17. Chapter 17
Chapter seventeen
Gabe
W e’re about ten minutes out from the shelter when Abbie gets a text. “My mother,” she says, reading the message and then updating me. “She has tons of volunteers that just showed up and none of the animals are in danger as she feared. They moved the ones that were in danger with more ease than expected.” She glances at me. “But it’s still a horrible mess and the cages that are safe are crowded with too many dogs.”
“We need to find a place to move them,” I say, confirming what she’d suggested earlier.
“Exactly.”
“I’ll make some calls. I have a few contacts that might be able to help.” My cellphone rings and I glance down at it to find Reid’s number. “My brother,” I say, eyeing Abbie, who immediately sits up slightly, in reaction. “The real asshole of the family,” I add, winking, trying to ease the tension I feel radiating off of her before I answer the line with, “Morning, asshole.”
“Let’s talk about the property your new girlfriend owns,” he says, letting my endearment roll right off of him and skipping any niceties. Reid doesn’t do nice and I generally like this about my brother. “Nothing is pulling up on it that indicates a reason her ex would be hot to get his hands on that location,” he continues, “at least not that I could find in a basic search.”
“He’d be smart enough to suppress that information.” Then again, he wasn’t smart enough to keep Abbie , I think, and add out loud, “Or someone on his team would be.”
“Jean Claude damn sure would be,” Reid agrees. “And if dad’s representing Jean Claude, we know he damn sure would as well. We need to know what’s on the line before I go stirring this pot.”
“I’ll get Walker Security to dig into the hidden agenda here.”
“I think that’s a good idea, and speaking of hidden agendas. Before you dive in too deep with this woman, I get it. She’s under your skin, but her ex is a rich dick aligned with dangerous people. Maybe he wants her back. He has plenty of money to lure her back. You need to be careful. Don’t go getting fucked in the head and the heart when you usually just get fucked.”
I stifle a need to snap back. He’s protecting me and now that he’s warned me, I’m reminded of just how obsessed Abbie is with her ex. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. I shouldn’t have to remind a woman that I’m the only man in the room. Fuck. She should know, and Abbie—Abbie doesn’t allow me to be the only man in the room, ever. Not thus far. I should have her with me fully, have her absorbed enough that it’s not even a question; I know she’s thinking of me.
“I want to know what this is really about before I play on this field,” Reid says, pulling me back into the conversation. “And I want you to know, too.”
My jaw sets hard. “Understood.”
“Call me,” he says. “Let me know. I’m in this if you are. You know that.”
He disconnects and I grip the steering wheel, tension radiating down my spine. “What did he say?” Abbie asks, her tone urgent. “Because you changed on that call.”
“We can talk about it after we finish at the shelter.”
She catches my arm and repeats herself, “What did he say?”
“Reid needs more information to move forward.” I turn us into the shelter parking lot.
“I can give him anything he wants,” she says, “but that isn’t what happened on that call. That’s just information from the conversation. Something happened. What?”
I pull us into a parking spot, twenty cars deep from the building entrance and the place is insanely busy with what I assume to be volunteers. I kill the engine, my vision locked on a concrete wall in front of me, while my body and mind are locked on Abbie. Abbie who is under my damn skin. Abbie who has done what no other woman has since college, and that was a long damn time ago when I was young and foolish.
“Why does he want this property, Abbie?”
“I have no idea, Gabe. None. He happily handed it over to me in the divorce. It’s all I took .”
“This makes no sense. None of this makes any sense.”
“What does that even mean?” Her tone is sharper now, her defenselessness radiating in words.
I turn to her, and fuck, why does looking at this woman punch me in the chest, and grab me by the balls? I don’t fucking like redheads and yet all those red curls have me wishing her mouth was on my stomach again, and that hair was right there with it. Who the hell am I fooling? If that was all she made me fucking feel, I’d be good. I’d fuck her the hell out of my system.
“What’s going on, Gabe?” she demands because apparently, I’m fucking staring at her and saying nothing.
My father comes to my mind, and my instinct is that he might be the attorney involved in her legal battle. My father, who we just dethroned from the company. My father, who prefers revenge to family and might just use my fuck habits to fuck us. “Are you playing me?”
“What? What does that mean?”
“What is your agenda, Abbie?”
A knife of emotion stabs through her eyes; shock, embarrassment, pain and I want to react but I have to be sure I’m not setting our company up for a fall. “Answer me, Abbie,” I demand.
“I should never have gone home with you,” she whispers, her voice cracking as she reaches for the door.
I catch her arm and pull her around to face me. “I need to know if you—”
“Fucked you to fuck you? No, I didn’t, and don’t worry. I won’t do it again so you won’t have to question me again. And I can’t believe I actually thought we—that you—” She cuts her gaze. “Let me out of the car.” Her voice trembles.
I quake inside in response. I’ve hurt her. I’ve hurt the only woman that has managed to matter to me in decades. What the hell am I doing? “Abbie,” I plead softly. “Look at me.”
“Let me out of the car, Gabe. I need to help my mother.”
“And we will. We’ll help her together.”
She whirls on me. “ We are not doing anything.”
“You talked about your damn ex even when we were naked, Abbie. You—”
“I talked about him to protect you. Damn it, Gabe. To protect you. I need to be inside helping.”
“We’ll go in in a minute. I’m going to help and so is my sister and brother-in-law.”
“So you can say the animals in need are part of me playing you?”
I take those words like a punch I deserve. “I’m not trying to be a dick.”
“And yet you are.”
“You’re right. I am, but damn it, Abbie, my father, and Jean Claude have a history and we just pushed him out of our company. You showed up and—I can’t let you be a weapon used against my company.”
“I’m not. I wouldn’t. If you believe that—”
“I don’t,” I breathe out. “I don’t, but there’s more on the line than just me. This is my family, my employees—my life.”
“I’m not working for your father. I don’t even know your father.” His eyes soften. “Your father would really come at you like that?”
“Yes. Yes, he would.”
She stuns me then by pressing her hand to my face. “Then I forgive you for being a dick.”
“What?”
“How can you not doubt me with the connection we share to Jean Claude? And how can you not doubt me when your own father can’t be trusted? You just met me.”
I’m officially blown away by this woman. My hand covers hers on my face and I pull it between us. “Spoken like someone who’s been burned by family,” I say, thinking of her less than favorable reference to her father.
“I understand why you just reacted like you did,” she confirms, offering nothing more, but I want more. A whole hell of a lot more, that she won’t give me now, but I can live with waiting.
“Let’s go save those animals.”
“Yes,” she says, her expression softening. “Let’s go save the animals.” She smiles a perfect smile, so bright that it’s like sunshine lighting the black soul she doesn’t know I have and I’d prefer she never finds out.
Abbie does the same but I hear, “Oh God,” a moment before she grabs my arm again. “Gabe. Stop. Stop now. We have a problem.”
I turn to look at her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“My ex. Kenneth is walking toward us.”