Page 33 of Stalked

“I’m right here, Little Rabbit. I’m here,” I croak, my throat closing from emotions I’m not ready to deal with.

His body tenses; his breathing stops before he struggles against my hold.

“Let me go,” he snaps, clawing at my skin.

“Little Rabbit, it’s me, baby, it’s me,” I mutter, hating that he’s fighting against me, thinking I’m going to hurt him.

“T–Tobias?” He stops fighting against my hold.

“It’s me, it’s me.”

Gabriel shifts, turning his body, and wrapping his arms around my neck. His hot tears hit my neck, trailing down. Tightening my hold on him, I ease us down until he’s lying on top of me.

We lay there for what feels like hours, fully expecting him to be asleep until he starts mumbling into my ear. “I grew up in a motorcycle club. They used to beat me and my sister. Izel, she got the worst of it. I’m talking… they raped her, they…he told our father that we were running away. We were caught, and when…. When it happened, they took her to the basement for a week. I didn’t see her; I thought they killed her. It was a few weeks after that, two of Dan’s best friends…. They caught me snooping through Dan’s office. They beat me, they were going to… they….”

“Names,” I growl. I was going to hunt them down. I don’t care how long ago it was, I didn’t care. I was going to hunt them down and kill them all. Torture, and make the damn town run in their blood.

“Izel’s boyfriend… well, husband now, he killed them. She was kidnapped after we ran. He found her and killed them all. Everyone…everyone but Dan.”

“I’m going to finish him,” I say, grabbing his face. I need him to see the sincerity of my words.

“I killed, Tobias,” he whispers, his nose brushing against mine. “You don’t scare me because I grew up in violence. I’ve been around it. I’ve killed before.”

“I won’t hurt you,” I declare.

“I know you won’t. I might be crazy, but I trust you,” Gabriel mutters, pressing his lips against mine.

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” I whisper against his mouth. I might not be able to take revenge on those who hurt him, but now that he’s mine, I won’t let anyone get near him again.

I just barely fall asleep before my phone starts going off. Quickly grabbing it before it wakes Gabriel up, I answer.

“Da,” I whisper.

“Office, we need to talk,” Kyler says, hanging up the phone before I can say anything. Shifting Gabriel off of me the best I can, I grab my sweatpants and shirt from the floor before heading downstairs.

The moment I step inside, Kyler paces around my desk, glancing up when I close the door behind me.

“Better talk and talk fast,” I snarl, walking around my desk, and sitting down.

“Someone else is stalking Gabriel,” he states, handing me a large envelope. My left eye twitches, barely glancing at him before I’m tearing into the envelope. I’m not sure what I expect, but when I see pictures of him dating all the way back to his apartment, of me walking in and then him at his art studio, rage explodes through my body.

“I found this waiting on the doorstep. I had Nick look at all the cameras, and they’ve been cut. I called Killian to hack him into the feed, and there's nothing he can see. He’s working with Aziza right now, but….Here.”

As if I didn’t think this could get any worse, he hands me a note.

You took someone important from me. I’m going to take something important to you.

Flipping it over, nothing but those words are written. Nothing else, no name, not that I expect there to be. Who would leave their name behind unless they want to get caught?

“I’m going to take Gabriel to Salem’s.” I don’t know where the idea came from, but now that the words are out, it sounds more and more like a better idea.

“You don’t think we can protect him here?” Kyler asks.

“I do…. But with this and the fact someone got onto the property when he first arrived, I think going away, where no one but you and I know, it’ll give us time to figure out who’s after him.”

“Whoever’s after him is probably the same one who was leaking information about the shipments to Billy and his brother. We’re still working on who they were working with.”

Thinking about it, it makes sense. This person had to be giving Billy information about our shipments of weapons, allowing him to break in and steal from me. But the question begs, who is it? And why?

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