Fighting the Flames (Firefighter Romance #1)(75)

“Gabby, I love you. You're grieving right now. In time—”

“In time? In time, I'll forget you. Go. I can't look at you.”

Her words sliced at him, but Toby pressed on, undeterred by her grief. “Gabby, where did they take the baby? I want to see my son.”

“I asked Derek to take it away.” She sobbed again. “My son is dead.”

Our son, Toby wanted to say. Our son.

But he didn't. Instead, he backed out the door, numb with shock over the death of his child.

Stillborn?

Or had his father done something to the baby?

A question that would haunt him forever.



****



“Oh, Toby, I'm so sorry.”

Jacqueline's heart bled for the stoic man, and she hugged him tighter, wishing she could heal the wounds of his past. How awful to lose a child in the first place, but then to also have to wonder about whether his own father had played a role in his death. She couldn't imagine how Toby had dealt with that all these years.

“What happened to Gabriella?” she asked.

“She died a few months later. Suicide.” Toby looked at her, the pain in his eyes raw. “I couldn't help her, Jacqueline. She just shut me out. I didn't understand it.”

“Oh, Toby.” She kissed his rough cheek. “How awful for you.”

“I never got to see my son's body. The Spark family had a private funeral. Guess who wasn't invited? Me. My father and I never really spoke again. Even if he hadn't killed my son, I couldn't look him in the eye. That's when my mom started drinking, too. When my father died a few years later, I didn't even go to his funeral.”

He fell silent, and Jacqueline continued to hold him, her mind whirling in a thousand directions.

Derek had taken the baby's body away.

The more she thought about it, the more convenient an excuse that seemed.

What if Josiah Williams had just removed the problem, but not killed it? If he could cast a spell on Toby freezing him in place, surely he could cast a spell on Gabriella making her forget or become unaware of the truth about her child.

In fact, that made perfect sense.

After all, Derek had cast a spell on her to do his bidding.

Her mouth tightened at the thought. He'd told her not to tell Toby about that. And she couldn't. The mere thought of telling him caused a sharp, jabbing pain to race through her head as a warning.

What was Derek going to make her do?

She didn't want to be the one to break Toby's heart again.

Maybe there was a way to warn him without actually telling him what had happened. If she could just find a magical loophole… But one thing at a time. She was certain that Gabe was Toby's son. If Derek had taken the child and he wasn't dead, then that opened a world of possibilities.

The trick was getting Toby to see them.

“Toby.” Nervous, she took a deep breath. “What if the baby wasn't stillborn?”

He stirred in her arms, but said nothing. Encouraged, she continued, “What if your father had a change of heart? Could he have put a spell on Gabriella, making her say those things or make her think that the baby was dead?”

“I don't know,” he said.

“Maybe your father gave the baby to someone else.”

Toby tensed.

“Are there spells that allow a person to command someone else to do things, but the person being commanded can't talk about it?”

A piercing ache rose in her head as she asked the question, but despite the discomfort, she persisted.

“Yes. Command spells are powerful.” He unfolded from her arms and faced her, frowning. “What are you getting at?”

“Well, you said that you knew Gabriella loved you, but then she shut you out of her life, wouldn't even talk to you, right?” He nodded, and she continued, “What if a command spell had been placed on her, and she couldn't tell you the truth about what really happened? I mean, that's how it works, isn't it? You know about the spell, but you can't talk about it?”

Toby nodded again but deep wrinkles set into his forehead. Still Jacqueline knew he wasn’t grasping the connection she tried to make to the spell.

“So what if you knew you were under a spell, but weren't able to talk about it? Or if you knew your child was alive, but couldn't do anything to help him because of a spell?” Jacqueline stopped speaking, afraid to say the rest of her thoughts… the throbbing in her head increasing with each heartbeat.

“You think Gabriella killed herself because she couldn't tell me the truth and she couldn't get to our child?”

Jacqueline said, “Toby, maybe she really did love you but had been commanded to stay away just to hurt you. Maybe her will wasn't her own,” Jacqueline said careful to choose her words and hold her tone steady.

“I don't know… I never…” Toby clutched her hand; his face battling the war that she couldn’t hear inside his head.


“Give it some thought,” she said. “I really believe that Gabe is your son. Hell, he even has the male version of the name Gabriella. Gabe is short for Gabriel.”

Toby stared off into space, a troubled expression on his face before he stood up.

“Forgive me, Jacqueline. I need a few minutes to think. Would you mind if I took a shower? I need to go back to the bar too and make sure your friend Angela didn't burn the place down.”