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It’s twenty minutes later when Dexter and I arrive home and the minute I open the door, Abbie is running toward us. We launch ourselves in her direction and she all but slams into me, immediately trying to explain herself. “I wanted to tell you, but—”
I kiss her. “I know why you told Blake. It was a smart decision. I might have killed him and then you’d have to visit me in jail and that would get complicated.”
Dexter barks and Abbie laughs, tears streaming down her face as she kneels and ends up tackled. Savage silently walks past her, giving me a nod and exiting the apartment. I lock the door and go down on the floor next to Abbie. It’s a long time later when Dexter calms down and the doggy attacks are over. Abbie and I don’t get up. We lay there and stare at each other.
“I was afraid we’d lose him,” she whispers, her fingers curling on my jaw as we both roll to our sides and face each other.
“Never,” I promise. “You’re never going to lose him or me, Abbie.”
“Just so you know, Gabe, I don’t think I can help but fall in love with you. If that’s a problem then—”
I cup her head and kiss her, a deep stroke of tongue before I whisper, “I’ve loved you since you kissed me by the bathroom in that bar. I love you, Abbie.”
“I love you, too, Gabe.”
Dexter barks his love and we both laugh. “He loves us, too,” I say, before I stand, scoop Abbie up and carry her toward the bedroom where I intend to show her how much I love every inch of her, tonight and as many nights as she allows me. All of the nights she will ever live. Because she’s the reason I live.
Chapter ninety-one
Reid
Ienter my father’s apartment to find him sitting in one of two chairs that faces a window overlooking the city. I sit down next to him. I don’t speak. Seconds stretch to minutes before he says, “There’s a small town in Italy I’m quite fond of. I’ll leave tomorrow morning.”
I feel those words in an explosion of emotions. He’s my father. He’s a bastard. He’s leaving. I’ll probably never see him again because we both know he’s not going where he says he’s going. We both know he can’t afford to have Jean Claude find him.
“I’ll give you a ride to the airport right after you pay off that woman trying to extort us on your behalf.”
“You pay her the fuck off and I’ll give myself a ride to the airport.” He looks over at me. “I’ll be back when the baby is born.” His expression is defiant. There’s no love for Cat and his future grandbaby. It’s his way of telling me that I can’t get rid of him, not until he’s in his grave.
My father underestimates Jean Claude.
Or perhaps Gabe and I underestimate our father, and he’ll be back here causing trouble, proving Gabe’s superhero-villain-that-won’t-die theory. Whatever the case, I walk to the front desk, open the drawer, pull out the checkbook I knew would be there, and point. “Write a check to the woman. Or should I ask Jean Claude to pay your debt?”
He smirks, amused, like he’s proud of me for outsmarting him. I really fucking hate when he makes me feel like a chip off the old block but he writes the check and hands it to me. I happily take it. “Happy now?”
“Like a pig rolling in your shit,” I say and I am because at least for now, maybe forever, he’s leaving, and we’ll have peace. I don’t say another word. I walk to the door with one intention: going home to my wife and holding her closely, because my father has a way of making me appreciate how damn lucky I am to have her. At least for now, this is over and my brother has finally found his way, outside any path my father influenced. If we’re lucky, we’ll have Cat’s baby and another Maxwell wedding in the near future.
Chapter ninety-two
Abbie
Packing up my apartment on Saturday is surreal in all kinds of ways, as is the funeral for Kenneth that has come and gone now without my presence. A chapter or even ten, of my life, it seems, have closed. For Gabe, too, where his father’s concerned. He and Reid had confirmed the claim this morning by stopping by his apartment to find him gone. Blake confirmed he found a flight out of the country for him as well.
“Any regrets?” Gabe asks as a group of movers leaves with the last of my furniture, which I’ve donated to a charity.
“None,” I say. “None at all.”
He smiles and kisses me. “Then let’s go home.”
Hours later, I’m in his office that we’re sharing now, filing away some of my basic documents, like my birth certificate, when I find a bag with a couple of cellphones in it. Gabe appears in the doorway, looking sexy as hell in a simple white tee and jeans. This man is mine. I am his. Does life get any better?
“You want a glass of wine?”
Apparently, it does. With wine. “I’d love a glass.” I hold up the bag of cellphones. “Do you secretly run a cellphone store and I don’t know it?”
His jaw clenches and looks skyward before he closes the space between us and kneels in front of me. “Rose-colored glasses, Abbie? Is that how you really want to see me and us?”
I inhale and let it out, and I don’t know why, but I know what this is. “You used them when you were planning to ruin Kenneth.” Surprise flickers in his eyes. “I told you. I don’t see you with rose-colored glasses. And you told me you tried to ruin him. Am I right about the phones?”
