She stood there before him and stared blankly. She was exhausted and covered in sweat. Her chest heaved as her lungs sought out enough oxygen to satisfy her heart's ferocious rhythm. Her deep brown eyes were wide. Her mouth hung open. Her deep, dark curls hung dripping with sweat where they weren't already stuck to her olive skin. Her muscles still twitched slightly from the exertion she'd exuded during the fight. Her numb chucks still clinched in her left hand were motionless, but ready enough to be called upon should she need them. Still her mind fought to catch up to the sight her eyes and body had only just absorbed.
She'd been out to find revenge on the fool who'd dared to hurt her little sister. That bastard's black mask had stuck in her mind since that wretched night only two months ago. That night she had sworn that the years of self-defense her father had paid extraordinary sums for over the years would be used to find that black leather mask and the flesh and blood fool beneath it. He had fled into the shadows as soon as she'd come rushing out the back door of their family home. She'd reached the place that freak had left her sister just as he'd hoisted himself up to the top of the fence. She'd seen his mask for only a moment as he'd looked back on her holding her beloved little sister even as her heart had stopped.
Now, in a moment of panic, Gabriella stood sucking in air and trying desperately to understand why the man lying beaten by her own hand was the man she'd fallen in love with during that same two month time period. How could that black leather masked covered fool be her beautiful blue eyed Troy?