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“No,” she says. “I can’t have that hanging in the air. I need to know what I’m facing.”
My lips thin and I hand her the envelope. She stares at it and then rips it open, reads a moment, and then opens the door, and tries to get out. I catch her arm to try to stop her, and she whirls on me. “Let go, Gabe. The game is over.”
Dread cuts thorough me with the certainty that my father knows I’m involved and he just drew the first blood: mine. But he won’t draw the last. Not if he makes me lose Abbie.
Chapter twenty-six
Gabe
“Whatever you think you know, you don’t,” I say. “It’s a trick. Something they plotted to get you away from me.”
She whirls on me. “Your firm is suing me. How can they be a part of that?”
“That bastard,” I bite out. “My fucking father, who just exited the company. That’s how. He started the firm. He’s registered on hundreds of firm cases. I’ll handle it.”
“You’re too close to the man who’s coming at me.”
“No,” I say. “I’m dangerous to them, not you. They know that or they wouldn’t have pulled that stunt. And I guarantee you that wasn’t filed. Look at it closer. Let me look at it.”
“Gabe.” My name trembles from her lips.
“Don’t let them win, Abbie. That’s what you’re doing if you run right now.”
“I’m not running.”
“You run every other minute with me. And I get it. You don’t want to want me. Well, I don’t want to want you either butapparently, I don’t have a choice. This happened. We happened and it’s scaring a lot of people other than us.”
She inhales, cuts her stare, and then settles back into her seat. “You’re right. Your father is behind this. You told me he was involved with Jean Claude.” She looks at me. “I’m sorry.” She hands me the envelope.
I open it to find a lawsuit from one of the neighbors of the shelter who alleges she tried to unlawfully force him from his property to take it over. The note says the lawsuit is being filed Monday, and it’s on our letterhead with our firm on the documents. I stick it back inside the envelope. “That will never be filed. He doesn’t work for our firm any longer. This is all a game my father’s playing.” I hand her the envelope. “I’ll take care of him. That’s a promise.” I look at her. “And you don’t know me yet, but I don’t make promises I don’t keep, good or bad.” It’s out before I can stop it, that darker part of me I show only to my enemies and I don’t wallow in it. I never do. My cellphone rings as I put us in drive and set us in motion. I pull it from my pocket and find Grayson’s number, kicking myself for the fact that I didn’t actually check with him before we left, though I hadn’t seen him for a good long while either at that point. Actually, I didn’t say goodbye to my sister either. Fuck, what’s wrong with me?
“Grayson,” I greet, answering the line.
“We’re taking a chopper to the Hamptons. You two want to ride along?”
“We’re in,” I say. “When?”
“We’re there now,” he says. “We’ll wait on you.”
“We’re only about ten minutes away.” I disconnect. “We’re flying into the Hamptons with Grayson and Mia.”
“I thought they’d left? Oh God. Gabe, we didn’t tell your sister goodbye. She was so nice to help and we didn’t even say goodbye.”
We.
I like that word choice.
She twists around to face me, the tension over my father now missing between us. “Maybe we should swing back by the shelter,” she suggests. “I’ll call and find out where she is.”
I pull my phone out of my pocket. “I’ll call her.”
“Put her on speaker, will you?”
I dial Cat and she answers on the first ring. “I was about to call you,” she says as I hit the speaker button. “I got sick. We had to leave and I couldn’t find you. I’m so sorry, but we’re making a donation and will be back tomorrow if they need us.”
“Are you okay, Cat?” Abbie asks, worry in her voice.
“I am,” she says. “I’ve battled some sickness my entire pregnancy. It will pass. If you need me tomorrow, call, okay? Gabe, give her my number.”
