“You will also not print anything about our families,” Darius interjects, eyes narrowed on her, “girlfriends, wives, or anyone else connected to us in any fashion whatsoever.”
I agree with a firm nod. “This run, as you call it, is over.”
“And on top of that,” Micah snarls, a vein protruding from his forehead as he leans across the table, “if you do have a lapse in judgment and print anything on any of us, our families, girlfriends, or wives, I will sue not only the paper but you personally. Believe me, Ms. Burke, by the time I’m done with you, your name will be ruined, and not a single paper or shit magazine in the fifty states will come near you.”
An unusually quiet Ryder finally speaks up. “I will add, Ms. Burke, if even after all that you still think it might be a good idea to print another story about our lives, be aware that I can dig into every little nook and cranny of not only your life, but I’ll look into the lives of your parents, Margaret and Paul, even your little brother, Tyler. No one will be safe. Not your best friend, Kristen. Not your boyfriend, Eric. I will expose all their dirty little secrets until every one of the people you love is exposed like you’ve exposed us. Does that make things perfectly clear to you?”
Her skin paled halfway through his speech, obviously realizing he knows names he shou
ldn’t know. She draws in a deep breath and lifts her chin. Then the woman who tried her best to destroy us all for ratings, all for a good story, utters the words we’ve longed to hear. “You won’t see your names in Gotcha! again.”
Chapter 16
McKenna
Later that night, with the sunrise a few hours away, and with the busy night crowd in the pub now gone home to bed, I enter through O’Keefe’s back door using my passcode, which is the very code that made Gabe believe that I’d been behind selling him out. Now I have a singular focus as I move through the clean kitchen, nothing but silence around me, but Gabe’s here. He always restocks the bar before calling it a night, and the pub has only been closed for a half hour now. I know that for a fact, as much as I know that the reason that brings me is the best decision I’ve ever made.
When I enter the main part of the pub, I find Gabe coming out of the storage room holding a case of beer. He’s looking down, unaware that I’m here. “Gabe,” I say softly.
His head snaps up, intense eyes narrow on me.
I tense at the coldness between us. It’s an empty distance that I’m not used to in Gabe’s presence. Uncertainty circles around us, and it’s uncertainty that I know I caused, and that I need to fix.
“Evan told me how much you had to pay to Marcus,” I tell him, taking a step forward. “No matter how long it takes, I’ll pay you back.”
“Do you honestly believe I care about the money?” He’s unmoving, so still that I can’t tell if he’s angry or what he’s feeling.
I take another step closer, trying to get a read on him. “There are things to say.” I fight against the tears in my eyes.
“Then say them,” is all he says.
I swallow against the tightness in my throat. “Everything that you’ve done for me . . . from helping me find Evan to paying his debt . . . it’s just all so much.” I take another step closer, nearly there now, and my voice cracks. “You’re an amazing man, Gabe.” But that’s not enough; I bare it all. “My brother failed me. My mother failed me. Yet you give me hope that people can be good, trustworthy, and loyal.” Tears leak from my eyes, as I add, “You’re the most incredible man I’ve ever known.”
Before my eyes, his cold barrier between us drops and emotion rages in his eyes. He places the case of beer onto the pool table next to him, and then he closes the distance between us with two of his long strides. “I have things to say, too.” He stops in close, only an inch between us now. “Since this all began, I have been outed as Afterglow’s owner. I’ve been accused of having a sex slave, abusing a woman, and I’ve looked the Devil in the eye and paid him two hundred thousand dollars. And do you know what?”
“What?” I whisper.
He slides his hands across my face. “I would do it all over again, McKenna, because it forced us to cross that line we’d been fighting against.”
“I should have gone with you to the hospital.” Tears well in my eyes and spill over. “I should have known that you would’ve been patient with Evan. I should have known that you would never hurt him, because that would be hurting me, and you’d never do that. I shouldn’t have protected him.” I pause, staring him right in the eye, placing my hands over top of his on my face. “Now I pick you, Gabe. I wanted you in the first place, more than anyone or anything else, and I’m sorry that in the moment that it mattered I was blinded by doing what I always do . . . bailing Evan out. Now because of your kindness, Evan is leaving. And I think that is good for us all.”
His thumbs freeze mid-stroke on my face. “Evan’s going to the treatment facility?”
“I don’t know.” I shrug, unable to move, only able to stare at him, feeling every single hair on my body rise under that intense stare. “I didn’t ask Evan what his plans are.”
Gabe pauses. Then frowns. “I’m sorry, Kenna, but I’m not following.”
One hand slides down my shoulder to rest across the small of my back as I place my hands on his chest and explain, “I didn’t ask if Evan was getting help because I’ve asked that question before, so many times, and it’s never once helped. What I told Evan is that it was time for him to move somewhere else. I told him to take the plane ticket you gave him, provided him with some cash, and I told him to move to Arizona and not come back.” Gabe’s brow furrows, warmth exuding in his gaze, when I add, “I told Evan that it’s my turn now. That I deserve a life without fear and worry. I told him that I deserve a life with you.”
I see the way Gabe’s trembling, how badly he wants to take me, taste me, make me his, and I want him, too. “I don’t know how to repay you for all you’ve done for me.”
“Be mine, McKenna,” he murmurs, cupping my nape, pressing his hard and warm body against mine. “That’s what I want, and all I ask.”
“I’ve always been yours,” is what he deserves to hear.
The side of his mouth curves in obvious masculine pride. He tucks his thumb under my chin, tilting my gaze to meet his. “Back when all this started, I touched you out of anger right here. So here is where I’ll now touch you out of love.” Staring deeply into my eyes, he murmurs, “And I love you, McKenna. Madly. Deeply.”
“I love you, too.” I whisper what my heart has always known.