Page 15 of Adored
And he would.
“I’m ready,” he finally said.
The whole time, Gamble held his hand as they walked toward the stable.
As they got inside, Poe released his hand and wrapped his arms around himself as if trying to self soothe.
Gamble saw it, and took his jacket off and put it over the man’s shoulders to keep him warm.
“I have you, Baby,” he said. “You can do this. They didn’t suffer.”
And they hadn’t.
Poe knew that to be true. He saw the report Elizabeth had received from her friend in the UK.
Truth be told, this haunted him. Poe’s family had lost their lives here. Their bodies had been tossed into a stall and they’d been starting to decompose from three days of death.
As a doctor who had done his rotation, he knew what a decaying body looked like.
Gamble’s hand was on his lower back, as he guided Poe into the stable to face the demons that were in there waiting for him.
“Did you go to the hospital to claim them?” Gamble asked.
He shook his head.
“Not yet.”
That was probably for the best. Elizabeth briefed him, and they hadn’t looked like themselves. If it was up to him, Gamble was going to try and keep Poe from experiencing that.
If possible.
He’d seen his daughter and Storm, so he knew what that could do to a person.
The violence…
It would haunt him.
Gamble would carry that for him.
Because he needed a better memory, Poe went there, talking mindlessly to calm himself.
“This was where Diablo was born,” he admitted, touching a stall door. “The Devil came kicking and bucking into the world right here.”
Gamble appreciated that.
He did love that horse.
Watching his man, Gamble saw him getting paler and that worried him. This was traumatic, and when he’d been suffering, Poe acted as a shield that he could hide behind.
“We don’t have to do this,” Gamble offered.
Poe stared at him.
“I have to. I know what happened here. The police told me,” he said. “I saw the police report, Gamble. I know what they did to them.”
There were tears.
How could there not be?
