Page 49 of Cole: Bloodlines
Henry walked ahead of Daniel in silence.
“He is. Though soon, I’m sure, he will wish he wasn’t.” He stared at Henry’s back, noting the tension bunching his shoulders. “He’s your brother’s plaything. I prefer the lovely young ladies, as you surely recall. The blond sweetheart back there… I’m going to take my time with her, fuck her a few times before I cut into her soft, tender flesh.”
Henry slowed and turned his head, the look in his gray eyes betraying his desire tokillhis father.
Daniel chuckled to himself.
Yes, give in to the hate… come to the dark side.
And he would, for Daniel meant to give him no other option.
CHAPTER 20: DEADLY DECISIONS
Gabe.
The coarse, foul-smelling cloth—stiff with dried sweat and something that might have been blood—was pulled tightly around his shoulders and over his head, filling his nostrils with rank odors of mildew and human suffering that he barely noticed anymore. All feeling had drained from his limbs, his mind, and every part of him, leaving only a hollow shell where a person once existed. The void consumed him like quicksand, pulling him inch by inch into its bottomless emptiness, and he didn't fight it—couldn't remember why he should. Life outside the void had ceased to exist. Everyone he loved...dead... each in their own way.
Gabe.
His eyes squeezed tighter shut, lids trembling with the effort, as ghostly voices from beyond the void haunted him.Cole... calling to him through the darkness and emptiness, his voice a familiar melody that didn't belong in this hell. Not tangible, yet his voice felt so real it pierced his soul like a dagger, twisting with each syllable of his name.
Gabe yanked the filthy covering more tightly around his shoulders, desperate to shut out Cole's voice. The effort sent lightning bolts of pain through his muscles, a searing agony that eclipsed even the ice-pick stabs of cold penetrating his marrow. His cracked lips trembled with longing to respond, to summon Cole to him across the void, to feel the familiar calluses of his husband's palms against his cheek, the musky scent of his neck, the rumble of his laughter vibrating through their tangled limbs on Sunday mornings beneath their duvet. Tears carved hot trails down his dirt-crusted face as he buried his nose in the putrid blanket, his body convulsing with sobs as he yearned for thecrisp, lavender-scented sheets of their marriage bed with such visceral intensity that his intestines seemed to twist into sailor's knots, forcing his frame to curl inward like a dying spider.
It wasn’t supposed to end like this… we were supposed to live Happily Ever After… All of us… We earned it—we fucking EARNED it.
The Mangler’s question resonated in his mind:Still have faith…? Still believe in God?
Gabe lay still, his spirit empty, his soul barren.Did he still…?
“Gabe…?”
A low ringing settled in Gabe's ears like the aftermath of a bomb blast as the voice cut through his consciousness, yanking him from the void with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel.It's a trick. But he felt the unmistakable presence—the same electric awareness that would prickle across his skin when he lay half-asleep in their king-sized bed, sensing Cole's silhouette in the doorway before a single floorboard creaked. Through the nauseating odors clinging to the cover, he caught the scent of his husband: that intoxicating cocktail of musk aftershave, fresh sweat, and something uniquelyColethat had permeated their Egyptian cotton sheets during countless nights of tender lovemaking and desperate, primal fucking.
“Gabe.”
Rolling over, the filthy blanket slipped from his shoulder and matted hair. His gaze collided with Cole's storm-gray eyes, those familiar irises flecked with silver that now brimmed with horror and desperate love. Even then, it felt like a cruel hallucination, like some cosmic joke orchestrated by a God who had abandoned His creation to suffer for His divine entertainment.
Still, he heard his husband's name tumble from his cracked lips, the sound scraping through his parched throat like sandpaper over raw wood. “Cole...”
“Gabe.” Cole's knuckles whitened as he gripped the rust-flecked bars, his wedding band catching the dim light. “Gabe... are you okay?”
The question hung in the fetid air between them, so absurd that a hysterical bubble rose in Gabe's raw throat before dissolving into a silent tremor. He dragged himself across the concrete floor. His trembling fingers found Cole's—warm, solid, real—and interlaced through the icy metal. He pressed his forehead against the bars until the cold burned against his fever-hot skin, and then the dam broke. Tears carved fresh tracks through the grime on his cheeks as he wept for Abel's innocent smile, for Maddy's fierce spirit, for Savannah's gentle touch... for Angel, Devlin, Max, and Horatio and all the others drowning in grief's dark undertow.
“I’m so sorry…”he whispered through his sobs.“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there with you… when you found them… our baby…”He broke down, his words disintegrating.
“Gabe…” Cole’s fingers slid through his hair, and his lips pressed to Gabe’s brow. Tears strained his voice when he whispered, “Abel… our baby… he’s alive. He’s safe at home.”
You’re lying… you’re not really Cole… you’re lying…
Fingers lifted his chin, and gray eyes radiating an unshakable love seized his stare. “Savannah is alive, too,” he whispered. “I saw her. She’s here. She needs us, Gabe. We have to get her out of here. And Maddy… he’s here somewhere, too.”
Gabe’s throat closed, needing to believe his words, but terrified it was all somehow a lie. But when he noticed the killer standing a few feet behind Cole, he knew it was real.
“They’re… They’re alive?”
“Yes.” Cole kissed him. “They’re alive.” He touched heads with Gabe again, his voice dropping, barely audible. “I need youhere.If we’re going to get the kids out of here, we need to have each other’s backs.” He hung his head. “I know I haven’t beenvery strong in all this. I’ve been so fucking scared. But I can overcome the fear… if you’re by my side.”
Gabe pressed his head hard against Cole. “If?” His voice trembled. “I’m fuckinggluedto your side. It would take fuckingsurgeryto separate us.”
