"Mac!" Too late she was already out of earshot. "Don't do anything stupid," he muttered as he turned back to Gabe. He was amazed by the young man all the time. Gabe had managed to climb the stairs and was virtually to the top of them when Judson noticed that Gabe seemed to be losing his balance. On instinct Judson shot out a hand and grabbed a fist full of Gabriel's tee shirt, pulling the kid toward him. Securing Gabe's arm around his shoulder, Cross pulled Gabe up the last couple of steps.
"Mac?"
"She went after Addison."
"Have to stop her." He tried to pull away from Judson to go after Mac. Bad idea, he thought as Judson's hands grabbed hold and refused to let go. He couldn't let her kill Addison, no matter what he'd done. Though it would be a form a karma for him to be killed by a vengeance hungry older sister type. Gabe knew that the man was a worthless piece of flesh but he couldn't allow Mac to lower herself to the same level. Yes Addison had hurt him, but it was nothing; just a concussion and a few bumps nothing to get excited about.
His legs still felt as though they were made of solid steel as he allowed Judson to help him along the deck to where Mac was standing over a kneeling Addison. She didn't do it. Addison was still alive, even if he didn't deserve it. Shrugging himself free of Judson Gabe made his way to Addison.
"You didn't do it." Judson made his way to Mac.
"What no faith in me?" Her hands were on her hips.
"Trust." He wanted to sweep her up in a kiss right there. She really was beautiful. There was so much that he wanted to tell her at that moment, but none of it would come out. It'd been weeks since they'd shared that kiss; granted they had thought they were going to die. He had wanted to take her aside and talk with her about that kiss, but so much else had happened since then and the opportunity never came. Maybe today was the day that they should talk, but there was no way the two of them could talk and look after Gabe and Addison.
*****
"I'll take you to Italy, but you have to spend the rest of the trip in your cabin. You are to have no contact with anyone but Mac or myself. Am I clear?" Judson's anger poured off him like water from a fall. Callum could feel that the cord he was striking at was deep. He couldn't help but smile at the angry man before him. It was fun watching them run to Gabe's side in an attempt to protect the young man. Toying with them about his intentions for their young friend was unfair, but only served to make his smile that much brighter. He had no intention of killing Gabe, but it was a nice distraction from his real target; Senator Patterson.
"Yes." He stood in the door to the gray walls of the cabin; a smug smile still etched across his lips.
"If you leave this room without telling us, I'll let Mac throw ya over." He smiled brightly as he closed the door.
*****
"I'm fine, Mac," Gabe said, irritated at her mothering.
"You were nearly strangled, Gabe." She folded her arms across her chest.
"Yeah, and I'm fine now." He moved angrily toward the door.
"Where're you going?" She unfolded her arms from across the soft cotton of her shirt, and moved toward him. "You're not going back to work."
"Why not?" He turned sharply to face her. "There's nothing to else to do, Mac. I'm not gonna sit around and think about all the what if's; I can't."
"I don't expect you to, Gabe. I just think that you need some rest before you go back to work. Take an hour and sun bathe."
"That's more your thing than mine." A smile cracked across his face.
"Have lunch then." She returned his slow smile.
"Addison's locked up tight in his room until we get to port." Judson leaned against the door frame to the infirmary.
"Good," Mac said sharply.
Gabe could feel both sets of eyes from his friends on him as though they expected him to have a say about Addison being locked safely away in his cabin. But there was nothing he could say that would make them relax or worry less about the situation they were in. There was no way to tell them that Addison only agreed to stay locked up to pacify Judson and Mac. If he thought that it would help Gabe would've started to panic or tell them that Callum would get out and would come after him, but he just couldn't find the words or the strength. He knew he was Addison's true target, not them. And keeping them safe meant that he had to give himself over to the devil. How could he tell them that after they'd fought to keep safe so many times in the past?
Nodding his head and ignoring anything they might have said after he entered into his reverie, Gabe brushed past Judson on his way from the room. He needed time to think; to come up with some kind of plan to get rid of Addison and come out of it alive.
****
One night and one day of Addison locked safely behind the door of his cabin was not enough to calm Gabe's mind of forming a plan to rid them of Addison. He needed to get that man off the boat before they reached Italy. Gabe just knew that Italy was where Callum would make whatever move it was he was going to make, and he had to stop it before it got that far. Maybe he was just being selfish, but he could never live with himself if Addison went after Mac or Judson. Gabe knew that they were trying to protect him, but this time they needed his protection; whether they knew it or not.
It was that need to protect his protectors that gave Gabe the courage to be in the corridor leading to Addison's cabin cell. The cold white of the walls did little to still the beat of his heart or calm the nerves streaming through his tired body. He'd walked the route a thousand times in going to his cabin, yet this time it felt different; it felt as though it would be the last time that he'd being traveling this path. It was crazy to take Addison on in a fight, but he knew there was no other choice; no other way. Time was limited. In another twenty-four hours they'd be in port in Italy and Addison will take him when he leaves. Gabe knew that truer than anything the Bible had ever told him about religion.
Swallowing what courage he had left, Gabriel reached for the lock on the door. Shakily his thin fingers turned the lock and then the knob. Not quite knowing what to expect Gabe pushed the door open, careful to wait and see what was on the other side of the door before entering the tiny room. Seated on the edge of the bed was Callum Addison.
"I was wondering how long before you'd come." He looked up from the book he had been pretending to read; show in case the person on the other side of the door had been one of the others. He could almost smell the fear resonating from Gabe as the young man lingered outside the door swallowing his pride and gathering his courage. He had to give the kid credit for being man enough to willing face the one person who terrified him so as child. It wasn't easy to face the bogeyman.
"It's not a social call." He balled his hands into fists.
"I thought as much. Come to see the jailed lion then?" He stood and faced his young prey.
"Not exactly."
"I know that we're still at sea. Was your plan to kill me tonight?" He could see it in Gabe's hazel eyes, the fear that the devil might strike him down at any moment. "Or have you something else up your sleeve? Perhaps you just wanted to make sure that I was still where Mr. Cross put me, it that why you're here?"
"No," he hated that the word made him feel like a small child disagreeing with a parent and he especially hated that way he said made it sound as though he were that ten year old kid in the clutches of the evil manor lord again. "I came because I want to know why you're really here, Callum?"
"I do believe that you=re ready for the truth. Come in and close the door." The smile plastered across the face of Addison was one of a lion inviting a zebra in his den for dinner. He could see the hesitation being etched across Gabe's handsome face and feel the fear that was brimming within the willing young captive. "You don't want anyone else know what I'm going to tell you, do you?"
Bowing his head slightly, Gabe wrestled with the deal the devil had just made him. Going in the room meant that he'd being putting himself directly in the path of the train for a tidbit of information that was meaningless and out of date. Knowing the past was the first step to figuring out what he was doing here and now. He would tell Mac and Judson what he was about to later; when they wouldn't try to talk him out of it. The last thing he needed right then was a lecture about how putting yourself in harms way is no way to accomplish anything. He admired Judson for almost always being the voice of reason in his act now think later mind, but now was not the time for it.
Without a word Gabe stepped into the room. Wrapping his fingers around the smooth metal of the knob and began to pull the door closed. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes Gabe let out a small sigh as he heard the soft click of the door latching.
"So, tell me what you don't want anyone else to know," Gabe said, leaning against the door and staring the devil man in the eye.
"Just over twenty years ago your mother and I had an affair." Callum could feel the shock and anger that was raging through Gabriel. He could see that the truth was not what the young man standing before him wanted to hear, nor the possibilities of what the truth might really be. "We'd been having an affair on and off for about four years. She broke it off just before they announced that she was expecting. Your father never knew."
"I don't believe you," Gabe nearly shouted at the man. How could Callum do this to him? Wasn't it enough that Callum had him where he wanted him, now Callum had to make him doubt his life? Doubt everything that he was raised to believe? This man was more than insane, if he thought that Gabe was going to buy the lines that he was trying to sell him. "First you beat the crap out of me and now you're trying to rock my world with earth shattering news. Why?"
"You were ten when your father found out that your mother and I had an affair. I wasn't certain that you were your father's son. I was certain that you were mine. Your mother swore up and down that you were your father's. He took her side. He always did. I was upset that your father locked me out of the society I had grown up in and basically had me thrown out of the country I was raised in. And still believing that you were mine I took you. I encourage your mother to join me on my trip to Italy. She refused and asked that I return you before I left.
"I refused. Your father threatened to have arrested for kidnapping and child endangerment if I didn't give you back. I had no reason to fear the charges, I was leaving with you for my mother's homeland. But then your mother made a deal with me."
None of what this mad man was saying could be true. There was just no way that one word of it could be. How could his parents keep this from him as though it never happened? His father always did push him to forget the kidnapping and anything that happened the month that he was with Addison. He was an adult for crying out loud, why couldn't they just tell him what had happened and why? Maybe if they had told him then he wouldn't be here with the mad man who'd started the entire ordeal hearing a sorted truth. How was he ever supposed to forgive them for this? How was he supposed to trust them ever again when they neglected to tell him what it was that they always discussed in hushed tones around him?
"Why should believe you?"
"They'll never confirm nor deny what I'm telling you. Don't you want to know what the deal was?"
That was it, Gabe couldn't stand to be around the man any longer; he moved toward the door. There was never any deal. He was just a scared old man who had been more afraid of another scared old man those twelve years ago. The truth wasn't worth letting a twisted old man turn against his family any more than he already had. They had their reasons for not saying anything to him, but he could've asked them for an explanation at any time in the last four years. Quickly turning the knob on the door Gabe opened the door, turning his back to Addison. "There was never any deal," he muttered as he prepared to walk through the threshold.
"You are a smart one," Addison said, moving behind Gabriel. Before Gabe knew what was happening, Addison had an arm wrapped around his tender neck. Callum snickered at the gasp that escaped Gabe's lips. Stupid boy, he thought as he dragged Gabe back into his cabin. "You're right there was no deal all those years ago. But I have one for you now."
"What?" Gabe gasped.
"You come with me now. We can take the smaller boat and get to shore, but you have to make your friends leave us."
"They'll look for me."
"Not if you tell them to stay away."
"I can't do that."
"If you don't I'll kill them starting with your captain and ending with Mac."
"Have fun. She'll kill you first."
"But can she kill me before I kill you, Son?"
"I am not your son."
"Have it your way," Callum said pulling a small throwing dagger from a small hidden pouch on his belt. "First one through that door dies."
