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“Yes. I’m not falling for you,” she repeats.
I wink. “I hear ya, sweetheart. I’m not falling for you, either. So, put your spellbook back on the bookshelf. It won’t work.”
She studies me an intense moment and then she laughs. And I laugh and the moment weaves into a current that is all about sex and satisfaction and about ten shades of something more that I don’t begin to understand. But damn, I want to, I want to in a bad way.
I wantherin a bad way.
And her ex better look out, because I’m not moving aside. I’m going to stand between him and her, a wall that punches back.
Chapter seventeen
Gabe
We’re about ten minutes out from the shelter when Abbie gets a text. “My mother,” she says, reading the message and then updating me. “She has tons of volunteers that just showed up and none of the animals are in danger as she feared. They moved the ones that were in danger with more ease than expected.” She glances at me. “But it’s still a horrible mess and the cages that are safe are crowded with too many dogs.”
“We need to find a place to move them,” I say, confirming what she’d suggested earlier.
“Exactly.”
“I’ll make some calls. I have a few contacts that might be able to help.” My cellphone rings and I glance down at it to find Reid’s number. “My brother,” I say, eyeing Abbie, who immediately sits up slightly, in reaction. “The real asshole of the family,” I add, winking, trying to ease the tension I feel radiating off of her before I answer the line with, “Morning, asshole.”
“Let’s talk about the property your new girlfriend owns,” he says, letting my endearment roll right off of him and skipping any niceties. Reid doesn’t do nice and I generally like this aboutmy brother. “Nothing is pulling up on it that indicates a reason her ex would be hot to get his hands on that location,” he continues, “at least not that I could find in a basic search.”
“He’d be smart enough to suppress that information.”Then again, he wasn’t smart enough to keep Abbie, I think, and add out loud, “Or someone on his team would be.”
“Jean Claude damn sure would be,” Reid agrees. “And if dad’s representing Jean Claude, we know he damn sure would as well. We need to know what’s on the line before I go stirring this pot.”
“I’ll get Walker Security to dig into the hidden agenda here.”
“I think that’s a good idea, and speaking of hidden agendas. Before you dive in too deep with this woman, I get it. She’s under your skin, but her ex is a rich dick aligned with dangerous people. Maybe he wants her back. He has plenty of money to lure her back. You need to be careful. Don’t go getting fucked in the head and the heart when you usually just get fucked.”
I stifle a need to snap back. He’s protecting me and now that he’s warned me, I’m reminded of just how obsessed Abbie is with her ex. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. I shouldn’t have to remind a woman that I’m the only man in the room.Fuck.She should know, and Abbie—Abbie doesn’t allow me to be the only man in the room, ever. Not thus far. I should have her with me fully, have her absorbed enough that it’s not even a question; I know she’s thinking of me.
“I want to know what this is really about before I play on this field,” Reid says, pulling me back into the conversation. “And I want you to know, too.”
My jaw sets hard. “Understood.”
“Call me,” he says. “Let me know. I’m in this if you are. You know that.”
He disconnects and I grip the steering wheel, tension radiating down my spine. “What did he say?” Abbie asks, her tone urgent. “Because you changed on that call.”
“We can talk about it after we finish at the shelter.”
She catches my arm and repeats herself, “What did he say?”
“Reid needs more information to move forward.” I turn us into the shelter parking lot.
“I can give him anything he wants,” she says, “but that isn’twhat happenedon that call. That’s just information from the conversation. Something happened. What?”
I pull us into a parking spot, twenty cars deep from the building entrance and the place is insanely busy with what I assume to be volunteers. I kill the engine, my vision locked on a concrete wall in front of me, while my body and mind are locked on Abbie. Abbie who is under my damn skin. Abbie who has done what no other woman has since college, and that was a long damn time ago when I was young and foolish.
“Why does he want this property, Abbie?”
“I have no idea, Gabe. None. He happily handed it over to me in the divorce. It’sallI took.”
“This makes no sense. None of this makes any sense.”
“What does that even mean?” Her tone is sharper now, her defenselessness radiating in words.
