Charles paled and realization set in, his eyes flashing with recognition. Gabe was absolute and Charles knew it.
“I will spend every penny I own ensuring that you lose everything you have,” Gabe continued. “And I have a lot of connections. A lot of favors owed to me that I’m more than willing to collect now.”
Charles looked as though he wanted to faint. He tried to pick himself up from where he’d slid down the bookcase, but he wobbled and couldn’t gain his footing.
“I’m sorry,” he blurted out. “I was desperate. I knew you wouldn’t give me the bid after what happened. I need that deal, Gabe. I have to have it.”
Gabe held out his hand to help Charles to his feet. Charles stared warily at him but finally slid his hand into Gabe’s grasp.
As soon as Charles was back on his feet, Gabe flattened him with another punch. He likely broke Charles’s nose. Blood splattered over his face as Charles lay dazed against the bookcase.
“That’s for putting your hands on Mia. For leaving bruises on her skin. If you ever go near her again, there isn’t a rock on this earth you can hide under. I’ll hunt you down, and I’ll take you apart. I can make you disappear, Willis. No one would ever find your body.”
Knowing he’d made his point, Gabe turned and stalked from the office. Charles was stupid, but he was smart enough to know that Gabe was utterly serious. If he made good on any part of his threat to Mia, Gabe would destroy him.
Gabe got into his car and headed for his apartment. He was anxious to be back with Mia so he could reassure her that the matter was taken care of.
It baffled him and brought him to his knees that she hadn’t betrayed him. That her first instinct was to come to him and ask for help. To trust him to solve the matter when she stood to lose so much.
What a gift he’d been given in Mia.
His thoughts were consumed with her as he rode through town. There was a lot he wanted to discuss with her—matters he wasn’t sure how she’d feel about.
But this situation had brought to him in stark clarity how easily they could be discovered. Was such a deception worth the possible consequences?
Before, he agreed wholeheartedly with Mia in keeping their relationship from Jace. It only made sense because he’d known that whatever their relationship was, it wouldn’t last very long. If Jace never knew, there would be no awkwardness. No anger. They could go on as before, pretending his time with Mia had never happened.
Only now…
Now, Gabe was reluctant to think of the agreement between him and Mia ending. He wasn’t sure when it had happened that he’d started looking at her in a new light. As someone he had no intention of walking away from. At least not any time soon.
Jace needed to be told and then Gabe and Mia would deal with whatever fallout ensued. It was becoming increasingly more difficult for Gabe to pretend distance at the office. To pretend Mia was just an employee. Or that she was just Jace’s little sister and someone Gabe viewed with affection.
He wasn’t sure how Mia would feel about them going to Jace with the truth—or rather a simpler version of the truth. No one would ever know of their contract. It was a thing that shamed Gabe now, where before he’d lived by it, would never enter a relationship without one. Now? It seemed ridiculous and useless. A product of his overreaction to the past.
More important than any of that right now was ensuring that Mia was reassured, and that he soothed any worry or fear she had with regard to the threats Charles had made.
His hands itched to touch her. He wanted her against him, breathing the same air as he did. He wanted to taste her and to feel her against his skin.
He silently urged his driver to go faster. He’d been away from Mia for too long. She was his addiction, and he was already suffering from withdrawal.
• • •
Mia worried and fretted as she waited for Gabe to get home. She checked the clock countless times, the minutes passing with excruciating slowness.
What had he done? How could he possibly hope to take care of the matter? Had she done the right thing in going to him?
She was weary and her head ached vilely. She’d already raided Gabe’s medicine cabinet for ibuprofen, but nothing seemed to ease the pain at her temples and at the base of her neck.
And then she heard footsteps in the foyer, and she lunged up from the couch and met Gabe as he entered the living room.
She flew into his arms and he gathered her close as she all but crawled up his body. He hoisted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist as she clutched tightly at his shoulders.
His hands palmed her ass, holding her up as he stared into her eyes.
“Are you all right?” he asked in a low voice.