Paxton's Promise (Gloves Off #3)(51)

After watching him throw on a pair of shorts and T-shirt, he stormed out of the room. Quickly, I got out of bed and followed him. “Well, I’m not letting you do this alone. I’ll help you.”

With his back to me, he opened the front door and stopped. “You need your rest, Gabby. This is going to be just as hard on you as it is on me.”

“That’s true, but you must be forgetting something.” I came up behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist. “You see this ring you put on my finger?” He looked down and placed his hand over mine. “It may just be for show, but it means we stand together through the good and bad. You’re in this shit because of me. Let me help you.”

Taking my hand, he lifted it to his lips and kissed my palm. Without any more words, he pulled me out the door and straight to his garage. It was going to be a long night.





FOR HOURS, I trained nonstop and envisioned Scar and that f*cker Rage every time I hit the bag. I was accustomed to fighting ruthlessly, but there was nothing at stake other than my own life. It wasn’t like that now. I wasn’t fighting for justice, or to teach someone a lesson. I was fighting for Gabby, to keep her safe.

While I trained, she called Mason to tell him the fight was on. He promised his team would be ready. We both had our trackers in place so each one of us had two. Mason tested them out and they were all set to go.

Gabriella kept up with me until three in the morning, but then passed out on the mat. I didn’t want to carry her into my house without me there, so I covered her with a couple of towels and rolled one up to put under her head. The thought that I was going to leave her at the mercy of Scar and Rage tonight terrified the shit out of me. I didn’t want her out of my sight. Unfortunately, we had no choice. When her phone rang and I noticed it was Mason, I silenced it and quietly rushed downstairs.

“Mason, what’s up?” I answered. “Anything new?”

“Thank f*cking God you answered. I tried calling your phone.”

After getting phone call after phone call it had started to piss me off. “I turned it off after everyone wouldn’t leave us alone. Apparently, our engagement circulated a lot faster than I anticipated.”

Mason chuckled uneasily. “I saw that. Nice touch by the way. However, after what I found out about Josh Davenport, we might’ve taken this a little further than we needed.”

“What are you talking about?”

He cleared his throat. “It looks like this Josh character is seriously f*cked up in the head. He’s wanted for killing not one, but three girls in the past two years, as well as two men. Looking at the reports, he stalks them before he makes his move. The first two women were obsessions. When they didn’t submit to him, he killed them. One had a boyfriend and he killed him too.”

“What about the other guy?” I asked. “Who was he?”

“Now this next instance is a different story. Josh was actually dating this victim, but when he walked in on her and another man, he flipped out. And I’m not talking just a bullet to the brain. I’m talking straight up bloody and psychotic as f*ck. He dismembered them completely.”

“I’m assuming you don’t want Gabby knowing all of this?” I asked.

Mason sighed. “Not exactly the details, but after the whole engagement fiasco and with the way this guy is, I think it might be good if she doesn’t flaunt the idea in front of him. If she does, he might snap and take it out on her. That’s the last thing we want.”

“So what exactly are you saying?”

“You’re not going to like this, but I’m saying that if this guy comes for her, she can’t fight him. I know it’s going to be against all her instincts, but we can’t take any chances.”

“What if he tries to touch her? Am I supposed to just let him?” I hissed.

“Paxton, I’ve been in this same situation before. I had to watch someone else kiss Claire right in front of me. Did I want to kill him? Yes. But I had to concentrate on the objective, and that was getting her out of there and keeping her safe. This isn’t just about you and Rage, it’s about Gabriella. Don’t forget that.”

“I won’t.” There was no way in hell I could forget it.

“If you can, text me before everything goes down. If you can’t, I’ll keep watch of the trackers to see where it leads us.”

“Will do.”

“Is Gabriella asleep?”

I looked up the stairs to the open door of my gym. Her still form was lying on the floor, unmoving. “She passed out a while ago.”

“Tell her I’ll call her later. I want to go over everything with her before it all goes down.”

“I will.”

“And be careful, both of you. Try to get some rest. You’re going to need it.”

“Don’t I know it,” I grumbled. After we hung up the phone, I trudged up the stairs and laid on the floor with Gabriella. Her eyes fluttered open and she snuggled into my side before closing them again.

“I can’t believe I fell asleep. Do you forgive me?” she asked, yawning.

Putting my arm around her, I closed my eyes and held her tight. “Don’t worry, sunshine. You’re going to make it up to me once all of this is over.”

Her breathing slowed and she smiled. “I look forward to it.”