Chapter 15

Ihaven't heard from Gabe all day. It's odd. I shouldn't be worried, but he's usually messaged me multiple times by now. The only thing that's been stopping me from texting or calling him is the fact that I don't want to come across as the overly needy girlfriend.

I don't know what the rules are. I need the How to be a Good Girlfriend guide or something. I'll even take a cheat sheet at this point. I can call him, right? Just to say hi. It's not weird for girlfriends to do that. Is it?

I hate this. I hate being this unsure about everything. I should be focusing on my work, focusing on the girls who need my help, not sitting here worried about some guy. I'm sure Gabe is fine. He's just busy running the city's criminal underworld. That's all.

Carly walks into the room and all thoughts of Mr Tall-Dark-and-Annoyingly-Quiet-Today vanish from my mind. This is the first time I've seen her since her little disappearing act. She missed a whole week of school, and I was finally able to get an appointment to see her since I was notified of her return.

"Miss Blake, how are you?"

"Better now that I can see you're in one piece." I smile, then add, "I was worried."

"Sorry, I had to go and stay with my aunt for a bit. She's sick and needed help."

"Your aunt?" I repeat. Her mother told me she was at her grandmother's house.

"Yeah."

"Do you have a lot of extended family? Cousins, uncles, grandparents?" I question her.

"No, just the one aunt," Carly says, not meeting my eyes. She's lying, but why? I've never had the sense that she's lied to me before.

Half an hour later, Carly is walking out of the room and I'm packing up my things. I need to get across town to meet with Kiah before I can call it a day.

By the time I get to the café where the girl agreed to meet me, I'm ten minutes late. Thankfully, she's still here.

"Hey, Kiah. Sorry I'm late," I say while lowering myself opposite her. My eyes immediately scan her face. There are no bruises. She looks a little better actually. Her eyes don't seem as tired. Which tells me she's at least getting some sleep. "You look good."

"Thanks." She smiles.

"How have things been?"

"Mum kicked him out. He actually left. Hasn't been back for two weeks now. I think it's for good this time." Kiah smiles up at me.

I want to share her joy, and her hope, but I've seen this play out far too many times before. The mother kicks out the abusive father, stepfather, boyfriend for a bit. But, in the end, she always takes him back. Or gets a new one. Someone worse.

"That's great," I say instead of relaying my negativity.

I've tried to get the authorities to step in, but they won't do anything unless Kiah actually comes forward and tells them about her abuse.

We chat for another hour about school, her mum, and her new job at the local supermarket. She's trying to help out with the bills. That's a lot of pressure for a young girl. I walk away, wishing there was something more I could do for her.

I'm debating calling Gabe when I get into my car and Dani's name flashes on my phone as I'm staring at the screen. "Hey," I answer the call.

"Daisy, I need you to come to El's house. Now. And bring Claire," Dani says in a rush of words.

"What's wrong?" I ask while I'm already turning the key in the ignition.

"El was… She was attacked. It's bad, Daisy." Dani chokes back a silent sob.

"I'm on my way." I hang up, call Claire, and tell her to meet me outside her office.

When I pull up, she's waiting for me. She jumps into the front seat and slams the door shut. "Go! Let's go!" she says.

"I can't believe this." My hands shake as I break far more road rules than I keep to get to my friend's house. The whole way there, I'm thinking about both El and Gabe.

Did something happen to him?

If it did, no one would call me because they don't even know we're dating. I mean, why would they call and let some random girl know about their brother?

We're held up at the gate by a couple of guards, who wave us in after talking to someone through their earpieces. I stop the car in the middle of the driveway, not caring in the slightest that my crappy little Kia does not fit in with all the luxury cars that are lined up in front of us.

Gabe is standing in the open door. His arms folded over his chest and his jaw clenched. "What are you doing here?"

I'm thrown by his question and tone of voice. "Asshole." I shove at his chest. "You should have fucking called me. Why didn't you call me?" I yell while pounding against him with my fists.

Gabe takes hold of my wrists. "You need to calm down."

"Calm down." I laugh. "Are you fucking kidding me? My best friend is hurt. And you don't even call me. What the hell, Gabrielle?"

"It's a family matter," he says. "We're dealing with it."

"She's my best friend," I hiss at him.

"She's my sister," he counters.

"Oh, fuck off. She's been your sister-in-law for a hot bloody minute. I've known her for years. A lifetime in comparison. Now, let me see her." I try to get past him.

"I'm not letting you in there while you're so worked up. The last thing El needs is a fucking scene."

I take a deep breath. "Oh, I'm calm. I'm not going to make a scene. I just need to see her."

"Gio's with her… so's the doc. You can come in but you can't go into her room yet." Gabe turns and walks into the house. "Claire, Dani's in the kitchen. Daisy, you can come with me." I don't get a chance to argue otherwise as he takes my hand and starts tugging me up the stairway.

I know Claire is going to have questions after this. And I don't blame her. I would have them too.

Gabe leads me into a bedroom. His bedroom. He shuts the door quietly and leans against the frame. I land him with a scathing glare. "Why am I here?"

"I need to make sure you're okay," he says.

I laugh at him all over again. "Because you care?" I shake my head.

"I care about you a whole fucking lot, Daisy," he growls.

"You sure have a funny way of showing it. Shutting me out. Keeping me in the dark about things. Do you have any idea how worried I was about you today because I didn't hear from you? I was driving myself mad with all the scenarios of what could have happened!" I yell at him.

"You could have called me." He shrugs in that cocky way he does. Which just pisses me off more.

"No, I couldn't. Because then, I would have looked needy. I'm not a needy girlfriend."

"You can be needy, Daisy. I don't care."

"Why didn't you call me? Why don't you want me here?" I ask him, instead of dealing with all the shit he's telling me right now.

Gabe runs a hand down his face. "My brother's wife was fucking beaten and raped, Daisy. I was preoccupied. And why don't I want you here? Because of exactly that. How the fuck am I supposed to protect you? History has proven that I can't. I can't protect the women who enter this family. My mother, Shelli, now El... I'm not going to let you be next." There is so much pain in his voice.

I walk over and wrap my arms around him. "I don't need you to protect me, Gabe. I'm fine. And what happened to El, that's not your fault. You can't blame yourself for the actions of other people. There are a lot of sick bastards in this world. What they do doesn't fall on you."

"I should have made sure she was safe. We all should have. She had men with her, and this still happened."

"Gabe, it's not your fault," I repeat and step back when there's a knock.

He opens the door to find his brother on the other side. "She's asleep. Doc gave her some pills. Stay with her. Don't leave her side," Gio says, while grief and despair thicken his voice.

"Where are you going?" Gabe asks him.

"To dirty my hands with the blood of the fucking asshole who did this," he says.

"I should come with you." Gabe goes to follow Gio down the hall.

"I'll take Santo. I need you here in case she wakes up. She needs someone who can fucking think clearly, and that's not me or him. That's you," Gio says, then looks to me. "And she needs her friends." He doesn't wait for a reply before turning around and walking down the stairs.

I watch him go with one thought in mind. I've never seen a man more broken in my life…