Use Somebody (69 page)

“How did you meet?”

“At a college party. Some drunk chick dumped her beer on me. I was wearing white, you could see everything. He told her off and offered me his shirt. His own shirt… Then, there were these guys at school…” I gulped at the memory.

Vance watched me with a clenched jaw. “What guys?”

“Frat guys. From a class. At first they were just teasing me. Then I was alone, and they surrounded me… if Gabriel hadn’t shown up…”

I could feel him fuming beside me. “At your school? How could this happen?”

“I was a doormat, Vance. A pushover. Bad guys love to take advantage of people like that. Why do you think I changed my entire appearance?”

“Did you tell someone?”

I bit my lip. Not right away, I hadn’t. It should have been a clue when Gabriel hadn’t insisted I do that.

“The police talked to all of them after they opened the investigation. They determined it wasn’t orchestrated. One of them even had a broken arm to show for it. But then why would he intervene? Especially that first night at the party. It was embarrassing, sure, but was it worth blowing his cover? That second time, with the guys… I don’t even know what would have happened to me if he didn’t show up. But I’m not sorry he did. It seemed like he always popped up when I needed him. But that wasn’t a coincidence. Because he was always there. He was always fucking there.

“After that day in the field he was around more regularly. The police think that’s when they switched their strategy. He became the perfect boyfriend. He bought me lattes, texted me every night—from an unregistered cell phone, walked with me between classes, took me to the beach… After less than a month, I was falling in love with him. I should have known it was too good to be true.”

“How could you have known?” Vance mollified. “He was a con artist. Obsessed with greed… obsessed with you.”

I blinked. “Do you know why he picked me, Vance?”

He stared at me while he contemplated my question. After a full minute of silence, he shook his head.

“Because I was a weak, naïve little girl with the key to a cash vault.”

* * *

[Past]

His blue eyes were no longer warm, but cold and emotionless as they ricocheted around the room, calculating. Unaffected by the destruction, they took in the man laying dead in a pool of his own blood. The disabled cameras. The sacks of money the masked man had gathered.

Then they landed on me.

“The girl comes with us,” he ordered, shoving the gun into his waistband.

“No,” I cried where I sat, not so much out of refusal, but out of fear. They were supposed to just take the money and leave. All I could do was tremble helplessly as hot tears burned trails down my cheeks. “Please Gabriel!” I sobbed, desperate for him to make this all go away.

The two men moved as if I hadn’t spoken. Gabriel threw the other man a set of keys and barked out quick-fire instructions. “Take the Honda. Conceal the money in the boot. Meet me in the alley.”

He hesitated. “C’mon mate, this was the one thing you always got right. You always said, no surv—”

“Arguing with me would be unwise. Leg it.”

The masked man hurried along to follow orders. Gabriel stayed behind another twenty seconds to wipe away finger prints and clean up any possible traces of evidence.

When he finished, he grabbed my arm and hauled me up and out the back door without a word or glance. Determined, he marched us through the parking lot behind the bank.

A few crates had been aligned like steps in front of the brick wall, where he forced me to climb up and over. It was nearly impossible without the help of my arms, so Gabriel gave me a push. I yelped, landing in a dumpster in a dark alley on the other side. He then tossed the crates over the wall one by one and hopped over last, before helping us both to solid ground.

“Gabriel,” I implored shakily. It was no use to hide my fear. It was crystal clear in my large brown eyes. But I wasn’t merely afraid, I was terrified and desperate and pleading. It was all written there for him to see.

Deep down I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. He had refused outright and called me an innocent. So I appealed to him as such. “What’s going on?”

Still avoiding my eyes, he straightened his coat casually, then produced a handkerchief and proceeded to wipe his hands. Not a trace of the mayhem I had just witnessed could be found in his demeanor. After tending to himself, he helped to dust all kinds of gross trash remnants off my arms and shoulders. I watched his unaffected movements in a state of disillusion. Who the heck was this guy? And what had he done with my Gabriel?

“You’re coming with me,” he said again, calm and collected. “We’re going to have to disappear for a little while.”

Go with him? Disappear?
I shook my head frantically, but words failed me.

At last he looked up at me, those blue eyes steady but intense. “Isn’t that what you wanted? To be together? I’ve been watching you for a while, you know. You won’t be leaving much behind. How many weeks do you think will pass before someone even takes notice?”

My eyes stung, but I couldn’t stop moving my head back and forth. Never in a million years would I have thought Gabriel could be so callous. He was all I had, and he knew it.

“Nothing has to change, love,” he promised, caressing my cheek with his hand. “Should you come willingly, I can take care of you. I can give you anything you want.”

My eyes fell closed, confused by the way his touch comforted and repulsed me at the same time. But I had no capacity to stop him either way. I knew he wasn’t really giving me a choice, he was going to take me one way or another.

“I don’t want anything,” I said. “Especially anything bought with that blood money.”

“Yes. Well. That’s too bad. Alas I did not intend for tonight to go down like that.”

“You don’t have to do this,” I beseeched, whisper-soft. “Just let me go.” I looked directly up at him, slowly but deliberate, and brushed my body against his.

Stone-faced, he watched me, giving nothing away. It was crazy and stupid but it was my only idea. I wanted to remind him of who I was. Of what we had. Of a human connection apart from this ugly mess.

He remained impervious. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, love.”

My lower lip quivered. “But why?”

“Because you know too much. I can’t allow anyone to connect my name or face to my record. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Oh I understood alright. “A living witness would interfere with your… big dreams?”
Big dreams…
the reason he gave me for coming to California during our very first conversation.

Life was full of poetic little ironies.

“Clever girl,” he remarked, haughty smirk in place.

“How could you?”

The question fell from my lips like dry tears. I wasn’t sure why I asked it. No rationale on earth would make me understand how he could’ve possibly done this.

He laughed. “How could I?” His voice rose. “How could I?” He shook his head indignantly. “I suppose I can’t expect you to understand. You live in a bubble. You’ve never lost everything. You’ve never wanted for anything.”

“I wanted love,” I insisted. It was all I wanted, all I needed. What else was there? Certainly not flings, alcohol or parties, not money or possessions. I hadn’t wanted any of that, I just wanted him. “What about everything you said? That you’d always protect me? You gave me your word. I thought… I thought you loved me…”

“I am protecting you.” He touched my face, tenderly at first, and the tiniest flame of hope flickered inside me. I wanted to believe him; I wanted his love even more than I wanted truth at the moment. Reality was too painful to accept. Hopelessly, foolishly, I wanted the lie.

“Do you love me?” I asked, begging the words to be spoken.

He looked away. “Extenuating circumstances—”

“Do you love me?” I cried, this time a desperate plea.

His eyes came back to mine. To my surprise, they were fierce, hard. I could even see cords of tension protruding from his neck.

“Don’t be so damned naïve, Scarlett! What more must I do to deter you? Open your eyes for once and see who the bloody fuck I am!”

It didn’t matter. I didn’t care. Of all the things Gabriel made me feel, fear had never been one of them. “You won’t hurt me.”

“You’re a child.”

My face went ashen.

A child?

After everything we’d been through together, how could he say that?

It was only then I began to see how truly blind I had been.

Looking at him now… He was no young college boy, he was a man. Aged with years and experience. Darkly powerful and rugged at every beautiful angle.

And me?

What a fool I was. No one can pause a sunset.

Our surreal, whirlwind of a romance wasn’t at all as it seemed. One perfect month together had been just that—too perfect. Too perfect to be true.

By the way his blue eyes glinted at my vulnerable state, I knew.

My innocence… my naïveté… my unwavering trust…

It was never me he loved. It was always the money.

I jerked away from his grasp. My plan to connect with him had backfired. I couldn’t do it; I couldn’t let him touch me.

He had used me to chase his obsession with greed. And now he wanted both the money and me. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of making this easy. I wouldn’t choose the lie. If he wanted me, he would have to take me.

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” I shouted in his face. He was still manipulating me, running hot and cold, using love and fear to control me. He wasn’t the man he pretended to be. He wasn’t the angel I had fallen in love with. But love like that doesn’t just disappear. It only morphs into something else just as powerful and intense: hate. “You’re crazy! Thief! Liar!
Murderer!”

It was the wrong thing to say. Features hardening, he stood up at his full height which made me stumble backwards. But there was nowhere to go. With my hands tied behind my back, I was helpless to protect myself.

“Gabriel, please…”

He grabbed me by the neck and forced me up against the wall. Bricks scraped and bit into my back. With the other hand, he shoved the gun into my temple. I squirmed and choked and sputtered, unable to breathe.

“Wrong move, you foolish little girl,” he hissed, his whole presence menacingly guttural and threatening. The warmth of his accent had vanished along with his gentleness. “Do not mistake my mercy for weakness. One little flick of this trigger and you’ll be dead before you get a chance to scream,” he said. “My name is not Gabriel. And this is not a game. Capisce?”

Yes. I was starting to grasp that. He wasn’t trying to assure me or protect me now. And he wasn’t just terrorizing me for show, the other man wasn’t even here to see it. I nodded my head as best I could. He stood so close our noses brushed.

Maybe he couldn’t bring himself to kill me earlier. But I saw murder in his eyes right now; I felt the hostility in his fingertips digging into my throat, bringing painful and degrading tears to my eyes. I would not repeat the mistake of doubting him. My best chance to survive now was just to do as he said.

“All you had to do was keep quiet for five fucking minutes. And nobody would’ve gotten hurt. Why couldn’t you just let him take the money? Why?”

His anger shook me. More tears spilled over. He was right. It was my fault an innocent man was dead. It was my fault I had been dragged into this mess. If I’d just sat still for a few minutes, this would have all been over by now. They always tell you not to try to be a hero. Who knew why I did it—I panicked.

“You’re mine.” He used the tip of his gun to brush my hair aside, giving me a full view of his glacial blue eyes. “So do as I say and keep your mouth shut.”

I gasped for air when he released my windpipe, but didn’t have a chance to catch my breath.

Like a vise, he grabbed me by the arm above the elbow and ripped me from the wall, hauling me out of the alley and towards the car waiting for us at the end. My little white Honda.

My feet fumbled and tripped, trying to keep up with his quick strides. The sound of sirens grew louder. Help was so close, yet not close enough. A frustrated sob escaped my throat. I just wanted to collapse to the ground in this very spot and wait for police. They had to be less than a minute away. But I knew if I fought, it would be too late for me once they arrived.

When we reached the car, he flung the backdoor open, threw me face-first into the seat, and slammed the door after me. I cried out as my cheek skidded across the fabric bench. A second later he was in the driver’s seat and pulling away from the curb.

With my arms restrained, I struggled to come to a seated position. I fell over twice when the car made sharp turns.

After we were several blocks away, the car began to slow. The sirens had faded and we were now driving unobtrusively through side streets. No one was on our tail. Even if the cops drove right by us, they’d never know that this was the car they were looking for.

“What a rush!” the passenger laughed. “Man, we’ve
got
to do that together again.”