GUILTY (Gabe's Trials)

Hunting season

Five men. Five of his father's best hit men followed us from the hospital, yet their presence did nothing to calm my nerves. If Marco was alive -if he was here- those five poor men represented no obstacle to him. And quite honestly, nothing did. I knew what he was here for. He wanted his fucking revenge and this time, something told me that he was also up to anything to get what he wanted. Including killing a dozen of innocent souls to get to me. They were nothing but collateral damage to him and I already knew how Marco felt about collateral damage. At first, that was all I was to him too -a pawn for his vendetta.

One of Gabriel's hands landed on one of my own, his gentle squeeze making me stop pulling at the hem of my Tee. He was watching me, I knew he was -I could feel his hazels scorch my skin- but I could not look back at him. My eyes would've told him exactly how I felt -little, insecure, helpless- and I couldn't let that happen. He needed to think I was fine. He needed to think that I was not going to break under pressure again. 

So instead of looking up into his amazing hazels that I knew would've given me strength while I took his, I let my eyes drift to the front seats and noticed Mrs Shaffer's restless hands and Mathew's impacient tap on the steering wheel. They were nervous too. They both knew what Marco was here for and I couldn't help but wonder if they didn't think it was best for me to just be handed over to him. God knows that that's what I thought. 

"You're gonna be fine." His words made me squeeze my eyes shut, his hold of my hand intensifing for the briefest of moments. "You're not alone this time, Julia. You're gonna be fine." My brain was screaming at me to remind him that I had not been alone the last time either. That Marco had gotten to me by stepping over Ginger -by breaking his protege into a million small pieces. But I didn't. I just kept my mouth shut and forced my eyes to continue to stare at my feet, my brain busying itself with registering every small, little detail of my Valentino flats. 

The car suddenly slowed down, my eyes flying up and noticing that we'd arrived at our destination. The black Mercedes in front of us had also stopped, one of Mr Shaffer's men stepping out of the car and saying something to one of the men at the gate. The gates opened, the car in front of us immediately going through them, Mathew also starting the engine of our SUV and following suit. I instictively turned around to see if the Mercedes behind us was still there and breathed out a small sigh of relief the moment I caught sight of it. Somebody getting hurt for me was the last damn thing I needed at the moment. 

My wrist got seized in a vice like grip and before I even got the chance to fully understand what was happening, I found myself being dragged out of the car and into the villa. The moment my feet appeared not to move at the speed my murderer demanded, I was swept up into his strong arms, my nose going straight to the crook of his neck, inhaling his relaxing, masculine scent. 

Only letting go of me the moment his bedroom's door closed behind us, Gabriel went straight to the chest of drawers on the far wall of the room, his hands removing one of the drawers completely and then searching the hollow space left behind. I could only watch him make quick work of detaching a black object from the inside of his furniture, one of his hands then weighing the damn thing before finally presenting it to me. 

"This is a Colt 1911-A1 model, Julia." My mouth opened slightly the moment he placed the gun into one of my hands, the cold metal making me recoil. "Hold it, dea. Get used to it. This might save your life one day." Swallowing hard and trying not to remember of how it felt like to have one pressed to your back, I properly curled my fingers around the pistol. "Good. There are several of these hidden around the house, but I want you to keep this one with you all the time, ok?" I slowly nodded my head while looking up into the hazels of the man I loved. There was fear there mingling with the determination written all over his face. He feared he was gonna lose me again -I feared that too.