Gabe (The Love Family Series Book 7)
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Authors: Kate Allenton
gabe
Kate Allenton
Copyright © 2016 Kate Allenton
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, character, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or use fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Published by Coastal Escape Publishing
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Lucy Brook Lynn Pate-Abbott ran her chipped fingernail over the plastic that covered her expensive fake ID. “I asked for a new name.” Finally glancing up at the punk perched behind his computer screen, she slammed the IDs down on his desk. “This won’t work.”
The heavyset college kid’s fingers stilled on the keyboard and he finally looked up at her. “Listen, lady, I don’t know why you want a fake ID, and honestly, I don’t care,” he said, rising, his six-foot frame towering over her. “You asked for an ID and I provided it. Time to pay up.”
“If I wanted to use my real name, I wouldn’t need an ID in the first place.” The volume of Lucy’s voice grew in intensity, and even that didn’t persuade the college punk to offer up something new. Something she could use.
“You needed an ID. You have four names. Who has four names?” he asked, and then, without waiting for a response, continued. “I worked with what you gave me. Get over it.”
Who had four names indeed? Rich people who lived in fancy houses with butlers named James, that’s who. Her mother had kept her maiden name when she’d married. A lot of good that had done her when the tire went out on her limo and the car veered over the cliff, killing both of Lucy’s parents. That should have explained enough. Not that she’d waste her time explaining it to this price-gouging geek. Her heart ached at the memory, and tears stung her eyes.
Hold it together.
“You don’t understand.” Her eyes misted. Disappearing was her only shot to survive. “My life is on the line here.”
“What? You got an abusive husband or something? Why do you need to disappear?”
The dorm room door busted open, and a group of college kids walked in. The smell of alcohol hit her in the face from across the room. Her chances to leave town without them finding her were dwindling. “Fine.”
Lucy dropped the bills on the computer desk, snatched the ID, and left without another word. “Brooklyn Pate,” she murmured in disbelief at the names he’d chosen to combine. Well,
Brooklyn
would just have to work. She shoved the ID into the back pocket of her baggy jeans and hoisted them higher on her hips, ever careful of the bandage against her ribs. Her jeans fell right back into place.
Lucy pulled the hoodie over her head and tucked her long brown hair inside. The sunglasses she’d worn weren’t to shield her eyes from the sun, but her attempt at a disguise. When she’d left the house, she’d looked like a really bad version of a college kid, or a badly dressed bomber. She hadn’t decided which. Brooklyn Abbott, Brooklyn Abbot, crap…Brooklyn Pate. She repeated it over and over in her mind, trying to make the name stick as she made her way back to the sleazy motel.
Lucy dug the card key out of her pocket, shoved it in the door, and hurried inside with one last look over her shoulder. The lingering smell of cigarettes and mildew drifted to her nose and would cling to her pores long after she’d left. The air in the room was stale, unmoving, and she wouldn’t dream of opening one of the windows in
this
neighborhood.
She glanced at the bedside clock. She had twelve more hours in this flea-infested room. One more sleepless night of listening to the headboard bang against the adjoining wall before the hooker’s pimp would show up demanding the money.
Lucy pulled the curtains until they overlapped and glanced at the locks on the door. They were flimsy at best, but currently her only defense. She shoved a chair beneath the knob as she’d seen on television. Walking into the bathroom, she lifted the shirt over her head and dropped it to the floor. The blood from the wound seeped through the bandage. She let out an exhausted sigh knowing that, like the other wounds, this one would also heal.
She slowly peeled away the bandage while biting her lip to stifle her scream. Her head spun as she redressed it with a fresh pad. The skin around it was red and raw.
She clutched the sink and stared into the cracked and dirty mirror. The foundation covering the purple bruises around her eye and on her cheek was wearing off. The bruises, too, would heal in time. Her heart and mind would take longer.
“Brooklyn Pate.” She spoke with conviction. The name, the tone…it was all a lie.
Gabe Love ran his hands down the chocolate lab’s fur and closed his eyes, listening to the thoughts in the room. This was why he’d chosen to be a vet and not work in a hospital with the patients’ constant cries. Vern’s thoughts were quiet but pleading.
Fix him. Fix him. I can’t lose him too.
Melanie, Gabe’s assistant, had her own thoughts that were drowning out Vern’s.
We’re going to be here all night. I hope Brad doesn’t cancel. He’s going to love my sexy new lingerie.
Gabe shook his head and gave his assistant a pointed stare. “Go home. I’ve got this.”
“Really?” Her eyes lit up, thankful. Her cheeks tinted pink.
“Go.” He gestured with his head.
He could feel the dog’s heartbeat and the blood as it flowed through its veins. If others knew what he could do, they’d make it a point to avoid him like the plague. The residents of the island were none the wiser to his ability, and he’d quietly kept it that way all his life. His brother and sister would tease that he was like a Peeping Tom of the mind, but they weren’t even close. Unlike Reed, and the boxes of information he saw, Gabe could tune his out if he concentrated hard enough. The personal thoughts of the people around him varied in intensity, and most were either content or confused. It made him good at his job, and a freak just the same.
He opened his eyes and gentled his touch, coming up to the problem area. The dog whined when Gabe got close. His tail wagged, flapping against the metal table. “You were chasing that husky again, weren’t you, Bruiser? One day you’ll learn you aren’t a little puppy anymore.”
“That’s what I keep telling him, Doc,” Vern Thomas said, rubbing a soothing motion over Bruiser’s back. “He’s a horn dog.”
“We’ll get him patched up.”
The wrinkles around Vern’s eyes softened. “Thanks, Doc. You know…my niece, Scarlet, is moving back to town next month. She’s single again, and she’s grown up into a beautiful woman, successful and everything.”
Scarlet Thomas. The wallflower with her nose always buried in a book. Gabe remembered Jackson and himself pulling her ponytails a time or two in the fourth grade when she’d come to their house to play with Alexis. Jackson was head over heels when Scarlet turned into a teen and he’d seen her for the first time with hormones running amuck through his veins.
“I remember Scarlet.” He smiled as he wrapped the dog’s leg with a bandage. “Jackson had a thing for her growing up.”
“He did?” he asked, surprised.
“He did,” Gabe said. “Come to think about it, I think he asked her out a time or two and they went on one date. She thought he was only asking to be mean since he hung with the popular crowd.”
“Your brother was full of piss and vinegar when he was younger. You were too.”
“We got older, and we grew up.” He smiled while running his hand over Bruiser’s other legs just to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. “Look at Alexis. Now that girl was hell on wheels, and here she is getting married in a couple months, to the fire chief no less.”
Pity, I didn’t see Jackson first. Maybe he could’ve helped Scarlet get over her ex.
Gabe held in his grin.
Vern’s thoughts were loud and clear.
“I’ll have to let Jackson know she’s coming back.”
“You do that, dear.” Vern’s grandmotherly smile was sincere.
Gabe carried the dog to Vern’s car and put him in the backseat. “He’s going to be sore and out of sorts while he heals, but you can call me or bring him back in if you’re concerned.”
“Thanks, Doc.” Vern took his hand and squeezed.
Gabe crossed his arms over his chest and watched as Vern’s car pulled away from the curb. This was why he never left the island. Knowing his neighbors by name, and them all helping each other, gave him reason to stay. Gabe walked back into the clinic and slipped out of his lab coat, leaving it hanging over his office chair. He closed up the clinic and whistled as he walked down Main Street toward Tony’s Pizzeria. The breeze from the ocean air ruffled his hair and cooled his skin. He loved living on the island. The locals waved in passing as they mingled with the tourists that came on vacation. This was Gabe’s own slice of heaven, around people he loved.
Gabe walked into the pizza place, bypassing the whiteboard outside that listed the daily special. The bell above the door chimed as he entered. Tourists and locals alike talked in the booths and around the tables. The clinking of glasses and silverware filled his ears as he headed straight for his brother’s table. Jackson had a slice of pizza hanging out of his mouth. Alexis had pulled the cheese from hers and had it dangling above her mouth. Her fiancé, Cole, sat beside her, sipping his beer.
“Sorry, I’m late. I had a last-minute walk-in.”
The waitress walked by, and Gabe gently touched her arm. “Excuse me, miss.”
Noooo. Don’t touch me.
The waitress’s words screamed in his mind as if he’d heard it with his own ears. She flinched, and Gabe yanked back his hand.
“I’m sorry.”
She plastered a smile on her face that didn’t reach her eyes as she held Gabe’s gaze. “What can I get you to drink?”
“Water would be great.” She glanced at the faces of the people sitting at his table before she hurried off. Gabe rested his elbows on the table and leaned into Alexis. “Who’s the new girl?”
“Brooklyn,” Alexis answered. “Like the city.”
“Is that where she’s from?” he questioned as he gazed between them.
“We don’t know.” Alexis grinned at Gabe and wiggled her brows. “Do you want me to ask and see what I can find out?”
“What are you guys gossiping about?” Skylar Love walked over to the table while her husband, Luke, pushed the stroller to the counter to pay for a take-out pizza that was waiting.
“Gabe here was asking about the new girl.”
“Ohhh, we have a new girl.” Skylar’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “Maybe we should eat our pizza here.”
“Shh. Here she comes,” Alexis whispered.
Gabe’s cheeks heated as he leaned back, giving Brooklyn a wide berth to set his drink down. Again she scurried away.
Gabe glanced up at Skylar, who’d gone quiet. Her brows dipped, and her mouth turned down into a frown. That sparkle that had been in her eyes was replaced with clouded concern. Something was wrong. He’d seen that look a million times, and he wasn’t the only one who noticed.
“What was her color, Sky?”
Everyone at the table knew about the Loves’ gifts. Skylar was blessed with seeing colors in the shape of a line raining down from above a person. She’d explained it as a mix between auras and the code from the movie
Matrix
.
Sky stood motionless, her gaze never straying from the woman as she bused the tables across the room before disappearing behind the double doors. “Um…I’m not sure what to make of hers. I’ve…”
“Skylar?” Gabe rose and gestured to the door, not wanting their conversation to be overheard. “Walk with me outside.”
Being outside, and away from the other patrons, quieted his mind as they moved to the bench that faced the pizzeria windows and the activity inside. “Tell me what you saw, and I’ll tell you what I heard.”
“Her blue lines are broken. The colors were jagged. Light blue above the break and dark blue beneath.” Skylar reached into her purse and pulled out a pen; taking Gabe’s hand, she drew a lightning bolt, making the bottom portion darker.
Gabe stared at his hand and back up to the window.
“What did you hear?”
“I touched her arm, and she screamed, “No, and yelled, don’t touch me, in her mind and jumped from my touch. She was scared, like an abused animal.”
“Battered?” she asked.
Her suggestion made sense when compared with Brooklyn’s thoughts and actions. But the question remained, who would have hurt her and why?
“What do we know about her?”
“Nothing yet,” he answered, although that was about to change. People came to the island to escape, each for their own reason. He’d seen it a million times or more, but he’d never run across anyone like her. She was skittish and screaming from a simple touch. Someone had done a number on her.
“We should change that. The Loves are notorious for taking in strays. Just look at Jake,” Skylar announced, standing when her husband, Jake, walked out pushing their son in the stroller with one hand and carrying the pizza box with the other. Skylar’s family had taken in Jake, when he was a teen, after he’d lost his parents. Her billionaire husband had been considered family long before their engagement. “I’ll see what I can find out. Maybe I’ll even send in my brothers to see if they can put their finger on the reasoning behind what we’re picking up on.”
“Maybe it’s none of our business,” he suggested as he stood.
“Honey, this is Love Island. Everything is our business.” She patted his arm. “Don’t worry. We’ll be discreet.”
Discreet. Gabe wanted to laugh at the idea. Skylar didn’t have a discreet bone in her body, but she did have a heart of gold. All of the Love women did. He’d trust her for now, even if prying didn’t feel right in his gut. Something told him that Brooklyn, like the city, had more than one skeleton in her closet.
Gabe walked back inside the restaurant and returned to the table. Alexis lifted a brow in his direction as he slid into the seat next to her. He raised his hand to show her what Skylar had drawn. Every time Brooklyn came near, he had a hard time looking away and trying to block her thoughts. After thirty-five minutes, the others had left and Gabe remained. He moved to the bar and ordered a sweet tea when Tony came out.
“Are you sure you don’t want something stronger?” Tony asked.
“Nah, I’m good, thanks.” Gabe lifted his chin after Brooklyn walked by. “What’s the story on the new girl?”
“Brooklyn Pate. She started last week. Very quiet and a bit clumsy, but she’s working out. This is her first waitressing job. I’m sure she’ll get the hang of it.”
“Huh.” He tilted his chin. “Where’s she from?”
“Her driver’s license and application say New York. I’m guessing that’s where she got her name. What’s with the twenty questions? Do you want me to introduce you?”
“Yeah.” Gabe’s cheeks heated. He should have said no, but the contradiction came out before he could pull it back.
“Brooklyn,” Tony called into the kitchen, and she hurried out, pushing her blonde hair behind her ears.
“Yeah, Tony, did you need something?”
He gestured her over. “This here is Gabe Love. He’s the local vet.”
“And?” she asked. “Did he need to order something?”
“No, doll.” Tony chuckled. “He’s a regular in the joint and an all-around good guy. I just thought I should introduce you two.”
A man is the last thing I need
. She gave that plastic smile again, wiped her hands on her apron, and held one out. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too,” he answered, shaking her trembling hand. Gabe was quick to let her pull it back when what he really wanted to do was hold it longer and tell her everything would be all right.
Tony walked off to ring up a customer’s takeout order.
“How does Tony’s pizza compare to the pizza where you’re from?”
“He doesn’t make Chicago-style deep dish.” She shook her head. “I mean it’s nothing like New York pizza. His is better.”
Oh, damn it. Maybe Tony didn’t tell him where I was from and he didn’t notice. Play it off. Maybe he’ll notice my smile and forget my comment.
He’d learned three things in that moment. She’d never eaten New York pizza. She was from Chicago, and when she wanted to, she could give a real smile, even if it was to throw others off from her words. He let the slip slide, afraid if he’d called her out she might run.
“Is your girlfriend here?” Brooklyn asked and glanced around the pizza shop.
“The woman at my table was my sister, and the other one I was talking to was a cousin. I’m not dating anyone. I don’t have time for a serious relationship with my schedule. Sun up to sun down, my only passion is helping the animals.” He lied, hoping she’d realize he wasn’t trying to hit on her. He’d take it nice and slow with her.
“That’s nice.” Her cheeks turned a light shade of pink. “I mean, it’s not nice that you don’t have a girlfriend, but that you help animals. That’s a noble profession. I had an Arabian pony once. I loved my horse.”
Noble profession. Who says that? And an Arabian pony. Those were expensive to own and keep. This woman was a conundrum. Her posture spoke volumes, contradicting the fragility she portrayed.
“They’re beautiful creatures.”
You are too
.
Damn it. Focus. You do not need this in your life.
Gabe tried not to act surprised by her thoughts.
She gripped the counter with one hand, holding herself up, and reached for her side with the other hand. Her lips pulled into a grimace.
“Are you all right?” Gabe had reached for her before realizing it. He slowly pulled his hand back.
I bet it’s bleeding again. I need to go change the bandage before blood seeps through my shirt. Just another reminder why the pretty boy has no place in my life.
