Storm Warning

CHAPTER Thirteen





Gabe waited for Tory’s breathing to settle before he rose carefully from the bed. He dressed in brooding silence, knowing they’d said all that needed to be said the day before.

They’d driven back to the hotel room when the storm had passed. The team had been there to meet Tory. She had been consumed in back breaking hugs, spun in circles, and had cheerfully filed a police report on the Johnson brothers before she and Gabe managed to make it back to their room.

Still shaken, they’d made love fast and furiously all the while thinking of how close they had come to losing each other. They didn’t speak of their fight and they didn’t speak of the future. That—to Gabe—had said it all.

A clean cut would be easier on her pride and easier on his heart. Gabe always considered himself a man accustomed to taking what he wanted. But the only thing he wanted right now was Tory. And he knew that was a losing battle.

She may have said the things she said to him out of the heat of the moment. He had made her pretty angry. But that didn’t make the words any less true. Gabe jerked his shoes on and tied them. She didn’t need his protection. She didn’t need him.

Gabe wondered thoughtfully what Tory would say if she were wake up. Would she ask him to stay? Would she finally give her heart to him? He shoved a shirt into his suitcase and zipped it shut. She would be sorry to see him go. Gabe wasn’t blind, he knew she felt something. But she would let him go.

If she would have ever indicated she had more feelings for him, he would have stayed just for the pleasure of being with her. But his love was selfless and Gabe wanted Tory to have everything she wanted—even if that meant he had no place in her life.

Soundlessly, he set his bags beside the door and made his way over to the bed. The sight of Tory sleeping reminded him of the first night he had met her when he carried her from the truck to her hotel room. Her dark mass of tangled hair was spread out over the pale pillow. Her lips, still swollen from his, were parted and curved slightly in sleep.

He stood beside the bed for a while—memorizing everything. He drank in the way her dark brows arched, the way her thick lashes curled, casting shadows down her cheeks by the pale moonlight seeping into the room.

With the lightest touch, Gabe trailed his fingertip along her smooth jaw line. She stirred slightly, murmuring his name, and he ached. And even as his heart was breaking, he placed a kiss on her lips, then her brow—then walked out of the room, closing the door soundlessly behind him.





Tory rolled to the empty spot beside her and fumbled awake. She wiped her eyes to clear them and murmured her lover’s name. When no answer came, she glanced anxiously around the darkened room.

He was just here, was all she could think as she slipped out of bed and into her robe. His scent was still hanging in the air, she thought running a hand through her disheveled hair. She pressed her fingers to her lips. They were still warmed from his. She realized with a sinking heart that his things were gone.

With a sound of distress, Tory raced across the room and clung to the window sill. Then, she saw him. He had one bag slung over his shoulder and carried the other two. He was walking briskly across the darkened parking lot into the street light. His body was cast in shadows, making him look untouchable. Already gone.

Tory watched helplessly as her lover walked away from her. And even as her heart was shattering, all she wanted him to do was turn around. But he never even looked back.