Page 54 of Forever Mine

“I’ve missed you, too,” I murmur. Gabriel raises his head to look at me, and his thumbs wipe away the fallen tears.

“Why are you crying,querida?” he asks.

“I don’t even know,” I respond shakily. I jolt as my cell phone blares out the ringtone I’ve set for Marcus. It’s techno music with a voiceover that just keeps saying ‘asshole alert.’

“What the hell is that?” Gabriel chuckles.

“It’s Marcus. Again. He won’t leave me alone,” I whisper. The phone stops ringing, and a slew of text alerts come through.

Marcus: Answer your fucking phone, Monica!

Marcus: Enough is enough.

Marcus: I’m warning you.

Marcus: You don’t get to leave ME.

Marcus: Babe, come on. We can work through this.

Marcus: You know I love you, right?

“Querida, block him. He’s obviously scaring you. You need to keep him out of your life,” Gabriel says softly as he rests his forehead against mine.

“I don’t even know how to block his number. How sad am I?” I joke miserably.

“I can show you. Will you let me?” Gabriel asks as he holds out his hand. I nod and place my phone against his palm. “You just go into his contact, and at the bottom, it says ‘block this number.’ There you go. He’s blocked.”

I let out a relieved sigh. One less thing to worry about.

“Does he know where Emily lives?” Gabriel asks, and I nod. “Do they have a security system that is monitored?”

“Yeah, I think so. Why?”

“He’s a loose cannon,querida. I don’t trust him. I want to keep you safe,” Gabriel says deeply. I push away from him and step back, putting some distance between us.

“I can take care of myself,” I growl. Damn. Now I’m growling like Em. She’s rubbing off on me.

“I never said you couldn’t. I’m worried Marcus is going to escalate things now. I’m worried he’s involved with other things …” he trails off.

“What do you mean?” I ask warily. Gabriel sighs and rubs his neck. I’ve noticed he has that tic when he’s a combination of nervous and frustrated.

“Querida, I swear I know Marcus from somewhere. I can’t figure out where. I recognize him, and it’s been frustrating the hell out of me. I asked a buddy to look into him, and Marcus only had a cyber footprint for the last few years. He didn’t exist until then. I don’t think it’s his real name, and I don’t know how to protect you from someone who may or may not have a criminal past,” Gabriel explains. My mouth drops open in astonishment.

“You looked into my boyfriend?” I screech.

“No, I looked into a guy I think is bad news. I looked into a guy that I swear I know from the past. Whether or not you were still sleeping with him when I did it is moot. And he’s not your boyfriend.”

“You’re gonna argue this on a technicality?” I shout.

“I’m not the bad guy here,querida. He is.”

The fact that Gabriel is remaining completely patient right now is frustrating the shit out of me.

“There’s a thin fucking line between good and bad right now, Gabriel.”

“You need to lower your voice.”

“No! You’re pissing me off! You had no right to look into him!”

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