“I doubt that, Luther. With that one, my imagination is always on overdrive.” Ann grinned while tapping the list on her thigh. “I’ll take care of the shopping, and then be ready by tonight.”
Luther wished for some way to have backup handy when he and Gaby went to see Fabian. His gut told him the night would not end well, might in fact be even worse than Gaby foretold.
But he didn’t have legal grounds to call out the SWAT team, and with Gaby around it was always dangerous to involve other law enforcement anyway. Few would back her on her slash-and-dash-them philosophy of fighting crime.
The plan was for Ann to stay nearby outside the tattoo parlor, her radio in hand, and at the first indication of mayhem, she’d call it in.
Luther hoped it’d be enough. Gaby, naturally, would consider Ann’s presence overkill. “I have a real bad feeling about this, Ann. You have to be extra careful. If Gaby is right, Fabian is beyond unbalanced. And we still don’t know if he’s working alone, or with someone.”
“Don’t worry about me. If it does go down, you better have an explanation ready because the lieutenant won’t be happy that you kept him in the dark.”
Having no reason to delay leaving the conference room, Luther held the door for Ann. “Yeah, well, it’s not like he’ll get a chuckle if another body shows up, either. This is the only way I know to stop him, to nail him, so let’s just hope it works.”
Chapter 16
Gaby had to admit, the cell phone was handy as she touched base with the girls time and again. She felt like a fool, pretending to have mothering qualities when she didn’t, but the girls played on her mind, and talking to them alleviated the clamoring in her brain.
She also talked to Bliss. She wanted to ensure that, if something should happen to her, Bliss would see to the kids’ safety. Bliss thought her nuts, but then, her friend didn’t know about her planned meeting in less than an hour.
Dread was yet another new sensation for Gaby, and she didn’t like it worth a damn. Especially since the dread was diluted with anticipation. She
But not knowing how or why Fabian felt familiar hung like a harbinger of sinister proportions over her head, clouding her perspective and her judgment.
“You okay?” Luther asked as he parked far enough away from the tattoo shop that Fabian wouldn’t be able to read his plates.
“Just ducky.” Keenly aware of their surroundings, Gaby stared out the window and studied every shadow, every shift in the wind. “Why?”
“I feel your tension.” He cupped a warm hand to the back of her neck, underneath the fall of her hair. “Remember, Gaby, I care, and in caring I can’t control my concern for you.”
“Yeah, I got it.” She studied two women sitting on steps, smoking cigarettes and bemoaning circumstances. “I care for you, too, so if I could do this without you, I would.”
He went very still, as if unsure what to say.
Gaby glanced his way. “I’m trying to work with you here, Luther.”
“I know.”
“Then what has you all shell-shocked?”
A slow smile tilted his sexy mouth. “You admitted that you care.”
“Haven’t I before?”
“I don’t think so, but if you did, it wasn’t this sincere.”
She rolled her eyes. “Come on. Get the lead out. I’ve got a tattoo waiting.”
He opened the car door. “I still think it’s a stupid idea to mark your body just to hide a scar that’s damn near gone already.”
“Noted.”
“The way you heal is . . . ”
“Incredible, I know. Just another of my many talents.” Gaby stepped out to the sidewalk. She breathed in the air, held out her arms, and let her senses pick up each small clue.
Hands on his hips beneath a light jacket, Luther cocked a brow. “We’re a block away.”
“And that means what?” Sensing nothing amiss, just the usual misery and despair, Gaby started down the sidewalk. “You think he’s too stupid to be as cautious as us? Not likely. Don’t underestimate him, Luther. It could cost you.”
“I would never risk you that way. Believe me, I’m on guard for anything that might happen.”
He fell into step beside her, and it felt . . . right.
Comfortable.
To be doing this with Luther, to have him with her, changed everything. His impressive size and strength, his unwavering integrity edged by badass determination to see good prevail, lent Gaby a fresh perception on everything she saw, all that she touched and felt, wanted and needed.
She could do what had to be done. Always, without fail.
But she could also retrench, she could stay in herself instead of drowning in the zone. Because of Luther’s nearness.
The ways he effected constructive change in her used to alarm her. But not anymore. Not now.
While she’d always felt akin to a lethal tool used to bludgeon evil, now she sensed her own humanity. She remained an aberration, but hand in hand with that, she was a woman with a mind of her own, making her own decisions.
Looking to the sky, hoping He heard her, she whispered, “This feels as right as anything could. This is the path I choose for myself now.”
The sky didn’t fall on her, so Gaby accepted that God allowed her the growth. With Luther.
It had probably been His plan all along, and if she hadn’t remained so stubborn, she might have realized it sooner.
Gratitude, for what He had bestowed, and what Luther shared, burst inside her, leaving her chest tight again. Emotion could be a son of a bitch when it came at the wrong times.
Headlights hit them and Luther turned, walking backward, as he verified Ann’s arrival. “Right on time,” he whispered.
Gaby glanced back, too. Ann didn’t look at either of them, didn’t in any way give up her association or her purpose in being there.
“I like her,” Gaby confided.
“Since when?”
“Since she showed up at Bliss’s with several bags of necessary and not-so-necessary stuff for the girls. Dacia was speechless, disbelieving in that way of hers because not much good fortune has come her way. But Mali . . . she turned into a chatterbox. I could hear her laughing over the phone, so loud that Bliss got drowned out.”
“When this is done,” Luther told her, “we can take them to the park. And the movies, and the zoo. I’d love to see you at an arcade. You’d probably break the machines with your reflexes.”
Gaby didn’t know anything about an arcade, and just then, she didn’t care. She nodded ahead of them.
Luther turned back around and the tattoo parlor came into sight.
“Everything okay?”
Gaby nodded. “Yeah, I’m just adjusting to the idea of doing this your way.”
“As opposed to your way, which would be . . . what?”
He didn’t need to ask, and they both knew it. “I’d kill him, no questions asked. I look at him, and I see his black soul, the ugliness of his purpose, the sickness of his pleasures.” She put her hands in the pocket of her hooded sweatshirt. “If shit doesn’t roll out right, I’ll kill him still. Gladly.”
Luther waited.
