Tried for Love (TSATD)

Chapter 13

Gabriel

  The clear flashes of that horrid picture I had witnessed that night reappeared in my head as some constant reminder of the anger that was supposed to thrive inside me.. No, the fury that still burned my skin from the mere look at the golden haired woman that rushed towards me in a heartbeat when I appeared at the doorway of the room.

  Ethan had also stood up, reading the frustration off my face quite well, but was perhaps left clueless on what it was that had caused such rage.. Enough to set my blood on fire. He hadn't seen.. He hadn't seen the way I had found her.

  And now that it was all over, now that she was safe underneath my roof, the panic and worry had vanished from my system, and were once again replaced by that crippling necessity to yell out all the damned questions that swirled in my head. She— oh, she had a lot of explaining to do.

I watched her walk towards me in a second, watched how the long messy locks had taken some brandy color underneath the dimmed lights, and how her tired jade eyes widen in some kind of fear..

  Perhaps it was that moment I remembered that my shirt was drenched with blood. Stephen and Bran had drove to the house with me, insisting to make sure my wound was alright, but I already had Ethan there.. And Leah Rowe too. Who, ironically after the events that night, had gone pale at the mere sight of blood.

  Had it been the same girl that had pressed a fuckįng gun underneath her chin? Even though I had almost forgotten about my own damned wound, there was no mistaking the horror that flushed her face as she walked towards me. 

  "You've been shot.." It was a breath, a disbelief, a beg for some reassurance I didn't quite understand. "Oh God,"

  Her hands were  soon on my chest, her eyes fixed on the wound on my shoulder while I wrenched mine towards Ethan. His gaze was questioning enough, but he could read me quite well from the simple way I carried myself, and didn't flinch at the idea of me shot. Not that I was, exactly shot..

  "It's just a bullet scratch." I had ducked down quick enough to only have the bullet rush over the surface of my skin, luckily not as near to my ear to leave me deaf.. They were still buzzing though.

  I looked down at the small female figure before me, the woman whose hands shook at the sight of me hurt, yet hadn't blinked an eye when she had held a gun against herself. The mere thought set my jaw tight, curled my fists in order to keep myself in control and not—

  Not scoop her in my arms right fuckįng then and throw her in some room filled with nothing but damned pillows. I'd lock her there if I had to. Damn, I still could not wrap my head around how— How Leah Rowe would dare follow such a bizarre rule.

  "Leah." My tone had gone so low, it was a growl that left my chest that same second my hand curled around her thin wrist. I had made the warning in my voice clear, and she knew exactly what I wanted from her.

  Jade eyes looked up at mine, glimmering with something so intense that my breath disappeared somewhere in my throat. She understood me perfectly well. She knew I was furious with her, that I was demanding at least a reasonable explanation, and she damned well knew I wouldn't stop until I got it. It was no game this time. It was her life she tried taking.

  But she managed to hide that disturbance from her eyes and rather allowed her worry to take over.. She pulled her hand away from mine slowly and took a step back.. Only because I allowed her to. Only because I had to take her in and make sure she hadn't gotten hurt on the way to the house.

  Once again, my eyes roamed over her body, over the ripped shirt underneath the coat Ethan had thrown over her. The slight blood on her knee perhaps when she had knelt down hiding. My heart tightened in my chest at the thought of what those bastards had tried doing to her. I only regretted that I hadn't burned them alive. Bullets were damned mercy for scum like that.