“I’m calling Logan and Quinn just in case,” Nick said.
Gabe glared at his friend, then nodded. Better to have a backup than not because, with his asshole brother, Gabe just didn’t know.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO – IVY
“Fuck!”Sheslammedherpalm down in frustration. “Ow.”
The world spun for a moment, feeling nauseous and dizzy, but she forced herself to get to her feet.
She had told them.
Out of sheer desperation, she wrote that post, and yes, she wanted it to stop Gabe from going on that job.
And save his ass.
But to know that his brother was behind it? It made her head spin. The business failed because they couldn’t recruit enough people after her post, so Chantal’s father bought the assets and reconstructed it as another business? It was like a weird fairy tale she’d somehow found herself in because she didn’t want her boyfriend dead.
Guess it made her a shitty girlfriend. That’s how Gabe treated her and how the rest of them, the Bandit Brothers, treated her too. No one ever fact-checked or followed up or listened to her.
Ivy sucked in a huge gulp of air. Now she was stuck here, just when she had gotten her life together. And she had stood on her own two feet without Gabe. Well, okay, him letting her back in their condo was helpful. But she should have fought him over it. She could have gone home to her family’s berry farm and licked her wounds.
With fury rolling through her body, she ignored the throbbing in her knees and head and walked the hangar length.
There had to be an out, right? Or lights? She would feel better if she could see.
And what did Gabe do during this time? He just got angrier. Great, she was angry too. She was mad that he didn’t care enough about her to ensure she had a roof over her head. Furious he didn’t listen to her. She was angry that instead of celebrating a new job with her, he was more concerned about her not telling him about the interview.
Maybe she and Gabe were done.
Ivy slammed the ground, furiously wiping away tears. Staying near the wall, she ran her hand along, searching for a light switch. Do they even have light switches in hangars?
What is Cole’s plan, anyway, to leave her here? He said he’d come back for her… after …god, is someone else going to come for her?
Her thoughts jumbled together, and the anger boiled through her veins.
Is this how it was for Gabe? Ivy shook away that thought.
She knew it wasn’t like that for him, and to explain his anger was almost impossible. For Gabe, it was always there, under the surface, almost as if it was fuel for him.
For years, she had heard about how calm and quick thinking he was in the field, and she believed it, even if he seemed impulsive and angry out of that environment. It’s like he needed a task; heneededsomething to do.
But she wished he didn’t feel he had to prove himself to his father and brother.
I wish I was enough for him. The tiny voice in the back of her mind made her angrier than she’d even thought that.Of course,she was enough for him.
Her hand glided over something smooth and metal. “A panel,” Ivy mumbled. She found the lip on the cool metal, pulled it open, and her hand fell over a row of switches, and she flipped them up.
And the hangar flooded with light.
This would be pretty damn cool if she was looking for space for a photo shoot or an event, but right now, it was terrifying because she didn’t know why she was here.
Wait, there had to be a door. At the back of the hangar, Ivy saw an exit door. Pushed it. Locked. Of course! Cole took her phone from her. But did hangars have phones? An intercom, some way to connect to the outside world. There had to be a way out.
Ivy tried the exit again and pushed on the door. It opened a little, and a breeze of cool air brushed against her skin.
She kicked the door. “Ow!”
That did nothing other than hurt her foot.
