Gambled - A Titan Novella
Read Gambled - A Titan Novella Online
Authors: Cristin Harber
Tags: #Romantic Suspense, #Romance, #military romance, #short story, #novella, #redepemtion, #married couple
GAMBLED
Cristin Harber
CHAPTER ONE
Afternoon light poured through the slats of the bedroom blinds. Brock Gamble had been home alone, drunk, for days. No wife. No kids. Just him and empty bottles of Jack and Johnny.
A freight train of nausea catapulted from his soured stomach, and he stumbled into the bathroom to dry heave, which was nothing new. Collapsing to his knees, his gaze tripped over the counter. It was free of all of his wife Sarah’s necessities. He twisted his head toward the bathtub, where no one had touched the bath toys he always stepped on.
His loneliness echoed around him.
Time ticked by while he climbed further into his personal hellhole. At first, this had seemed surmountable. Sarah would come home. It would blow over once he could explain. But then a week turned into two, and she didn’t.
I miss her so damn much. And the kids…
The pain was incomprehensible.
One bad decision had led to another. When his family had been kidnapped, he hadn’t thought clearly. He’d betrayed one person after the next. His family when he hadn’t utilized any of Titan Group’s black ops resources. His mentor, Jared Westin, who’d taught him everything the military hadn’t. His men, the Titan team that bled loyalty. And he’d betrayed Sugar, a friend who he had abducted and offered in exchange for the safe return of Sarah and the kids.
It hadn’t worked. Big surprise. He’d been led around by his nuts instead of making tactical, strategic choices.
Regret hit him like a brutal tidal wave. The same wave pounded him day in, day out. As it threw another mighty punch of guilt and betrayal, Brock knew he’d throw up and pass out soon. Just to have the sandman visit him with nightmares.
Finally, crawling back to the bedroom, he stood long enough to scour the room for a liquor bottle. Something, anything, as long as it was mind-numbing.
He needed another swig, so he would either die in his sleep or, if not that lucky, be able to forget whatever dream would torture him while he slept.
***
“Mommy.” Kelly stomped in, followed closely by Jessica, who stomped just like her older sister. “Jess is copying me. She won’t leave me alone. Tell her to go away.”
Jessica stomped her foot exactly like Kelly had. “Jess is copying me. She won’t leave me alone. Tell her to—”
“Girls, find Grandma. Tell her that you need something to do.” If sibling antagonism was a sign of normalcy, Sarah’s kids were going to be just fine. They’d survived an abduction and moved in with her mother, leaving her husband… who knew where her husband was. He hadn’t come home, and she’d needed to get out of their house. Everywhere she looked was a memory of a life she didn’t want anymore. She wasn’t staying under that roof, married to a man she didn’t really know. The decision was far from rational, but she’d pulled stakes and left him a note.
I never asked questions about what you did at work because I trusted you. I don’t know you, and I don’t know how you live with yourself.
It’d been harsh. She’d been emotional. And if she had to do it over again, she would have said something along the lines of
I can’t wrap my head around Titan, and how people you work with might want to harm us. I was in shock. Still am. You promised that whatever you did at work, we’d be safe at home, and I feel betrayed, confused, and vulnerable. This isn’t just about me; I have to keep our children safe.
It wouldn’t have mattered what she wrote, he hadn’t been there after she’d survived a shootout. He hadn’t come home to check on her, hadn’t called about the kids. Sarah had known that he ran off to save the world while working with Titan. That he did things that were questionable, but he promised it was for the greater good.
So many questions. So many overwhelming emotions. And none of it was worth sticking around for if his livelihood endangered their children.
Kelly and Jessica ignored her suggestion to find Grandma and took turns mimicking each other. Maybe it was their age. At eight and six, Kelly and Jessica were like Teflon. Nothing seemed to stick, at least on the surface, though Sarah was sure she should start squirreling away money for therapy. No family walked out on a dad and remained unscathed.
It was only a matter of time before their invisible wounds surfaced.
Brock was gone for weeks at a time for work. That may’ve been their saving grace. The girls were used to being without him. She’d been used to time without him too. But this was different.
Every night, she cried herself to sleep because, in her heart, she loved the man she’d thought she knew. He was long gone, maybe never really existed. She’d learned more about Brock in the week living with the enemy than she had in a decade of marriage.
She’d been naïve. Purposely or not, she’d closed her mind to what he did on his work trips. When he came home with gunshot wounds or explosive burns, she
knew
it was because he’d saved someone’s life. Not taken another’s.
Surrounded by half-emptied boxes in her mom’s Pennsylvania guest house, Sarah wondered how life in Virginia had been so… sheltered.
Her cell phone rang. She grabbed it as the girls ran outside.
Sugar
. “Hey—”
“Are you sulking or surviving?”
If there was one thing she’d learned about Sugar, it was that the woman was direct. “Surviving. Mostly.”
“What about the girls?”
She stared out a window, wrapping and rewrapping a dishtowel around her hands. “They seem excited to be in a normal school. It’s small, private, not overwhelming. So it’s working. Much different from homeschooling them.”
“What about you? You run up north, how’s that going to help your problems?’
Sarah swallowed the lump in her throat. “Meaning?”
“Brock.”
His name made her arm feel like stone. It fell to her side. The towel dangled, as lifeless as she felt. “You know him better than me, Sugar. Definitely in a different light.”
“Bull.”
She laughed sadly. Sugar never held anything back. “I miss him and wish things could’ve been different.”
“Cut the crap, Sarah. That’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever said to me. I was ATF. I was trained. If he was too panicked to use Titan and had to do something to save his family, I was a good bet. I’d survive. No one was taking me out like that.”
“I just feel—”
“If you spout some woe-is-me shit, I’ll probably come to PA and kick some sense into you. Give the guy a break.”
“Excuse me?”
“Give him a chance to explain.”
“You’ve forgiven him for what he did to you? Fine.” She snapped the towel. “Well, I can’t.”
“That’s my burden to bear, babe. He was trying to save you.”
“If he’d made different choices, if I’d known the kids were in so much danger…” She turned to see if they could hear her, but Kelly and Jessica were occupied terrorizing each other. “If he’d—”
“If he did what, Sarah? I’ve had the same conversations with Jared. So answer that—if he’d what? Desperate men made desperate decisions. They’re all morons. So you deal with it.”
She couldn’t stand still and stalked out of the room. “I’m angry at him.”
“Hell, me too.”
“You weren’t married to him.”
“You still are.”
She bit her lip then said, “I still am.”
Still, she couldn’t get over her angry. It was a vicious, nonsensical circle. Like a hamster running on its wheel, once her mind started spinning, she panted through mental laps, trying to find an answer. Trying to find relief or release or resolution. But the repetition didn’t help.
“Sarah,” Sugar snapped. “Did you hear me?”
“What, uh… No.”
“What’s your plan? Sit on your ass and ponder all the ways he could’ve reacted better to his family being snatched?”
Maybe she shouldn’t squirrel money away for her kids’ therapy in the future. She should spend it now and secure her sanity, because it’d been tough on her. Sarah took pride in her self-sufficiency and a rock-solid foundation at home. Maybe that had been a lie she’d told herself, and she wasn’t really strong. Maybe she was weak and pathetic but had never realized it before.
Sarah shook her head. “My plan is to move on. To protect my kids. And never feel like this again.”
CHAPTER TWO
Brock opened his eyes to the same scene, different day.
Maybe
. He wasn’t sure and didn’t care. But he did know that, sooner or later, he’d have to eat. Having the shakes from alcohol withdrawal wasn’t a good enough excuse to ignore the warning bells in his head. He needed to eat, and if the food stayed down, then good. If not, well then, he’d given it the old college try.
Rolling up and dangling his legs off the bed, he gathered his bearings and glared at the empty granola bar wrappers. They littered the floor. On the dresser, an empty container of peanut butter sat abandoned. A knife he’d used way too many times sat on top of an empty sleeve of bread.
Screw this
. He had to eat, and with a disgusted groan, he slid off the bed and made his way to the kitchen. With each step, his stomach swished, his gag reflex jumped into action, and his ears… were now hearing sounds. Imaginary voices? Great. A new low.
There were voices in his head.
His pathetic, downward spiral was taking the scenic route. Surely, this was cosmic retribution for all of the shady work he’d done in the past, however good his intentions might have been.
Using the wall to stay upright, he pinched his eyes closed to ignore the lights and hushed away the voices.
“It’s about time, Buttercup.”
It took more than a second to blink. He wasn’t sure if the men sitting at the table were really there.
“You need a goddamn shower.”
“Christ, we should’ve done this a week ago.”
Winters, Roman, and Rocco sat around his kitchen table, burgers in hands, and stared at him. The aroma of fast food made his mouth water and stomach turn simultaneously.
Brock had worked by their sides for years, and he’d abandoned them. Put their lives in danger. He’d done the worst thing a leader could do, and that was lie and lead them astray.
Why were they there?
They
were Titan.
He
was a piece of shit, unworthy to be in the same room.
Winters kicked a chair out toward him. The loud scratching across the floor reverberated in his ears. “Sit your ass down. Before you fall and split your head.”
He didn’t want to. He wanted to escape from the glares and coming accusations, but Winters was right. Brock faltered forward, using the chair before he hit the floor. He tried to clear his throat, but it was too dry and abused from days of drinking and dying. “Whatever you want, get it over with.”
If they were there to kill him, it’d be welcome. So why hadn’t they? His blurry brain didn’t care. He just wanted them out, because he had a date with a half-empty bottle of something amber-colored that sat on the counter.
Winters slapped the table. “Brock?”
“Yeah?” Brock’s eyes strayed from the men to the bottle, and his mouth watered.
Roman crossed his arms and looked at Rocco. Winters ignored them all and finished his burger.
Rocco probably had Brock’s job now. He’d be a natural team leader. Smart. Respected. It’d be a good fit. Titan and Rocco deserved each other. Loyal. Trustworthy. Unstoppable.
Damn it, I need a drink.