Page 189 of Vegas Heat

She clears her throat and lifts her chin, and it’s in that moment I know exactly who she is. The dark hair, the dark eyes, the mannerism she just exhibited…it’s all so clear before she even speaks the words.

“I’m Gabriella’s mother.”

My hackles rise as I want to do everything I can to protect Gabby from this woman.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to see my daughter.” She folds her arms across her chest, and I get the impression she’s not budging.

I glance out at the driveway and find her car isn’t here. “She’s not home, and she doesn’t want to see you. You can go now.”

Her brows shoot up in surprise at the venom in my voice. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

The man who’s going to marry her someday.

I don’t say that. I can’t. I wish I could, but we’re still fucking hiding it and I hate it more and more.

Telling her mom and not her dad would be absolutely toxic, though.

“I’m a good friend of hers.”

She rolls her eyes. “Right. And you’re at least a decade older than her, so her being here with her father is even worse than I imagined.”

“Oh, she’s told me all about you, Christine. And so has Troy.” I raise my brows pointedly, and she practically snarls at me.

“I’m here to save that girl from her father. He’s a terrible, terrible man.”

I can’t help my laugh. “You don’t even know him, and you better watch what you say about my best friend.”

A silver truck comes pulling up, and my one regret is that I didn’t get rid of this woman before Gabby arrived home.

She steps down from her truck and approaches the front door, where she sees me talking to her mom.

“Mom?” she asks tentatively.

Christine rushes toward her daughter. “Oh Gabby, I can’t believe you left me! I’ve missed you so much!” She wraps her arms around her.

“I didn’t leave you, Mother. I went off to college and I chose UNLV, remember?”

“You left to meet your father, something I never agreed with.” She pulls back and looks at her daughter, and I can’t help but study every single move she makes. “You’re too skinny. Are you eating enough?”

Jesus. This woman is the classic definition of a narcissist, and her poor daughter still emerged as a ray of sunshine despite her.

“I’m eating plenty. What are you doing here?” Gabby asks, rolling her eyes at me over her mother’s shoulder.

I stifle a laugh.

“Well first I was just fending off this beast who claims he’s your friend,” she says, looking at me as ifIam the problem.

“He’s not a beast,” Gabby says, and then she raises her brow at me as if to saywell, except in the bedroom. “He’s a great man with a wonderful heart and he’s become very important to me in the last few months, so please stop insulting him right now.”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic.” She pulls at Gabby’s arm, and Gabby looks incredibly uncomfortable. “I came to finally tell you all about your father.”

Gabby’s brows dip. “I’ve been living here for three years. Why are you doing this now?”

It clicks in my head before Christine says a word. She’s here because the expansion draft is one week away. She’s here to fuck with Troy because she thinks he stole her daughter away when the reality is that Gabby left because her mother was so goddamn awful to her.

“I felt it was time for you to know,” she says.

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