Page 1 of Gabe

CHAPTER 1

Frankie

We’d been driving for two days, and it felt like someone had replaced my eyelids with sandpaper. Technically, the drive should have only taken about three hours, but Gabe had been instructing me to drive in circles until I didn’t even know which direction we were headed. Based on the position of the setting sun, we seemed to be headed in a generally north direction, but I couldn’t even tell if we were still in Louisiana anymore, or if we had crossed into another state.

There would be some kind of toll or at least a sign if we crossed state lines, right?

That had been the case on every road trip I’d ever taken. Surely, I would know if we were in a different state.

I’d say Gabe was paranoid, if not for the fact that someone was actually trying to kill us.

Many someones, in fact. By that point, I’d lost track of who the most likely threat was supposed to be.

The mafia.

The secret pedophile ring.

The FBI.

Everyone was an enemy.

I shook my head, feeling the weight of my braids tickle against my neck. Rubbing my eyes to rid them of the sand building up in the corners, I focused back on the road.

We’d pulled off the main highway about fifteen minutes ago and were now traveling down a dirt road that seemed to be more dirt than road. I hesitated to even call it a road. It was more like a flat line between the trees where the roots didn’t grow as thick.

Luckily, I’d had practice driving my parent’s RV over some difficult terrain, because an inexperienced driver would have struggled to navigate the clunky vehicle between the trees.

To be fair, I struggled as well, but I’d kept the RV on all four wheels so far, so I considered it a success.

“Can’t you drive more carefully,” Newt complained from the back.

I gripped the steering wheel so tight I could feel the stitches in the leather. “You’re lucky we’re even staying upright. I’m not sure this is even a road.”

I felt guilty the moment the words were out of my mouth. Newt was only worried for Sebastian, and to be honest, I was as well. The man was severely injured, and the constant jostling from the bumpy ride would only make it worse. Sebastian hadn’t said a word in the last hour, yet I could feel the pain radiating from the back of the RV with every squeak of the vehicle’s inadequate shocks.

“Hey, resting-blank-face, where are we going?”

Agent Gabe Long sat in the passenger seat next to me, staring ahead without a twitch of emotion on his face and his arms crossed over his chest.

I expected to be ignored, yet when I addressed him, he actually looked at me.

“Why do you insist on calling me these ridiculous names?”

I slowed the RV down to a crawl that barely registered on the speed dial as I eased the vehicle over a cluster of large tree roots. It was starting to rain, and I desperately wanted to get wherever we were going before a storm blew in and made the already difficult road even more treacherous.

To hide my nerves, I turned on a bright smile and grinned at the man sitting next to me. “Well, what else am I supposed to call you? You’ve never actually introduced yourself to me.”

Finally, I’d earned some expression from the man. His brow furrowed as he thought back over the weeks we’d been forced to live together. I could tell the moment he realized I was speaking the truth, because his typically flat gaze sparked with a hint of life.

In the chaos of our first meeting, he’d never actually introduced himself.

“You know my name,” he tried to argue.

I merely shook my head. “Knowing your name is not the same as being introduced. So, until you give me your name properly, I’ll call you whatever I want.”

We hit a flat patch of road and I dared to drive a little faster, almost hitting double digits on the speedometer.

The rain started falling harder, and ice crystallized around the edges of the windshield. It was going to be the most miserable kind of weather. Cold and wet. The kind of weather that hung right at the point of freezing without actually tipping over the edge, so everything turned into an ugly, muddy slush.

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