Chapter 3

Catherine called Gabe and arranged to meet him just down from her apartment for coffee. He agreed and sounded ok, but she was nervous and so was Vincent so he told her he would be nearby. Not in the shop but close enough if she needed him.

Gabe was already sitting there waiting for her with her favorite coffee. He stood up when he saw her and he was smiling. Cat smiled back at him, walked over, sat down and took a sip of coffee to give herself a moment to collect her thoughts.

Gabe spoke first. "Catherine I am sorry for what I said last night, I know you still care about Vincent and I never should have asked you to cut him out of your life." Catherine looked at Gabe, and said "No I am sorry, I never should have started up a relationship with you, and it was too soon." "Catherine" Gabe started. "No please let me finish" Catherine said.

"Gabe, I actually need to thank you."

"Thank me?" Gabe says astonished

"Yes you have been such a good friend to me these last few months and I know I may have screwed this all up, but if you had not given me that ultimatum last night I would not have realized my feelings for Vincent were unresolved."

"Unresolved?" Gabe knew he sounded like an idiot, parroting every last word she said but he did not like where this was going. He thought he would just apologize and they could go back to being together.

"Well they were unresolved until last night." Catherine said looking down.

"Last night?" Seriously he needed to stop that.

"After I left your place I went and saw Vincent…. Gabe I am sorry, and this is not fair to you, but I still love him."

"Oh" Gabe did not have a comeback for that. Now what was he going to do, he looked at Catherine. He still needed her help, could he still get it if he played nice and understanding? He did not feel like he had much of a choice. Gabe looked down.

"I understand Cat, I should have known better, I saw the way you two were together last year and I should have known that no one could come between you two."

Catherine let go of the breath she had been holding in. "Still friends?" She asked. Gabe smiled at her, "Of course, Catherine I would not have it any other way."

Catherine's phone rings and it is Tess checking in.

Gabe left the café and Vincent could tell that Catherine was ok, her heartbeat was normal and he could hear her on the phone to Tess, updating her on what had happened in the past few hours. Vincent decided to trail Gabe a bit; he did not like how easily Gabe had handled what Catherine had told him. There was no way he would have just agreed to be friends with Catherine, he would have fought harder for her.

Vincent tracks Gabe through the city, staying far enough back so there is no way Gabe would detect him. Gabe heads for a loft in Tribeca. Vincent has no idea what he is up to, he makes note of the address and tries to get close enough to see what Gabe is up to. He can hear Gabe talking to someone.

"We have a problem" Gabe says.

"What is it?" Vincent looks in from the rooftop across the alley and can see older gentlemen, tall with grey hair responding to Gabe, his back is to Vincent and he can't see his face. Vincent is not sure but he seems familiar.

"Catherine is back with Vincent" Gabe tells the man.

"Dammit, Lowan you were supposed to get between them!"

" Believe me I tried, I bent over backwards for Catherine, made sure I was there for her every time Vincent hurt her, but there was nothing I could do."

Gabe put his hands up, "Look, I can salvage this, I told her I would just be her friend that I understood how she felt. Vincent is bound to screw up again and I will be there for her."

"I am not sure that we have that kind of time", the older man said, "We need to find out where Vincent hid that gem. Do you think she will still help you get it?"

Gabe thought for a minute, "Yes I will tell her that as long as the gem is out there, Vincent is in danger, she can convince him to give it to her with the pretext of destroying it."

The older man carefully thinks it over, "That just might work!"

Gabe leaves the loft and heads back downtown. Vincent is torn between following Gabe and figuring out who he was talking to. The guy seemed so familiar yet Vincent could not put a name or a face to him. Vincent decides to follow the man as long as he can.

Turns out it wasn't that long. The guy went to the top of the building and a helicopter picked him up. Vincent was never able to see his face and the helicopter did not have any markings, no registration, no anything, just all black. Vincent had a very bad feeling about this…