71. Chapter 71
Chapter seventy-one
Gabe
G abe
Abbie gives me one long look and her smile fades. “What’s wrong?” She hurries forward and stops on the other side of the island with Dexter making some crazy chirping sound at her side.
She’s worried, really worried, but she manages to look at Dexter, cup his face and whisper, “I love you, too, boy,” because apparently, dog chirping means “I love you.” Who knew?
She continues to rub him and looks at me. “What’s wrong?” she repeats. “Tell me before I go nuts here.”
I offer her the cup of coffee I made for her. “I was just bringing you a coffee in bed. You ruined the surprise.”
“Gabe,” she warns. “Please. Tell me what’s going on. I know you well enough at this point to read you.”
A profoundly impossible statement that she’s made possible. I set the cup down. “Let’s go sit down.”
“No. Let’s not go sit down. Tell me now.”
My cellphone rings and I glance at it where it rests on the island to find Reese on the caller ID again. “What does he know that I don’t?” Abbie asks.
“I need to take this, baby. Give me a minute and—”
She pushes off the island and walks toward the window, which is a win, considering a few days ago she would have run for her clothes and the door. Progress, it seems, is the bright side of this morning gone wrong. She kneels to love on Dexter, letting him comfort her, and I swear my cold heart warms.
I answer the call. “Reese.”
“You heard?”
“Yes.”
“And that one-word reply tells me that Abbie is there and doesn’t know yet.”
“No. She doesn’t.”
“Why?” Reese presses. “She needs to know.”
“I’ve known about ten minutes, man. I need at least ten minutes and thirty seconds.”
“We should meet sooner than planned. Let’s have coffee. It might calm Abbie enough for her to really talk to me.”
“We have the press all over us.”
“You’re resourceful. Meet me at the coffee shop on 15 th . No one will be looking for us there.”
“That’s not secure enough. We’ll stick to the plan. Your office.”
“We’re swarming with press.”
“But not press intended for us and it’s secure there. We need secure.”
“Right. Have it your way. I’ll send Walker to get you. I’m about to get on the phone with Abbie’s mother.”
“Does she know?”
“Not yet. That’s why I’m about to get on the phone with her. More soon.”
“When do you want us?” I ask.
“I have ten piles of disaster growing in my office. The sooner the better.”
“An hour.”
“One hour,” he agrees. “Cat’s joining us.”
“I’m going to bring Reid.”
“Expected.”
We disconnect and I text Reid: Problem. Reese’s office in an hour.
He replies with: I have a meeting in an hour we don’t want me to miss.
I grimace and type: Fuck the meeting.
He answers with a quick: WTF is going on? Call me.
I reply with: Call Cat. I can’t talk.
His answer is instant: FUCK.
Yep. That about sums it up. I slide my phone into my pocket and walk toward Abbie, who abandons Dexter to stand up but she doesn’t turn to look at me. I step behind her, wrapping my arms around her.
She rotates to face me, those green eyes search mine in earnest, her expression stretched tight. “Gabe?” Her hands flatten on my chest, warm and soft, delicate and sweet. “Why do I feel fear right now?”
“The police have a video of a woman leaving your ex’s apartment on the night he was murdered.”
“Okay. Why is that bad? It feels like closure. Do they know who it is?”
“They called Reese, Abbie. They want to talk to you sooner than later.”
“Me. Why me? I wasn’t there. I was with you.”
“I know that. You know that, but—”
“But what?” She pales. “She had red hair.”
“Yes. She had red hair.”
“It’s a set-up. You know it’s a set-up. I was with you. You can tell them. Right? You’ll tell them.”
“Easy, baby. Breathe. Yes. I’ll tell them, but they could easily decide we’re in on this together and that I’m covering for you.”
She twists out of my arms and tries to take off. I catch her and pull her back to me. “Where are you going?”
“We can’t be together. Not until this is over. And you can’t tell them I was with you.”
“Of course we can be together. Of course, I’m going to tell them—”
“No. No. No.” She pokes my chest. “No. I’m breaking us up. I’m crazy about you, Gabe, but I won’t see you anymore. Not now. Not—”
I cup her head and kiss her. She resists, holding herself stiff in my arms for several seconds until finally, she not only kisses me, she’s kissing me back and doing it like it’s our last fucking kiss.
“No,” I say, pulling my mouth from hers. “Do not fucking kiss me goodbye. The police already know we’re together. Hell, the reporters out front sure as hell do.”
“What reporters?”
“We’re surrounded,” I say. “Obviously Kenneth’s murder investigation is now fodder for the press. But fuck them. The point is, that saying anything different about us will not help us. In fact, it might hurt us. I have camera footage that I can turn over to the police. I have a security system. We can prove where we were that night.”
“What if it doesn’t cover the right times? What if it’s when we were sleeping or at dinner or at my place?”
“Panicking does us no good.”
“When do the police want to meet?”
“Reese has court this afternoon. I’m assuming this evening, maybe even at the courthouse. Go get dressed. We need to get moving.”
She gives a choppy nod and I manage to get her to the bathroom. Once we’re there, I turn on the hot water, strip her naked, and pull her under the water with me, wondering when she’s going to have the last piece of this puzzle hit her. It doesn’t happen until she steps out of the shower. She’s holding a towel when she drops it. “Oh God. It wasn’t me but—Gabe.” She swallows hard. “You know what I’m thinking, don’t you?”
“Your mother’s a redhead.”