Tempted By The Mafia Boss

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Gabe

She’s up early but lying in the bed.

Last night should have been a better night but it wasn’t. I was at the event in body but not in spirit at all.

I’ve been on calls since the sun came up. The other day we started trying to track down Tobias. It was purely a measure to keep tabs on him. It was a no go, however. We found fuck all.

I just hung up the phone from speaking to Vincent. I’m grateful he’s been on the case, more since Tobias’s last sighting with Charlotte.

I make my way into the bedroom and see she’s dressed, but fuck, she has a bag packed. Her bag is packed and I’m thrown because it feels like we’re at that place again where I’m trying to convince her to stay with me.

She looks like she’s been crying too. Her eyes are puffy and so is her face… her skin is pale.

“Hi baby, what’s this? Why is your bag packed?”

Her lips part and she starts to say something but stops and starts again.

“Hi… I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and I’ve decided this isn’t right.”

“What do you mean?” I tense and try to stay calm.

“Gabe none of this is right… I just can’t be around anyone. This is the very thing I didn’t want and it’s happening.”

Holy fucking hell. She can’t be serious.

“What’s brought this on? You were okay last night.”

“I was…then we got home and it hit me. All of it hit me like a ton of bricks. All the danger, and Tobias. I have to leave Gabe. I have to. It’s better for everyone if I do, and better for you.”

“Charlotte, baby, what the fuck? You can’t leave, he’ll find you. This is what he wants. You can’t just leave.”

“Gabe, I can’t stay here, it’s just too much… I can’t be with you.” She keeps her eyes steadily trained on me.

I can’t believe what I’m hearing and I almost feel like I’ve walked into some kind of alternate dimension because the Charlotte who told me she loved me only days ago could never say those words to me.

“What do you mean you can’t be with me?” I have to ask.

“It hasn’t escaped me that I dragged you into this mess. You paid over a million dollars to a madman so he would leave me alone and he’s still coming for us. Look what almost happened to you. That’s my fault.”

I walk up to her and feel like shaking her. She must know how fucked up leaving will be.

“None of this is your fault. It’s not. It’s not your fault and leaving will only put you in harm’s way.”

“Tobias is pissed that I’m with you, being with you has made the situation worse. It’s not for you to have to deal with this shit Gabe.”

She shakes her head at me and I can’t believe this is the conclusion she’s come to. It’s not even like the first problem, this is something different altogether where she’s taking it on herself to be the problem.

“I love you Charlotte. I love you and I told you, you are mine to protect.”

Again she shakes her head and dabs at her eyes. “No. The thirty days is up and this is my answer.”

I’m such an idiot. I’ve been so consumed with everything that I forgot. I forgot time but clearly she was counting the fucking days.

I’m not sure what enrages me more, being told that or her leaving, and like I always do when it comes to me fearing for her I lose control. I grab her arm and pull her to me.

“You aren’t leaving. I don’t know what the fuck you think leaving will achieve but this is bullshit. It’s fucking bullshit Charlotte. I don’t care about the fucking thirty days, that was bullshit too. You’re staying, with me.”

She cries out and wrenches her arm free from me. “Stop it! Gabriel, stop it. The thirty days is up and I’m leaving. This isn’t fair and I won’t sit back and put you and everyone in danger for me.”

“Charlotte, screw the danger. This is about us. I love you and I can’t let you go.”

“Gabe If you truly love me… let me go.”

“No.”

“Gabe I will never forgive you if you don’t and something bad happens. You know what we’re up against and what that man is like. It won’t stop here and it will be just like before, no one can do anything. Everyone will be useless and no one will be able to save anyone. It’s just a matter of when he will strike, because Tobias will. Please don’t make me hate you. Don’t do that to me.”

I’m a mixture of numb and hollow. Numbness and that hollow feeling are back. They’ve come right back to me.

As she says that it comes right back to me and I think of Mimi. Her words about her mother and the decision I made that night weeks ago to let Charlotte go.

I don’t know if I can bear the thought of her hating me, and I’m not sure what to do.

From the way she’s looking at me there’s only one thing I can do right now and it’s the thing I don’t want to do.

When she reaches for her bag I have a hard time not reaching for her again.

As she walks through the door and I watch her go I have a hard time keeping it together because I’m torn. I’m at that fucking point where I’m torn. What the hell am I supposed to do now?

I’m not sure how much longer I stay in the room, standing there then sitting on the edge of the bed. It feels like days, although it must be hours that pass.

I’m supposed to be at work, but I can’t move. This is the first time in a month where I’m living a day and I don’t know where Charlotte’s gone.

I keep hearing her voice.

Don’t make me hate you.

It cuts me deep inside out and I’m trying to come up with a solution.

My phone buzzes in my back pocket snapping me out of my thoughts. I pull it out, see it’s Vincent and I shove the phone back in my pocket because I can’t talk to anyone now. I’m pissed as fuck and because I’m pissed as fuck I think of Tobias. This is him and his fucked-up mind.

Thinking of him breaks the numbness and I cast my mind over the situation as a whole.

He’s obsessed with her. He wants her. But she’s mine.

That snaps me.

She’s mine whether she wants to belong to me or not and she’s in danger. Mine to protect. Mine.

I grab my phone again and call her.

Let her hate me if she wants. She’s right, we both know what Tobias is capable of and I promised to never let him or anybody hurt her ever again.

I can’t protect her if she’s not with me.

She’s had time to cool off and take a walk with her bag, now I’m going to find her and bring her back to me.Belonging to NôvelDrama.Org.

I’m not surprised when the phone rings out to her voicemail.

I don’t leave a message. I just head for the door, jump on my bike and head to her parents’ house.

Cordelia opens the door.

When she sees me she looks excited but the look fades when she sees the hardness in my face.

“Where is she?” I demand and barge in past her. Over the last few weeks I’ve grown to like how Cordelia has been taking care of Charlotte and we’ve been cool but I don’t have time for shit and pleasantries.

“What? Gabe what happened?” She follows me as I make my way up the stairs to Charlotte’s room.

The room’s empty. “Where is she Cordelia?”

“Charlotte?” She narrows her eyes.

“Cordelia, don’t fuck with me. Is she here? Did she come here?”

“No. I haven’t seen her since last night.”

So if she’s not here where did she go? I search my mind.

She wouldn’t have taken her bag to the school would she?

Maybe she went to a hotel?

I look back to Cordelia. They got close so I would have thought she’d come here to her. But… maybe she took off.

“Fucking hell.” I growl making Cordelia jump.

“Gabe tell me what happened, tell me now. Don’t you dare make me worry over my sister. What the fuck happened?” Cordelia looks furious.

“She left. She left because she didn’t want to drag me into the shit with Tobias. I thought she came here.”

She narrows her eyes at me again and shakes her head. “That doesn’t make any sense. She wouldn’t leave.”

“Yeah? Well she’s fucking gone and I don’t know where she is.”

She balls her fists and winces. “Did she tell you what happened yesterday?”

“What the fuck happened yesterday?” Charlotte looked happy yesterday. Despite the shit she looked happy at the event when I saw her and she fell asleep in my arms.

“You don’t know?” She bites the inside of her lip.

“Fucking fuck, Cordelia, tell me what I don’t know. I’m going crazy here. I need to find my girl.”

“She’s pregnant,” she answers and it’s like the world just stops.

It stops but it’s like I’m still going. My head spinning, my heart racing, my pulse galloping.

“What? What …did you just say?”

“Gabe, she’s pregnant… and she was thrilled. She was going to tell you today. That was the plan when I last spoke to her yesterday. So her leaving doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense. If anything she was worried about being pregnant with the whole situation with Tobias. She wouldn’t just run off into danger like that.” Her hands start shaking and it’s just like before.

Truth hits me like an epiphany of knowledge. Realization… fear.

It doesn’t make sense because it simply doesn’t.

Tobias.

He got to her.

That makes sense.