“Same as I always have.”
Fox shook his head. “This is different. What she went through changes everything. You need to speak with someone too.”
“A shrink? I don’t need to see a shrink,” Spider said adamantly. He’d had enough of that after his parents’ deaths. All he needed was for Alex Irwin to pay for what he’d done to Abigail.
“You telling me you don’t feel guilty about what happened to her?” Fox demanded.
Spider opened his mouth to deny it but then snapped it closed and glared. Of course he couldn’t say that, he blamed himself for what she’d gone through, if it wasn’t for them then Alex would never have set his sights on her.
“Thought so,” Fox said. “Look, I get it, I feel guilty about what happened to her and I’m not in love with her, but if we’re going to bring Alex down then we all need to be able to focus one hundred percent.”
“I won’t do anything that will get anyone hurt,” he vowed. “But we need to figure out a plan. Abby asked me earlier if I thought Alex would come back for her or for us.”’
“What did you tell her?” King asked.
“I didn’t answer because I didn’t want to worry her more, but he’s coming back for her. He took her to get to us, nothing has changed. Alex is a coward, he knows that if he comes up against one of us he’s going to lose, the only way to get to us is to lead us into a trap, and the only way for him to do that is to get his hands on Abby again and then dangle her out in front of us as a lure.” Knowing that Abigail was in danger because of him was a special kind of torture. It made him want to pack up his bags and get as far away from her as he could while at the same time wrap her up in cotton wool and handcuff her to him so that he could keep her in his line of sight at all times.
“We need to use every contact that we have to try to find Alex before he can make another play for Abby,” Chaos said.
“We know he worked for one of Luis Perez’s men here in California, and that he had her on Perez’s compound, that means his connections go all the way to the top,” Shark said.
“He’s probably working as Perez’s top enforcer,” Chaos said.
“We need to find out everything we can about the cartel,” King said. “I’ll call Tex, see what he can find on them, we need to know all of their houses in the area, and how many men they have in each location, see if we can plan a takedown before he even comes close to getting to Abby.”
“There’s one good thing about us being the target and not Abby,” Night said, speaking up for the first time.
“Yeah?” Spider asked, he couldn’t see a single good thing about this entire situation, but he’d take a bright spot right about now.
“If our team is a target then we’re not likely to be sent out on any missions until this situation with Alex is resolved. And if we’re not sent out on any missions, then we don’t have to worry about leaving Abby alone and unprotected. If Alex wants her, he’ll have to go through us to get her, and he’s too much of a coward to take us on, he’d rather use an innocent woman as bait.”
Spider couldn’t argue with that. The most terrifying part of this was that Abby was in danger, he didn’t care about himself, he and his team were more than capable of taking on the likes of Alex. Alex had a sadistic streak that he’d managed to hide for a while, but none of them had ever completely trusted the man and now he knew why.
He had failed Abby before, he’d let her down, not been there when she needed him, but now he had her back he wouldn’t let anyone take her away from him again. So long as he stayed here with her in her apartment he could keep her safe, and he and his team would find Alex. It wasn’t a matter of if, simply of when.
7:26 A.M.
“You guys can just drop me off,” Abigail offered as Hunter pulled to a stop outside of Dr. Hancock’s building.
“Spider would freak if he found out I didn’t watch your back,” Hunter protested.
“Yeah, well, Ryder isn’t the boss of my life,” she muttered, but secretly she was grateful that Fiona and Hunter had come with her, she wasn’t sure she could do this on her own. If left to her own devices she probably would have bailed on the appointment because she wasn’t sure she was ready to talk about it yet.
Or ever.
She just wanted to put it behind her, forget about it, pretend like it never happened. She’d remembered her abductor, told Ryder everything she knew so he and his team could be prepared, now she wanted to just move on. Even though she knew avoidance was only going to lead to more breakdowns, she still just wanted to shove her emotions down and pretend they didn’t exist.
“Spider bosses because he loves you,” Hunter said, making her sigh.
“Yeah, I know he does, I just don’t want to be here.”
Fiona twisted in her seat to hold out a hand, and Abigail took it and squeezed. “That’s why we’re here with you, moral support as much as making sure you’re safe, right, Hunter?”
“Sure,” her husband grinned. “But I’m on bodyguard duty, and you’re the one here for moral support.”
That elicited a small chuckle from Abigail, and she opened her car door, if she had to do this, she wanted to just get it done, it was nice of the doctor to have scheduled this early morning appointment for her.
“Wait for me before you get out,” Hunter reminded her.
Although she didn’t like it, she certainly didn’t want to end up back in Alex’s clutches so she waited until Hunter got out and rounded the car before they walked inside together.
“Thanks for coming,” she said when they reached the door to the doctor’s office.
“Of course,” Fiona said, and Hunter ruffled her hair. “You got this, Abby. And there are no rules in there, you can say as much or as little as you want, this is for you, for you to start dealing with what happened to you. Dr. Hancock is a great doctor, you can trust her, Abs, and Hunter and I will be right out here waiting for you when you’re done.”
Because she knew she didn’t have a choice, Abigail offered them both a smile she hoped conveyed how grateful she was for their support, then faced her fears with as much courage as she could muster.
Inside the room, the doctor was sitting waiting for her and gave her a big smile. “Morning, Abigail, how are you today?”
“Okay, I guess,” she said, closing the door behind her even though she wanted to beg Fiona and Hunter to come in with her.
“You want to ease into this or jump straight in?” Dr. Hancock asked, leaving her desk to come and sit down on a loveseat, indicating Abigail should take a seat on the other loveseat.
“I’m a jump straight in kind of girl,” she said as she sat.
“I like that, I am too,” Dr. Hancock said with a smile. “So this session is for you. What do you want to talk about?”
“Nothing,” she replied quickly. “I want to forget, not bring all those memories back up.”
The doctor nodded knowingly. “You were gone for a long time, fourteen months I was told, and you were kept isolated for most of it. What did you do to pass the time so you didn’t have to focus on your emotions?”