I’m sure that had gone over like a lead balloon.
“Was he abusive to the staff?”
Eddie coughed. “Only verbally, ma’am. And just to me and Timmy. We’re fine.” He said it quickly, as though he were protecting Gabe.
Enabler. I sighed. “Send him up.”
Timmy brought Gabe up a minute later. Timmy’s expression was carefully neutral, but Gabe looked pissed.
Timmy left as quickly as possible, closing the door behind him and not saying a word.
Gabe stalked past me, also not s
aying a word, and threw himself on my couch. I couldn’t help admiring his T-shirt, his biceps, and the stubble that had grown on his face over the past few days. In spite of everything that was going on, my heart beat rapidly in response to the visual stimulation.
He didn’t look at me.
I crossed my arms against my chest. “Um…hi?”
He put his face in his hands and shook his head. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t bother with small talk now.” He clenched his fists together, looking like he was trying very hard to keep calm. “If you wanted small talk, you should have picked up your goddamned phone. Before Clive Warren turned up dead!”
“Gabe—”
“Do you understand that I’ve been worried sick about you?” The muscle in his jaw jumped. “And then this happens—Clive gets murdered in jail. And you still won’t return my goddamned calls?”
“I was waiting to have the building swept for bugs. I didn’t want to call you until it was safe.” I went and sat down slightly away from him on the couch, watching him cautiously even as I longed to touch him.
He raked a hand through his hair, his bicep popping out from underneath his T-shirt. “I told you, you don’t need to protect me.”
“I don’t need to throw you to the wolves, either.” All I wanted was to throw myself at him, but that hardly seemed appropriate, given the circumstances.
The circumstances. I needed to keep my eye on the ball, not on Gabe’s bicep. “I can’t believe Clive’s dead.”
Gabe finally looked up, his eyes tortured. He reached out for me. “C’mere.”
I went and buried my face against his chest. He wrapped his arms tightly around me, rocking me against him. My senses were overwhelmed by his smell, the feel of his chest against mine, his solid arms around me. “If I ever lost you…if anything ever happened to you…”
“You won’t.” I buried my face in his chest. “Not ever.”
He dropped a kiss onto my head. “I’ve been going crazy without you. We need to deal with this, once and for all.”
“Hold on a second—there’s something I want to show you.” I hustled to grab Clive’s letter from my desk.
Positioning me against him, Gabe took the letter and read it straight through, not saying a word.
After a minute, he put it down. He seemed calmer now. “I can’t believe he’s dead. And I can’t believe he called me a prick in his death note. And a thug. What an asshole.”
I gave him an exasperated look. “Sympathy really isn’t your strong suit, is it?”
He shrugged. “I feel sorry for him, but only because he was too stupid to see he was in over his head. He’s right—you are smarter than him. But everything else he said is just scary.”
The image of Clive, dead on the floor, came back to me again. “I’ve increased security—we have armed guards at all entrances. That’s why they gave you such a hard time. Also, all employees have to turn in their cell phones. Everyone’s required to submit to a mandatory search.”
Gabe nodded. “I’ll do the same at Dynamica, just to be safe.”