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“You’re impossible. That wasn’t anokayat all.”
He leads me into the elevator. “Then what was it?”
“It was you being cocky and arrogant enough to believe you can change my mind.”
“Okay,” he says again, folding me close, and damn it, he smells like sandalwood, which I love. It’s distracting.
I laugh and he kisses me. “Now you have lipstick on your mouth,” I say, wiping it away with my finger.
“And every man who sees you will be jealous.”
He’s charming and sexy and fun and honest. He’s a good man. I like this about Gabe. I might learn tolovethis about Gabe. I might just fall in love with Gabe. It’s a terrifying thought that the ding of the elevator saves me from displaying on my far-too-expressive face.
We hurry to the lobby and then to the car Gabe has waiting for us to avoid the struggle of getting his car from the garage, which he apparently does often.
Fifteen minutes later, we’re in the fancy high-rise where his offices are located and in his office before the staff arrives. His executive corner office has a seating area, conference table and view of the city that he promises can be mine one day. “All you have to do is come to work with us.”
He’s convincing and he doesn’t promise to buy me things or give me things. He promises opportunity for me to do it myself and it’s just one more thing I like about this man.
We’re dealing this when a pretty blonde woman in a blue dress walks in the door. “Hi,” she says, glancing at me.
“Abbie, this is Connie, Reid’s assistant who’s helping me while Lulu, my actual assistant is on a vacation,” Gabe offers and soon we’re all talking, chatting about the shelter and much more.
Gabe’s phone on his desk buzzes and he takes the call to then glance between myself and Connie. “I have a problem to deal with. Connie, show Abbie around, will you? She’s a friend doing consulting work for me.” He winks at me, this story he’s relayed one we came up with in the elevator. “That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.”
I smile and he exits the office. I spend the next hour with Connie and confirm that Gabe is a powerhouse who never loses because he works that hard and is that smart.
With Starbucks in our hands, we return to Gabe’s office and I find him with his lookalike and I don’t have to ask who this is. It’s his brother, Reid. Both men turn to look at me. “Come in and shut the door,” Gabe orders softly.
Unease slides through me. “What’s wrong?”
Reid walks around me and shuts the door behind me. Gabe rounds the desk, and steps in front of me, taking the coffees I’mholding and handing them off the Reid. His hands then come down on my shoulders. “Your ex-husband is dead.”
Part Two
Chapter forty-nine
Abbie
Dead.
I can barely process that word. Kenneth, a man I once called husband, is dead, no longer walking this earth.
Gabe’s office starts to close in around me. This isn’t happening. I can’t breathe. I can’t even process words to speak them.
“Abbie,” Gabe says softly, his fingers flexing on my shoulders, his big body close, a hard, solid wall of support I need right now. “Talk to me,” he orders, cupping my face and tilting my eyes to his. “Are you okay?”
“I’m—I’m in shock, I think.” I swallow hard. “How? How did he die?”
“No word on how. The police haven’t gone public yet.”
Becauseit’s murder, I think, because I can’t bear to say this out loud.
“Wait? What? It’s not public? How do you know before I know?”
“Someone who works for Jean Claude under my father called Reid.”
“To tell him that Kenneth is dead,” I say, still trying to process all of this.
