CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The clinic parkinglot was nearly empty.The overhead light shone down on his pickup truck.He’d made a point of parking there, knowing it would be late and dark by the time he finished his shift.There had been wall-to-wall patients all day long, and he was tired to the bone.The bright spot of his day was knowing Nica would be at the apartment when he got home.He fumbled for his keys, exhaustion weighing down his shoulders as he approached his truck.Three months of marriage, and he was still getting used to having someone waiting for him at home.It was a wonderful thought.
He was so busy thinking about his lovely wife, he never heard them coming.
The first sign of trouble was a hand clamping over his mouth from behind, the sticky slap of duct tape being pressed over his lips.Before he could react, rough fabric dropped over his head, plunging him into darkness.
“Don’t fight, Doc,” a familiar voice growled near his ear.“That’ll just make it harder on everybody.”
Panic shot through Gabe’s chest.The threatening phone calls over the past month flashed through his mind—the mechanical voice promising to make him pay, the hang-ups in the middle of the night.His heart hammered against his ribs as strong hands grabbed his upper arms and propelled him forward.An engine roared to life.Within seconds he was manhandled onto the seat of a car, and shoved over to the center, with a hard body on either side.Car doors slammed.He caught a faint whiff of aftershave or cologne of some sort.It was vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t place how he recognized it.
This is it, he thought, fighting against the zip-ties they’d secured around his wrists behind his back.The caller finally making good on his threats.
The drive felt endless, though it couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes.When the vehicle finally rocked to a stop, Gabe was hauled out and marched across what felt and sounded like gravel beneath his feet.A door creaked open, and the stench of motor oil and hay filled his nostrils—some kind of barn or garage would be his guess.
He was frog-marched forward, then shoved into a chair, and felt more zip-ties being secured around his ankles and the chair legs.His breath came in short bursts through his nose, the duct tape making it impossible to speak or call for help.Anger spiraled through him, and he jerked his shoulder from beneath the hand resting atop it.Didn’t matter who these people were—they were dead meat when he got loose.
“Alright,” that same familiar voice said.“Let’s see what we’re working with.”
The hood was yanked from Gabe’s head, and he blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to the harsh fluorescent lighting.When his vision cleared, his jaw would have dropped if not for the tape.
Eleven men stood in a semicircle around him, all bearing various degrees of expressions from smoldering anger to smirks at his helplessness.A couple of them looked downright hostile, and one simply shook his head in disappointment.The Boudreau brothers, that ragtag bunch of reprobates, stared down at him.Behind them, more men leaned against workbenches—Brian, Nick, and Gage, the ones everyone called Ms.Patti’s Lost Boys, men who’d been part of the foster home she and Douglas ran when they’d been troubled kids tossed into an unforgiving foster system.Boys she’d taken under her wing over the years who’d become like family, even though they hadn’t been able to stay and live with the Boudreaus.
Rafe, the oldest, stepped forward with arms crossed over his chest.The first thing Gabe noted was that the sheriff’s badge that was always pinned to his chest was missing, telling him everything he needed to know.Rafe was off duty, because he was about to have a meet-the-brothers meeting, one where he’d have to answer for eloping with their little sister.Rafe was the one wearing the smirk, and Gabe wished his hands were free, because he’d wipe that smirk right off his face.He’d gone to Rafe, told him the truth about him and Nica, about the elopement.Rafe had been the one to give them the ultimatum to tell her parents—or else.
“Well, well.Dr.Gabriel Summers.Fancy meeting you here.”Antonio’s deep voice drew Gabe’s eyes toward him.Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, he looked nothing like the professional Fed Gabe was used to seeing.
Brody, the second oldest, shook his head.“Can’t believe our baby sister married this fool without telling us.”
“Mmmph!”Gabe tried to speak through the tape, his eyes darting between the fourteen pairs of eyes glaring at him.
“Oh, now you’ve got something to say?”Another taunt from Antonio, his dark broody expression would have scared a lesser man.As an FBI agent, he was used to not only interrogation but intimidation.Gabe wasn’t about to fall for his tactics.He and Nica had done nothing wrong.Well, except for keeping their elopement a secret, but that wasn’t against the law.“Funny how you didn’t have much to say at Sunday dinner yesterday.Oh, wait, you did have one thing to say, didn’t you, Doc?”
Rafe reached over and ripped the duct tape from Gabe’s mouth in one swift motion.Gabe gasped, working his jaw.
“You kidnapped me!”he wheezed.“This is—”
“This isn’t a kidnapping, Doc.Kidnapping’s against the law.This is a family meeting,” Rafe interrupted.“One that’s long overdue.”
“You could have simply asked to talk to me!”
“Could we?”Brody stepped closer, his voice dangerously quiet.“Because from where I’m standing, you’re not real big on communication.Three months, Doc.Three months you’ve been married to our sister, and not a single word to any of us.”
“Not even that y’all were dating,” added Shiloh.At least he thought it was Shiloh.Could have been Ridge.He still had trouble telling the twins apart.“We had to find out at Sunday dinner that our Nica’s been living in College Station with the town doctor.”
“We weren’t living together!”Gabe’s pulse was still racing, but anger was starting to override his fear.“Look, I understand you’re upset—”
“Upset?”This explosion came from Chance.Uh, oh.Chance was usually the calm, level-headed one.The county’s district attorney, he was always the voice of reason.“Upset doesn’t begin to cover it.You know what I saw when Nica made her little announcement?I saw our momma’s heart break right there at her own dinner table.”
The guilt that accompanied Chance’s words hit Gabe like a physical blow.He’d seen it, too; the way Ms.Patti’s face had crumpled for just a moment before she’d smiled and congratulated them.The way she’d excused herself to get more tea and stayed in the kitchen just a little too long.
“You think we did this lightly?”Gabe found his voice, though it came out rougher than he’d intended.“You think this was easy for either of us?”
“Then why do it?”Lucas asked, his voice soft and controlled.“If it was so hard, why sneak around?Why elope like a couple of teenagers?Did you think if Dad found out, there’d be a shotgun wedding for you defiling his baby girl?”
“Because…” Gabe stopped himself, letting his words trail off, realizing he was about to reveal more than he and Nica had agreed on.
“Because what?”Rafe’s eyes narrowed.“Because you knew we’d have something to say about a thirty-eight-year-old man chasing after our much younger sister?”
