L.L. Foster - The Acceptance

God, how she wished she didn’t care.

Wanting to escape, to be alone with her detestable self, she reached for the door.

Luther wrenched her back around. “Don’t.”

Keeping her head down, Gaby didn’t dare look at him. Usually she’d be in fighting form. Under different circumstances, Luther’s audacity would find him flat on the floor.

But this time . . . she didn’t have it in her.

Everything she knew herself to be—her only purpose in life—did her no good right now. Bliss was vulnerable, and she couldn’t figure out how to help her.

“If you care, why the hell did you run off and leave her? Why did you abandon her?”

Explanations weren’t her strong suit, but for some reason, Gaby needed Luther to understand. “I wanted to find whoever tried to take her.”

“That’s my job.”

A pressing weight stooped her shoulders. “Then . . . that leaves me with no purpose at all.”

He edged closer, vibrating with rage, ready to lose his control. Leaning down, each word sharp with contempt, he said, “You could have consoled her. You could have been her friend.”

Damn, those tears were determined to spill over. Gaby shook her head—and felt like a fool. “The thing is . . . I don’t know how to do that.”

Silence stretched out. Muffled voices drifted over the intercom. People passed by in the hallway. In the distance, a faint siren intruded.

Luther’s hand tangled in her hair, smarting a little, but so what? He sounded hoarse and despondent as he cursed her. “Damn you, Gaby.”

Yeah right. “I was damned long before I met you, cop.”

Bending down, he touched his forehead to hers. His breath rushed against her cheek. His voice softened. “Don’t say that.”

Fine. She’d say nothing at all.

“Damn it.” He pushed her head to his chest and held it there, then locked his free arm around her.

She’d gone from accepting his scorn to caught in his secure embrace. He held her tight, crushed her close. His heartbeat pumped against her cheek. Heat, scented by his big body, wafted around her.

Why did he want to comfort her now? He’d been so angry, on the verge of truest rage. What event could possibly inspire both emotions . . .

Oh God.

Thoughts and images raced through Gaby’s consciousness. Had Bliss . . . died?

Bliss had shown a bad reaction to the drug used on her. People died from adverse drug reactions all the time. Who knew what had been injected into her, how much, or how toxic it might be?

Just as Gaby started to collapse, Luther set her back from him. “She’s fine, Gaby.”

She heard him, but after such numbing fear, she had a hard time grasping the truth. “You’re sure?”

“As sure as I can be at the moment. I stayed with her until she was in the ambulance.”

Gaby’s eyelids sank shut. Luther said she was fine. Hurt, certainly, but not expired as he’d made her think.

Fury replaced the remorse, and Gaby slugged him in the ribs with enough force to repay him for that awful panic. “Thanks for scaring me half to death!”

He barely grunted. “I can’t make any guarantees on how she fared after she reached the hospital, because I had to chase after you .”

So now it was her fault that he was so nosy? “No,” Gaby said, “you didn’t.”

“Yes,” Luther said, grabbing her shoulders and rattling her witless, “I did .”

Being manhandled didn’t sit well with Gaby’s temper at the best of times. This sure as hell wasn’t the best of times. “Get your mitts off me right now.” She tried to shrug him away, but he didn’t budge.

“Oh no you don’t, not this time.” Luther’s grip held her secure.

“I’m warning you . . .”

“You want a battle, Gaby?” He released her and stepped back. “Well, come on, lady. Bring it. I’m more than fucking ready.”

Wow. Gaby eyed Luther up and down. Seeing that his temper was more frayed than her own, she no longer had any desire to pulverize him. “Did you drag me in here for a reason, or just to expend some anger?”

Luther’s pointing finger nearly poked her in the nose. “We’re coming to an agreement, you and I, one you’ll abide by.”

“Is that so?”

“Damn straight it is, or so help me, I’ll—”

“Arrest me, I know.” Gaby flapped a dismissive hand at him. His threats had never carried much weight, and right now, they meant less than nothing to her. “That’s your answer to every damn thing that happens, isn’t it?”

“I’ll arrest you,” Luther confirmed, “and you won’t get a chance to visit with Bliss.” He stared her in the eyes, unrelenting, firm in his resolve. “How do you think that’ll make Bliss feel? Or do you even care how she feels?”

Low blow. “Bastard,” she hissed.

“Sticks and stones, Gaby.”

Her biceps twitched with the urge to brain him. Just one solid sock, right in his handsome face. He might not be so appealing with a crooked nose.

But no, she couldn’t, wouldn’t, do that. Even now with his fury boiling over and red-hot anger tingeing the outer perimeter of his aura, shades of pure altruism encompassed him.

Luther epitomized all that was good and pure.

She, on the other hand, epitomized the cold slam of justice. “So tell me the damn terms of this agreement, and make it fast, before I lose my good humor and flatten you.”

Luther took a calming breath. “I want you to work with me on this, not on your own. That means that whatever you know, I want to know.”

Huh. He wanted to play partners? Ridiculous. “And vice versa?”

He surprised her by saying, “Yes.”

Dropping back against the wall, her eyebrows raised, Gaby blinked at him. “No shit?”

Running a hand through his hair, Luther paced away from her. For the first time, Gaby noticed his disheveled state. Wrinkles marred his untucked and sweat-stained shirt. Dirt splotched his slacks. He looked haggard and tired and fed up.

Guilt gnawed on her. But what could she have done to make any of this easier on him? She had her own hardships to deal with.

“It sickened me,” Luther said, “to find Bliss in that shape, drugged and hurt and scared half to death.”

“Me, too.”

“I keep seeing that tortured corpse on the riverbank, knowing how badly the woman suffered.”

“Me, too.”

He caught Gaby in his gaze. “I know it’s going to happen again.”

Gaby wasn’t a mind reader, but this time, she didn’t need to be. “Hold up a minute. You’re thinking it could happen to me ?”

“If you keep charging in without caution—”

“I don’t do that, but even if I did, you don’t need to worry about me. It’s Bliss, and women like her—”

“Like her?”

“Helpless.” Ordinary. Normal. Real. Gaby choked down the damning words. “Women who, because of their lifestyles, are vulnerable to sick pervs like our guy who’s still running loose.” Because she’d failed.

“If it’s a guy,” Luther pointed out. “Bliss was pretty confused about it all.”

“She’ll be able to tell us more when she’s recovered.” Gaby was counting on it.

“Maybe.” Luther waved that away. “But unless I stop it, we’re going to be finding more corpses.”

“Yeah.” More likely, Gaby thought, she’d be the one to put an end to things, but she didn’t want to devalue Luther’s contribution, or his sincerity. “I take it you have something in mind?”

“If we work together, me in my official capacity, you with your street information, we have a better chance to catch the guy responsible before anyone else gets hurt, or killed.”

Hell no. Gaby’s eventual success depended largely on Luther staying unaware of the scope of her metaphysical, even supernatural, ability. But she couldn’t tell him that. “Sounds like a plan.”