Page 87 of Gabriel's Salvation

“Nothing,” she says, firing daggers at Ava. “It was a big misunderstanding,” Izzy replies.

“Why do you always defend him? If Nate knew half the shit that man’s said to you he’d kick his ass, I'm sure.” Ava replies as she shoves a cookie into her mouth.

“Which is exactly why you'll keep your big mouth full of cookies and not tell Nate or Tucker,” Izzy tries to say in a joking way but I can tell there's some seriousness in it.

“This needs milk,” Ava grumbles with a mouth full of cookies.

“I'll get some,” Izzy offers kindly.

“I'll come help you, I could do with a drink too,” I lie.

As soon as we’re away from the door, I pull Izzy aside.

“Hey, what happened?” I ask.

“Nothing,” she says but it's clearly a lie. That girl can't lie for shit. I give her my best ‘you better tell me’ look.

“Fine, follow me,” she says as she pulls me towards the bathroom.

“Spill,” I say once the doors shut.

“Okay, so the girls don’t know the whole story, and I don't intend on telling them. But if you're going to get serious with Gabe you deserve to know.” Izzy begins before she tells me about bailing Gabe out of jail, about the fact they had lots of laughs and she got to see the kid she grew up with briefly before a miscommunication led to everything turning to shit. She also told me that she's since spoken to Gabe, who told her that he’d gotten into a fight that night after watching someone try to spike her and Harper’s drinks.

“And then he took Harper upstairs and made her throw up until most of the drugs were out of her system,” she finishes and I can see by the look on her face she deeply cares about Gabe, too.

“So yeah, Riley, he can be good. He has the potential to be a real protector, just like his brother. But he also has soo much darkness in him. Darkness that spills out to everything and everyone he touches. Now I'm not going to say don't be with him, but please be careful, Riley. I love you, and I don't want to see his darkness destroy your light.”

I hug her tightly. “I think I can heal him. Somehow, I think I can save him,” I admit. Hoping that my words carry enough conviction to cover up the doubts I have myself. Sure, I care for him, I'm pretty certain that I love him. But I'd be lying if I didn't wonder at times whether I would be the one to save him or be destroyed by him.

“You've been gone forever,” Ava whines once we finally make it back with the drinks.

“Yeah you know Nana, she kept us talking for ages,” Izzy lies, giving me a sneaky wink. Thankfully, neither girl pays enough attention to see the way Izzy’s face turns as red as a tomato whenever she's lying or trying to hold in a secret.

Soon the whole group is distracted with studying and quizzing each other using the little study cards Izzy made for us. The minutes turn into hours and before I know it, it's almost midnight. “Damn, is that the time?” I ask, looking at my watch and yawning. “We gotta head home,” I yawn.

“Want me to ask Pops to drive you home?” Izzy asks.

“We'll be fine, it's only down the road,” I laugh, but Izzy is having none of it. “No, I'm sure Pops will drive you back. If not I'm sure he’ll let you sleep over on the sofa, or something.”

Before I even have a chance to disagree she's up and out the bedroom door.

“Come on you two,” she shouts a few minutes later.

We pack the last of our things and make our way downstairs, where a sleepy looking, pajama and robe wearing Pops is waiting for us.

“I'm so sorry, we can walk,” I offer guiltily.

“Nonsense! What sort of man would I be if I left two damsels in distress in danger?” Pops laughs. Just like Izzy, her grandparents are sweet but kind of goofy.

Pops drives us home but as we are pulling into my drive I see an unfamiliar dark coloured pick up just opposite. I get out of the car and make my way toward the front door with Harper. As I'm waiting for Harper to unlock the door, I turn and glance over at the pickup, but it drives off. That's strange.

“Finally,” Harper says as she manages to unlock the door. “Next time we pull a late nighter, remind me to leave the porchlight on before we leave.”

“There you both are,” my mother says as she walks towards us. “You could have called to say you were going to be late. Your father and I were worried,” my mother scolds, as she scowls at us both.

“Sorry mom,” we both say in unison as we give her our best puppy dog eyes.

“Well thankfully you're safe, that's the main thing.” she replies as she shakes her head. “I hope you didn't walk home.” she scolds again as she walks towards the kitchen still reading us both the riot act.

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