Page 35 of Justified Lies

She gasped at him, but he said nothing, just levelled her with a challenging stare.

Lianna rushed towards Gabe, but only because he was standing between her and the door. Sighing, he reached out to stop her, already regretting the verbal outburst.

“Wait.”

“Let me go.”

When he shook his head, she begged, “I don’t know what to say. I don’t do things like this. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

He was having a difficult time taming his frustration. How did things change so fast?

“Damn it, just stand still and talk to me.”

Squirming in his grasp, and not in the way he liked, Lianna pleaded again, “Please let me go.”

Gabe didn’t know what to say or what to do, so he did the only thing he could, he dropped her arm and let her go.

****

The ringing pulled her from a restless sleep. Lianna barely mustered the energy to push up and look at the bedside clock. It was a little after 3:00 in the morning. Blinking away the sleep, she reached for her cell phone. By the time she had put it to her ear the caller had disconnected.

Of all nights for the calls to begin again. It had been after midnight before she had fallen asleep in the first place. Exhausted on so many levels, Lianna fought not to replay the theatrics from earlier in the evening. Every time she did, a deep pang roiled her stomach.

Sitting up, she risked flicking on the lamp. She had slept deeply enough that she missed several texts. One from Nicki asking if she got home okay and apologizing again. The other was from the security system alerting her to the front driveway camera’s motion detection. None from Gabe.

Snuggling into the comfort of her duvet, she hugged one of the dozen pillows she slept with to her chest. She messed up tonight, big time. Gabe was the first man she had been with since Scott. She thought she had come to terms with that.Apparently, there was a big difference between daydreaming about something and acting on it.

There was no doubt that she wanted Gabe in every way. More so than any man before him. The problem was that once she was with him, she realized how emotionally exposed she was. While she missed having a partner in life, she didn’t miss the vulnerability that came with it.

Physically, the last time she had a new partner she was childless and twenty-one years old. The body insecurities that plagued her now simply didn’t exist then. The most frustrating part was that instead of verbalizing any of that, she had run away like a coward.

Gabe had gotten a glimpse of her basket case side, twice now. He would most likely be MIA for a while. No booty call was worth that much drama.

Lianna, tired of her own thoughts, switched her cell phone to vibrate. Anyone who needed to contact her that badly in the middle of the night knew where she lived.Does the prank caller know where I live?As if thinking it into fruition, her cell buzzed.

Lianna jumped, her heart stopping and starting again.Screw this.

“What?” she huffed into the phone. She was so damn tired of this game and tonight she had reached her limit.

When no one spoke Lianna thought they had disconnected, until she heard the quick puffs of breath straining to reach her ears. Goosebumps spread across her skin while her pulse sped. Someone was there, listening. It was disturbing.

“Stop calling me. This isn’t funny anymore and I filed a police report. You’re gonna get caught soon. Hope it was worth it.”

Satisfied that her tone sounded annoyed and not afraid, she would have hung up the phone when she heard it. A sound,like an amused “humph.” She pulled the phone tightly back to her ear, but the call was disconnected.

Lianna fumbled the cell before hanging it up. Whoever was on the other side of that phone was enjoying this. Feeling more than just uneasy, Lianna was scared. She was supposed to call Gabe if she heard from the prank caller, but after tonight, there was no way he was interested in hearing from her.

Deciding to keep the lamp on, she settled back against the headboard. Squeezing the pillow tighter, she picked up a book instead of wasting time trying for sleep that she knew wouldn’t come.

Chapter Twelve

Gabe pulled up to the check point and rolled down his window. A uniform he didn’t recognize approached the vehicle. Gabe handed over his credentials before the younger man could ask for them. The cop looked up at him, “Sir,” before nodding to the officer stationed on the other side of the car. Gabe shifted back into gear and continued down the road.

Double parking beside a police issued vehicle, he grabbed the coffee he shouldn’t have stopped for, and guzzled the last third of it. He was tired, and pissed, maybe not in that order. There was radio silence from Lianna since she ran out last night. After tossing and turning in bed, he had finally fallen into a restless sleep. Only to wake up earlier than usual thanks to a call from his office.

The sun had started to rise, but underneath the downtown buildings it was still dark. Gabe got out of his SUV and tried to process the scene. Up ahead on his right, the US Consulate was lit up like a Christmas tree. He set off at a brisk pace for the building. Based on the call that had dragged his sorry ass out of bed, a known drug dealer was found with his throat slashed in front of the building. Not only did it create work for Gabe—yes, he knew that was a vile way to think of a murder—but it also created a shitstorm of a power struggle over jurisdiction.

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