AllFreeNovel
Share Us
gabe
I wake at the dawn’s light peeking through the curtains and lay there a good half hour, holding Abbie, replaying last night. A luxury I have now because I took Dexter out about two hours ago when Abbie murmured something incoherent and fell back to sleep. Now, lying in the dimly lit room, I focus on one thing. I told her I got fixed. I’ve never told anyone. I wear a condom for safety. I wear a condom to avoid questions. Abbie is the only woman with whom I’ve ever gone without a condom. Well, the only one for a long damn time. Maybe she wants kids. I didn’t ask her. I don’t want to know. Not now. Not fucking now. I don’t want to find out there’s anything to divide us.
I nuzzle her neck and she snuggles deeper into the bed. She’s sound asleep, peaceful. Comfortable in a way I want her to stay here with me.
I ease out of the bed and quietly head to the bathroom. A few minutes later, my teeth are brushed, and I’m in sweats and a T-shirt when I start a pot of coffee and then feed Dexter. While the coffee brews, I take the pooch for a walk, and the damn dog’s happiness is infectious. He lightens my mood, calms my soul.
A half hour later, he’s at my feet in the kitchen while I drink coffee, and I’m convinced he’s safe to have the full run of the house. He deserves the freedom. I open my MacBook to dig into a strategy to deal with Abbie’s situation when my cellphone rings. It’s my brother. “What’s happening?” Reid asks.
“Our father served a lawsuit on Abbie that has our company’s name on it.”
“That little bitch,” he says. “He was trying to make her think you were playing her.”
“Exactly.”
“What are you going to do?”
“File a cease and desist order on him. I’m concerned that him using our name this easily is a sign that he’s doing it elsewhere. We don’t need that connection. We know what he’s capable of.”
“We do,” he says. “But, Gabe, man, Jean Claude is a bad dude. He’ll do what he needs to do to win. He’ll get bloody. If Abbie’s ex is on his team, he’s no better. What do we know about the reason they want that property?”
Bloody. Not a word I want associated with Abbie. “We don’t. I’m working on it.”
“I need to just call Jean Claude and let him know I’m in this. I’m in this all the way because he knows I know ways to hurt him.”
Which is exactly why I was thinking about Reid during my walk with Dexter. “And now you have a way for him to hurt you. Your wife. Step back from this.”
“You’re my brother. I’m in this by default, but if you thought I’d step back when you needed me, we have some brother shit to talk through.”
“That wife of yours is making you too touchy-feely, man. We don’t have anything to talk through outside of you protecting your wife. Stay out of the country. Let me deal with this.”
“You called me, remember?”
“I do,” I say. “But that’s before I realized how fucked up this was going to get. Threats are being punched around.”
“Yours or theirs?”
“Both.”
“In other words, I need to come back now.”
“Fuck, man. What part of stay out of the country do you not understand?”
“The very fact that you think that I need to stay out of the country tells me that you’re in real trouble.”
“I’m not in trouble,” I bite out, ready to pour some whiskey into my coffee. “I’m making sure you don’t get into trouble.”
“We’re both eager to come back and see the furry farm,” he says, speaking of the new dog and cat they adopted right before they got married. “We already booked our flights. We’ll be back by tomorrow morning.” He hangs up.
I grimace and sip my coffee. Yeah. I need that damn whiskey, all right.
The stakes just got higher. I now have my new woman to protect, right along with my brother and his wife. Which means I can’t play around. I can’t let this turn into a drawn-out war. I can’t allow blood to be drawn on our side. It has to be blood on the other side. And it has to be now.
I get up and walk to the bar, pull out a bottle of whiskey and pour it into my cup. It’s time to get serious about doing what I do best. What I don’t want Abbie to know I do best.
Playing dirty.
Dexter whines at my feet and I walk to the cabinet and grab one of the treats I bought him, feeding the beast. Then me and my serial killer dog get to work hatching a plan to end our problem: Abbie’s ex-husband.
