No. He couldn’t start thinking like that. She was his world. His life. She had to be alive.
Please, baby. Please still be with me.
Less than a yard from the other entrance, Gabe used his shoulder to wipe some blood from his eye. He wanted to see Radcliff’s eyes clearly when he put his bullet between them.
Signaling with his fist again, Gabe and the others stopped. Listening for anything that may give the bastard away, he was met with nothing but silence and decided they’d waited long enough.
Using the fingers on his right hand, he counted down from three. When his index finger fell, Gabe and the other men rounded the corner and began shouting all at once for whoever was there to drop the weapon they assumed they’d have.
Running on adrenaline and fear, it took them all a moment to realize who they were actually shouting at.
“Walker?”
Standing three feet away and looking beat all to hell, Adrian Walker was pointing the barrel of his gun right at Gabe’s heart.
“Dawson? Oh, thank fuck.” He lowered his weapon. “It’s okay, Doc. It’s just your boy.”
Doc? Did that mean…
“Gabriel?” Hesitantly, Ellena came out from where she’d been hiding in the shadows. “Oh, my god! Gabe!”
She took off in a dead sprint, nearly knocking him on his ass when she jumped into his arms. “Ah, baby. Thank God you’re okay.”
“I thought you were dead,” she sobbed. “H-he showed me the explosion. I saw y-you get blown up, and I thought…”
“Shh…” Gabe held the precious gift in his arms. “I’m okay. We all are.”
“Got knocked on our asses pretty good, but it takes a lot more than that to take us down.” Nate grinned from beside him.
“We saw you go into the house, and a few minutes later the whole thing went up in flames. I thought…” Gabe couldn’t finish the sentence. Couldn’t tell her he knew what it felt like to watch her die. “When we found the tunnel, I thought maybe there was a chance you were okay. But then we heard the gunshot, and—”
“Oh, that was me. Killing Radcliff. After I stabbed Chris Hall in the heart with his own knife.”
“Jesus.” Ryker shook his head. “What a fucking mess.”
It was a mess. One that would no doubt cause Ryker a living hell trying to clean up before the media could catch wind of it all. But as far as messes went, Gabe was as grateful as ever for the way this one had ended.
He looked back down at his wife, only then noticing the bruises on her gorgeous face and the torn shirt and blood covering her front.
“What. The.Fuck?”
“It’s okay, Gabe.” Elle was quick to assure him. Resting a palm against his cheek, she tried calming the rising beast inside him by giving him a watery smile. “Just some bruises and a few scrapes. It would’ve been a lot worse, but Adrian saved me.”
Adrian saved…
Gabe’s eyes flew to the other man’s. The two men shared a look, and Gabe instinctively understood. The man they’d all believed to be the worst of the worst had saved Ellena from something she may never have been able to get past.
Feeling too choked up for words, he gave Walker a single nod, relinquishing the final remnants of hatred he’d felt toward the other man.
After all, Walker had just saved his wife’s life.
Glancing down at her once more, Gabe’s jaw tightened with guilt and anger. Gently cupping her battered face, he said, “I’m sorry we didn’t find you sooner.”
“You found me.” She smiled, her bottom lip quivering. “That’s all that matters.”
Threading his fingers with hers, they began walking back the way he and the others had come. Along the way, they listened to Walker give Ryker shit about not knowing about the tunnel ahead of time.
None of that mattered to Gabe, now. The only thing that mattered was the woman walking next to him.
