AllFreeNovel
Share Us
24
Lake Salvatore, Louisiana
THURSDAY, JULY 28, 8:30 P.M.
Molly woke up with a jerk, bolting upright in bed. A strange bed.
She’d already grabbed her gun from the nightstand before inhaling deeply. Peanut butter cookies.
Slowly she returned the gun to the nightstand, clarity returning. Her sister and niece had been making peanut butter cookies in Farrah’s kitchen when Molly and Gabe had fallen asleep, and the delicious scent still hung in the air, hours later.
It had to be hours later. When they’d gone to sleep, the sun was still high in the sky. Farrah’s spare bedroom was already semi-dark, sunset approaching.
“You okay up there?” Gabe asked, his voice a little thick with sleep.
She glanced down to see that he’d rolled to his back and was staring up at her, amusement in his hazel eyes, the last rays of daylight making his dark red curls glimmer like fire. “Just that moment when you wake up and realize that you don’t know where you are.”
“You’re right here with me,” he drawled, and she smiled.
“Yes, I am.”
“And nobody’s shooting at us,” he added lightly.
“For now.”
He chuckled. “There’s my eternal optimist. Come back down here. Your energy is making me tired again.”
She complied, resting her head against his shoulder, sighing as his arms came around her. They were mostly dressed. Molly was wearing an oversized T-shirt that probably belonged to André. Gabe had on a pair of athletic shorts, his chest wonderfully bare and warm, smelling of soap and sleep and clean sweat. This was nice. More than nice. This was the feeling that smart people fought to keep forever.
They’d initially been put in separate rooms, but they’d met in the hallway when they’d both tiptoed out to find the other. They’d agreed on Gabe’s bed, because it was bigger.
Neither of them had wanted to sleep alone, and he’d held her almost desperately before his body had gradually relaxed into slumber. He’d held her like she was his lifeline.
She got the feeling. He was quickly becoming hers.
She didn’t want to think about what would have happened had he not been there in her apartment building’s garage. She’d acted rashly, charging ahead without scoping out the scene, her mind focused on the danger to her family. Gabe had been slower, more cognizant of their surroundings. Of the threats.
And he’d saved her life. By killing a man.
She’d killed the night before as well, and while she’d probably have a nightmare or two, she’d mostly made her peace with it. The man had been coming after her family. He’d tried to kill her and, if he’d succeeded, he would have killed Lucien and Gabe. And then he and Tobin would have taken Chelsea and Harper and who knew what would have happened next? She shuddered at the thought.
Besides, that first kill was usually the hardest. She remembered the first time she’d killed a man, back in Iraq. She’d had violent nightmares every night for nearly a year thereafter. Sometimes she still did, even now. And Jake... Killing her brother-in-law had been one of the lowest moments of her life.
She’d do it again without hesitation, but she’d emerged from the experience with scars on her heart that might always remain. She worried that Gabe wouldn’t be able to accept what he’d done.
“Are you okay?” Molly murmured, nearly purring when he began stroking her hair, struck by the fact that he was comforting her. “This has been intense.”
“We only slept,” he said dryly. “Despite what your sister is probably thinking that we’re doing back here.”
She looked up to see him smirking and the sight made her heart lighter. If he could still joke after everything that had happened, he was far stronger than she was. She still had trouble seeing the brighter side of life. It seemed safer somehow.
She lowered her head, loving the feel of his warm skin and soft chest hair against her cheek. “I meant the last twenty-four hours have been intense.”
He said nothing for a moment, then sighed. “Not to complain, but the last six weeks have been intense.”
He had every right to complain. She petted the hairs on his chest, keeping her touch soothing rather than sexual. “I’m optimistic that it’ll be over soon.”
She felt his chuckle more than she heard it. “I see what you did there. I hope you’re right. I don’t think I can keep up this pace much longer. It’s physically exhausting, but more mentally draining. I don’t know how you guys do it.”
