Steal My Heart (16 page)

“Th…There’s a man chasing me! He’s wearing a green jacket.” The words rushed out as she approached. She started to explain, but when he grabbed her arm and twisted it brutally, she choked out a loud sob. She felt the flow of blood stagnate in her chest as she saw the weapon he’d held concealed behind his back. He raised the gun, the sun glinting off the metal, and jabbed it ruthlessly into her side.

“Shut up!” he snarled in her ear.

Maggie whimpered, her arm almost breaking from his iron grip. He held her close to his large body, crushing her to his side.

“Let. Her. Go.”

The steely command came from somewhere behind them. She almost fell over as her captor abruptly pivoted, holding her in front of him, the gun muzzle now digging a hole in her temple. She was panting, the flow of oxygen to her brain now severely diminished. She was sure she would faint. She’d never been so afraid in her life. She looked at Gabe’s impassive countenance. His fierce eyes were riveted on the officer’s face. They seemed otherworldly as they swirled darkly. His tall body was erect, coiled, as he leveled his gun at the man’s head. He stood barely ten feet away.

“Let. Her. Go,” he repeated slowly.

“Give me the drive or I’ll kill her,” the officer retorted sharply.

“You have exactly three seconds.”

Maggie shivered at the lethal tenor of Gabe’s voice. It seemed to invoke the strong breeze that suddenly swirled around them.

She gasped, her eyes darting about frantically. This was her life they were bargaining with! Her arms and legs grew slack with dread and tears started to glide down her face.

Before she could figure out what was happening, a loud blast exploded in her ears and she felt the wet splatter of blood coat her neck and face. She screamed and screamed, not knowing if the blood was hers or not, not knowing if she was about to fade into darkness or head towards that dreaded white light at the end of a tunnel. Her body was shocked with panic and hysteria shooting through her veins. The body gripping her suddenly slackened, and then fell to the ground with a dull thud. She wished she hadn’t looked down at the gruesome sight.

She was still shaking and screaming when Gabe pulled her into his arms, issuing words that were supposed to calm her down. She didn’t have time to recover as he turned and dragged her behind him through a back door and into a gloomy hallway. She could hear the echo of screams behind her and guessed that the gun shot and her manic screaming had drawn attention from the people in the market.

“There was another man,” she managed as she followed quickly behind his large form, desperately trying to clean her face and neck with her shirt.

He stopped and turned to her, and she felt his stormy gaze on her face. Beside his calm control, she felt dark anger radiating from him. Anger directed at her, and she couldn’t understand why.

“Dressed as a cop?”

“No. Wearing a green jacket. Short, with dark hair.”

She was about to ask about Harry, but Gabe nodded curtly and continued forward. They walked down another hall, and Maggie could hear raised voices just beyond the wall. The quaint market was erupting into a horror scene. She guessed she herself was a ghastly spectacle with blood stains spattered all over her.
Body fluids…Uhggg!!
She struggled to suppress the uncontrollable trembling of her body and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Gabe’s confident presence was reassuring and did much to soothe her shaky nerves. They emerged through a side door onto a stone patio that faced the second parking lot, and Maggie spotted Gabe’s car parked just beyond a graveled walkway. She was about to take a step towards the vehicle when a potted plant exploded just above her head, showering her with dust and debris. She screamed in fear just as he pushed her to the cobbled ground, her hands scraping against the rough stones.

“Stay down!” Gabe yelled, and she saw him crouch behind a table and take aim at something in the distance.

Another hanging plant exploded, this one closer to Gabe, and she pressed her hands tight to her ears. She lay prone on the ground, her body cold and numb against the stones digging into her skin. Her throat was on fire from screaming, flames scorching the flesh raw. She saw Gabe zip past her across the patio to assume a position behind a thick pole. A bullet plugged into the wall behind her and she covered her head. She was starting to hyperventilate, her breaths exploding in shaky gusts, and she fought the panic that wanted her to get up and run. A moment later he was at her side, pulling her from the floor.

“Up, now. Let’s go!”

She ran behind him, her legs disobedient weights. She expected at any moment to have a bullet zing through her body and tear it to pieces as it had that officer’s. Maggie didn’t know how she’d made it into the car. She only remembered falling back against the soft leather seat, her body lurching as the vehicle careened out of the lot.

Maggie walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped snuggly around her body; one also secured her wet hair in a giant turban. Although scrubbed of the gore that had clotted on her face and clothes, she still could feel the residual effects of the horrific afternoon. She made a quick mental list of blood borne pathogens and felt relieved as she dismissed each one for likelihood of contamination. Thank God she was alive. Gabe had saved her—again. After bringing her back to the room via the back entrance, he’d mumbled something about needing to speak to the motel manager and abruptly left.

He hadn’t spoken a word to her since they’d taken off from the market. She could tell from his stiff square shoulders and the strained line of his lips that he was keeping a tight rein on his emotions. She’d asked about Harry, and he’d offered noting more than the fact that he was dead. She knew they were close, or perhaps had been at some time. Assuming his aloof hostility was a result of losing his friend, she’d respected his brooding introversion. He didn’t seemed like the type of person to have many friends, and she guessed Harry’s death was a grave loss. She wanted to comfort him, but his black mood was a strict admonition to stay clear.

She sank to the bed and switched on the television, not really paying attention but needing the background noise to scatter the persistent memories. Since Gabe had entered her life, there’d been nothing but death and violence. Was this what his life was like? Every day a battle to survive?

He was definitely not the domestic type. She’d known he wasn’t the wife and house with white picket fence type, but today’s events revealed his world with alarming clarity. She couldn’t imagine living on such an extreme edge. He was a dangerous man. He had stood calmly and shot a bullet through that officer’s head without even blinking. She would assume that to perform such an act one had to be glacial to the core, soulless, patently evil. One had to have a complete disregard for human life. She also realized that had he not shot the officer she most likely would’ve been killed, but his skill at the act had been frightening.

I’m a bad man, Maggie.
Those had been his words.

Was
he cold and heartless? Is that why he didn’t care about what happened to the research? That many would die without it?

She shook her head, dislodging the towel and feeling the wet tendrils of her hair fall around her face and neck.

No
. He wasn’t cold and heartless. Not the Gabe she’d come to know and developed feelings for. It wasn’t often he let his guard down, but when he did, she saw a complex array of deep human emotions. He did have a heart. He wasn’t evil. At first, that’s what she’d thought of him. When he’d first broken into her apartment, she’d imagined him the devil himself.

She sighed. That seemed like an eternity ago. Another life. But this hobo thief was turning out to be so much more…

Or was she deluding herself into thinking there was more to him because of her intense attraction to him? And what did
he
think of her? Was she just a convenient outlet for his sexual needs—one who didn’t offer much resistance? Was he trying to protect her or was he just using her? Hadn’t he claimed the only reason he’d saved her was in case he needed a hostage?

She smirked and blew out a long breath. He’d called her crazy.
Crazy
. Not like she hadn’t heard it before. Somehow the word wasn’t biting when Gabe said it. In fact, she enjoyed seeing his puzzled smile when he made the accusation. Marc, her ex-boyfriend, had called her crazy. That had been his excuse for cheating on her. Maggie winced as the old memory stirred.

She’d surprised Marc at his apartment and found him naked and sweaty, hammering between some other girl’s legs. Devastated, she’d fled the room. He’d followed her, ranting that the reason he was forced to be unfaithful was because she was crazy, oh yeah…and fat. Maggie hadn’t known what’d hurt worse—the betrayal, or the honesty of his words.
Crazy?
Okay yeah, but really, who wasn’t? As long as she wasn’t talking to green dinosaurs or seeing dead people then she considered her mental faculties intact.
Fat?
Uhgg! Her entire life she’d struggled to lose the extra weight that enjoyed residing at five foot four Maggie Lawson. PO Box ASS, Zip code THIGHS. Seems it was its permanent address, and she’d come to accept the houseguests.

But when Gabe looked at her she felt desirable. She didn’t feel like she needed to alter any part of herself. His heated gaze always caused an inner glow to light her entire body, illuminate her spirit, and dazzle her passion. This gorgeous man wanted to make love to her, and he made her feel like the center of his universe when he touched her.

Hellooo? Stockholm!
The words barged rudely into her brain.
I don’t recall him saying anything about making love, in fact, his precise words were that he wanted to
—Maggie smothered the annoying voice in her head, and with a humph, started to vigorously towel dry her hair. The day’s events had surely addled her wits.
Focus, Maggie, focus!

What would happen now that Harry was dead? Would Gabe still hand over the research? She remembered hearing him say that if anything happened to her or Harry the deal was over. Would he break his deal with Cane? She guess he’d been paid a great deal of money—double, from what she’d overheard. She sincerely hoped he’d do the right thing. He seemed to be very knowledgeable about the research and knew its potential life saving benefits. She combed through her wet waves with her fingers.

Who was this man who on one hand kept a room filled with lethal artillery and on the other read articles from the New England Journal of Medicine?

She looked up as the door opened, and the object of her obsessive thoughts stalked in. His presence instantly filled the room. He was balancing several plastic food container stacked upright and two large bottles of water. She rushed over to help him, but could tell by his erect posture and shuttered gaze that his surly mood hadn’t changed. His thick dark hair, reaching just above his shoulders, was pushed back from his face in disheveled waves. God! Amazing. People paid to make their hair look like that. She also now noticed a small scratch on his temple slightly above his right brow. In silence, they deposited the load on the table and started unwrapping and uncovering the food. Maggie flushed, feeling the wintry fan of his gaze as it traveled over her face, and she awkwardly fidgeted with the edges of the suddenly inadequate towel concealing her body. She flinched with self-reproach, wishing she’d had the wisdom to change before he’d come back to the room.

Unable to withstand the bloated silence a moment longer, she looked up, catching his gaze head on and suffering its full effects. A cool ripple chased down her spine, leaving a residue of melancholy and confusion. Her hands stopped moving and her brows drew together.

“I’m sorry about Harry,” she whispered softly.

He acknowledged her with a jerk of his head, but said nothing.

“Thank you for…for today. For saving me.”

Another head jerk.

“What happens now?” She couldn’t help but ask.

She turned to face him when he didn’t answer, biting her lip pensively, reliving her terror from the afternoon. “When will this be over, Gabe?” She realized she sounded desperate, but didn’t care.

His gazed zeroed in on hers then, a landscape of black ice, dense and formidable. She gathered her resolve and repeated her question.

“When will this be over?”

“I meet with Cane tomorrow as scheduled.”

Maggie gasped, a deep frown lining her face. “You mean, you’re still going to go through with it?”

Anger reared up inside her. She believed the research belonged to the doctors who’d collected it, the ones who’d had the vision, the medical knowledge, and the painstaking tenacity. Not the greedy criminal who’d apparently funded it. Who cared that it was his company? If he’d had legal rights to the research he wouldn’t have had to steal it, and with his abundant resources, it would have been an easy thing to appropriate it legally. She didn’t trust Cane’s intentions. From what she’d seen so far, the man was a monster.

She watched Gabe brace his legs and fold his muscular arms across his wide chest. His eyes narrowed as he quietly assessed her.

“After everything that’s happened? He killed your friend!”

“Harry knew the risks he was taking dealing with a man like Cane.”

“How could you give it to him, Gabe? The man is an animal! He…he kills people.”

“
I’ve
killed people.”

“But only in self-defense, or to save others!”

She watched him stoically quirk an eyebrow. Frustrated and angry, she plowed ahead, “God knows what his intentions are! He stole that research.”

“
I
stole that research.”

“Technically, yes. But, I’d hoped...I thought…”

He leaned down so that his face was merely inches away from hers, and the air caught in her lungs. His masculinity wrapped thick around her, breath-stealing and hypnotic.

“What is it that you thought, Maggie?” he asked coldly.

She turned her face, tears starting to prick the back of her eyes. He was baiting her, mocking the obviously false opinion she’d formed of him.