I reach for my coffee cup without looking and grab air. I look to my right and see Owen holding my mug in the air. “What the fuck? Give it back.”
“Hell no,” Owen says, then he dumps the remainder of the life-saving liquid into the sink.
“Wh—” I reach for it at the last minute, listening to the sink gurgle as it drinks my caffeine. “I needed that!” I shout at Owen.
“You are typing so fast, you’re about to smoke your damn keyboard. You’ve had enough. I can see it in your eyes. You’re all feral and shit. No more coffee for you.” Owen snags another bottle of water from the fridge and sets it in the same place where my coffee was just a minute ago.
“I don’t want water.”
“Too fucking bad.”
“You can’t tell me what to do.”
“Fucking watch me.”
“Make me a cup of coffee!” I slam my fist on the counter and stand.
“You are being ridiculous. You have a serious problem.”
“The only problem I’m about to have is your death on my hands if you don’t give me my coffee. I’m working around the clock here. I can’t afford to crash!”
“Both of you are being ridiculous. Can you shut up?” Jaxon glowers at each of us, pointing his index finger. “Fucking children. And, Sebastian, cool it on the coffee. Owen is right. You get to be a pain in the ass when you’ve had too much. Owen, stay out of other’s people’s business. Whose turn is it to do a perimeter check? I know it bounces back and forth between the two of you, but I think I can do it today. It’s been long enough,” Jaxon says on an exhale as he sits on the barstool.
Owen smirks before hiding his mouth with the water as he drinks. “Right, you look up to it. One-hundred percent healed.”
“It’s my turn,” I say. “But I’m not leaving. Owen took my coffee; he can fucking do it. I’m busy trying to save Gabriella, remember?”
“I’ll go if it means getting away from him. He is a mad man right now.” Owen lifts his hands and walked away, slamming the door shut that leads to the garage. It’s the only way in or out. Jaxon is bound and determined to keep the Cliff House safe. Everything has a weakness, though. Like a few months ago when Quinn’s ex-fiancé was trapped in the house and somehow outwitted us.
Until Jaxon took his head off, literally.
I can’t wait to do that to Kendrick. Blood brother be damned. He means nothing to me.
“Sebastian, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I say, typing away on my computer again.
“You’re obsessing.”
My hand freezes on my keyboard, and when I stare at Jaxon, it’s like I don’t even know him anymore. “Obsess? Are you seriously using that against me right now? The man who objected at his ex-girlfriend’s wedding and locked her in a room against her will, and I’m the one obsessed? Are you kidding me right now?” My voice raises as I vent. “Of course, I’m fucking obsessed! She’s the only woman I’ve ever loved. At least you got to be with Quinn before you went to prison. I haven’t even kissed Gabriella. I never had the pleasure of that. Instead, my monster brother did god-knows-what to her, and you expect me to not obsess? Fuck. You. Jaxon. If obsessing kills me, I will do it gladly until I’m six-feet fucking under!” The computer dings and I fall over the stool to check it out. “Shit, damn it,” I barely catch myself on the counter before pulling myself up and kicking the stool away. The annoying metal object flies against the couch, then bounces off and scrapes against the floor.
The brand-new hardwood Jaxon just installed.
I press a few buttons, and the picture zooms in. It’s just her profile, a bit blurry, but it’s her. The blinking square around her face beeps, and the important peaks of her face have small dots connecting, signaling that it is a ninety-percent match.
“It’s her. It’s her!” I jump in the air and clap. “It’s really her. I fucking got you, baby. I got you. Where did he take you? Huh?” I ask more to myself than anyone else as I type away. Now that I have a lock on her face, getting the other images is easy. My smile fades when I see her being tugged along like a dog, a collar wrapped around her neck.
Wait a minute.
The collar.
I did see her.
I fall back, forgetting the stool isn’t there, and my head hits the floor with an unforgiving thud, ringing my brain.
“Shit, are you okay?” Jaxon tries to help me up, but I bat his hands away.
I stand and hold a hand against my head, waiting for the echoing sounds to clear. “It wasn’t just a dream. I did see her, but I couldn’t tell the difference between what I saw and the dream the other night. I fucking knew it, but as soon as I saw her, she was gone,” I comment, knowing no one will understand how I feel.
Has no one had dreams so real, they couldn’t decide what was a facade caused by the imagination?
I click on another image and hold my breath. She was staring right at me, holding a leash in her hand. She saw me, and she didn’t move? The air is knocked out of my lungs, and I press the power button the computer.
She saw me when I wasn’t looking, and she didn’t flinch. Does Gabriella love Kendrick? Is that what this is now? Has too much time gone by for me to save her? He has infiltrated her mind once and for all, and she is his.
“What’s wrong? What are you doing?” Jaxon pushes me out of the way to turn the computer on. My back hits the wall and I think about the last time I saw her, truly saw her. Something that is a memory, not a twisted dream.
“Leave it alone, Jaxon. She doesn’t want me. It seems like she stared right at me and didn’t move. She waited for Kendrick.”
Jaxon boots up the computer again and while the screen loads, he props his hip against the counter. “For someone so smart, you can be fucking stupid. Did you think, that maybe, just maybe, she wanted to go to you? She was afraid to move, afraid something bad would happen? Did you think about that?”
“But why wouldn’t she just come to me? She didn’t need to be afraid of me. I’ve proven myself to her, showed her I’ll always have her back.”
“Sebastian,” he says my name with pity. “Do you really think it is you she is afraid of? It couldn’t possibly be the man who has a collar around her throat and a leash in his hands.”
He's right. I know that. I’m being irrational, but there is a small part of me that thinks she have Stockholm syndrome. What if she is in love with Kendrick? Does my job to save her become that much harder?
For so long, I have dedicated my life to keeping her safe, as safe as I could. Even when I was in prison, I did my best to keep her safe and secure. It was tough, but it paid off knowing people on the outside were willing to get their hands dirty. I did my best to protect her, but I obviously didn’t consider one thing.
Gabriella might not want me at all.
The kitchen door bangs open, and Owen comes in with a girl in his hands. She is soaking wet, pale, and I am not sure if she is alive.
“Holy shit,” Jaxon hurries around the island and pushes her hair out of her face, then freezes.
My foot kicks off the wall, pushing me forward to see what the big deal is. Jaxon’s eyes are wide, and he takes a step back to give me room. I step closer, and my knees give out. I catch myself on the island and shake my head. My entire world comes to a halt. All this time, all this effort, she came to me. She looks so tired, her skin has goose bumps along the surface, and her nipples are in a permanent state of distress against the drenched robe she cloaking her body. Her lips are blue, and her chest isn’t moving.