Freeing Her (38 page)

“
Well, yeah, but I thought
you might want another girl to talk to.”

“
I’d rather not talk. I’d
rather do other things with you.”

“
Oh yeah? What kinds of
things?”

“
Like have you tie me up
and take naughty liberties with me.”

“
Hmm. Naughty liberties?”
He grinned. And then the atmosphere in the room charged as his gaze
darkened. He hitched her sharply against him and breathed, “I think
I may have to do that right now, kea. I have an urge to explore all
sorts of naughty ideas with you. Are you game?”

“
Will this exploration
include my silence?”

Her question threw him. “Gabriella, don’t
you like what I do to you?”

“
Well, yeah, but I also
like to express my pleasure and when you tell me I can’t, it takes
some of it away.”

His contrite expression tugged at her heart.
“Why haven’t you said anything? When I ask you afterward, I want
your complete honesty.”

“
Because I don’t want to
spoil your pleasure and you obviously like it.”

“
Jesus,” he muttered as he
scrubbed his face. He looked at her, puffed out a breath, and said,
“My pleasure is only as deep as yours. If you want to scream your
bloody head off, then do it. I want you to come as many times as I
can get you to, and love every orgasm. And if you want to belt out
in Mandarin that you need me to fuck you harder, if that’s what
gets you off, then do it, for Christ’s sake.”

“
Well, okay, but I’m gonna
have to learn to speak Mandarin.”

His head snapped up and he caught the way
her eyes danced with mirth. Then, a stream of giggles bubbled out
of her, and he found himself joining in.

“
I can hear it now.” She
did her best imitation of what she thought Mandarin sounded like,
howling at her own joke.

He laughed too, but then said, “Fuck me
harder, Kolson,” in perfect Mandarin.

“
What was that?” she
asked.

“
I just said, ‘Fuck me
harder, Kolson,’ in Mandarin.”

“
You speak Mandarin?” It
wasn’t a question, but a statement. And though she was surprised,
she shouldn’t have been. He was so accomplished in everything else,
why the hell wouldn’t he speak Mandarin?

“
What else do you
speak?”

“
English.” He
laughed.

“
Is that all?”

“
No. Spanish, German, and
French. But you already knew that from when we ate at Le
Chatelaine,” he said uncomfortably.

“
And I thought I was the
brainiac,” she muttered under her breath. “College?”

“
No. Tutor. My father
insisted we all be multilingual.”

“
Why Mandarin?”

“
The Chinese are huge
industrialists. He was convinced they would control the world
economy. My father is a shrewd businessman. Mandarin is the
national language of China.”

“
So all your brothers are
multilingual too.”

“
Yep.”

“
By the way, did you ever
find Kade?”

Kolson dropped his head. “Yeah. It didn’t go
well. I gave him money and told him he needed to go to rehab. I
mentioned Case. He became his usual angry self.”

“
Any chance I could ever
go with you? Or maybe Case?”

Kolson squeezed his eyes shut. He didn’t
know how to tell her this without it sounding harsh. “God, you’re
such a beautiful soul. You see, you know how I have issues? Well
Kade had it the worst. And, it’s not so easy. The drugs are bad
enough but his head is all fucked up too, kea. I ... the dark is
part of it and, fuck it’s a goddamn mess.” He walked out of the
room and she watched him knowing it was the end of the
conversation. She wished so much she could hold him and he would
tell her everything because she knew she could help. She just knew
it. But she would have to wait until he was ready, because there
would be no pushing him.

Chapter
Twenty-Nine

Three days later,
as promised, Kolson received a phone call. It was
late in the evening and they had just gotten into bed. He looked at
the caller ID and apologized to Gabby but told her he had to take
the call.

“
Hart,” he answered as he
walked toward his office.

Gabby didn’t think much about it. Calls came
in at all hours of the day and night.

“
Mr. Hart. Drex Wolfe
here. We’ve got your man.”

“
You’re sure?”

“
We wouldn’t be talking if
I wasn’t.”

“
Jesus.” Kolson plopped
backward on his chair and took several deep breaths. “Jesus.” He
glanced at his shaking hands.

“
You okay
there?”

For a long moment, he could only
breathe.

“
Mr. Hart?
Kolson?”

“
Yeah. Uh … give me a
second.”

“
Take all the time you
need.”

Kolson’s mind was a fucked-up mess. Gabby,
his father, and Danny clouded it with colliding images, and he
didn’t know what to do, how to respond. He was clearly unprepared
for this.

“
Shit. I, uh …”

“
Mr. Hart, the way we
normally operate is we call the police and let them come in or
…”

“
No. That’s not how this
is going to work. Let me collect my thoughts here.”

In a deadly calm voice, Wolfe said, “You
didn’t let me finish. Or we hold the suspect until the next stage
of the operation. Now I can do that for you. Just let me know what
you’re feeling right now.”

“
Can you give me five
minutes? And I’ll call you back?”

“
You can’t call me back,
Mr. Hart. I’ll call
you
back.” The call ended.

Kolson sat at his desk, numb. He knew this
would happen so why this response? He also knew the answer to that.
He was about to step back into hell. And he was afraid. Afraid of
what would happen when he did.

He weighed his options. There was always the
one where he picked up the phone and called Case, and then the
cops. Danny would be arrested and no doubt would serve a prison
sentence. But for how long? And then what? He’d come after
Gabriella with guns blazing. By then, Kolson pictured the two of
them married, with children and perhaps even grandchildren. The
possibilities of him hurting their family were too vast to even
consider. No, he was left with no other option.

His phone rang.

“
Have you made any
decisions, Mr. Hart?”

“
Yes. Where are you and
how long can you hold him there?”

“
Indefinitely, and I won’t
disclose our location until I have instructions from you. It’s for
both of our protection.”

“
I see. In that case, I’ll
need him somewhere private, where an exchange can be made.
Somewhere where you can leave him. So you won’t be identified or
traced and so you won’t see who picks him up.”

“
I understand. I’ll call
you back in a few minutes.”

When Drexel Wolfe called back, he said,
“Brooklyn, East River warehouse district. There’s an abandoned
warehouse at the end of Heron Street. Upstairs. Midnight tomorrow.
I’ll have him there. Tied up like a nice little present for
you.”

“
Got it.”

“
Once you have
confirmation of him being there, you can transfer the rest of the
money to me. Good luck, Mr. Hart. And for what it’s worth, don’t
feel guilty. I don’t know what he did, but I wanted to kill the
sleazy fucker myself.”

The call ended and that was it. Part one was
finished. Now for the nasty piece of the business. Kolson made the
next call.

“
You must have the
information for the favor you need,” Langston said.

“
I do.” He passed along
the location and time frame.

“
Midnight tomorrow. It
will be over shortly afterward. And we’ll see you at the house next
Saturday.”

“
Yes. We’ll be
there.”

Kolson sat at his desk, staring at his
computer’s screen saver—a picture of Gabriella, on the evening he
took her out in the helicopter. She was laughing and joy flowed out
of her. Kolson wanted to reach into the computer and grab hold of
that joy, bathe in it because he felt sick, felt like he’d just
traded his soul to the devil. He wanted Gabriella’s joy to cleanse
him of his sins, because he knew if she ever found out what he’d
just arranged, the transaction he’d just made, he would lose her
forever. And he may as well belong to the devil if that ever
happened.

Pushing himself away from his desk, he
walked back to the bedroom and found Gabriella asleep. He tried not
to disturb her as he got into bed, but she was too keyed into his
presence.

“
Everything
okay?”

“
Hmm. It is now,” he said,
pulling her into his arms.

She curled against him and he wrapped her
hair around his hand, feeling the thick, silky texture against his
rough palms. Resting his nose against her head, he let her scent
soothe him.

The next two days would be tough, and worse
yet, he’d have to mask his feelings of apprehension from her.
Closing his eyes, he knew sleep would evade him, but lying there
with Gabriella in his arms was enough for him. It was more than
enough, more than he’d ever hoped for, so much more than that
tortured young boy ever dreamed of having. And that’s why he was
confident he’d made the right choice.

The next day was uneventful for Gabby, but
torment for Kolson. He felt like time moved incrementally slow.
Work was a disaster and it was impossible to get anything done. He
snapped at everyone until Jack, his assistant, finally suggested he
take the afternoon off. The gym seemed to be the solution and
sparring with his trainer took his mind off things for a while. By
the time he made it home, he was bone-tired.

“
Kolson, you look
terrible. Let me get you something.”

“
It’s fine. I went to the
gym, and my trainer killed me.”

“
Why don’t you shower and
I’ll fix you some dinner? Lydia made us shrimp creole.”

“
Sounds wonderful.” He
lied. He wasn’t sure if he could swallow a bite. The shower eased
some of his pains and relaxed him a bit, but he was still achy and
tired when he joined Gabby at the counter.

When she noticed he wasn’t eating his normal
massive amount, she commented. He made some bland reply and she
said, “Maybe you’re coming down with something. Go to bed and get
some rest. You’ll feel better in the morning.”

He took her advice and dragged himself into
the bedroom and went to sleep. He never heard her come to bed.

They both woke up to ringing cell
phones.

“
What the heck!” Gabby
groaned.

They answered their respective calls, and
both sat up in bed.

Case was on Kolson’s phone and the police
were talking with Gabby. Danny’s body had been found. He’d jumped
off the top floor of one of the hotels in Brooklyn. He’d left a
suicide note stating that he knew he’d get caught eventually and he
just did not want to go to prison. So he decided to take the easy
way out.

Gabby hung up the phone and switched on the
television. Flipping through the channels, she found the local news
and soon a reporter came on live where they’d discovered Danny’s
body.

“
Daniel Martinelli, who’d
been wanted by police for over a month, was found dead early this
morning after allegedly jumping from the roof of a Brooklyn hotel.
Mr. Martinelli, originally from the Stamford, Connecticut, area,
had been charged with rape, attempted rape, child molestation,
stalking, attempted kidnapping, attempted murder, and assault of an
aggravated nature with a deadly weapon.”

Gabby was stunned at first, but then she
fell back against her pillows. “It’s over. He’s dead.”

“
Yes. He is. Now you don’t
have to live your life in fear anymore.”

“
It doesn’t seem real. It
doesn’t seem possible. He controlled everything I did for so
long.”

“
Not anymore, kea. Only
you can control what you do now.”

She brushed her hair off her face. “It’s
hard to believe. In fact, I don’t feel like it’s real.”

“
It is.”

“
I guess it will take a
while for it to sink in.”

Kolson noticed the blank expression on her
face.

“
You okay?”

“
I’m not sure. Suicide.
It’s so strange. I mean, when I saw him he was unbalanced, with
definite psychosis emerging and possible personality disorder. But
while we always have to consider suicide as a possibility, he just
didn’t look like the typical patient that presents with suicidal
ideation. Something had to have triggered it. Did he leave a note?
Something that might explain what happened?”

“
I’ll see if Case can find
out.”

“
Thanks.”

“
I think we need to do
something tonight to get your mind off of this. What do you
think?”

“
I don’t know. What are
you thinking?”

“
We haven’t been anywhere
in a while. Let me think about it.”

“
Ok.”

Kolson noticed how glum she acted. He put
his arms around her. “It’s going to be okay, kea. I’ll see if we
can find out what happened. But the nice thing is you don’t have to
fear for your life anymore.” He smoothed her hair with his
hand.