Page 14 of Gabe

For a moment it looked like he would argue, but then he sighed and gave in. Lifting up his shirt, he showed me his ribs. A few had been cracked in the explosion back at the apartment, and large ugly bruises ran up and down his side. There were even deep gashes where something had raked against his ribs. The damage had been fixed up in the hospital, but his tumble had ripped a few of the stitches. Some of the dark strings hung loose, and blood seeped freely from the wound.

The bleeding was sluggish, so it wasn’t an immediate danger, but would need to be repaired right away.

“Uh, Newt, we’ve got a problem.”

“I’ll say.”

I met Newt’s eye to find him holding a metal pole.

When Sebastian fell off the bed, he’d knocked his traction rigging over as well, which had made most of the crashing sound I heard. The fall had damaged the rigging, and even from a quick observation I could tell it wasn’t salvageable. It would need to be replaced.

Re-stitching some wounds we could handle, but replacing the traction rigging would be a much harder problem to solve.

“Damn it,” I grumbled as I cleaned the blood from my hands. “Perfect time for Gabe to be gone. We don’t have a way to fix this.”

“We might be able to rig something up with what we have here,” Newt suggested. “Maybe tie some towels between a few chairs.” He was already grabbing the nearest chair and lining it up with the bed. It wasn’t tall enough. If we stacked the chair on top of something else it might work, but such a structure would be unstable at best and a hazard at worst.

I huffed and ran a hand through my braids.

“That might work temporarily, but I wouldn’t trust it long term.”

I sighed again, then stood up straight with a new facade of confidence.

“All right, here’s what we’re going to do. Newt, get your man stitched up and check to see if he has any other wounds he hasn’t told us about.” I glared at Sebastian, and the man at least had enough sense to look abashed over his actions. “Meanwhile, I’ll drive into town and see what I can find to build a new traction frame. We’ve still got the RV. It’s not the most efficient vehicle, but it’ll get me there and back.”

I headed for the door, eager to take action.

Newt followed me.

“But, Frankie, Gabe said not to use our credit cards since they can be tracked. How will you buy anything?”

That was a good point. I stopped in my tracks halfway to the door.

“I think Gabe left behind some emergency cash. Let me check.”

I ended up having to search through the FBI Agent’s stuff in the bedroom before eventually finding an envelope with some cash tucked away in a folder. Most of the cash I left alone, only taking as much as I thought I would need, but I still felt guilty. Technically, it wasn’t my money, so this could be called stealing.

No, it was supposed to be for emergencies, and this counted as an emergency. We were left alone, and Sebastian needed something to help with his healing. Besides, Gabe and I were sharing the bedroom. In such a setup, he couldn’t expect privacy.

I certainly didn’t have any.

After giving Newt one final reassurance that I would be back soon, and reminding him to keep the doors locked, I hopped into the RV.

Maneuvering the cumbersome vehicle was easier this time since it wasn’t raining and I actually knew where I was going. Still, the ten-mile drive into town took me nearly half an hour to navigate. Then there was another twenty minutes of aimless driving before I found a hardware store. The town didn’t have much, but I couldn’t help looking around with suspicious eyes.

Was that person walking on the sidewalk staring at the RV with too much interest?

Was the car behind me on the road following me?

Someone outside the hardware store was talking on the phone.

Who were they calling?

Were they reporting me to someone?

After pulling the RV into a parking spot, I took a deep breath and leaned my head against the steering wheel. Spending so much time with Gabe was making me paranoid. Yes, people were out to get us, but that didn’t mean the whole world was our enemy.

The hardware store ended up being one of those mom and pop places where everything is organized in a way that only makes sense to the owner. I searched the shelves for a few minutes on my own but ended up having to ask the person working there for help. I gave a vague description of what I was trying to make, without revealing what it was for, and they helped me find the materials I would need. They even gave me a few ideas about how to make the whole structure sturdier, just in case Sebastian got the urge to be self-sufficient and fell out of bed again.

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