CHAPTER 52
Wherever you go, I will always follow
Gabriela
My eyes fluttered open to a peaceful stillness.
I was in a hospital room, having fallen asleep after a multitude of tests, my body giving in to the need to rest and recuperate now that I was in a safe environment.
There was a stale taste in my mouth, a needle injected in my skin and hooked to an IV, a faint soreness in my limbs…but at least I was alive.
When the cobwebs clouding my sleepy mind fully dissipated, I recognized a lone figure sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, arms crossed over his chest and gazing up at the ceiling, lost in thought.
“Hunter,” I called out, croaky-voiced.
His head whipped in my direction. The disbelief etched in his features faded away and sheer relief replaced it. He pulsed of yearning as he perused me like he was trying to ensure I was real and actually here, not a figment of his imagination.
“Gabriela.” The tightness leaked from his bunched muscles as he stood up and advanced towards me.
His presence gave me all the strength I needed to roll out of the bed and try to close the distance between us, IV machine and all.
But he reached my bedside first and wrapped his arms around me, a shiver wracking through him. “I’ve missed you.” His tone was ravaged. “I’ve missed you so much.”
Mere hours away from this man felt like an eternity.
“I’ve missed you and I’m so happy to see you.” My words were muffled against his shirt and I fisted the sides of it, keeping him plastered to me. He was never escaping my clutches. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” His mouth trembled as he dotted a fervent kiss on my temple. “I love you and I almost lost you. If I had been any later, I…I…”
I wouldn’t be alive.
He didn’t need to say it. That sentence hung over our heads like a sword.
“But you made it and you helped save me.” I lifted my head from his strong chest to cup his bristly cheek. “No amount of thanking you will be able to convey my gratitude.”
“I never wanted to hear you thanking me for something like that.” He inhaled sharply. “The sight of you fighting for your life…” He shook his head. “It’ll haunt me forever.”
My expression fell. “Let’s not dwell over the what-ifs any longer. I’m here and I’m okay. Let’s focus on that, bello.”
His eyes searched mine desperately and he cupped my face. “How are you feeling?”
“Sore.” I sighed. “And in pain.”
Hunter thumbed my bottom lip and frowned, perturbed.
“I look like a nightmare, don’t I?” Without evaluating my reflection, it was obvious my hair was grossly matted to my scalp, my cheek harboured a bruise, and my bottom lip a cut. “How rude of me. You look handsome as ever and I’ve welcomed you looking like Frankenstein’s monster.”
He puffed out a chuckle, against all odds, but sobered up quickly, pinning me with impassioned blue eyes. “You could never look like a nightmare. Even battle-worn, you’re beautiful as ever. I saw the damage you did to him before I arrived. I’m so proud of you, Gabriela.”
I adored this man—who constantly validated, praised, and cherished me—to infinity and beyond. “Luna and I are the luckiest girls alive to have you, Hunt. Speaking of our daughter, how is she?”
I’d been worried sick about my cat. I hoped she wasn’t lost right now. I couldn’t handle that.
“Luna’s okay. As soon as you were taken, she tried to head back in the direction of my home in what I’m assuming was an attempt to alert me or the guards.
By the time I arrived on the scene, she trotted over with a limp and coaxed me over to a patch on the road…
where I found your fallen bracelet and Tom’s wallet.
” Hunter’s jaw clenched. “That’s how I concluded he was responsible.
Josh deciphered your location with the help of the tracker in your necklace and I came straight to find you.
One of the guards took Luna to the vet. Her leg is sprained.
They gave her some medication and put on a cast. It’ll take her a few weeks to heal, but ultimately, she’ll be okay.
The last update I received was that she’s at your family’s home with Nonna, desperately waiting for you. ”
How I loved my Luna. Despite her own hurt and distress, instincts led her to find Hunter so I could be rescued.
But I hated that she got injured. If I could go back in time, I’d slash both of Tom’s eyes and lodge an extra bullet in his skull.
Fucking asshole. No one was allowed to lay a hand on my cat. Ever.
“I’m relieved she’s okay. What she witnessed—” I swallowed down my growing ire. “I have no doubt it terrified her.” I couldn’t wait to go home and hug Luna. “You should have seen the way she fought him, Hunter. She nearly took out his eye. I was simultaneously scared for her but proud of her too.”
“She’s resilient and a warrior.” He brushed a kiss on the side of my neck. “Just like her mommy.”
I smiled.
Hunter scooped me up, being mindful of my IV, and sat on the bed, depositing me sideways on his lap. Instantly, my face tucked in the crook of his neck and I relaxed in his arms.
His hand cupped mine underneath, his thumb opening my palm and grazing over the lines. Namely my lifeline. We had many decades ahead of us.
Our usual companionable silence wouldn’t last long, since I expected Hunter’s incoming line of questioning.
No matter my reassurances, he wouldn’t rest easy until he heard the whole story.
Had the roles been reversed and I stumbled upon a bloody and bruised Hunter, I’d have the same reactions and feelings as him. “Ask me what’s on your mind, Hunt.”
He leaned his head against mine. “Will you tell me everything that happened and why he did this to you?” he pleaded. “If you’re okay to talk about it, I need to know. Please.”
There was a part of me that wanted to spare him the gruesome details. But it wouldn’t be fair to keep this from him.
My jaw clenched when I recalled the kidnapping. Waking up in a mausoleum. A deceased Morgan lying next to me. Tom promising to kill me. Hunter showing up and beating him to a bloody pulp.
And me finishing the job by shooting Tom dead like the piece of shit he was.
I never thought I’d take a life. But if given the chance, I’d kill Tom a thousand times over. I would never feel bad about his death.
“Tom did all of this because he was in love with me.”
Hunter reared back, blue eyes burning with fire. “What?”
I grabbed the glass of water on my bedside table and washed down some of the bitter taste on my palate before continuing.
“He ended our arrangement all those months ago, not because he wanted to, but because he went through my phone and saw my texts with Anna and Layla. The ones where I told them I was planning on ending it with Tom. Prior to that, he was planning on asking me to be his girlfriend.” Hunter was astonished.
“It hurt his ego, to say the least, and so he ended it with me first via text and then hooked up with Morgan.
He thought rubbing her in my face would piss me off.
And when I remained unaffected through the entire debacle and moved on by kissing you on the dance floor… it pissed him off.
“He broke into my apartment the next day and left me that message on my wall. Tom would have kept terrorizing me, but by then Oscar was on my case. You were always with me too.” I swallowed.
“I was never alone enough for Tom to find an opening and strike. But, Hunt…he stalked us. In the mausoleum, he showed me hundreds of pictures he’d accumulated of you and me over the weeks.
He watched from the shadows—including that time in the Remington woods—until the perfect time.
And Friday night? He didn’t just mean to stab you…
He wanted you dead.” I closed my eyes, shuddering at the reminder.
“He was furious that I fell in love with you. That’s why he kidnapped me.
He was going to kill me and himself. He even dug a grave for us.
Said our final resting place would be together. ”
Hunter was hardened stone against me, his anger growing exponentially. I rubbed my hands over his bunched muscles to alleviate his tension, but it did little to soothe him.
“If he wasn’t already dead,” Hunter bit out, “I’d kill him right fucking now.” He used two fingers under my chin to tip my face up. “What happened when you left my home this morning?”
Hunter listened with intent as I explained to him how Craig and Oscar died.
How Tom yanked me from the vehicle and dragged me against the road to his awaiting one.
How he cursed me out and stuffed me in the trunk.
How I woke up in the mausoleum zip-tied, with a dead Morgan lying next to me.
How Tom revealed his fucked-up plans. How I fought him off for as long as I could before Hunter found us.
By the end of it, I felt better having confided in Hunter. The weight on my shoulders lessened.
“I’m sorry.” Hunter burrowed his lips against my hairline in a shaky kiss. His body vibrated with the remnant of his fury and pain for me. “I’m so sorry you had to endure that. I wish I could remove this chapter from your life.”
“I know,” I whispered. “I’m just glad it’s finally over.”
“There’s no way to have known it was him, Gabby, especially with the way Tom acted so indifferent whenever we were in his vicinity.
But it does baffle me that the culprit was right under our noses this whole time.
” A harsh chuckle erupted from him. “Nothing you or I did to him was enough. I fucking hope he’s rotting in hell as we speak. ”
“I hope he is too.” I ran my fingers through the ends of his hair. “And I agree that nothing we did to him was enough, but he’s dead now, so let’s let bygones be bygones. It’ll take time, but we’ll heal from this. I promise you.”