Page 36 of Gabe's Obsession

She tried to nod, but moaned instead when the nausea of the truth hit her hard.

It couldn’t be true. It just couldn't.

"You look a little pale. I think you should go. Maybe get some fresh air. I don't need no one passing out in here. I'm not into extra paperwork today."

Nina looked up at the guard frowning down at her and tried to stand. Yes, air. She needed way more.

Unfortunately, the lack of air in this tiny room made her head spin. Her stomach churned as she stood and before she could stop, she pitched forward and all the pain of Savannah's words vomited from her mouth as the entire contents of her stomach spewed onto the unhappy guard.

Not that it mattered. Her entire future had come crashing down on her. Suffocating her. In fact, now would be a good time to die.

Gabe Michaels was her half-brother.

Chapter Thirteen

Nina climbedinto the car after stumbling from the county jail and mumbled for the driver to take her to Purgatory. She had no idea how she was going to face Gabe with this information. Did he already know? That didn’t seem possible. He would never do something like this to her.

Right?

RIGHT?!

The mere thought made her stomach churn, threatening dry heaves again. As if the information from Savannah had not been horrifying enough, throwing up on the female guard had taken the cake. Not to mention the woman had gone insane cussing her up one side and down the other before finally escorting her out of the building.

Now she sat in the back of the car feeling utterly and completely lost. Gabe. He was her rock and the one person she always turned to when her life turned to shit. And she'd married him!

Nina shut down her thoughts on that track. If she let her mind wander through the implications of that she was going to end up in the ER for a mental health consult. Her hold on her sanity felt that tenuous at the moment.

Fortunately or unfortunately as the case happened to be, the ride to Purgatory took no time at all. The driver pulled to the curb and stopped in front of the entrance.

"I'll wait here for you."

She shook her head and met the driver's gaze. "You don't have to. I can make my way from here."

"No, ma'am. I'll wait. Those are my instructions from Mr. Michaels."

Her stomach flipped at the sound of his name being spoken out loud. She didn't bother to argue with the driver as she opened the car door and stepped out.

She looked up at the nearly unmarked building except for the emblazoned P logo on the heavy wooden double-doored entrance. She couldn’t go around back and use the employee entrance because she didn't have a key card for that. Which made sense considering she’d never needed to come here during off hours before. That left her only option to knock and hope someone heard her.

Unwilling to talk to anyone she knew on the phone, she'd not bothered to call ahead to let anyone know she was coming. Part of her wanted to climb right back into the car and have the driver take her anywhere but here.

Maybe she should have gone to Mason first. There had to be some sort of explanation about this mess. Except if what Savannah had said were true then it was her oldest brother who was largely responsible for this insane travesty. If that ended up the case, she'd deal with Mr. Pain In Her Fucking Ass later.

Right now, she did what she always did in times of total disaster. She ran to Gabe. Her hand stilled in mid air. Would this be the end of all that? Had her biggest fear come to fruition? Not only would she lose a man she thought might hold her future in his hands, but she'd lose her best friend too.

Her stomach threatened mutiny once again. God, how much more of this could she take?

"Nina? What are you doing here?"

She froze at the sound of Tori's voice on the sidewalk behind her. What the hell, God? Could he seriously not cut her a break?

Her life had imploded in a matter of minutes and now she had to pretend everything was fine? Screw it. Tori had already witnessed her at her worst that drunken day in her office. So what the hell? What did a little more matter in the grand scheme of her ridiculous life?

She slowly turned to her friend, knowing full well there was no way out of it. "Tori. What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at the cafe?" It was the middle of the day and there would be customers waiting.

"I could ask you the same thing. I mean the being here part. I had to come. I was summoned by Gabe about an incident. But don't worry Levi's holding down the fort for us until I can get back."

Oh shit. The incident.

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