Gabriel's Rule (14 page)

Gabe’s
lungs burned as he slowed his pace to a jog. Running around the neighborhood
wasn’t exactly his favorite place for a workout but there hadn’t been enough
time to drive up to the park. So he’d clipped a leash on Bella and she had
happily run next to him for the last three miles. Even when he sprinted, she
easily kept up with him. It had been almost a month since he’d found her and
she had settled into his and Riley’s life like she had been there all along. He
smiled when his thoughts drifted to Riley and the surprise on her face when
he’d joined her in the tiny shower stall this morning and pressed her against
the wall. It was still his favorite way to take her but they’d been having fun
experimenting with other positions too.

He’d
been to therapy three times already but it was still a struggle to comprehend
what had happened to him. He knew in his mind what the doctor and Riley told
him about it not being his fault made sense, but it was still a challenge to
admit that his choice had been taken away. The rehab facility had called the
day after his first meeting with Dr. Henderson to let him know his mom had
taken off again. He’d been a mess because he couldn’t stop thinking about how
he would react if and when she showed up at his apartment.

An
emergency session with Dr. Henderson had helped but it was Riley’s suggestion
that he move that had intrigued him. Not only because he would get that
distance from his mother that he needed, but also because it would be an
opportunity to move things forward with Riley. He still had moments of panic
that she would leave him, but she never showed any signs of being disgusted
with him and she told him she loved him every chance she got. He was starting
to believe she was in it with him for the long haul.

Gabe
rounded the corner and slowed to a walk when he saw his building. He would have
liked to have run longer but Riley had talked him into taking her bowling
again. This time she’d made a party out of it and invited Shane, Logan and
Logan’s younger sister, Savannah, who had just moved back to Seattle after
graduating from college someplace in the Midwest. Gabe stopped when a scream
pierced the air. He heard a man’s voice shouting and then another scream. His
heart stopped when he saw Riley at the other end of the block struggling with a
man by her car. He shouted her name and started running. Fear pierced his gut
when he saw the man punch Riley and she went limp. He screamed her name again
as he the reality hit him. No matter how fast he ran, he would never reach them
in time.

***

Riley’s
vision had dimmed when Paul hit her and she tried to struggle against him as he
pushed her into the black sedan parked next to her car. She thought she heard
Gabe shouting her name, but Paul was screaming practically in her ear so it was
hard to make anything else out. She’d left the apartment to grab something from
her car and he was just there and on her so fast it had taken several precious
seconds to even realize it was him.

“Get
in the car you fucking bitch!” Her head bounced off the top of the car as he
shoved her down into the driver’s seat. “Do you think you can destroy my life
and just walk away you slut?” He was so enraged that spittle actually landed on
her as he ranted. “You are coming back to Texas with me and you are going to
tell you parents that you fucked up and that we are getting married.”

“You’re
insane,” she said softly as she realized he truly was. She suddenly knew that
if he got her all the way in his car, she wouldn’t walk away from this. She
wouldn’t ever see Gabe again. Adrenaline surged through her as she kicked out
at his knee. It didn’t drop him like when Gabe had done it all those weeks ago
to Stubby at the bar, but it gave her the advantage she needed to scramble free
of the car. She only made it a few steps before he grabbed her by the hair and
slammed her down against the roof. He spun her around to face him and then she
felt the cold metal of the gun pressed to her forehead.

“You
don’t get to ruin my life and walk away,” he said coldly and she saw his finger
move on the trigger. A split second later he was gone and it took Riley several
seconds to figure out why. Paul was on the ground, the gun laying several feet
away, and Bella was latched on to his arm. He screamed in pain as he tried to
push the dog off but she dug in and held on. And then Gabe was there, pulling
her into his arms.

“Riley?
Riley, talk to me honey, are you okay?” She nodded but couldn’t get any words
out. He checked her quickly and before she could stop him, he had dropped to
the ground and was punching Paul over and over. As blood spurted from Paul’s
nose and mouth and he stopped screaming, Riley finally came to her senses.

“Gabe
stop!” When he ignored her she ran around so she could face him and she dropped
down in front of him. “Gabe, please stop. He’s done.” When he kept pounding,
she screamed at him to stop and he finally seemed to register her presence. She
reached out to him with shaking hands and glanced down to see if Paul was still
alive. Panic seized her when he didn’t move and visions of Gabe in prison
flashed through her head. Bella, sensing Paul was no longer a threat, released
his arm and went to sit next to Gabe.

“Did
he hurt you?” Gabe was asking her. She shook her head and then cried out in
relief when she saw Paul move. She threw herself into Gabe’s arms and he pulled
her away from the bloodied man. She clung to him as people started gathering
around them and when the police showed up she hoped to God they wouldn’t take
him from her.

“Guys,
can you find someplace else to do that?” Shane muttered to the two lovebirds
who were making out in the doorway as he stood in the hall, a heavy box in hand.
Riley jumped back in embarrassment but Gabe wasn’t about to let her go.

He
pulled her back in his arms, turned to Shane and said, “take a break” and then
slammed the door shut in his face.

“They’re
at it again, huh?” Logan said as made his way towards the apartment, a lamp in
one hand, a decorative pillow in the other.

Shane
dumped the box on the floor and motioned to the stuff in Logan’s arms. “Could
you have possibly picked anything lighter to carry up here?”

Ignoring
the snide comment, Logan put the stuff down and looked around. “They picked a
nice place, huh?

It
was nice. The apartment building was in a wooded area with plenty of trails
nearby. There were only 4 units per building and Gabe and Riley had snagged an
upper unit. He hadn’t been inside yet, but based on the position of the
building he guessed they had a nice view of the huge pond that the complex
surrounded.

“They
deserve it,” Shane said softly.

“Logan?”

“Up
here Savannah,” Logan said as he leaned over the railing and waved his hand.
“I’m gonna go get another load.”

“Yeah,
maybe a pack of tissues this time,” Shane said sarcastically. Logan gave him
the finger as he walked away, but quickly dropped it when he passed his sister
at the top of the stairs. Shane gave in to his need to watch the beautiful
young woman walking towards him, Bella in tow. But then he remembered who she
was and who and was and he forced his eyes away from her. He bit back a curse
and then turned to pound his fist on the door.

***

“We
need to let them in,” Riley said against his lips.

“They
can wait. It’s a nice day out,” Gabe said as pulled her closer and slipped his
tongue into her mouth. She kissed him back and rubbed her body against him.

He
pulled her tight against him as a brief flash of losing her went through his
mind. He’d get them every once in a while since Paul’s attack. The man would
rot in prison for a long time, but Gabe still found himself reluctant to let
Riley out of his sight. She seemed understanding about it and stepped up her
efforts to keep in touch with him wherever she was. If his protectiveness
annoyed her, she didn’t show it.

It
had been almost six weeks since that horrific day. They’d gone to the hospital
so Riley could get checked out for her injuries, which turned out to be minor,
thank God, and that’s when he had asked her to move in with him. They’d been
surrounded by people and chaos but he needed to know that she would always be
with him. The new apartment they had found was close to the vet Riley had found
a job with and the university was just a few minutes away by car.

It
was scary to be going back to school to finish his degree in architecture but
he’d always wanted to finish his education one day. He knew it meant seeing
less of Riley every day since he would be taking different hours for his
construction work, but she assured him that they would make time for each
other. His therapy had continued to be a struggle and he had made enough
progress where he could admit what had happened to him hadn’t been his fault.
But using the words ‘mother’ and ‘rape’ in the same sentence was still
something he couldn’t do.

He
hadn’t seen or heard from his mother at all and he was still working through
how to confront her with what she had done to him. Dr. Henderson thought it
would help him move on, but Gabe wondered if his mother would even comprehend
anything since she seemed to be on a constant high. He’d deal with it when the
time came, he reminded himself, and focused on the woman in his arms.

“They’re
doing us a huge favor by helping us move,” she said against his lips.

“That’s
what friends do. Believe me, when they meet the women of their dreams, they’ll
understand.”

Riley
laughed and pushed him away and went to open the door. Gabe snagged her arm and
pulled her back against him. “Thanks for breaking all my rules,” he said
softly.

“Thanks
for letting me.” She kissed him again and then reluctantly pulled free of his
grip so she could go let their friends in.

The End

Dear Reader,

I
hope you enjoyed reading Gabe and Riley’s story as much as I enjoyed writing
it. They will both be back in Shane’s story which I hope you will check out,
because Shane is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters.

As
a new author, I am always grateful for feedback so if you have the time and
desire, please leave a review, good or bad, so I can continue to find out what
my readers’ like and don’t like. You can also send me feedback via email at
[email protected]

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Shane’s
Fall
will be coming out soon.
Check out the next page for more information…

Shane’s Fall (Book 2, The Escort
Series)

Sloane Kennedy

Shane Matthews loves women, sex and money and as a
professional escort, he gets to have all three whenever he wants. So what if
he’s not the same, naïve person he was when he started – it’s what he’s good at.
But life is catching up with Shane and he’s losing the battle against an
addiction that has haunted him for years. He’s managed to keep the truth from
his friends and family, but the pressure of pretending to be perfect may just
be too much.

Savannah Bradshaw needs to get her life back under
control before the fear and pain consume her. A brutal assault from someone she
trusted has left her fearing sex and men and the dangerous method she uses to
cope is stealing her life. She needs Shane to show her how to escape the pain,
but as his best friend’s little sister, he’s keeping her at arm’s length.

Savannah’s desperate plan to bring them together for
one night has Shane agreeing to show her the pleasure her body can experience, but
she has to agree to his terms. Giving her what she needs should be easy, as
long as he doesn’t do something stupid like fall in love with her…

Letting Go

After years of running from her brutal past Casey
Wilkes has finally managed to carve out a quiet life running an animal shelter
with her best friend in a small Northern Wisconsin town. And even though her
menagerie of unwanted animals can’t keep the nightmares at bay she can at least
finally breathe again. But everything changes when a mysterious stranger walks
into the shelter with news of her sister’s death and a plan to get custody of
the niece Casey never knew she had.
Multi-millionaire Devlin Prescott made a promise to protect the child of the
woman who saved his son’s life and if keeping that promise means dragging Casey
back into her past kicking and screaming then so be it. After all, it’s just
another business deal.
But what he finds is a damaged woman struggling to put the pieces of her life
back together and her quiet strength, steely determination and gentle heart
have him questioning his methods and his feelings.
Can he find a way to keep his promise to a little girl and still prevent Casey
from slipping back into a life that may end up destroying her for good?