Hot Zone (23 page)

At that moment, I believe I loved him. He hadn’t toppled me, I hoped. I hoped it was just the combination of his gift of attraction and my vulnerability that did it. I didn’t want to love him, much less lose my will around him. But for now, I couldn’t fight it, and so I relaxed against him and let myself go.

Instead of just tears, I sobbed a few times. I felt myself calming faster than I could believe possible. I began to feel more control, and my breathing slowed and became regular. He didn’t say a word, just kept his arms around me. Finally I lifted my head where it was resting against his chest. He immediately loosened his arms, giving me some space to look up at him.

I swiped at his shirt where it was wet from my tears. “Sorry about that,” I said, my voice still husky. I wondered what else I could say.
Sorry about being human? Please excuse my neediness? Thank you for being here for me?
I finally just cleared my throat and tried to step away from him. He dropped his arms, and I put a couple of feet between us.

He touched my face. “Your cheek looks better,” he said.

I had forgotten all about it. In a house with far too few bathrooms for the number of people, I didn’t hang out in front of the mirror very much. Last time I’d looked, the bruises were yellowing and fading. The crescent under my eye was still darkish. Yeah, I was a beauty, all right. I shrugged, uncomfortable. I found myself avoiding eye contact.

“How is the baby?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I sniffed, again wishing for a Kleenex.

He reached out and took my hand. “Let’s go find out.”

I thought about pulling my hand away, but after the last few days, I welcomed the contact. I wondered if I was suffering from a deprivation of touch. Had he planned that? Yeah, like he spent all his time thinking about me. I was really pathetic. I might as well just let him topple me and be as mindless about him as the rest. At least they didn’t seem to lust after him. Or if they did, they weren’t so obvious about it.

We walked silently back to where Tim waited, turning to go to stand in the entryway of the makeshift ER. Fred had retreated to the wall near us while it looked like the medical folks were putting an IV in little Jacob. Fred turned to look at us, and froze.

I gasped. Damn! Why hadn’t I taken Gabriel somewhere else? I wanted to cry as I saw the now-familiar look of dazed adoration come into his eyes. I swiftly turned and walked away as quickly as I could; back down the hall, not stopping at the pharmacy this time.
Stupid, stupid, stupid
! I berated myself. Now I’d let Fred go over to the dark side too.

I heard someone behind me and stopped, turning to look to see who it was this time before I assumed. It was Tim. “Your mission is over. Go back to Gabriel,” I snarled, and to my surprise, he turned and walked away. I stared at him for a moment, wondering what I should do now. I didn’t, of course, have anywhere to go, so I just sat down on the floor in the hall, my back against a wall proclaiming the lab was just through the nearby doors.

I wasn’t all that surprised when Gabriel came walking down the hall, stopping when he saw me. “Why did you run off this time?” he asked with a trace of exasperation in his velvet voice.

“What does it matter?” I asked tiredly. “Why are you even here?”

“That’s a good question,” he said, shrugging. “I had the impression earlier that this was all of great importance to you.”

“It is. Jacob is Fred’s little brother.” I suddenly glared at him. “You know Fred? The one you just made love you?”

“Made love me?” He sounded a bit annoyed. “You act as if I have control over this.”

“Don’t you?” I challenged.

“You’re being deliberately provocative. You may not like it, but I expect you to deal with it all the same.”

I felt like I’d been scolded, and maybe I had. I tried to focus on Jacob and stop needling him. “Jacob is like family to me, and to my closest friends. We love him. We all take turns caring for him.” I felt the tears threaten again, and looked off down the hall, taking a deep breath and willing the tears away. Once I was back in control, I looked back at him. “So, yes, it’s very important to me.”

“Then to answer your question, that is why I’m here.”

I gave him a look of disbelief. “You’re here because I am?”

He gave me a little smile that told me he wasn’t going to answer that. He put out his hand to help me up. “Come on. We’re leaving.”

“We?” I asked, ignoring the hand.

“Take the hand,” he said firmly, and I took it, cursing myself as I realized he’d overwhelmed me momentarily. “You and I are leaving. We’ll take Ryan with us. Tim can stay in case your friend needs anything.”

I shook my head; my hand, that stupid traitor, still in his. “No. I’m staying here.”

“No, you’re not,” he said. “There’s not a thing you can do for the baby, and if I have to have you dragged out and thrown into my car, I’ll do it.” He continued before I could argue, “I’ll have them call me with any news.”

“No!” I said, suddenly upset. “What if he dies? I can’t leave. I’d …” I swallowed audibly. “I’d need to say good-bye.”

He studied me, finally shaking his head. “Come on.” He tugged on my hand to get me to follow him back towards the entrance.

“Gabriel, I won’t—”

He suddenly turned and pulled on my hand at the same time, swinging me to almost crash against his chest. He gave me a hard look. “Be quiet!”

My mouth snapped shut and for a few minutes, I couldn’t even think
of anything to say. Whether this was because he’d overwhelmed me again, or because I was shocked and intimidated, I didn’t know.

He kept a firm hold of my hand, turning at the entrance to the ER and leading me inside. He said to the team at large. “How is he?”

All three medical personnel turned, and I wanted to yell at Gabriel that he shouldn’t distract their attention away from the baby, but I stayed mute. The woman I had figured was the lead doctor or pediatrician said, “He’s quite ill, but he isn’t in immediate danger. We’re cooling him down; his temperature spiked, and he’s responding to medication. We’ll stay with him every minute until he’s out of the woods.”

In spite of myself, I felt grateful to Gabriel. I doubted every baby who came in got this kind of treatment. I wasn’t going to complain about the inequality, though. Fred gave a gusty sigh of relief, and I turned to him, pulling on Gabriel’s restricting hand. He didn’t let it go, so I said from where I stood, “Fred, will you be okay if I leave for a while?”

Fred nodded, dividing his attention between Jacob, Gabriel and me. He said to Gabriel, “Thank you.” And the devotion in his voice made me sick.
Another one bites the dust
, I thought to myself.

Gabriel led me to the door of the ER, asking quietly, “Will you come along peacefully?”

I nodded, sighing.

He took me out to his car, another black Escalade, and Ryan got in the back. I never heard him say anything to Ryan, so maybe he was sending mind-commands now. Yeah, probably he had said something before or motioned to him, but it was easy sometimes when around Gabriel to believe him capable of anything.

I didn’t pay attention to where we were going, but I recognized Hill House when we drove up. I turned to Gabriel in surprise, “You live here?”

He nodded, getting out of the car. He said to Ryan, “Put the car away, then you can go see Carl.” Gabriel took my elbow and led me inside. It was mostly dark inside, with some security lighting in place glowing gently. He took the grand staircase up a level, and turned towards the opposite way than I had gone to see him before. He went up another flight of steps, and down another hall. He opened a door and looked in. He turned to me, a smile on his face. “Half the time I don’t know what is behind the doors I walk by. I think there are some guest bedrooms up here.”

He flipped on the light, which was strangely modern, considering the décor. “We’ve had to re-do some of the rooms and the electrical work. I’m sure the Historical Society would complain, if most of them weren’t dead. The rest, of course, love me.”

I rolled my eyes but smiled a little. The room had been modernized, to a degree. The furnishings were the same except for the bed, which looked modern. “So, what? I’m supposed to just go to sleep?”

“I thought you might want a place to rest. If you’re not tired, you certainly don’t have to. Don’t worry, I won’t order you to bed,” he said smugly.

I didn’t know what to say. Why did it seem like I was the only one affected here? Had I just imagined that he was affected by me as well? I knew I had all sorts of questions for him, but I couldn’t think of one right now. Then my cell phone rang. I looked down at my pocket where I’d shoved it, having forgotten it was there.

I checked the readout as I opened it. Tucker. “Hello?”

“Hey, we have a problem,” he said without preamble. “The people Tina warned us about are here. They came to the door peaceably enough, so we let them in, although we had them disarm. Now they want us to pay for protection. They say they’re from your boyfriend.”

“What? Gabriel sent them?” I saw Gabriel’s eyebrow lift as he heard his name mentioned.

Tucker sounded mad, and I didn’t blame him. “Yep, that’s what they said. Either we give them what they want, or they will, let’s see if I can remember the words exactly, ‘erase Catfish from the map.’”

“Hold on.”

Tucker grumbled, “Oh, good. He’s right there. I hope I didn’t interrupt you two.” His voice was thick with sarcasm and innuendo.

I ignored that and lowered the phone slightly. “You sent your goons to Catfish?”

Gabriel frowned. “My goons?”

I said angrily, “Apparently your people are at my house right now, telling my family that if we don’t pay them, they will erase Catfish from the map.”

Gabriel put out his hand. “Give me the phone.” I did, only realizing after I’d given it to him that I’d done it without thought. But then as he was putting the phone to his ear, it hit me what would happen if he spoke to Tucker. Before I could consider the wisdom of such an action, I launched myself at him, trying to knock the phone away.

I slammed into him and he stumbled backwards, finally knocking into the four-poster bed. The phone was still in his hand, although not near his ear now as he’d lowered his hand for balance at my insane attack. I was frantic as I grabbed his arm. “Please! Don’t talk to him. I don’t want him to be …”

Gabriel shook me off, and for the first time since I’d met him, looked truly angry. In spite of myself, I shrank back. He looked at the phone, and then stiffly handed it to me. “Tell him I sent no one. Whatever they say, they are not my men,” he growled at me.

I could barely talk. I blamed my semi-connection with him for my upset. “Tucker?” I said into the phone, nearly panting.

“What the hell is going on?” Tucker asked.

“Never mind. Tucker, he says they aren’t his. He didn’t send them.”

Tucker sounded part surprised, but he also sounded disbelieving. “And why would he tell you if he did?”

I looked at Gabriel, so magnificent and angry, standing woodenly in front of me. “I believe him,” I said softly. “He didn’t send them. Why would he? We’re going to join him. He wants to bring the area together, not destroy it. I believe him,” I said again.

Tucker hesitated. “Okay, if you believe him, I believe him. I need to go deal with this. I’ll call you back.” He hung up before I could respond.

I pocketed my phone, looking at Gabriel to see he was staring at me quizzically.

“What?” I asked defensively.

He didn’t say anything. He came closer to me and I backed up, not knowing what he was intending to do. He continued to stalk me until I had run out of room. I tipped my chin up and looked at him. “What’s the matter?”

He said slowly, “This Tucker. Who exactly is he?”

“Why do you want to know?” I asked.

He barked the question this time, and I didn’t have a chance. “Who is he?”

My words tumbled over themselves in their hurry to emerge. “He’s a friend who lives with me. He’s helped us from the very beginning.” I wanted to scowl at him for ordering me like that, but I decided it might not be so prudent to do that right now.

He was still looking at me intently, and my stomach was fluttering urgently. I unconsciously shifted my gaze to his lips. The very second I realized what I’d done; I tore my eyes from his and looked down like a coward, hoping he hadn’t see that. He must have noticed, because he reached out and slid one arm around my back, so near the wall as I’d backed away from him. His other hand went to my jaw and tipped my head up, so he could look at me for just a moment before he kissed me.

His lips just barely touched mine at first; maybe he wasn’t sure about this. I felt almost as if I might collapse. My heart was beating fast, and my blood was almost audible as it raced along. He kissed me again, more firmly this time, leaning forward to pin me to the wall, my head bumping against it in a move that would have hurt if I were aware of anything else other than him. I wasn’t.

His kiss was so much more than anything I’d ever experienced, and for the first time in my life, I felt fire. I felt passion that shocked me with its intensity. Without thought, my arms were coiling around his neck.

Suddenly he pulled back, stunning me. My arms lost their hold around his neck, and I stumbled towards him. He automatically grabbed my arm to steady me, but his eyes were on mine, and they were dazed and unfocused. I knew that look: except for the adoration, it was the same look Fred had had earlier. I’d rolled Gabriel, at least temporarily. I didn’t know whether to feel powerful, or to wonder if I looked the same way. After a minute, he seemed to come back to himself. He took two more steps away, looking at me suspiciously.

I shook my head. “I didn’t do anything,” I said in my defense.

He gave a short laugh that sounded anything but amused. He rubbed the back of his neck as he watched me somewhat warily. He finally spoke as if we had never had that kiss, that stunning, amazing kiss.

“I meant, who is he to you?” he said with startling aplomb, considering that he still looked dazed and wary.

“What? Who?” Okay, maybe he wasn’t the only one dazed, but I think he was the only one who had started to lose himself. I wasn’t at all frightened by that kiss. I wanted more. A lot more. So maybe I wasn’t so much dazed as distracted.