Chapter 37

GABRIEL

He settled into the chair at the table in the corner of the bakery, his back against the wall so that he had an unrestricted view through the large plate-glass windows and could see who entered the shop. Gabe, Sarah, Cleve, and Taylor had been putting up Halloween decorations since the night before and had added the finishing touches since early the morning, and Gabe was impressed with their creativity.

They had hung jack-o-lantern buckets filled with various cookies and pastries, and if a customer bought a certain baked goodie, they could choose their bucket, the lucky items chosen from a bowl on the counter every hour. All the cookies and pastries were shaped like witches on brooms, ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, pumpkins, and other Halloween paraphernalia. Cleve was dressed like Frankenstein, Taylor like Wednesday Addams, and Sarah had decided to dress like Goldilocks for the holiday.

Gabe couldn’t take his eyes off Sarah as she bent over the counter while serving customers, her long blonde braids swinging against the soft swell of her breasts emphasized by the black corset she wore over the white peasant blouse. He was watching her shapely legs disappear under the knee-length red wool skirt with the layers of white petticoats as she moved back into the kitchen when he became aware of Fatima sitting down in the other chair at his table.

“Why don’t you just get it over with and marry the woman?” she asked as she took her notebook out of her purse. Gabe had asked her to meet him at the bakery, not wanting to leave Sarah alone too long.

“Because I’ll break her heart, doc. At least now she’s not tied to me.” He took a sip of his coffee and tilted his head at the doctor as he gave his rehearsed answer.

“If you ask me, it won’t matter if she’s wearing your ring, she’s already tied to you as much as you are tied to her.”

Gabe straightened in his chair as he looked at Fatima, her quiet assertion making his heart skip a beat. He narrowed his eyes as he leaned his arms on the table, his left hand rubbing along the cast on his right arm. “Why would you say that, doc?”

She shook her head slowly, as though she couldn’t believe that he would ask her to elaborate. Then she tilted her head, a swath of dark hair falling over her shoulder as she blinked her brown eyes at him. “It’s simple, Gabriel. She’s invested completely, if something happens to you, her heart will be shattered. It won’t matter if she’s married to you or not, her heartbreak won’t be any less.”

~“…Wifey? …you might as well marry her, Jiminy. The two of you are heading there anyway…”~ Seth’s words earlier in the week played in his mind as he absorbed the doctor’s words. He couldn’t marry her with the knowledge that he could make her a widow before their first anniversary. As it was, they weren’t even dating all that long and he had already had more injuries than they had had kisses.

He gave a small smile while he shook his head. “Sorry, doc. That’s not a good topic today because I’m not going to change my mind.”

She narrowed her eyes as she studied him, and he could see the thoughts flitting behind those intelligent, brown depths. “Can I say just one more thing?”

“Sure…,” he drawled slowly.

“What are you going to do when you’re still alive twenty years from now and never gave her the honor of your name, Gabriel?”

He frowned at the doctor but was stopped from responding when Cleve placed a cup of coffee and a plate of pastries between them on the table. “Compliments of the kitchen,” Cleve said, smiling.

“Ooh,” Fatima cooed. “I like dessert for lunch.”

“Enjoy.” Cleve laughed as he went to help Taylor clear a table.

Gabe was again prevented from answering Fatima’s question when his phone buzzed with a text message. He grimaced as he lifted the phone to her. “I’m sorry, doc.”

She nodded as she bit into a Danish filled with banana and mint cream, her eyes closing in pleasure. Gabe checked the message that had pinged through.

Seth

Got some prints back. It’s definitely that coglione. I just don’t understand how he’s doing it!

Gabe

Has anybody seen him yet?

Seth

Not a fucking inch.

Gabe breathed out slowly. How can one person disappear in a town as small as Olathe, especially when he is clearly able to see Sarah at any given moment? He couldn’t understand it. There were extra patrols from the police and sheriff’s departments, off-duty officers who patrolled the area around the bakery and Sarah’s apartment, security cameras set up at both, and other measures that Gabe and Seth put into place. And yet, Christiano eluded all of that. Frustrated, Gabe ran a hand through his hair.

Fatima asked about how he was dealing with the time he had on his hands, knowing how much he hated being idle. He responded to her questions, his mind only half on their interaction as he finished his coffee. He was even more aware of Sarah moving between the tables, helping Cleve and Taylor serve their customers, noticing the increasing line of people waiting to be seated. Sarah will need to expand soon. She had plans to set tables on the sidewalk in the warmer months, but it seemed that the warm coziness of the bakery was the draw for most customers. The large fireplace with the burning yule log excited the kids tremendously.

“What’s your worst nightmare, Gabe?”

He turned his full attention to the doctor, considering her question. ~What is his worst nightmare? Is it the feeling of flying when he got blown off the ledge a week ago? Is it the one where Tia got shot while she was standing on his and Seth’s shoulders? Is it the sight of his youngest team member being filled with M16 rounds as he followed Gabe’s orders? Is it the one of the train, when he had to watch helplessly as the carriage filled with innocent victims exploded?~

A gasp from Sarah had him turning his head in her direction. He was on his feet and moving toward her before he realized that he had left the table. Her green eyes were large and bright in her suddenly pale face, her body tight with tension as she looked down at her phone.

“Rah?” He asked, his voice deep and raw with fear.

She shook her head as she looked up at him, tears spilling over her cheeks. She opened her mouth to speak to him, but no sound came out and she wrapped her hand around her neck, as if the words were hurting her throat on their way out. Instead, she held her phone out to him.

With a deep frown, he took her phone and felt his heart stop. And he could understand Sarah’s inability to speak because he was struggling to string thoughts, never mind words, together. His fingers curled around the edge of his cast, the grip on her phone making his knuckles white, his hands shaking as he stared at the image on the screen.

“Gabe?” He scowled up at the doctor as she approached them.

With difficulty, he wet his very dry throat so that he could get some words gritted between his tightly clenched teeth. “Doc, you asked me what my worst nightmare is?”

“Ye—Yes,” she stuttered, her brow furrowed at his softly growled question.

“This is it.” He handed the phone to her, and she gasped. The image of Amelia sitting in a hard kitchen chair, her hands tied to either side of the runged back, her feet bound halfway up the legs. Her eyes were large with fear, tears streaming down her dirty cheeks, her golden blonde hair streaked with dust and mud, visible even in the low light of the room she was kept in. Her orange and black wool dress with the white tumbling jack-o-lanterns was torn and dirty.

~Gabe closed his eyes as he remembered the way she had twirled for him that morning when he had picked them up, the black woven hem swirling around her legs and making her giggle. She had laughed, throwing her head back when he had picked her up and waltzed with her around the living room until Sarah had reminded Gabe about his cast. ~

~“The waltz doesn’t need my right arm, Rah,” he had sassed her, making Elli giggle even more.~

~His heart constricted as he remembered the sweet wave she had given him as her mother had taken her into the school building, her smile soft and inviting before she had turned and skipped alongside Sarah, her curly pigtails bouncing and swinging down her back. ~

His love for that little girl had seemed so small compared to the fear he felt for her now.

They had all been so focused on keeping Rah safe, that they hadn’t considered him using Amelia to get to Sarah, and that was a mistake that hit Gabe like an RPG to his stomach.

He took the phone from Fatima’s trembling hand and studied the photo again. And then he saw it, the one thing that turned the fear into a white-hot rage. The ass-jiggling, shit-sucking motherfucker had rigged her chair! He was one torn-apart, very dead son of a motherfucking bitch when Gabe got his hands on him!