Page 73 of Always Been Mine

“How is she?” Gabe asked anxiously.

“We immediately tested for the ST-Vyl strain, it came back negative,” the doctor said. “She’s dehydrated. Her tox screen hasn’t come back yet, but I suspect they’ve given her drugs to keep her unconscious. X-rays and CT scan show no internal injuries. The rape kit came back negative. Beatrice mentioned as much. They cut her,” Dr. Ryan’s lips thinned in anger, “but did nothing else.”

“She’s awake?” Porter asked.

Gabe needed to see her, to look into her eyes to see for certain that she was okay. He didn’t spend enough time with her before she was taken to this facility. The 24 hours he spent thinking he would never see her again made him overly paranoid of losing sight of her. Beatrice might just lose her mind with his hovering, but at this moment, Gabe didn’t give a fuck.She could be pissed at him and hate him, but as long as she was alive and breathing he could live with it.

It wassome kind of safe house, or so Beatrice was told. Rhino was asleep in the backseat of Gabe’s Silverado. She was feeling oddly apathetic. Dr. Ryan said her body and psyche had suffered too much and the shock shut down her mind. Her system hadn’t fully expelled the drug cocktail they had given her, which would explain her whacked out sense of self.

Gabe sat tensely beside her. He attempted to hold her hand earlier, but she pulled away. When he tried to touch her face, she flinched. He probably thought it was because of her torture. It wasn’t. It was what she found out. Maybe that was why she was keeping her emotions on lockdown. She was actually hanging on by a fragile thread.

“This is it,” Gabe muttered as they finally reached the house at the end of the long unpaved driveway. “Your father should follow us here in a few hours.”

“And you’re sure we’ll see my dad, again?” Beatrice had told them what her captors wanted—to flush out Benjamin Porter. Gabe and her father didn’t seem surprised with her revelation.

“Beatrice, I know you’re angry at the admiral,” Gabe said. “You’re also probably blaming me.”

She didn’t respond, just walked into the house when he opened the door. She could feel his gaze burning against her back, but she didn’t turn to face him.

“I’ll go get Rhino,” Gabe sighed with her continued silence. His footsteps faded back to the truck.

Beatrice took off her coat and grimaced at the bandages on her arms. She knew what lay underneath were puckered zigzagged lines laying in stark contrast against her fair skin. They would heal and she could have them surgically erased,but would the horror of having her flesh mutilated ever leave her mind? She had screamed until her mind left her body. She blinked her eyes. Not a single tear. She couldn’t even cry.

She heard Gabe curse behind her and saw him lower Rhino on the couch. Beatrice froze as he embraced her from behind. She tried to pull away again, but he held on.

“Don’t,” Gabe whispered hoarsely. “Don’t pull away from me, babe. It’s killing me. I get you can’t stand to be touched right now. But please tell me it’s not because you hate me and blame me for this.”

“I don’t blame you for my abduction, Gabe. I knew what I signed up for when I agreed to take you back.”

“Then why—”

She turned in his arms to face him. “Did you fuck women only to kill them afterward, Gabe?”

He flinched, but held her gaze. “Once.”

“Was she collateral damage?”

“No. She was a human trafficker. I didn’t even c—”

“I don’t need specifics. I don’t think you would want to hear about all my fucks after you left me, do you?”

An unnamed emotion flashed across his face, a mixture of anger, pain, and remorse. He was trying to hold on to his temper, and she almost regretted her callous words. But she knew she was delaying the inevitable because even if she was afraid of asking the next question, his answer would decide if she was willing to move forward with their relationship or end it.

“Angel of Death.” His body turned rigid before his hands fell away. “Is it true how you earned that name?”

A stoic mask fell on his face.

“You heard that from the people who took you?”

Beatrice nodded.

“How much do you trust me, Beatrice?” Gabe asked softly. There was something sinister behind that question. She refused to be cowed.

“You expect me to trust you? Stop hiding information that would ruin that trust.” She raised her chin defiantly.

His eyes darkened. “You know I can’t give you specifics.”

“Did you kill children, Gabe?” Might as well ask him point blank.

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