Page 81 of Hold

When an O’Brien Construction truck pulled up down the street, the hairs stood up on the back of Liam’s neck. Jake didn’t seem to have noticed. Liam didn’t want to fight Gabe in front of the man’s son, but he was in the kind of mood that made a man forget his lofty principles. He looked at the top of Jake’s head as he wielded the shovel. His spikes were back; he must have gotten up at five to get them so angry. And whatever Jake put on them was putting up a good fight as the two of them sweated in the dirt.

“Listen,” Liam said. “Remember that Cumby’s around the corner? Go get us a couple of sandwiches.” He pulled out a twenty. Jake wiped off his hands on his overalls. “Use the restroom first,” Liam advised.

When Jake was safely out of sight, Liam approached the construction truck. He stood on the driver’s side, arms folded, and waited.

Gabe wasn’t slow to get out. It was a good thing he looked so much like Jake; it was a visual reminder not to pop him one.

The two men faced off in front of the truck, Liam with added breadth, Gabe with height and barely concealed rage. “What can I do for you, Gabriel?” Liam said, knowing his pleasant tone would piss the man off.

“You can stay the fuck away from my wife and my kids is what you can do, Weasley,” Gabe said in a rush, as if he’d been forming the words for the last hour he’d been sitting watching them.

“Jake works for me.”

“Fire him.”

“No.”

Gabe snarled. His fists clenched. There were oceans of things Liam wanted to say to him, preferably with his boot on the man’s neck. But he forced himself to stay calm.

“One of these days,” Gabe said through the snarl, “you won’t have them to hide behind. When I’ve got them back and you’re knee-deep in shit somewhere, you’ll turn around and there I’ll be. And I will pay you for how you made me look yesterday.”

Only the tightness in Liam’s jaw betrayed him when he said, “You’re pretty free with your fists, there, Donaghy. You ever use them on Thea?”

Gabe’s reaction was too instinctive to be fake. His chin jutted upward. “Fuck off. I don’t hit women.”

Muscles Liam didn’t know he’d tightened relaxed. “No, you just made her feel like she could never do any better than you, so she always took you back.”

Gabe was on surer ground here. Liam hated that he’d given him the ammunition. “You think you know her? She’s been my girl for fifteen years, Weasley. Of course she can’t do better than me.” He waved at Liam as if to prove his point. “The best she could do is some shit hauler working for his daddy. Fuck off and let the big boys take it from here.”

I am going to hit him. I really am going to hit him.Liam kept his arms clamped tight across his chest. “Stop following me and Jake around. He’s working for me for the next two weeks. Get over it.”

“I’ll go wherever I like.”

“Fine. Come tell him what you just told me about his mother.”

“You stay out of it.” But Liam saw the hint of uncertainty in his eyes and used it as the excuse to disengage. The only thing he’d done by talking to Gabe was to enrage himself even more.

“So long, Donaghy,” he said and turned his back, trusting the open street and twitching curtains to save him from an attack.

As he walked back to the house, Gabe said behind him, “Watch your back, McConnell.” A few seconds later, the truck’s engine started up, and when he turned to make sure Gabe wasn’t about to run him over, the truck roared past him.

♦

Dr. Marion had let her leave work early without a whimper. Thea warred with gratitude and the knowledge that it was probably pity that kept them employing her at all. Pulling up in the church parking lot that afternoon, she saw a sedan with the name of Gabe’s cousin Sean’s construction company on the side, parked in front of the church. Gabe was leaning on the passenger door, facing the parking lot entrance. His ankles were crossed casually in front of him, and the afternoon sun shone on his black hair, giving it a gloss she remembered loving running her hands through. He looked up at the minivan’s movement, and his eyes narrowed at her.

Thea parked next to him and rolled down her window. He was in a denim shirt that made his eyes a deeper blue, but today they weren’t looking at her with that begging gaze she was accustomed to.

“Didn’t think I’d show up, did you?” he said, his voice amused.

“Your track record isn’t exactly faultless on this kind of thing, you know, Gabriel.”

“I said I’d come, and I’ve come. You can trust me.”

“Yeah, I know. You’ve changed.”

The sarcasm in her voice hung between them. “You’re not going to drive me away,” he said.

“For Jake and Benji’s sake, I’m not trying to,” she said. “Just don’t expect them to fall into your arms after three days.”

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