Page 70 of Always Been Mine

She was suspended in the air, wearing some kind of white garment.

He ran toward her, but never got closer.

Blood started from her hairline, streaming down her face.

Soon, it drenched her body and soaked her clothes.

“Gabe!” she screamed as she was swallowed into the darkness.

“Beatrice!”Gabe shouted, jackknifing into a sitting position. A nightmare, thank fuck. He buried his face in his hands. They were shaking.

Rhino whimpered beside him.

“I’m okay, boy,” Gabe whispered, leaning down and petting his head. He had brought Rhino home today, settling him in a dog bed pulled close to the couch where he lay.

But Gabe wasn’t okay. Beatrice had been missing for over 24 hours and there were no demands from anyone and every lead they’d taken was a dead end. Was she even still alive?

Stay alive, Beatrice. Please.

Don’t give up.

I’ll find you.

Gabe swung his feet to the floor and picked up the laptop from the coffee table. Leaning against the couch, he checkedhis emails again, but there was nothing from Nate or Travis. Gabe was also able to get in touch with the Iron Skulls, but they had nothing for him either.

There was a rap on the door. Despite being injured, Rhino growled. It was 1:00 a.m. Gabe grabbed his 9mm from the table and walked stealthily to the door. He peeked behind the blinds and saw a familiar shape.

Relief or rage, he didn’t know what he felt as he disabled the alarms and opened the door to his early morning visitor.

Benjamin Porter.

12

They locked gazesat the door.

Gabe didn’t know whether to punch the admiral or to hug him in relief. The older man looked weary, like he had been traveling for weeks. He had never seen the admiral this disheveled.

“May I come in, Sullivan?”

Because Gabe didn’t know what to say, he simply stepped aside to let the admiral enter the house. Porter removed his coat and hung it on the coat stand near the foyer table.

The admiral faced him. “Beatrice?”

“Nothing.”

Porter’s shoulders slumped. He walked further into the house and noticed Rhino. “What happened?”

“Whoever took Beatrice, shot him,” Gabe pushed through his teeth. Rage was consuming him. Porter looking so calm when his daughter was missing didn’t sit well with him. She could be fucking dead, for Christ’s sake. And Beatrice thought he was like her father? This was proof to himself that he was nothing like Porter, because Gabe was barely hanging on to his shit right now. “He protected her.”

“Where were you, Gabe?” Porter asked.

“You son of a bitch,” Gabe snarled viciously. He itched to slug Porter across the face. “I should be asking you, Ben. Where the fuck were you?”

“We’ll come to that soon,” Porter replied. “I didn’t mean the way it sounded.” The admiral rubbed his fingers across his forehead. “Best you tell me what happened.” It took less than five minutes to get through all the info Gabe had. It sickened him that he had so little to go on.

“I’m very close to finding out the mastermind of operation Red Bridge,” Porter said.

“Red Bridge?”

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