60. Chapter 60
Chapter sixty
Gabe
I ’m still contemplating the levels of hell my father might travel to drag us there with him when Cat pops to her feet, drawing everyone’s attention as she exclaims, “I see everyone in this room worrying right now and this is ridiculous. We need to just go talk to dad and end this.”
Abbie casts me a hopeful look. “Is that an option? I didn’t think that was an option.”
“No,” I say, at the same time as Reid and now the entire room is standing.
“You’re not going to see your father,” Reese orders, on his feet and catching Cat’s hand, grounding her right here in their home. “You and our baby don’t need that stress.”
“Worrying like this is stressful,” she replies. “Let’s just end it.” She twists around to face us all. “End it. Let’s confront him.”
“If anyone was going to confront him, it would be me,” Reid replies. “I’m not personally involved. He sees me as the cold-hearted bastard I can be.”
“Neither am I,” Cat argues. “I’m not involved.”
“When you get involved, we look rattled,” I interject. “He doesn’t need to see us as rattled.”
“Exactly,” Reid states. “Calculated is more like it, and calculated means we wait to see what Blake has to say about any tricks he might have played to frame us.”
“We don’t need to give him ideas,” I agree. “For all we know, the police are looking at him right now.” I eye Cat’s belly pointedly. “Protect what’s important. Reid and I will deal with our bastard of a father who should be protecting you, too, but won’t.”
The doorbell rings. “That’s Abbie’s mother,” Reid says. “Walker has the security clearance to bring her up.”
I turn to Abbie, my hands settling on her shoulders. “Be strong and she’ll be strong.”
“I will be,” she promises. “I don’t want her to panic.”
“You also need to allow Reese to talk to her without you protecting her. Just like I had to do with you.”
“Yes,” Reese states. “I need to be clear, Abbie. I’m representing you with the family right now. I’m not promising to represent your mother. I met her at the shelter. I liked her, but I need to talk to her before I make a commitment.”
“Thank you for considering her as a client,” Abbie says. “She’s a good person, but she’s also—”
“Abigail!”
At the sound of her mother’s voice, Abbie rotates and takes off around the couch. I watch as the two of them collide into a hug just outside of the line of the living area. “That bastard can’t even die without making your life hell,” her mother growls.
Abbie gasps and speaks to her mother in a low voice. I eye Reese, who gives me a small smile that tells me he gets it. She’s protecting her daughter. He motions me to join him. “Let’s go to the kitchen,” he says, kissing Cat as Reid catches her arm and urges her to stay behind. I know my brother. He’s going to talk our sister off the ledge our father will shove her off of.
A few minutes later, me, Reese, Abbie, and her mother are in the kitchen standing around the island.
“You’re the best of the best, I hear,” Abbie’s mother says to Reese. She looks tired, her red hair a tangled mess, dark circles shadowing her eyes. “I already knew you were generous and that you love animals, considering your help at the shelter. You’re a good man. Thank you for helping.”
“I try to be,” Reese says. “And what was Abbie’s ex? What kind of man was he?”
“He was no man. He was a monster.”
“You hated him,” Reese states.
Abbie’s mom doesn’t hesitate. “With all my heart and soul, but I suspect that man has plenty of people who feel that way. I don’t think lying about it serves a purpose besides making me look like a liar.”
“She’s always brutally honest,” Abbie offers. “I was going to warn you about that.”
Reese’s attention falls on Abbie. “Let me have a word with your mother alone.”
Abbie’s spine stiffens. “Yes—but—”
I stroke her hair. “Abbie, baby—”
“I’m good, honey,” her mother assures her. “Let me talk to Reese.”
“You’re sure?” Abbie asks. “Because I know this is overwhelming and—”
“Abigail, give me some credit. I save dying animals a few days a week. I can handle a little pressure. I’m more worried about you than me. Let me talk to Reese.”
“I’ll take good care of her,” Reese promises.
Abbie inhales and nods at the room in general. “Yes. Okay.”
I don’t give her time to change her mind. I lace my fingers with Abbie’s and lead her out of the kitchen to the hallway just off the foyer. It’s the perfect time for us to have a serious talk. For that reason, my intended destination is Reese’s home office on the other side of the apartment, but Abbie spies the bathroom, she darts away from me and inside. Running. She’s always running and it’s time to end that and a few other things while we’re at it. I’m on her heels and before she can shut the bathroom door, I’m inside the tiny visitor-sized space with her, shutting the door and locking it.
“Oh my God, Gabe,” Abbie whispers urgently. “What are you doing?”
I turn to face her, pulling her to me and then rotating her, placing her against the door. “Do not do what you did out there ever again.”
“Even if I knew what you meant, you don’t get to order me around in your sister’s bathroom, Gabe.”
“On this I do, baby. Don’t throw yourself under the train for me. I can hold back the train, but once you’re underneath, I can’t pull you back up. Do you understand?”
Her eyes spark with anger, a stubborn set to her jaw. “No. No, I don’t understand. And to be clear, the reverse of what you just said is true. Once you’re under the train—”
“That won’t happen.” I cup her backside and pull her to me. “I won’t go under unless you force me under, and the way you do that is by forcing me to save you by throwing myself there.”
“I’m trying to save you, not throw you under, Gabe. I heard the fear in your sister’s voice. I saw the fear in her eyes. She believes your father will take you down. She believes he can.”
“My sister doesn’t like to see how capable her brothers are of fighting a man like our father. You heard what Reid said to me in the hallway. There’s a part of me you don’t know and I don’t want you to know, Abbie. That part of me will win, which means you win and you’re free.”
“What part of you, Gabe? What does that even mean?”
“Why? Ready to run? I thought you weren’t going to run, Abbie.”
“What part of me asking a question says that I’m running? Did I say I was running?”
“You ran into this bathroom.”
“I have to pee, which I can’t do with your hand on my ass and your big body on top of mine. Or with you watching. And you know what?” She pokes my chest. “After I overheard Reid talking to you, I said I wasn’t going to run because you didn’t deny what your brother said. You didn’t deny a past that he knows and worries about. You didn’t tell me I didn’t understand what I heard when we both know I did. That felt honest. I need honesty in my life. Be honest with me and if you aren’t, I won’t run away, but I will walk away. Be you, because I can’t deal with another man who seems like one thing but turns out to be another.”
Be me.
Be honest.
She wouldn’t like the truth I have to hide, not my truth, but I don’t say this. She won’t accept it. Instead, I choose to be honest about what I can be, what I’m willing to disclose. “You want honest? When I said any man could fall in love with you, I meant me. I could fall in love with you, Abbie, if you give me the chance, but I won’t get that chance if you take a fall for me that I don’t need you to take.”
And then I dare to ask for what I don’t deserve to hear the answer to, considering how quickly I’ve just avoided the real truth of who and what I am. “I need you to trust me. Really trust me. I need us to be a team. You and me, baby. We fight this together. Remember? That’s our word: together.”