I shut my eyes, gathering strength, then I turn to him, and say, “I’m sorry Evan did this to you. Is that what you want to hear?”
“No, McKenna, an apology from you is not what I want,” is Gabe’s hard reply.
There’s so much there burning between us now, I can’t even understand all that’s happened, and all that’s gone wrong, or how to fix any of it. We’re raw, and it hurts so fucking much. “In two hours my life has crumbled.” I admit the truth since I think that’s all that can save me now. “I need to pick up the pieces but I don’t even know where to start.”
He flinches at my words and stays far enough away from me. I can tell he’s fighting against wanting to touch me and not wanting to hurt me any more. “We need to take this one step at a time. The first step is finding your brother.”
The door opens again, and over Gabe’s shoulder, I spot Ryder striding out of the apartment building. He doesn’t pay us any attention; he’s talking on his cellphone and walks right by.
When I look at Gabe again, his eyes are still fixated on me. He leans in closer, and I don’t back away when his warm breath brushes across my face. “Be mad at me, hate me if you must, but please, McKenna, let us help you.”
Right then and there, with cars and pedestrians passing us by, I see the thing he’s kept hidden up until this point, but suddenly he lays it bare for me to see. He’s broken, destroyed in ways that I understand because I’m destroyed in those same ways.
For that reason, and for other reasons that I don’t fully understand, I move to his car and slide into the back behind the driver’s seat.
Gabe joins me not a second later, getting into the driver’s seat. After he shuts the door, his strong gaze meets mine in the rearview mirror. “We find him, then?” he asks.
I nod. “We find him.”
Chapter 4
Gabe
Forty-five minutes later, after dropping Ryder off at home, I pull the Audi into my parking spot at the back of the pub, cut the ignition, and glance at McKenna sitting next to me. The strain in her expression is clear cut, as is the guilt. This isn’t her fault, and I don’t blame her. Her brother on the other hand? He’s someone I’d rather enjoy having a long conversation with. He’s taking advantage of the woman next to me, and that needs to change.
She sighs and gives me a level look. “I’m guessing you have a reason for bringing me here instead of my place.”
“Until we know what Evan’s involved in, I’d prefer that you stay with me,” I say gently, hoping she agrees to this without much figh
t. There’s no way in hell she’s out of my sight until we know what’s going on with her brother. “We can’t dismiss that Evan has clearly pissed off someone enough to ransack his apartment. They may use you to get to him. I have a spare bedroom that you can use, and tomorrow, hopefully, this will be wrapped up and you can go home.”
Her eyes search mine and then she finally nods. “You’re right, I’m safer here than I am at home right now. Until we know what Evan’s involved in, it’s best to stay cautious.” She exits the car, and after I sigh away my tension and join her at the trunk of my car, she asks, “So, we wait for Ryder to contact us, is that the plan?”
I nod and press the key fob, locking the doors behind me. “They’ll work tirelessly tonight until they have something that will move us forward. Trust me when I say he’ll get you the answers you need.”
Relief washes over her expression. I take that as a good sign, so I lead the way toward the back stairs. My body aches in exhaustion, feeling both heavy and sore when I climb the metal stairs first, hearing her follow behind me. I unlock the door and then wave her inside my apartment above the pub.
Once she enters, I join her, shutting the door behind me and locking it. She says, “The sitting around and waiting part isn’t going to be easy. I feel like I need to be doing something.”
“Which is completely understandable,” I say, turning to face her, “but the truth is, the only thing we can do now is trust Ryder and his team.”
“And they’re good at what they do?”
I kick off my boots, leaving them at the door. “I would think after you saw Ryder’s headquarters you wouldn’t doubt that.”
“Of course it was impressive,” she says. “But I also don’t know him like you do.”
“Well, luckily for you, I do know him.” I roll my shoulders, easing the tension there, and shove my hands into my pockets. “Ryder will find your brother, don’t doubt that, and he’ll do so with speed and precision.” I stare into her tired eyes, seeing the dark circles beneath and her pale skin. My chest feels heavy just knowing what she’s going through.
Determined to do the only thing that I think will make us both feel better, I stride forward into my fifteen-hundred square foot apartment. When I’d bought the historic building years back to open the first O’Keefe’s Pub, this floor of the building housed four bachelor apartments. That income had helped me when I’d first gotten started. When I could, I renovated this entire floor, taking out the four apartments and making them one large space. Sure, now I could live in higher luxury, but this is home. Everything from the exposed red brick walls around the bank of windows to the sitting area in front of the big screen television with black leather couches to the galley kitchen off to the left was all my style.
“You’ll have to point me to the spare room,” she says, following behind me.
I walk into the large open-concept living room and enter the kitchen lit by pocket lighting. “First, we drink and then we sleep.” When I reach the black cabinets to grab a couple of glasses, I glance over my shoulder to find McKenna surveying my apartment.
Maybe she always wondered what my place looked like when she manned the bar down below. Bringing her here was a line I’d never crossed before. Too tempting. Too dangerous. I didn’t trust myself where it came to her being anywhere near my bed. Fuck, I didn’t trust myself now.
Tense and lost in my thoughts about how to fix all this with her, I grab two tumblers out of the cabinet, then reach for the whiskey resting on the white marble countertop. After adding some ice from the machine in the freezer, I pour a shot and hand the glass to her just as she settles into a chair across from me on the other side of the kitchen island.