Chapter 34 #2
He straightened and rubbed his eye. “College, I think. I remember her saying something about it once, how her parents almost made her drop out, but my father helped her through it.”
“Sounds like he wasn’t always a bad guy.”
His eyes grew shadowed. “He’s always been the bad guy.”
I glanced down at my hands. “What if the girl your father mentioned wasn’t Bradman’s only victim?” The words came out as a mere whisper, my fear of voicing them too high to give power to them.
“What are you implying?” I sensed the change, his mood darkening, his eyes flitting to the bar where his bottle of scotch sat.
“What if something triggered your mother’s depression, some trauma, and your father was the only one who could bring her out of it? Until even he could no longer reach her?”
“She grew more depressed because of what he did to me and Liv.”
“I’m not saying she didn’t, Gabe.”
He stormed over to the bar and poured himself a glass. I let out a shallow exhale, hating that this had driven him back to it.
“Then what is it you’re saying, Tori?” He took a long sip, swirling the alcohol in the glass.
What was I saying? This wasn’t my business, but Gabe had made it my business by bringing some vendetta against Bradman into the picture when I was content to leave him in my past.
“I think he did something to your mother, and your father has been trying to get to him since.”
He gaped at me, but I hopped down from the desk.
“Think about it. The business mirrors Bradman’s except in going public.
The locations are in spots close enough to worry him but not far enough in his territory to cause a confrontation.
Every resort, every hotel. They’re better and bigger than Bradman’s.
Every shopping mall and apartment complex.
Your father said they don’t get along and haven’t since school. ”
“And you think what? That he raped my mother? How did you even come up with that?”
“Not necessarily, but it could have been something close, and your father stopped it. Whatever it was, it hurt her, so she was never the same, and your father spent his life trying to make it up to her.” I slumped back on the desk, seeing it too clearly as an outsider looking in through the window.
He drank the rest of the glass and thumped it on the bar.
“Well, he did a shitty job if that’s what he was trying to do.
He drove her to her death, Tori. Not Carl Bradman.
My father. A man who spent his life chasing money and power while she rotted away.
His company became his life, and he left the three of us to beg for what scraps of attention he gave us. ”
Standing, I moved to him, rubbing my hand over his jaw. “I’m not excusing his behavior. I’m just suggesting the past is more convoluted than you thought.”
He took my hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing it. The darkness hovered behind his eyes, but it softened as they searched mine. “What do you want me to do? I don’t know what happened in my parents’ past with Bradman, but I’ll bring him to his knees for touching you, just say the word.”
My kind, sweet, beautiful man with the instincts of a lethal animal caged within him.
“Don’t do your father’s dirty work for him.
He spent his life chasing Bradman, don’t follow in his footsteps.
What happened in their past isn’t your fight.
It was his, and maybe he spent the years when he should have been loving the two of you and your mother chasing his need for vengeance instead of seeing what he was losing in his pursuit.
Don’t be that man. You did what you set out to do. Leave Carl Bradman for someone else.”
“But he tried to hurt you.”
I smoothed my hand up his chest, leaning closer to him. “Sometimes, we need to leave the hurt in the past.”
The words resounded through me, and I saw the understanding in his eyes that matched the one that settled in my chest. His fingers sank into my hair, but hesitation dulled the amber in his irises.
“You can kiss me,” I said. “Just because we’re slowing down doesn’t mean I want to give that up.”
He chuckled and brought me to him, his kiss flaming through me and setting me on fire. “From now on, I make every decision with you unless it’s a surprise.”
“I’d like that,” I mumbled against his lips as he swept me into another kiss. How I was going to take it slow with him, I really didn’t know, but I knew in the end it would be worth it.
The computer screen was blurring when a knock pulled me from it. Reid was sprawled on the couch, playing a game on his tablet. Hopping up from my chair, I stretched my back and made my way to the door.
It opened to Gabe leaning on the frame with a tub of movie theater popcorn and a big grin. “Movie night?” he said.
A week had passed since the Bradman discussion, and true to his word, he was taking it slow. Treating me to dinner, walks in Central Park, impromptu coffee deliveries. It was almost like we were a new couple dating and getting swept away in our blooming love.
I ushered him in, and he looked over at the computer and the folders spread on the table.
“Tell me you’re not still working.”
“I’m not still working,” I lied, averting his gaze.
“Tori, there’s nothing important enough to bring home right now.”
I walked over to the couch. Reid, too engrossed in his game, hadn’t noticed Gabe yet.
“The restructure is a lot of work, and I want to make sure everything’s consistent. I was just running through some numbers.”
He reached over and pulled the pencil out of my sloppy bun, sending my hair tumbling down. Snatching it from him, I gave him an annoyed look. “That took forever to put up.”
“Come on. Put it away and relax.”
I looked over at Reid, whose tongue was halfway out of his mouth while he fought some creature.
“Take Reid up to your place. He’d love that, and it would give you time together.”
He didn’t hesitate to go over to Reid and put the bin of popcorn between him and the game.
“Popcorn! Gabe!”
“Wanna watch a movie with me?” Gabe asked him, and my heart thrummed. He hadn’t argued or convinced me to go. He had instantly invited Reid. “Unless you want to sit around and watch your mom do boring work.”
Reid was up and running to the door in seconds.
“Put your shoes on, young man,” I scolded.
“No need. We’re just going upstairs. He’ll be fine. Besides pajamas and shoes don’t make a good look.”
He gave me a quick kiss, and they were gone before I could argue anymore.
I dove back into my work. It wasn’t that the finances were a mess.
In fact, Gabe had been meticulous. He had accounted for everything, and the numbers were healthy and solid.
But bringing so many separate entities in and folding their finances into one was the challenge.
After weeding through too many systems and spreadsheets for my mind to handle, I checked the time.
It was after eleven, and Gabe hadn’t returned.
Needing the blood flow to return to my legs, I grabbed my keycard and headed up to Gabe’s floor.
A simple rap on the door took longer to answer than I expected.
When Gabe’s dreary eyes and rumpled hair appeared, I laughed.
“Couldn’t make it through the movie?” I asked.
He rubbed his eyes and opened the door further. “This one did me in. Something about robots and cleaning up garbage. That’s about as far as I got.”
“Oh, that’s one of my favorites,” I said, giving him a kiss on the cheek and spying Reid curled in a ball on the couch. I stopped, realizing the two had fallen asleep with each other, and the image was a sweet one I wished I’d witnessed.
“He didn’t make it either.”
“I see that.” I brushed Reid’s hair back. “He’s a lightweight, though. From you, I would have expected more.”
“Ouch, that’s not fair.”
“Time to go, Reid,” I told him as his eyes blinked open.
“Can I stay with Gabe?” The words came out in a broken yawn. I peered up at Gabe, who shrugged.
“Fine with me. I can bring him down in the morning.”
“Are you sure?” I stood, scratching my arm.
“Certain.” He ran into his room and returned a few moments later with two blankets. “We’ll camp out here for the night.”
He spread a blanket over Reid and dropped the other next to him. Excitement shimmered in his eyes.
“That’s not comfortable,” I argued.
“But it’s fun. You’re welcome to join us.” His brow arched, and my grin came effortlessly.
“I left my computer and all the lights on.”
The arch grew. “I can afford the electricity.”
He sat next to Reid and scooped him back into a comfortable position, then patted the seat next to him.
I debated for a few seconds before I lost the battle and joined him.
Spreading the blanket over us, he turned a cooking show on and scooted me closer.
By the time my eyes were closing, I was curled up in his lap, content as a kitten.