Tapestry of the Past (28 page)

Pompano looked at each man, finding no hope of mercy in the set faces. His gaze finally landed and settled on
Kalesia
. “You’ve got to believe me, Miss. It was never my intention to kill you.” He sounded desperate.

Gabriel saw her face soften. In disbelief, he realized she was falling for Pompano’s pitch. Goddamn, he wanted to tear the slimy bastard apart. He settled on squeezing her hand.

She shot him an irritated glance before returning her attention to the other man. “No,” she agreed quietly, “you were leaving that up to your employer. And to kill me, he would have to kill Gabriel. Because of you, Gabriel would have been dead.”

The deputy dropped his eyes. “What kind of deal?”

* * * * *

Gabriel stood just inside the open door and watched as
Kalesia
flew out the door. The smell of heat and dust lingered on the air. Damn, would she never learn? He’d told her he’d get the mail. Hell, she’d barely waited for the mail truck to get around the bend.

He ought to tan her hide. How the hell was he supposed to protect her if she reacted without thought? He scowled as she opened the large, square mailbox. Head down, she thumbed through the stack of mail as she walked back to the house. Not once did she look around to make sure she wasn’t being observed. The killer could have been standing within touching distance and she wouldn’t have noticed.

Damn, foolish woman.

He reached for the screen door.
Kalesia
looked up.

Gabriel’s stomach muscles tightened.

He’d taken the bait. Gabriel didn’t need to see the manila envelope on top of the pile to know. The strain in her face was all the confirmation he required.

He opened the screen door.
Kalesia
walked into his arms. “He fell for it, Gabriel.” She held up the large envelope. In bold letters was her name. Her hand shook.

“Give it here. I’ll read it.”

Kalesia
pulled away and squared her shoulders. “I’ll read it. I refuse to let this man continually terrify me.” In silence she opened the envelope and read the contents. Her face showed her relief.

“He’s overplayed his hand. Not only does he mention you being a hit man for one of the major cartels but he goes into great details about you running arms to insurgents.” She passed the ten-page report to him, budding excitement in her face. “He must be getting desperate. He’s more open in his suggestion that I leave you.”

Inside, the lid he kept on the darkness rattled. Fine fractures formed. A bone-chilling cold crept over him. Gabriel didn’t think he’d ever get warm again.

He stared at the report in his hand. It was more than the story he and Harley had concocted. So very much more. It went back nearly twenty years. In an instant, he was there again.

Heat.

Humidity.

Pain.

Neat surgical slices.

Always the pain.

Blood slid off his back. Ran down his side. Formed ever-widening crimson pools.

He started as
Kalesia
covered his hand with hers.

“You were right. He’s either arrogant or getting desperate. He’s making mistakes. First he sends Deputy Pompano and now this.” She flicked the papers in Gabriel’s hands with a nail.

Gabriel barely heard her.

Seeing the details of his torture spelled out in exquisite detail made Gabriel’s stomach muscles clench in protest. But, God, worse than that was seeing the subsequent revenge he had taken played out on the pages in black and white. A knife twisted in his gut.

Now
Kalesia
knew exactly to what depths he was capable of sinking.

He had skipped letting her know the details of his escape, hoping to protect her.

Or had he been hoping to protect himself?

Had he been afraid that if she knew the full story, she’d be horrified? Possibly have second thoughts about staying with a man whose hands were steeped in blood. A man who killed as easily and efficiently as most men shaved. Knowing what has happened to a person, knowing abstractly that they had committed acts of violence, was very different from having the finer points of the deed slap you in the face.

How could
Kalesia
not believe the report? It presented a tale of fact and fiction so intricately woven, the strands twisted together so expertly, that if it were not his life Gabriel wouldn’t have hesitated for a moment to believe it. It also neatly tied in his torture as punishment for double crossing his illicit partners. Nice of him to be so thorough, Gabriel thought, bitter bile on the back of his tongue.

He reread the last page. Now
Kalesia
knew.

Gabriel Steele, killer of children.

“Do you believe him?” What a stupid question. Of course she did. Numb, he waited for her to turn away from him.

“Believe him?”
Kalesia
asked, sounding distracted. She glanced at the paper. “Oh, you mean that story about you killing your partner and a child who witnessed the murder?” The heat from her palms burned the chilled skin of his face. Her lips seared him as she brushed a soft kiss across his mouth. “Of course I don’t believe him. You would never kill a child.”

Raw pain flashed across his nerve endings, leaving them exposed. He pulled her hands from his face. “I did. I did exactly that.”

Shock flashed across her face. For a full minute, she didn’t move. Didn’t even breathe.

It was the longest minute of Gabriel’s life.

Once more, crackle glass separated him from the rest of the world. From
Kalesia
. Darkness seeped onto it. Found the fine lines and ran into them. Behind the glass, Gabriel caught a glimpse of endless night. It seethed and roiled, impatient. It knew. Knew its time had come. The glass shattered. Darkness surged toward him.

Gabriel stoically waited for it to swallow him. Odd but he felt no fear. Just a deep regret that he hadn’t met
Kalesia
sooner.

She stunned him when she freed her hands and put one palm over his heart. “I know you,” she said gently. “Your natural instinct is to protect those smaller or weaker than yourself. You will never convince me you meant to kill that child. Tell me about it,” she coaxed.

Light sizzled on darkness. A deep tremor shook him as the deep, burning cold in his gut slowly melted. The sensation was almost painful.

Concern began to replace encouragement in her eyes. Though it was the last thing he wanted to do, he brought her attention to the papers clutched in his fist. “This pretty much covers it. It happened in Central America, just as it says. Jim, my boss, insisted I team up with the new guy. I didn’t want a partner, hadn’t worked with one since I left the Rangers. Hell, no way did I want to have to look out for anyone other than myself. I was right. Dan would be alive if I hadn’t caved.

“What it doesn’t tell you is that when Dan’s head disintegrated, I turned and dropped to the ground and fired… Sugar I swear I didn’t realize it was a kid until I went over to check on the status of the gunman. I kicked his gun away. When I turned him over, I looked into the face of a kid.” He heard a faint rustling sound and realized he’d crushed the papers.

Unshed tears swam in her eyes. “How old was he?”

Dear God, he didn’t deserve her sympathy. But Gabriel knew he’d take it. He was just too damned weak not to.

“Eleven. Twelve. Maybe a little older. Does it matter? Christ, I killed a kid! What it comes down to is I killed a kid. Just a child,” he whispered, the same savage disbelief ripping through him that had dropped him to his knees that day.

“Hardly a child.” She wrapped each small hand around his biceps and shook. “Gabriel, he had just killed your partner and was going to kill you. Of course you returned fire. You acted purely out of self-defense, the same way anyone else in that situation would have done.”

Bullshit. He should have known, sensed somehow, that the shooter was a kid. Goddamn it. He should have known.

Some of his turmoil must have shown through. She quit trying to shake him. Her fingers rubbed over the rigid bands of muscle in a soothing rhythm. “Was that when you decided to retire?”

He wanted to hold her so badly, he ached with it. Gabriel refused to allow himself that comfort. “The decision had been creeping up on me for some time. That last mission simply brought it to a head. I was determined not to be put in such a position again. I didn’t join to make war against children.”

“Gabriel, if he was capable of surprising two experienced warriors, killing one, it seems reasonable to assume he hadn’t been a child for a long time.”

Gabriel thought about her statement for a moment, stunned to realized he’d never put it in that perspective before. “Maybe.” Even if she was right, the fact remained that the boy would be alive if he hadn’t an aptitude for killing. For that, he could never forgive himself. But if
Kalesia
could forgive him for killing the boy and for the revenge he’d taken, then maybe he owed it to her and to himself, to learn to live with himself.

Now that he wasn’t anticipating her reaction, he allowed himself to consider fully what he’d just read. One thing stood out. “Whoever wrote that report must have been present when Chavez interrogated me that last time.”

Kalesia
stared at him. “Why do you say that? We already know he has access to your files. He could have gotten the information from them again this time.”

“No, he couldn’t. Not this time. I didn’t describe all that was done to me. And nothing I did to Chavez and the man I thought of as Straps was in any report. When debriefed at the hospital, I deliberately made no mention of my actions. On top of that, I know for a fact that no other teams were sent in to confirm the kills. The mission was a one-shot deal. Politically, it was too hot to attempt again. That means whoever wrote this,” he opened his hand and tried to smooth the crumpled pages, “was either there and hid or he had reason to go back. Unofficially. Let’s go find Sam. I have some work for him before Pompano receives that call.”

* * * * *

“Well?”

“She’s still there. I haven’t been able to get close to the woman.”

“I’ll find someone else to do the job.”

“No! Wait!”
Pampano
wiped his hand over his mouth. “Tomorrow afternoon. I’ll have a chance tomorrow afternoon. I heard Harley talk about bringing Steele in for questioning. Since he found out about that other stuff, he’s beginning to wonder if Steele knows more about Crump’s murder than he’s saying. He should be here several hours. I can get to her then.”

“Do so. Convince her that it is in her best interest to leave Steele.”

“Not a problem. I even have the perfect place for her to go. I’m taking care of a friend’s house while he’s gone. It’s next to the National Forest and isolated. Steele will never find her there.”

“It had better not be a problem. I expect results.”

“You’ll get them.” Pompano cleared his throat. “Uh, about my payment.…”

“Don’t worry.” There was a smile in the other man’s voice. “I’ll see you get payment in full. I’ll call again tomorrow for details.” There was a click and the dial tone sounded.

Pampano
hung up the phone and turned, his hands shaking. “You haven’t forgotten our deal, have you?”

“No, I haven’t forgotten our deal,” Harley said, distaste in his voice. He glanced over his shoulder at Deputy Parker. “Put him back in the cell and put a twenty-four-hour watch him. I don’t want anything happening to him.”

Harley waited until Pompano was out of hearing distance. “And so it begins. Now who gets to break the news to Gabe?”

* * * * *

“The hell you will!” Gabriel roared.

“Be reasonable, Gabriel,”
Kalesia
tried, already knowing he was going to be difficult. “At least hear them out.”

“I’m listening.” He crossed his arms and shifted on the arm of the chair so he could glare at the four men in the room.

“Pompano received the call an hour ago. We’ve got to convince this guy that
Kalesia
has actually moved out if we hope to catch him. He’s a smart bastard,” Wolf admitted grudgingly.

“You couldn’t complete the trace.” It was a statement.

“For all we know he could be one mile or one hundred miles from here.” A muscle ticked in Sam’s jaw. It was easy to see he was furious over the fact they’d failed.

“Damn it all to hell,” Gabriel swore, straightening, switching the glacial glare to the man in uniform.

“As Wolf said, he’s smart. He’s not going to come out of the shadows if
Kalesia
doesn’t actually leave your protection.” Harley didn’t flinch at Gabriel’s harsh expletive.
Kalesia
wished she could be so sanguine.

“You don’t know that for sure.” Gabriel’s face could have been carved out of granite.

“Are you willing to chance
Kalesia’s
life that I’m not?”

“Isn’t that what you’re asking me to do?”

“Gabriel, don’t! You know they wouldn’t risk my life.”
Kalesia
reached up and brushed rich loam off his cheek. He’d been working in the greenhouse when Sam and Wolf returned with Harley from the sheriff’s office. “They’re your friends. What’s more, they’re also my friends. Gabriel,” she began, searching for the right words to convince him, “he’s been maneuvering to get me to leave. If I don’t, he’ll just go even deeper underground, then we’ll never know when he’ll surface to strike. You can’t protect me twenty-four hours a day for the rest of my life. We have to do this.”

“No.”

“What if another deputy is on the take?” Sam’s quiet question drew Gabriel’s wrath.

“You aren’t checking?” Gabriel asked Harley, his voice much too soft for
Kalesia’s
comfort.

“You know he is,” Wolf interjected. “You also know that in a situation like this, by the time he finds out, it might be too late. I understand your anger. Hell, man, I’d feel the same way if it was my woman involved, but we are not your enemies.”

“Forget it.” His hand slashed the air. “We were supposed to force him into making a move on me. She is not bait.”

Badger spoke up for the first time. “Think with your head, Gabe, not your dick. He knows you’re on alert every minute
Kalesia’s
here with you. He’d be a fucking idiot to try anything now. And, whatever else that asshole is, he’s not an idiot. If he believes she’s bolted, he’ll do one of two things—make a move against you, thinking you’re distracted, or against
Kalesia
, thinking she’s vulnerable. Either way, we’ve got the bastard.”