Page 3 of Tempting Gabe
"Scarlett, James is going to protect you just as I asked Conner to watch out for Olivia." Gable answered his sister for the tenth time with the same sentence. His sister, Scarlett, lived up to her namesake. He stared out the window in the high-rise office building that overlooked both Biscayne Bay and the Intracoastal waterways. The expensive yachts looked like rowboats from his current window. He turned away from his black Italian marble desk and stared at the blue waters. "Mom and Dad would expect me to protect you."
He massaged his temples. After what had happened and with their parents in either a coma or fighting a raging infection, he'd like to think that Scarlett wouldn't mind extra security, but then his sister was beautiful, but never predictable.
He brushed against the ugly skin under his shirt and knew no one saw how damaged he was. Scarlett, Olivia, and his parents deserved to keep their bodies without scars.
Instead he heard the pout in her voice through the phone. "You're not hiring a bodyguard for yourself."
Something buzzed inside him and his skin felt like he was near static electricity. He ignored the instinct. "I have a security team and unlike you, I'm not trapezing around the globe."
"I'm not trapezing. That's a stupid word. I have a business meeting."
The light flashed on his desk that he had another call. He clutched his cell phone but stared at his office phone. "Hold on, my secretary is calling in."
"We're not done," Scarlett started before he cut her off with the mute button on his cell and placed it on his desk.
He put his secretary on speaker. "You have a visitor, sir. She's quite insistent that she speak only to you."
No urgent meeting came to mind, and his mind was blank. "Who is it?"
"A Miss Megan Murdock."
Murdock. Maddox Murdock had died. The image of standing near a blast site while Belle Jordan pulled Colt Collins out of the ditch as he tried and failed to grab Murdock replayed in his mind. Instead of pulling him to safety, his former friend was caught in enemy fire and had died a foot from him. His own skin burned from the heat while he fell backward. This time he recalled a gun pointed at him, but he blinked and that memory disappeared. He’d probably imagined it anyhow.
His secretary coughed, which brought him back to the here and now. He sat stiff in his chair until he patted his side where the burn scars were. "Who is she?"
"An accountant at Morgan Enterprises."
His heart began to beat again while he took a deep breath. "I don't want to see a banker today. I’m not interested in whatever stock option they want to sell me."
A fast discussion between women echoed through the phone. Then his secretary said, "She says that you'll want to see her."
Perhaps she was Murdock's family and she wasn’t here to sell him something. If this was because of what happened years ago, then he should at least listen. He closed the files on his desk. "She's that insistent?"
"Yes."
"Send her in." No memory of a memorial flashed in his mind as he stood to greet the woman. If must have skipped out when he returned and threw himself into work to build his company into a technology giant and tried to bury his memories.
A young woman with dark hair and a body that curved in all the right places walked in. He leaned on his desk and picked up some papers, in case he had any evidence of how turned on he’d become. "How may I help you?"
She walked and stepped right up to stand in front of him. The air smelled of rose petals. "Are you Gable Hawke?"
"Yes." She held out her hand to shake. Her palms were cold in his warm and strong grip. He narrowed his gaze. "Are you related to Maddox Murdock?"
She stopped shaking his hand and froze for a second. Her face was white, like she was hurt or scared of him. He narrowed his gaze and brushed his hand on her arm, to sooth whatever was wrong, and she finished shaking his hand and nodded. "He's my brother. How do you know him?"
He stood and directed her to business chairs closer to a side office, where they might talk easier. "We served together. He died."
She sat but clutched her bag in front of her like it was a shield. "He didn't die. He was taken captured."
That made no sense. He pulled the chair closer to her. "I'm sorry. Repeat?"
He placed his hand on her knee and she practically jumped out of skin while she pushed him off. "Don't."
"Don't what?" He tucked his hand back onto his own seat and his heartbeat grew faster. "I'd never do anything..."
She lifted her chin though she trembled. "I want you to call the police and tell them I asked you to call while I have information on your parents' case."
There was no way he was attracted to his parents’ potential killer. His eyes widened. "You do."
