This is Love, Baby(56)

I’m seeing things.

Brandon seems to snap out of his daze and works at his jeans to free his cock. While he’s preoccupied, I rear back with my free foot and kick him with every bit of force I can dredge up in his chest. It doesn’t faze him, though, because he laughs and twists my ankle in his grip to the point of pain, causing me to yelp out.

“You must be deaf because I clearly heard her demand for you not to touch her.” As if the devil has any room to talk. Brandon freezes as Gabe steps closer, pointing a gun at him.

So I’m not seeing things.

A bruised and bandaged up Gabe enters the bedroom. He walks with a slight limp and winces.

“I killed you,” Brandon murmurs in disbelief as if he’s seeing a ghost. “You were dead.”

Gabe laughs but then coughs. “No, you beat me, when I couldn’t defend myself, and then you dumped me into my cellar. You broke bones, but you didn’t break me,” he mutters through gritted teeth. “Drop the knife on the bed and step away from her.”

Brandon lets the knife fall on the edge of the bed and takes three slow steps away from it. Gabe winks at me and I shiver.

“How did you get out?” I ask softly. There was no way out. I should know, I was in that cellar for days and felt every surface looking for an alternate escape route.

He remains perfectly still, only his eyes sliding over to meet mine when he says, “There was a window. You just never found it, baby.” He shrugs dismissively, like I just lost a simple coin toss over who has to do the dishes that night.

I sit up and glare at him, reaching for my hoodie and sliding it on over my head. “There was no window!”

“There was. It was painted black near the ceiling. It was hard as hell finding all the brick grooves to stick my toes in so I could scale the wall but, I managed,” he says in a triumphant tone. “Too bad you two were long gone before I got out. Otherwise, we could have had fun together.”

Brandon starts toward Gabe but he aims the gun, fitted with a silencer, at his head.

“Don’t even try it, pussy boy. Why don’t we start by you telling Baylee what you did to Tony?”

My eyes find the enraged ones of Brandon. His jaw clenches as if the boy I knew from before is clinging on desperately. Begging him not to make things worse. I can’t help but be thankful for the truth that Gabe will no doubt force from him.

“You know nothing,” Brandon snaps. “I did nothing.”

The muscle in Gabe’s forearm flexes as his finger hovers over the trigger. “I’m not stupid. You and I both know what you did.”

Brandon grunts and runs his fingers through his hair. His eyes dart back and forth between Gabe and I as he searches for the right words. When his furious glare lands back on Gabe, he fists his hands and spats out words that have my already fragile psyche cracking. “Tony deserved it after what he did.”

My heart thunders in my chest and I shake my head in denial. What did my dad deserve? What did he do? “No.” The word is a whisper and I’m not sure either of them even heard it.

Gabe frowns and shakes his head in disproval. “Did you tell Baylee that you killed him? Surely she has ascertained as much by now.”

“No, you’re lying.” I swallow down my emotion and blink away the tears blurring my vision. “Tell me where my dad is, Brandon.”

Brandon grits his teeth and jerks his gaze to me. The fire in his eyes is burning bright and hate-filled. He’s lost. So lost. “That night,” he snarls, “that night when he fucking took you, I woke up with a broken nose and a broken heart.”

“Awwww,” Gabe taunts.

“Shut the fuck up,” Brandon snaps. “I went into their bedroom and woke up your dad. I told him what happened. Do you want to know what he did?”

My brows scrunch in confusion. I can imagine a million different scenarios. Dad hitting him. Dad freaking out with worry. Dad accusing him of doing something to me.

“He dragged me out of that room, so your mother wouldn’t wake, and he punched me in the stomach. Then he threatened me. He told me to shut the fuck up or he’d do it for me. To not tell a soul anything because as far as I was concerned, you ran away. It wasn’t until a few days later when I came back, after your mom had passed away, that I learned the truth. He told me that he did what he had to do for the money. To save your mother. End of story.”

“I don’t understand,” I murmur. None of this makes any sense.

Brandon huffs and lets out a cruel laugh. A laugh so similar to Gabe’s it sends goosebumps popping up all over my flesh. “Your dad was in on your abduction and sale, Baylee. It was all planned.”