniel said, addressing Byrne. “I don’t need your assistance. This is between Henry and me.”
Byrne stepped closer, his voice dropping. “You’re wasting your time.”
“As I said,” Daniel returned stiffly. “It’s my time to waste.”
Staring at him for a long moment, Byrne whispered, “Mary confided in me.” He waited for the impact to hit his dad.
“You’re a lying little bastard,” Daniel growled low. “I should have gutted your mother that night, like I planned. I would have if I’d known what a worthless disappointment you would become.”
Byrne didn’t flinch. “Mary did more than just confide in me.” A cold, satisfying smile split his face.
“She knew there was something wrong with you. She sensed it. I guess I was more convincing than you, because she felt very comfortable with me. Comfortable enough to confess the truth—about many things.”
Daniel’s face twitched as his eyes darkened. “You should leave.”
“I figured, if you were going to let her come between us, let her distract you, then I might as well see what all the fuss was about.” He chuffed.
“She was a great fuck. And just before she took her last breath… I told her the truth about you… and what you did to her fiancé… what you’d planned to do to her that night. She died hating your guts.”
“Get. Out,” Daniel seethed. “We will settle this after I’m finished here.”
“Her fiancé wasn’t lying to try and save her life,” Byrne pushed, savoring his dad’s rage, delighting in watching the man slowly lose control. “He wasn’t lying at all.”
Daniel drew his weapon and shoved the barrel of the gun between Byrne’s eyes. “Get out now.”
Byrne smiled and stepped back. “I’m done here. I have a date with a cute boy.”
The two men’s exchange of words felt significant to Cole, but the deputy’s final statement— I have a date with a cute boy— took front and center. Maddy.
“Wait,” Cole spoke quickly before Byrne could leave the room. He looked at Daniel. “I said I would give you what you want if you let Gabe and the kids go free.”
Byrne chuckled with disdain. “Don’t think you have any leverage here, brother. None of you are leaving this place. And that boy? I caught him; he’s mine.” Byrne spun around and exited the room.
“No!” Cole cried. “Don’t you fucking touch him!” But the man was gone. Cole turned on Daniel in desperation. “ Stop him. I won’t give you a fucking thing if he hurts Maddy.”
“Calm down,” Daniel snapped with notable irritability. “Forget the boy. Focus on the girl.”
Panic set in as Cole looked helplessly at Gabe, and a mutual thought passed between them: We have to get out of here now! Yet, any rash moves would get one or both of them shot.
“It’s time to get serious, son,” Daniel said. “We’ve been dancing around the central issue all night, and I’m sure you will agree—it’s been one hell of a long night. But everything that’s happened had to happen. I needed to remind you who I am… and who you are.”
Cole flinched at his words— recoiled from the reality.
He was startled by the fear that rushed through him when he looked at Gabe, as if the killer’s words would suddenly click in his husband’s mind and Gabe would reject him.
Deep down, he knew how ridiculous the idea was, but his mind nearly spiraled into panic for a moment.
The look he got from Gabe, though, soothed his fears and drove away the panic.
The Mangler remained agitated after the tense exchange with Byrne; whatever thorn Byrne had stabbed into his side was festering, and the irritation it caused was evident in Daniel’s clipped tone and impatience. “I’m done fucking around.”
Daniel pulled out a knife, and Cole tensed. He could do little to fight back with the cuffs on. He was shocked when the Mangler removed his restraints.
“You have a decision to make, son,” he said. “It will be tough, but it’s necessary. This man before you is an obstacle; he’s preventing you from becoming your true self.”
A deep, consuming fear gripped Cole.
“So, you’re going to remove the obstacle.” Daniel shocked Cole by shoving the knife into his hand. “And if you refuse… I will bring the girl in here and make you watch while I rape her, then butcher her. And when I’m finished with her, you get to watch while I gut your husband.”
Cole looked at Gabe, his fear escalating.
“Decide now,” the Mangler murmured. “Do you save the girl… or watch them both get butchered. I’m sorry, but your husband here has to go either way. He’s holding you back… like Ezra. So, like Ezra, he needs to be removed.”
Cole squeezed the knife handle in his fist, his jaw clenched and face tight. “This wasn’t… the deal.”
“This was always the deal,” Daniel spoke low. “And I think you knew that all along.”
Shaking his head, Cole swallowed hard. “No. You can’t make me kill my husband.”
“He’s already dead. Now, it comes down to who kills him.” Daniel smiled. “And you don’t want it to be me.”
Panic flared through Cole—panic for Gabe, for Maddy, for Savannah.
What the fuck am I going to do?
His eyes locked with Gabe’s stare… and his hand tightened around the knife.