Page 16 of The Captive Missing

This time Gabe didn’t wait for a response. Instead, he strode into the kitchen and grabbed down an entire bottle of whiskey. Not bothering with a glass, he turned on his heel and walked back out onto the deck. The door clicked quietly closed behind him.

At Cambric, Val had always played the peacemaker between Bee and Gabe. And her role had served their little family well. The fighters would fight, retreat to their corners, and the enabler would come to each of them in turn.

Normally, Val would have gone to Bee first, as was their custom, but that somehow seemed an unnecessary move here. It was Gabe that she needed to sway. So she rinsed her hands calmly in the sink as the two mother’s murmured together. Drying her hands on a nearby towel, Val left it folded neatly on the marble countertop before departing.

At the row of wide French doors, she hesitated, but only for a moment. The deck was all dark, save for the pool which glistened in the caress of the moonlight. The water of the sea rippled just beyond.

Inhaling a great big breath, Val held it. Willing her hands to stop in their tingling, she reached for one silver doorknob and twisted it sharply. Without looking back, Val stepped into the night and shut the door firmly behind her.

The air was cool, a pleasant contrast to the damp sweat that now covered her body. How had she not noticed the suppressing heat that simmered inside that house? Or perhaps it wasn’t actually hot in there at all, but just inside of her.

Gabe was nowhere to be seen. Illumination from inside the home shone out onto the deck, but revealed no figure.

Circling the pool and passing the spa, Val approached the railing. Her palms spread over the smooth wood as her eyes darted to the boat. It still bobbed softly in its mooring. She exhaled. The fear of him already leaving was now gone.

For a moment, she let her eyes adjust to the darkness. Up above, a million stars seemed so close that she could reach up and grab a handful. They sparkled and glittered, giving up light like a million diamonds. It made her think of Jason, and the necklace she had so foolishly forgotten back in France. How she missed him, the way he looped the strand around her neck, the gentle caress of his breath on her skin.

Giving her head a little shake, Val spied Gabe walking along the dock. The glint of the bottle in his hand gave away his position.

Taking the steps two at a time, she had no regard for her bare feet on the planks, or the sway of the wood as it moved under her. By the time she reached him, Gabe had flopped down on the edge of the dock, his legs dangling in the ocean.

All the while she had hurried, as if there was actually a way for him to escape. But now that he sat in surrender, one hand propped up behind him, the other clutching the whiskey, she slowed her pace.

He acknowledged her presence with a bob of his head, but didn’t glance her way. Getting down beside him, Val too lowered her feet over the edge until her ankles were surrounded by the salty kiss of water.

Together, they sat in silence, listening to the creak of the dock beneath them and the constant rumble of the waves lapping delicately at the shoreline. Eventually he offered her the bottle, but she declined, not sure her stomach could withstand the hit.

“So,” Val began. “You’re going back.”

“I’m going back.”

“Cambric will conscript you, whether Jason and his lawyers fight it or not.”

“I know what conscription is.”

Gabe swigged at the bottle, smacking his lips when done. The law concerning captives had been written in favor of the agencies so many centuries before. Conscription was the right an agency had to its captive. If there was any question, the agency involved would maintain possession of said captive until a judgment was entered by a court.

If Gabe returned, even though his freedom was in dispute, he would be taken back by Cambric; conscripted into their service until such a time as a judge or a jury set him free. It could last years, or forever.

“Is Bee right?”

“About what?”

“Does some part of you want to go back?”

“How can you even ask me that?!” Gabe whirled on her, his expression a mix of anger and hurt.

“She thinks you feel trapped by her,” Val explained. “That you didn’t get a chance to choose a free woman. That it’s holding you back from committing to her.”

“Committing?!” Gabe gestured over his shoulder to the house. “I bought us a house, pay for everything, support her. What isn’t committing in that?”

“You aren’t married.”

“No.” Gabe sighed, letting his gaze drift out over the water. “We’re not married.”

“Because part of you doesn’t want her?”

“Is that what she thinks?” Gabe asked, taking another shot from the bottle.

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