Page 35 of Gabe

Heidi and I follow Elio out of the basement and up the stairs. We come out in a small hallway. “Tara,” Vance says seconds before I’m enveloped in his arms, and the life is being squeezed out of me.

“Fuck, Vance. I know you missed me, but this really fucking hurts.” I grit my teeth and try not to black out from the pain coursing through me.

“I’m sorry.” Vance lets me go gently. His blue eyes trace my whole body, checking for injuries. “I didn’t think.”

I pat his arm and offer him a warm smile. “It’s okay. I’m fine. Just took a good kick to the stomach.”

“Elio—”

“I’m already heading to check them out, Vance. I know how to do my job. Why don’t you go help Gabe and Reed? Carlos’s men are taking care of everything else,” Elio says, pushing Vance as he passes him.

After Vance leaves us, we follow Elio into what I assume was a kitchen once upon a time. There is nothing left but some broken cabinets and an old table. Elio’s medical bag is sitting on the table. Footsteps alert us that someone is coming down thehallway. “I found a chair. It’s not in the greatest condition, but it will work for now.” I turn and watch Ricco enter the room.

He stops dead in his tracks, eyes glued to Heidi. The light isn’t the greatest in here, and I’m too far away to see the light green color of his eyes, but it’s easy to tell that they are wide in shock. His mouth is relaxed and open, waiting for a fly to buzz straight in. “Ricco,” Heidi says. Shock and something close to awe coats his name.

“Heidi. What the fuck is going on?” My eyes bounce between them, but they stay on him when Ricco lets out an animalistic growl. His eyes are narrowed on the dried blood on Heidi’s thighs. The muscles in his jaw are pulled tight as if he is grinding his teeth together. “I’m going to kill that fucker.”

“We already did.” I move closer to Heidi but stop when Ricco pins me with his eyes.

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.” I cross my arms across my chest, ignoring the sting of pain.

Ricco nods, sits the chair down, and then leaves the room. I turn toward Heidi and find tears in her eyes. I rush toward her and cup her face. My fingers quickly brush the tears away. “Hey, what’s wrong?” I have a clue, but I need her to admit what I have just witnessed.

“He…” Heidi hiccups as her bottom lip starts to tremble. “He won’t want?—”

“Shhh, don’t think like that.” I shake my head and offer her a piece of my truth. “I thought the same thing. After what happened to me, I was sure Gabe would never want me again. I was a hundred percent sure that he would see me as broken. As someone tainted, but that’s not what happened.”

Heidi’s gaze drops to the floor. “Yeah, but didn’t you guys have a relationship for a year before you were attacked?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t matter.”

“We’ve only been on three dates before Miles found me. I had just moved here two weeks before…” Heidi closes her eyes, and I hate the despair rolling off her.

“I’ll go speak to him.” Heidi’s eyes fly open, and they have a little flicker of hope. I don’t say anything else as I walk out of the kitchen in search of Ricco. I caused this whole mess, and I’ll be damned if I allow it to take anything else from Heidi.

Chapter

Twenty

GABE

“Who do you think this Kane guy is?” Reed asks while he grabs another piece of crumbling drywall and pulls it from the wall.

“No idea, but if Tara trusts him, then I do as well.” I promised Tara that I would stand beside her while she set the world on fire to get her revenge, and that’s what I plan on doing. I also don’t plan on questioning her while she does it. She needs to do this, and I understand that need better than anyone, even Reed. The thought of her doing this kind of stuff—taking people’s lives and putting herself in dangerous positions—scare the shit out of me, but I’ll just have to work through that fear.

“You motherfucker.” The statement is not only yelled, but is also doused in anger and pain. I spin around and watch Ricco storm across the room to Miles’s lifeless body. He is across the room from us, but I still feel his emotions. It charges the air around us, causing the hair on my arms to stand up. Ricco hauls Miles up and starts punching him over and over.

I shoot Reed a what the fuck look before racing forward. I wrap my arms around Ricco and pull him back. “Stop. Dude, the fucker is dead.”

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. He touched her. I thought she changed her mind, that she didn’t want someone with my past, but it was all him,” Ricco yells, then spits at the corpse on the ground. “I want to bring him back so I can kill him all over again. She’s mine. Damn it.” Ricco suddenly goes lax in my arms before he whispers, “And I failed her.”

I pull him from the room into the hallway. “Failed who?” I turn us around, blocking his way back into the room. Only then do I let him go. Ricco stumbles forward before leaning against the wall with his head in his hands.

“Heidi.”

“You didn’t fail her,” Tara says, walking down the stairs and straight up between us. I grab her hand, ready to pull her back if Ricco makes one wrong move.

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