Freeing Her (27 page)

The buzzer sounded, invading her thoughts.
She looked around, and then remembered where the intercom was.

“
Yes?”

“
Dr. Martinelli? Your ride
is here for you.”

“
Er, thank you. I’ll be
right down.”

She grabbed her purse and entered the
elevator code. Eddie waited for her and introduced himself. In no
time, she was sitting at the NA meeting, listening to Case, or at
least trying to. Her thoughts were still on Kolson and why he
hadn’t returned her calls.

Chapter
Twenty-One

Danny gnashed his
teeth as he watched Gabby climb into the limo.
The driver opened the door for her and off they went. The car was
unmarked, so he couldn’t snag the company’s name. Damn her! When
was she going to fuck up and give old Danny his break? He had
plans, big plans, and Nadine just didn’t cut it for him anymore. In
fact, she’d told him to hit the road yesterday. She said he was a
sick bastard and she didn’t like his dirty games. Danny did rough
her up a bit, but she’d asked for it. By the time he was finished
with her, his belt had left her bloody and purple. She wouldn’t be
sitting anytime soon, and Danny laughed at the thought of her
black-and-blue ass.

Damn, that should’ve been Gabby. He punched
the rough surface of the brick wall and instantly regretted it as
his hand throbbed. Looking at the scraped flesh, he cursed Gabby
again and decided he would double his efforts to catch up with her.
That little cunt was making him miserable and this was one more
example of how she was fucking him over.

# # #

Kolson read and reread Gabby’s text and
listened to her voice message over and over, yet he didn’t respond.
He wasn’t quite ready and didn’t know what to say. His past was
nasty, every bit as ugly as hers, but in a much different way. And
he knew if he were to begin, she’d want to help, want to analyze
him and he could not, would not, go there. He wasn’t ready to do
that. And the truth was, he wasn’t sure if he ever would be. It was
paralyzing to think of.

The helicopter awaited him and he ran
through the rotor wash and stepped aboard. His mind was in the
wrong place and he needed to jerk himself together. Another huge
contract was at stake and his right-hand man was talking to him.
After a pat on the arm, he looked up and then pretended his headset
hadn’t been turned on.

“
Sorry, man. I
forgot.”

“
You ready,
sir?”

“
Jack, I’m always ready
for a good verbal sparring.” And that was the truth.

“
Here are your contracts
and this is your briefing. I have all the materials you requested
here. There will be four people present. But you already knew that.
If we can lock this down, it looks like you’ll have all the pro
teams from Philly and Boston. That only leaves the DC
area.”

Kolson nodded.

“
This is your last step on
the Philly deal and all things indicate it’s a go. They need the
motor coaches because they don’t want to deal with their own
anymore. Our offer is the cleanest. I don’t want to say it’s a done
deal because anything can pop up at the last minute, but with
liabilities as they are today, I think you can nail this one
down.”

“
Do you have all the
statistics and information on what happened after their last
incident?”

“
Yes, sir. Their driver is
still dealing with the legal issues from the accident. And they’ll
be dealing with the lawsuits stemming from that accident for years,
I believe.”

The motor coach that one of the teams used
had been in an accident. The driver was intoxicated and several
passengers in the cars hit by the bus had been severely
injured.

“
They really liked our
zero-tolerance policy and drug testing for our drivers.”

“
Yes, Mr. Hart, they
did.”

Kolson was silent as he reviewed the
contract and information in the files. Everything appeared to be in
order. He paused to think about Gabriella and knew he wasn’t being
fair to her, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it now. He
forced those thoughts to the back of his mind and centered on what
was in his hands.

Jack’s voice came to him through his
headset. “We’re getting ready to land, sir.”

Kolson straightened his tie, adjusted his
cufflinks, and nodded. The helicopter made contact with the ground
and the copilot opened the passenger door as soon as the rotors
stopped turning. Kolson took off his headset and exited the craft,
briefcase in hand. A car waited to drive them to the meeting.

Two and a half hours later, they were in the
air, headed back to Manhattan. Jack looked at Kolson and said, “If
you don’t mind my saying so, sir, for a man who just landed HTS’s
second largest contract in less than two months, you don’t seem
very excited.”

Kolson shot him a glance. “I’m extremely
happy about it, Jack. This is going to separate HTS from all the
other transportation service companies in the industry. Make no
mistake about that. I have other things on my mind at the
moment.”

“
Of course, sir. I
apologize.”

“
No apologies
necessary.”

Jack realized that the conversation was
over. Mr. Hart was a million miles away, and Jack would not be
stupid enough to interfere.

Kolson’s phone had buzzed
several times during the meeting, which he’d ignored, so he checked
it now and saw they were all calls or messages from Gabriella. He
tried to puzzle out how he would handle this. Usually, he would
walk away from women when it reached this point. But that wasn’t an
option with her. He was in too deep and he
wanted
it that way. Things were
different with Gabriella; she was different. He
craved
her … her touch, her kisses,
her body, her sex. She had reached a place within him, and turned
him upside down. In a good way.

As far as this thing today went, she hadn’t
done anything wrong, either. He knew he couldn’t let this go on,
because if he didn’t do something, it would cause a rift between
them.

It was close to dark when they landed on the
rooftop of HTS’s headquarters. He went straight to his office and
took care of some necessities. An hour later, he left for home. It
was almost nine when he pulled into the garage. Though it had been
a long day and he was tired, he knew he owed Gabriella an
explanation. He hoped she was home from her NA volunteer
activity.

When he stepped off the elevator, the
apartment was silent. He walked through each room, checking to see
if she was there. When he didn’t find her, he was shocked by the
disappointment that coursed through him. He was walking out of his
office and back to the kitchen when he heard the ding of the
elevator. Then the doors slid open and out she walked.

“
Gabriella,” he said as he
practically ran to greet her, surprising both of them.

“
Kolson! Where have you
been? I’ve been calling and texting you!” Her voiced had a sharp
edge to it he hadn’t heard before.

“
I’m sorry. I had a
meeting in Philly.”

“
Philly?
Today?”

“
Yeah. This afternoon. It
was at four.”

“
And you went there and
back after lunch?”

“
I flew.”

“
In a plane?”

“
No. I have a
helicopter.”

What else did she not know about him?
Probably a whole hell of a lot, she surmised.

“
Yeah. Can we talk about
my methods of transportation another time? I wanted to tell you
that I, uh, I apologize for the way I reacted today. It was
inappropriate. My reaction was unnecessary and you didn’t deserve
it. I should’ve called sooner, but I … it’s a difficult and touchy
subject for me. I’m sorry.”

“
No, I realized after you
left that it was what I’d said. I’m guessing here, but I’m pretty
sure it had something to do with what I said about being born
lucky. That’s why I was calling. Then I got angry when you didn’t
call me back, but after a while I began to worry.”

“
About me?”

“
Well, yeah. Isn’t that
what people do when they care about each other?”

“
You care about me? After
I was such an ass to you?”

“
Kolson, maybe I didn’t
make myself clear. I don’t sleep around. Especially with men I
don’t care about. I know that’s not common these days, but it’s
sort of the way I operate.”

“
You amaze the hell out of
me. But I’m afraid I don’t deserve you.”

“
You’re not the only one
who’s amazed. And maybe you need to let me be the judge on whether
you deserve me.”

He jerked her against him and crushed his
mouth on hers. His kiss conveyed everything his words didn’t. Her
hands curled around his lapels as she stood on her toes and kissed
him right back. When he released her, he asked, “Where the fuck
have you been all my life?” He swept her hair off her face. “I wish
I’d met you years ago, kea.” He brushed his lips over hers, kissed
her temple, and then shrugged out of his jacket as he loosened his
tie.

“
Are you hungry?” she
asked.

“
Starving. What about
you?”

“
I ate right after work.
Lydia left us something. Why don’t I get your dinner ready while
you go change?”

By the time he was back, she had his meal
ready for him, along with a glass of wine. They chatted while he
ate and he told her about the contract he was awarded that day.

“
Congratulations!”

“
That’s also another
reason why I couldn’t call. I was stuck in the meeting.”

“
It’s good. We’re good.
But please don’t avoid me. Don’t run from me when the subject
matter gets tough. If it’s something you can’t discuss, tell me,
because I’m not a mind reader. Okay?”

“
Okay.”

“
I also wanted to let you
know that I talked to Case tonight and I’m going to take him up on
his offer. About moving in. Since I’m behind on my office rent,”
she said sheepishly, “I don’t think my landlord will be sorry to
see me go.”

“
Kea, that’s the best news
I’ve heard. Do you have a date set for that?”

“
Yeah. Two
weeks.”

“
Then you’ll have a double
move.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Because I locked in an
apartment for you.”

“
You did?” She wasn’t all
that excited about it for a couple of reasons, but the biggest one
was she didn’t want to leave him.

He wore a sly grin. “I did.”

“
Well?”

“
It’s in this
building.”

“
You’re joking. I can’t
afford this.”

“
Yes, you can. It’s a
studio. And it’s less than what you were paying.”

She jumped into his arms and squealed. “I
can’t believe it. That’s incredible. Wait. Did you make some kind
of sneaky deal or something?”

“
No, I did not. It’s the
real deal. But the best part is you can still stay here whenever
you want. You can even do your laundry here if you want, but you’ll
have your own private getaway if you grow tired of me.” He winked
at her.

“
You might be the one who
grows tired of me. And I couldn’t take advantage of you like
that.”

“
Hmm. Maybe I want you to
take advantage of me. And if you don’t, I may have to paddle your
ass, Dr. Martinelli.”

“
Is that a
promise?”

“
It most certainly is. Now
get that ass of yours in my bed, because I distinctly remember
giving you an order this morning. And if you disobeyed me, a
punishment will ensue.” He smacked her on the ass and she scurried
to his room with him on her tail.

# # #

The next day, Gabby was busy when the mail
arrived and she didn’t have time to look at it until she’d finished
with her patients. As she flipped through it, she noticed a large
manila envelope at the bottom of the stack. Pulling it out, she
gasped when she saw it was addressed to Dr. “Precious” Martinelli.
Her heart slammed into her chest and her breath seized in her
throat. She immediately called Kolson.

“
Can you come to my
office?” She fought to control her quavering voice.

“
What is it?”

“
I need you. I’m sorry to
bother ...”

“
Gabriella, are you okay?
Is he there?”

“
No, I’m, uh I just need
you here.”

“
On the way.”

A few minutes later, Ovaltine was walking
inside, checking on her. And not long after, Kolson was there.

“
This came in the mail.”
Gabby looked at the envelope and then at Kolson. Her heart banged
in her throat because she couldn’t imagine what was inside, but she
knew it wasn’t good.

“
Ovaltine, can you wait
outside, please?” Ovaltine left and Kolson went to Gabby’s
side.

She held the envelope and her fingers
quivered as she tried to slide them under the flap. After several
tries, she handed the envelope out and asked, “Will you do it?”

Kolson took it from her and opened it. He
pulled out three large photos and a note. The photos were all of
Gabby, of course. She was bound, gagged, and naked.