Page 117 of Wicked Submission

“What would you do if you felt someone was threatening the life of your mother?” He looks at me, his eyes deep pools of blue torment. “What would you do to protect that person?”

“Anything,” I say softly. “Gabe, what are you telling me?”

“You want to know who I am? You want honesty?”

“Yes. You know I do.”

He runs a hand over the muscles at the back of his neck. “A few months back, a pregnant woman showed up and said her baby belonged to Reese.”

I blanch. “What? No. Tell me no. He and your sister seem so perfect together.”

“They are. It was a scam. That’s what you heard Reid talking to me about at Cat’s place. The entire thing was a set-up, a money grab. The father of the woman’s child was an attorney who hates Reese. Long story short, he was stalking Cat. He was crazy. He was a fucking lunatic. He was also a gambler who owed money to a bookie.”

I blink, not sure where this is going. “And that connects how?”

“I called and told the bookie where to find him. He, in turn, ended up in the hospital, where he couldn’t hurt my sister anymore.” He stands up, his hands settling on his hips, over the waist of his pajama bottoms. “I don’t feel guilty. He was a bad person. He could have attacked or killed my sister. She was a mess. She could have lost the baby. It was destroying her and Reese. So, that’s what I would do to protect someone I love. As you said: anything. Not even Reid knows for sure that I did this. He suspects, but I never admitted it. Now you and I know. And if that makes me like your ex, if that makes me someone you can’t live with, I need to know now.”

Chapter seventy

Gabe

Istand there staring at Abbie as she sits on her knees on my bed, my T-shirt clinging to all of her soft curves, the way my body had been a few minutes ago. The way I want to hold her again, but I don’t know if I ever will. I had no choice but to make that confession. If she’s going to end up hating me, if that’s where this ends, it needs to end now. Because if she can’t handle this, she can’t handle what happened with Kendall.

She scoots to the edge of the bed and stands up, walking toward me, stopping a lean from touching me. “What happened to him? The man you handed over to the bookies.”

“He survived,” I say. “But he could have died. I was clear on that point when I handed him over, but it washimor my sister and her unborn child. I chose my sister and that baby.”

“There was no other way?”

“We tried. Walker Security tried. The problem was layered and complicated and time wasn’t on our side.”

She studies me for a few more beats, but still, she doesn’t touch me and I don’t touch her. Why would I touch her if she hates me now?

“No one else knows this?” she confirms.

“No, Abbie. No one else knows this.”

“You trusted me with this information? Or you’re using it to try to push me away.”

“Both,” I admit. “If you can be pushed away, you should walk away sooner rather than later. I don’t want to be all in and you’re toeing your path with me.”

Suddenly, she’s stepping to me, her arms wrapping my waist, her chin tilting upward, her eyes meeting mine. “I’m not toeing anything with you. You’re not like Kenneth. He hurt people to help himself. You were just protecting your sister.”

“You say that now, but—”

“I’m not going to change my mind and you have no idea how much it means to me that you trusted me with this. My God, Gabe. It’s honest. Honest is what I want. Honest is what I want us to be. This means everything to me.”

I cup her head and lower my forehead to hers. “Don’t change your mind.”

“I’m not going to change my mind.”

I pull back to look at her. “If you do come to work for us, and I hope you do, you need to know that in business—”

“You’re brutal. You play to win. Gabe, it’s business. It’s what you need your attorney to be when you hire one. I’m not naïve. And I hate that you put yourself in the same space as my ex. There is no comparison.”

“You compare me to him.”

“You’re right. Youare right,and I’m wrong to do that. You aren’t him.”

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