THE WOODEN FLOOR BOARD covering the whole floors of Gabriel’s quaint house creaked as Gabriel walked down the small hallway.
His jaw was tight. Fist clenched. Veins tight. Heart constricted.
He heard the rush of girly excitement coming from the room he’d given to Ethan and Emily. He heard the groaning of Ethan telling her to keep quiet but she didn’t. She was very happy.
Gabriel heard her say she was excited for mommy to see daddy.
Gabriel’s breathing was uneven.
Jaw tighter. Fists clenching and unclenching. Veins threatening to burst out of his skin. Heart tight like it was surrounded by pressing wires.
He didn’t stop by their room to ask them what they meant instead, he walked to the room Sydney stayed. The door was slightly open.
He looked through it. She was in her underwear, her body wet, her towel lying carelessly on the edge of the bed. She was searching through the wooden chifforobe for clothes.
She was immortally beautiful. She looked like an Egyptian goddess.
He stared at how her wet hair stuck to the freckled skin of her back and how she tried to get it off. He’d like to get it off for her.
He’d love to do a lot of things for her. If she let him. If she stopped letting someone else.
Gabriel drew back and rested his back against the wall. He closed his eyes and envisioned her body again.
Long slender legs with a scar. Small waist. Slightly freckled yet unblemished upper body with a small scar on her belly and chest. Small breasts. Smooth shoulder blades.
He breathed.
Gavin saw all that. He felt all that. He tasted it all and still left her for another woman.
Gabriel stayed next to the room for some minutes. He looked through the open door, and this time, she was sitting next to the mirror, brushing her gorgeous red hair. It had grown longer since the first time he’d seen it.
It had become more hard to stop looking at.
Sydney’s eyes flew to Gabriel as he entered the room. It was like she was programmed to smile anytime she saw him. He hadn’t uttered a word to her since yesterday.
” I won’t stop asking till you tell me what’s wrong.” She looked at his reflection as he approached her.
He was unsmiling. His muscles were taut, abs ripping from the grey sweatshirt she had gotten him. He’s a fine piece of artwork carefully created by God, she thought.
” Where are you off to?” He took the brush from her and brushed her hair. Slowly. Carefully. Meticulously.
” A fun park.” She whispered, her jaw unable to lower from the tension in it.
She had called Gavin to ask him why he’d told the children she’d be tagging along but Gavin ignored her calls. Purposely. She saw the excitement in her children and didn’t want to do anything to kill their good mood.
One dinner with Gavin wouldn’t kill her. She’d put up her strong armor and wade off every feeling that would come her way. That’s what she hoped for.
” I thought you wanted to stay sequestered till New Year.” He brushed her hair like it was a very rare specimen.
Sydney relaxed into his tenderness, ” If I had my way, I wouldn’t go anywhere.”
” Then stay. I could sing you any song you’d fancy and play any waltz you’d dance to.” There was a hint of yearning in his tone.
” I don’t have a choice. Gavin told the kids I’d be there so I can’t blow them off.”
Brown eyes met a darker shade of brown eyes.
He’d stopped brushing and fell silent. What her words translated in Gabriel’s head was that Gavin wanted her but she didn’t want him. She wanted to be far from him, but he kept on pushing.
She needed to be far from him. Gabriel could take him far from her. Gabriel wanted to take him far from her.
Gabriel will take him far from her.
” All right, do as you please. Soon, you wouldn’t have to worry about him.”
Sydney thought he was referring to the fact New Year was in three weeks. She’d miss Gabriel. She’d miss him a lot. She wanted him to come with but she didn’t want to be a burden to him.
” Can you tell me what happened now and why you’ve been running away from me?”
Gabriel didn’t think he would ever come clean and tell her who he truly was. No one loved being around a monster.
” I’m going for a ride call me when you get back.”
______________
Gabriel had stopped by the gas station twice; he’d been driving for three hours at high speed. He’d almost crashed into a car but was able to slide away in a nick of time.
His mind wasn’t on the road. He was thinking about what Avery said.
He’d killed before so why was killing someone who got in his way so hard this time?
The wicked voice spoke again. Gavin would kill for her. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill you if you were the one in his place. Keep acting like her protector, and that b**tard would make her his bride again, and you… ho, ho!
Bright car headlights broke into his thoughts.
Gabriel pressed the break so energetically soot and dust began to gather. He’d been far off in Lala land when he almost crashed into an Audi A8.
His Audi A8.
Gabriel looked through the soot and smoke as it began to dissipate. Gil was in the driver’s seat of the car, hands on the steering wheel. He looked half as angry as Gabriel.
They both got out of their vehicle and stared at each other in anger.
” Did you intend on ending my life today?” Gabriel barked.
” You looked like you wanted to die riding like that. Gabriel, what if you had f**king crashed into someone?”
” Well thank God I didn’t. Move the car away, it’s blocking my path.”
” I’m not going to let you kill yourself.” Gil stood still defiantly.
Gabriel scowled at him without uttering a word.
” I know you are thinking about the offer that b**ch brought to you on a platter of fake gold. She’s just taking advantage of your mental state-”
” There’s nothing wrong with my mental state. ” Gabriel growled.
He’d beat the shit out of the person that dared to go against his order and tell Gil everything that happened.
” Okay, forget I said that. You told your father you wouldn’t torture anyone again; what if he finds out and sends you to an Asylum.”
Gabriel was shouting now.
” I’m thirty-five, I’m not a f**king child. I do what I want and he has no right to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do.”
Gil grounded his teeth, “Thirty-five yet you act like a teenager who just lost his first girlfriend to a soccer-playing douchebag, a**hole who’s the apple of every girl’s eyes and your greatest rival.”
” At least I’m not the one who f**k up to ten women in a day just to get my freaking mind off one stupid undeserving woman that broke my heart when I was twenty-two. I’m not the one who lost all his money to a woman. I’m not the one who was blind enough not to see the b**tch I was in love with was using me and sucking out my wealth to give another man.”
” Congratulations for not acting like a child but being a man whore who doesn’t have the common sense to know the difference between lust and love.” Gabriel breathed exasperatedly.
Gil was a statue. He couldn’t move; he couldn’t breathe. Something was swirling in him, making him bigger and bigger till he wanted to burst.
Gabriel turned to leave and then Gil snapped.
” All right go end another life to get what you want. But it wouldn’t stop the fact that she can and would never fall in love with you.”
Gil laughed goadedly, ” Do you want to know why friend? She’s still in love with her ex-husband. They’ve been married for eleven years. Do you think it is easy to stop loving someone after being together for that long? Cut her some slack-”
Gil flung backward and fell to the soil when Gabriel’s fist made a hard impact with his jaw. He wasn’t sure his jaw was still a part of his head.
Gil held his jaw and groaned in pain. ” A**hole, how dare you hit me.”
” Say one more word and I’ll kill you in this spot.”
” You’d be the one crying at my funeral.”
Gabriel kicked him in his groin and turned away in a fit of rage. He put on his helmet too quickly, his hands were shaking.
Before he got on the bike, Gil shouted, ” When you begin to regret what you’ve done, don’t come crawling back to me. I’ll kick you in the balls and send you to an asylum myself because you are f**ked up.”
Gabriel’s eyes darkened with intensity. He got on the bike and stared heatedly at Gil. His fingers squeezed the handlebars and his foot kicked the gear shifter continuously.
The engine revved filling the air with smoke.
Gil’s eyes widened when he realized what Gabriel wanted to do. He quickly pushed himself off Gabriel’s path and ate the smoke as Gabriel slammed his foot on the pedal and drove off.
His heart was in his head.