“He’ll be back soon.” She whimpered ever so slightly, as she added, “I can’t be seen with you. My father will kill me if he knows I’ve told you anything.”
Gabe’s hackles were up in an instant, his protective instincts in full force. “Get in the car, Sandra,” he urged, opening the door for her. “I’ll take you to the sheriff’s department where you can give a statement. We can protect you.”
She shook her head vehemently. “No! I can’t. I have to protect my brothers.”
Gabe took a cautious step toward her and gently grasped her upper arm, keeping his voice even when he said, “Sandra, the best way to protect your brothers is to come in with me and tell us what you know. Then we can do what’s necessary to remove them from your father’s house.”
She lifted wide blue eyes to his, silently pleading, clearly torn. God, the woman was completely terrified. What kind of father terrorizes his own daughter, for fuck’s sake? Gabe was gonna wring that bastard Monroe’s neck when he got his hands on him.
“I…I don’t know,” she stammered. “I need to think. This was a mistake.”
Gabe bent his knees slightly so that he was at her eye level. “It’s never a mistake to do that right thing, Sandra.” He took out his phone and dialed his brother’s number, planning to give him a heads-up that he was bringing in Monroe’s daughter, but she snatched the phone from his grasp with a strangled cry and hung up.
When she handed the phone back to him, her hand was trembling and she seemed to curl into herself, as if she expected him to lash out at her. “Please don’t tell anyone I said anything,” she pleaded. “If he finds out…”
Gabe shook his head. “I won’t say a word.”
“Not even to the woman, the attorney,” she insisted. “I don’t want her to get hurt. My father can’t suspect she knows anything or it’ll force his hand.”
Gabe’s blood chilled. “What’s he planning, Sandra? I love that attorney you’re talking about. Very much. If anything ever happened to her…” His throat constricted at the thought, making it impossible for him to finish the sentence. He leveled his gaze at Monroe’s daughter. “Tell me how to protect Elle, and I promise I’ll do everything I can to protect your brothers.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, and he knew he’d gotten through to her. “Okay. But not here. My brother will—”
“Sandra.”
The woman practically jumped out of her skin at the harsh bark behind her. Gabe’s eyes snapped up to meet the furious gaze of Jeremy Monroe.
“Get away from my sister,” Jeremy growled, his hands balled into fists at his sides.
Gabe immediately took a step back. “It’s okay. It’s not what you think.”
“Liar!” Jeremy yelled, taking a menacing step forward, shaking with rage. “I know all about you, sinner! Leave my sister alone. You already have a whore.”
It took every bit of Gabe’s control to not deck the little shit for calling Elle a whore. He clenched his jaw and shoved his finger in the kid’s face. “Watch your mouth, Monroe. If I didn’t know you were just parroting your father’s words—”
“What?” Jeremy shot back. “You’d shoot me like you did my brother? Kill me here in the middle of the street?”
“I didn’t kill your brother,” Gabe told him on a sigh, now feeling sorry for the kid more than angry. “And I’m not putting the moves on your sister. She’s worried about you and your younger brother. Your father has brainwashed you, Jeremy—”
Gabe saw Jeremy’s fist coming in plenty of time to block it. He grabbed the kid’s arm and twisted it behind his back in one swift motion, frog-marching him across the sidewalk and pressing him against the wall of the pharmacy.
“I’m going to pretend that didn’t happen,” Gabe ground out, hoping cutting the kid some slack would help persuade Jeremy that Gabe could be trusted. “I’m not the enemy, Jeremy. But you take another swing at me, kid, and I’m throwing your ass in jail. You get me?”
Jeremy nodded, but when Gabe released him, he took a step back out of Jeremy’s reach, just in case. The kid was glaring daggers at him, his face white with a mixture of fear and fury. Without taking his gaze off of Gabe, Jeremy grabbed his sister’s arm and shoved her ahead of him toward a pickup truck double-parked a few yards away.
Sandra sent one more pleading look at Gabe over her shoulder before climbing in the truck. Her brother quickly scurried around to the other side and peeled away, nearly taking out the front-end of another car in the process.
Shit!
Gabe ran a hand over his hair in frustration and cursed a blue streak. He’d been this close to convincing Sandra Monroe to come with him before her brother had shown up. Now he wasn’t sure she’d ever give him the information they needed. And part of that information included an unknown threat to Elle. Fear squeezed his lungs like a vise, making it hard to breathe.