Straight Flushed (Hot Pursuit #1)(13)

I was staring off into space when my curtain was pulled back. Gabe stood before me, dressed for our dinner, but wearing an expression I hated to see—fear.

“Hey.” I smiled and fought to keep my voice steady. Seeing him upset shook me more than the accident had. “I’m okay. It’s just some broken ribs.”

He rushed to my side. “Jesus, baby! Look at you.” He bumped the side of my bed, and the jolt sent a fresh wave of pain through my body. I winced and absorbed the pain. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said with furrowed brows. “Did I hurt you?”

“I’m fine. Promise.” I smiled.

“You don’t look it.” He smoothed my hair back with his hand and kissed my forehead. “What happened?”

We stared at each other for a moment, and I hoped looking at me would be enough to pacify his fear. When it became apparent in his ever-tightening brows that it wasn’t having an effect, I decided to tell him the details of the accident and prayed it would be enough to ease his worry.

“Vance and I were driving Avery home and someone followed us,” I said. “They rammed us a couple of times and our car got wrapped around a tree. Good thing the Range Rover was built to handle a lot of abuse. It was a little scary, but we were always safe.”

“The hell you were,” he whispered. “If this is what safe looks like then what does danger look like?” He covered his mouth and rubbed his lips before exhaling a deep breath. “Did I overhear someone was shooting at you?”

“Yeah, crazy, right?” I tittered.

“Insane. Who were they?”

“I don’t know. They followed us earlier this morning and Avery said he saw the car the night before when we left the banquet.”

His eyes shot open, and a new emotion replaced his concern. “And you and Vance didn’t notice.”

I shook my head. “No, neither of us did.”

“Why not, Diana?”

“What’s with the ‘Diana’, Gabriel?” I squinted.

“Your client noticed a car out of place but neither you nor Vance did?”

His remarks circled back to the argument we’d had the week prior. It was ridiculous then but bringing it up again, it was quickly approaching absurd. “You’re going off the deep end. Let’s not make this a Vance and me thing, please. I was paying attention.”

“Apparently not. And this car followed you this morning and you didn’t mention it to anyone? Did you report it to your office? Did Vance even notice, or was he too busy paying attention to you?”

I bit my tongue and ignored the Vance comment completely. I wasn’t going to revisit that argument. “Yes, we both noticed but when we pulled into the garage it drove by and didn’t follow us in. It could have been a neighbor going to work. It wasn’t that out of the ordinary.”

“But it might have struck you as out of the ordinary if you’d noticed the same car in the lot at the banquet like your client had.”

“Are you really giving me the third degree right now? I don’t tell you how to do your job.” Heat rose in my cheeks. I expected support from him not doubt. “Stop, please. I need you right now. I expect better from you.”

“And I expect better from you. Bullets were whizzing by you for Christ’s sake.”

“Well, they weren’t really whizzing by, they hit the windshield in front of my face. The glass was bulletproof though, remember?” I laughed. My audacious attempt at humor failed to lighten his mood. Gabe pulled a chair close to my bed and sat down. He put his head in his hands. “Look at me. I’m fine.” I tried to touch him, but he was just out of reach.

He searched for the right words to say then glanced at me. “You might not have been. First, you broke your own rules the other day and now this. You’re getting sloppy, Di. I don’t know, maybe this job isn’t for you.”

“First, don’t use something I told you in confidence as ammunition against me. That’s a shitty thing to do. And second, today was an accident. Let’s focus on what is rather than what could have been.”

He shook his head. “I can’t. If this happened once, it could happen again.”

“Gabe, you’re getting ahead of yourself. Calm down and be rational.”

He breathed deeply. I’d never seen him this upset before. “I can’t calm down. I don’t think I ever realized how dangerous your job is,” he said.

“Look, I understand that you’re shaken up, but this isn’t an everyday occurrence.”

He shook his head and sat quietly. Desperately, painfully quiet. For several, long minutes. The only sounds were of many sets of rubber soles circulating outside of my room. He put his fingertips together in his lap and pushed them against each other in a pulsing motion.

“Penny for your thoughts?” I asked finally.

“Diana, you can’t do this anymore,” he said wrinkling his brow.

“Do what? Get in accidents? I’ll try really hard not to, but I can’t make any guarantees.” I smirked.

“No, this line of work.”

“What?” I asked, squinting. “Are you serious?”

“Yes, I am.”

“I’m not going to give up because of this one experience. I’ve trained too hard to back out now.”