15. Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Abby
Gage didn’t go home to get some sleep. We were halfway to Seattle before I noticed his truck tailing me back to the office. He slammed into park along the street right in front of us, clambering from the driver’s side and hurrying to the front of the building.
Ezra escorted me up, checking in one more time before leaving to take over Cargill duty. Levi and Kai had already returned to the office, leaving Mason to wait for Ezra to join him.
Gage was storming down the hallway to Levi’s office when I got to my desk. Levi waved for me to follow him in, and I mentally steeled myself.
Maybe Ezra was right, and I should talk to Levi about his brother. He seemed worse than usual, and he was taking it out on everyone.
I didn’t get a chance to speak a single word. Gage was busy ranting about Cargill when I quietly stepped inside and took a seat by the desk.
In the private security world, it complicates things a lot when the client that hired you to protect him is also the one that hired the guy trying to kill him.
Of course, no one believed Gage when he flew back into the office, stomping around and demanding to speak to Cargill again.
“He sent a text message right before the shooting started. I have it on video!”
“A text message isn’t damning evidence,” Levi snapped for the third time, inches away from losing his cool.
The energy in the office was stifling. Kai had joined the fray, adding unnecessary tension. No one could sit still, which meant I was perched on a chair in the corner of a room where three sleep deprived shifters were pacing and arguing. At least Mason and Ezra were gone, leaving fewer bodies to fill the space.
It was Saturday and I was pretty sure I wasn’t getting overtime for this. I wondered if my health insurance would cover getting accidentally maimed by a pissed off coworker when they turned into an animal.
“There’s no other explanation.” Gage had already lost his cool, tossing his hands in the air and making a half circle in front of my chair. I inched my feet backward, trying to avoid getting stepped on. For some reason he kept moving closer every time someone raised their voice, pacing a perimeter around me. “They knew where every single camera was. No one outside this office should have that information.”
Well, he moved on from blaming me quickly enough.
“They figured out a blind spot. That’s more plausible than Cargill hiring us to protect him from himself.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Gage shouted. “He’s lying to us. He’s—he’s doing something .”
“Come on, Gage. Next you’re going to tell us that Abby did it!” Kai said.
I tried to hide my reaction before Levi or Kai noticed, but it was no use. Kai’s eyes had fallen from the ceiling to land directly on me.
“Holy shit, bro. You already accused her?”
“What?” Levi propped his fists on his desk.
“Are we going to take this train all the way to crazy town every time someone rubs you the wrong way?” Kai spun his finger around in a “crazy” gesture.
The air was suddenly too thin, the room so void of sound and motion that I felt frozen in time. Then the muscles bunched in Gage’s shoulders, and I saw that we were about to hit the point of no return.
“Call me crazy again.”
“Fuck off, Gage.”
“Call me fucking crazy again, Kai,” he said through clenched teeth.
“You’re cra—"
“That’s enough,” I said firmly, standing from my chair and leaning around Gage to be seen. I caught Kai’s green eyes and repeated, “That’s enough.”
I expected him to curse at me, for one of them to accuse me of speaking out of turn. Kai only shrugged, dropping into a nearby chair and leaning his head back as if he would fall asleep right there.
Levi stood across the desk from us. He looked studiously between Gage and me, a storm brewing around him. Kai exhaled, obviously agitated but grounding himself with surprising swiftness.
“Give us the room.”
Kai hesitated, meeting Levi’s gaze far longer than was acceptable. I knew enough about shifter behavior now to understand a battle of dominance when I saw one.
“That wasn’t a request.” Levi was unshakable in his power, unwilling to give an inch to insubordination.
Kai relaxed, satisfied that the hierarchy hadn’t changed, and Levi would deal with his brother appropriately.
“I’m going home,” he said. “I’m back on Cargill watch in twelve hours.” To Gage he added, “You should get some rest too.”
Sentimentality didn’t come naturally to Kai, and that seemed to be as close as he could get to an apologetic remark. There was no telling how it landed with Gage, whose back was still to me. Shielding me from his brother.
Trapping me in the room with them.
I shuffled my feet, trying to squeeze around Gage without touching him, and failing when he flung his arm out to block my path.
“Stay,” he commanded.
And I did, like an obedient dog.
Grow a backbone, Abby.
But I wasn’t capitulating to his demands because I wasn’t standing up for myself. I was worried about him. This was unhinged, even for him.
“I want you to take a few days at the cabin,” Levi told Gage. “Let the wolf run. Practice what the elders taught you.”
Gage shifted uncomfortably, glancing at me over his shoulder like I was eavesdropping.
Hello, you’re the one that dragged me into this. I could be reading a historical romance in my trunk right now.
“You can’t distract me with a vacation!”
“Listen, I know that you believe this.” The air whooshed out of Levi’s lungs and his demeanor shifted. There was a soul-deep sadness weighing on his next words. “ I believe that you need a break. This job was supposed to help you. If it’s not doing that…”
“I don’t need help.”
“You won’t be working with Abby anymore, either. Anything you need from her has to go through me first.”
Gage puffed out his chest. “You can’t keep me from—"
“I can. It’s my job to protect every member of this pack, even if it means protecting her from you .”
“I’m the last person she needs protecting from,” he whispered.
“I wish that was true.”
“Absolutely fucking useless. All of you.” Gage stormed out of the room, the door slamming against the wall as he blasted it with his fist.
Levi turned to me, his tone firm. “What did he do to you?”
“He didn’t do anything.” I mean, he cornered me at Cargill’s house and probably would have bitten me if Ezra didn’t show up, but I couldn’t tell Levi that. Like physically couldn’t, as if the weird murmur in my chest was choking back the words. “Other than accuse me of sharing details about the security setup at Cargill’s home.”
His jaw actually dropped. “He accused you of that?”
“Yes.”
“Fucking-A.” Levi undid the top button on his shirt. “I’ve made too many excuses for my brother. I’m sorry you got hurt because I was too much of a coward to do what had to be done.”
“What has to be done?” I asked, suddenly feeling anxious.
“I need to send Gage home.”
He was quiet for a long time, angling his face toward the window. “I don’t know how Gage got you involved in this but it’s not your job to handle his… reactions . And you certainly don’t have to tolerate him harassing you. You can go home, Abby. Make sure to invoice the firm for all your weekend hours.”
I felt like I should say something. Anything would be better than the awkward half-nod I managed before stumbling out to my desk and collecting my purse and jacket.
I was exhausted and more than a little overwhelmed as I tromped to my car. That was why I didn’t notice Gage sitting on the passenger side until I was halfway in the driver’s seat. I screamed, scrambling backwards, and falling flat on my ass on the concrete. Gage sighed dramatically, leaning over the center console to offer me a hand up.
I ignored his hand, heaving myself off the ground and brushing the back of my jeans. “I thought you were a car jacker!”
“I could have been. You realize you left this door unlocked with all your belongings inside?”
No one was going to steal my well used sleeping bag and sack of unwashed laundry, but I didn’t have the energy to say that.
“It’s busted. If I don’t lock it manually, it doesn’t work. I was in a hurry earlier and I forgot.”
“Great,” he muttered. “Another thing to worry about.”
“ You don’t have to worry about it. Worry about your own car and drive yourself home. Kai’s right. Some sleep would do us both good.” I plopped into the driver’s seat, leaning my head onto the steering wheel and sighing. I could fall asleep right here.
Maybe I should.
Maybe I could treat myself to a cheap motel instead. A bed would be nice.
Should’ve kept Gage’s keys and slept in his bed. It would serve him right.
“Keys,” he said, hand outstretched.
“Huh?”
“Give me your keys. I’m driving.“
I covered my mouth as I yawned. “Driving where?”
He snatched my keys from me, climbing out of the car and circling the hood. “To the cabin,” he answered as he all but shoved me over the console to where he’d been moments ago.
“To the—what? I’m not going with you?” Only, it came out as a question, mostly because he was already turning the key in the ignition and unless I planned to jump out of a moving vehicle—which currently doubled as my home—I had no escape.
Was Gage…kidnapping me?
“You are.” He was scrunched in the driver’s seat, fiddling with the handle on the far side and trying to readjust the seat so his knees weren’t to his chest. “Two nights in a real bed in exchange for your services.”
“My services ?” I knew him well enough to realize it wasn’t what it sounded like, but I couldn’t imagine what services he wanted me to do at his cabin. A cabin I didn’t even know the location of.
Typical kidnapper. Wouldn’t even give me a hint so I could text a non-existent friend to let them know where I would be.
Levi would stop Gage from killing me if I called him.
“I need a research assistant.” That was when I realized his laptop bag was in the backseat with my stuff. “It’s a long drive and there isn’t much once we leave the city. You hungry?”
“Yeah,” I mumbled, covering another yawn. “I’m pretty hungry.”
At least my kidnapper was feeding me.
“To the cabin—wait a second!” I slapped my hand over the ignition and twisted the key backward. “I’m not the one that was given a mandatory vacation. I have to be back at work on Monday and I’ve barely slept four hours!”
Gage considered this. “Give me your phone.”
I did before I thought better of it. The dude was waiting in my car to take me to some random cabin in the woods and even if I knew the address, I couldn’t text someone and alert them now because I willingly handed my phone to my kidnapper.
Except, that was my logical brain talking and whatever other part of my brain was responsible for the stupid warm fuzzies I felt whenever he entered the room was in absolute disagreement. Everything would get better if I went with Gage.
“Levi, it’s me,” Gage said into my phone after punching a few buttons. “I’m borrowing Abigail. She won’t be coming in on Monday. Or Tuesday, probably. Fuck you, by the way.”
He almost sounded cheery as he flung the final words out and hung up on his brother. I guess that was the only way he could be spiteful without outright challenging Levi.
“You can give me my phone now. And my keys. I’m going home.”
He gave my car an unimpressed wave. “Home sweet home.”
“Somewhere to sleep.”
“Like I said, you can sleep at the cabin. You’ll find the accommodations much more comfortable. When’s the last time you slept in a bed?” He was going for sardonic but there was always this edge to his words when he asked about my situation. I couldn’t tell if he was judging me or if he actually cared.
“A while ago,” I answered vaguely. “When’s the last time you apologized for being a jerk?”
Gage was taken aback, scratching his fingers across his stubbled jaw, and glancing away. Pretty sure in shifter world that was submission.
I was done tiptoeing around him. Despite my constant polite professionalism, he was rude and selfish, and a little psychotic. There were these small glimpses of kindness, maybe a look at the person Gage was before, but they didn’t cancel out his worst behavior.
After accusing me of breaching my contract—which could put me in jail —and risking the life of our most important client, he wanted to drag me out to the middle of nowhere to do him a favor? I felt used, and I was damn tired of it.
“It’s a paid job. That check I offered you for a few days of work.” He didn’t say it but the implication that I didn’t have the luxury to turn him down sent me over the edge.
“Was that an apology?” I twisted in my seat and glared.
“I’m sorry,” he said. It was quiet and sincere, and it made me feel like crying again.
I slapped my palm over my eyes to hold the tears in. “I need you to decide. Either hate me and we’ll never speak about anything but work or be nice to me and we can be friends. But I can’t be your friend one minute and your enemy the next. It’s exhausting.”
“I know.”
“So, make up your mind, Gage.”
My eyes were still covered, but I heard him swallow nervously. “I—I can’t.”
“You have to.”
I startled, uncovering my face at the sound of the engine starting. Gage was buckling his seatbelt, facing forward as he checked the angle of his mirrors.
“We’ll pick up food on the way.”
I gaped at him. That was it? A few words and now he was driving off like nothing happened.
I mean, technically he did apologize.
No, I was not going to make excuses for him.
I was going to—what? Just let him drive off without protest? Jump out of my own car, which was full of all my earthly possessions as he so unhelpfully pointed out? I glanced down at my phone where he’d placed it in the drink holder. I could call the police.
For some stupid reason I kept seeing his face when Kai called him crazy. Those words made him angry, but they also hurt him. Kai was only echoing a sentiment that Gage himself was afraid was true.
And, well, honestly, it might be a little true. Gage had his moments.
But I had this terrible habit of falling for someone’s potential and I knew Gage had it in him to be better. I knew there was a thoughtful, reasonable version of him in there. He just needed more time to feel safe as that Gage.
I shifted in my seat, pulling my knees up to my chest and getting comfortable. “I want coffee. And chocolate. You owe me some chocolate.”
The slightest smile graced his face as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of candy bars.
“Anything you want.”