Gabriel's Redemption

Chapter Fifty

April 2010

Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania

Gabriel’s cell phone rang. He reached over to pick it up so he could see who was calling. Julianne had called several times since he’d left her in Toronto. Although he listened to her voice messages in an effort to torture himself, he couldn’t risk answering and actually speaking with her.

July first. If I can just hold on until July first, she’ll be safe.

The display indicated that the number was blocked. Gabriel had a fair idea who was calling.

“Jack,” he rasped.

“Found the girl. Found her boyfriend. We need to meet.”

Gabriel rubbed at his eyes.

“Can’t you look after this? That’s what I’m paying you for.”

Jack cursed.

“Don’t trust you. Tom tells me you broke my niece’s heart. I should be tuning you up rather than doing a job for you.”

“This isn’t for me. It’s for her,” Gabriel snapped. “The girl tried to blackmail her. The boy fucking bit her and threatened to rape her. How is it in those scenarios, I’m the villain?”

“Melrose Diner, South Philly, tomorrow at nine A.M.”

Jack hung up.

“Fuck,” said Gabriel.

Jack Mitchell was a private investigator. At least, that was the occupation he put on his tax forms. He was an ex-Marine who also worked in private security, investigations, and enforcement.

Simply put, he helped rich individuals stay safe from all kinds of threats, including blackmail.

Jack was Tom Mitchell’s younger brother and the man that he turned to when his friend Richard Clark needed to pay off the drug dealers his son owed. Jack and a few of his contacts took the money Richard provided (money that was gained by mortgaging the family home in Selinsgrove) and persuaded the dealers to forget the name of Gabriel Emerson.

Jack could be very persuasive.

When Gabriel needed someone to persuade a certain couple to stay away from Julianne, he immediately thought of Jack. Contacting him wasn’t easy, but a few well-placed phone calls put them in touch.

Despite Jack’s initial resistance, when he saw the photographs of Julianne’s injuries at the hands of the senator’s son, he agreed to take the job. He followed Simon and the redhead he was banging as they cut a wide swath through Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. In a short period of time, Jack had a dossier thick enough to share with Emerson. And damning enough (he thought) to ensure that his niece would no longer have to worry about the rich boy and the redhead.

Jack would make suggestions about how to use the information to its greatest effect. And he hoped that he’d be able to call his shot at a few minutes alone with the rich kid. Someone needed to teach that motherfucker a lesson.

Jack slid a manila envelope across the table to Gabriel.

“Leverage to get them to turn over the stuff they have on Jules. I’ll have a conversation with them about what will happen if they don’t. Senator Talbot is making a bid for the White House. They’ll comply. End of story.”

“What am I looking at?” Gabriel flipped through a set of black-and-white photos, all of which featured the senator’s son involved in some kind of sex act. Some of the photos featured him and two women. All of them turned Gabriel’s stomach.

“Debutantes, Capitol Hill brats, and an intern from the senator’s office.” Jack placed his index finger over the pale, shadowed face of a young woman.

Gabriel frowned in distaste. “College student?”

“High school.”

“Underage?”

Their eyes met.

“Seventeen.”

“Fuck,” Gabriel muttered. “The guy is a predator. Is the senator implicated?’

“His people are aware the kid is a problem. They’ve been tailing him.”

“But they haven’t done anything?”

“Nothing on radar. Don’t see how they can let this continue. The kid gave alcohol and drugs to a seventeen-year-old and then slept with her. It’s all on film.”

“Motherfucker.” Gabriel placed the photos back in the envelope and slid it across the table.

“Returning your fee.” Jack tucked the photos inside his leather jacket and then took a business-sized envelope from one of the pockets. He held it out.

Gabriel waved it aside.

Jack dropped the envelope next to Gabriel’s coffee mug.

“She ain’t your problem anymore.”

Gabriel leveled angry blue eyes on the man sitting across from him.

“She will always be my problem.”

Jack squinted.

“Man like you, spends thousands on white stuff that goes up his nose. Nearly gets himself and his father killed. Shit.” He shook his head. “I’m fucking delighted you aren’t with her anymore.”

“Then take the money.” Gabriel clenched his fist and inhaled deeply, resisting the urge to bounce Jack’s head off the table.

“Tom should have solved this problem. Way I look at it, he fell down on the job.”

“It isn’t the first time. If you’re so sympathetic to Julianne, why the hell didn’t you rescue her from her mother? You could have saved her the scar on the back of her head.”

Jack’s face grew very red. “She told you?”

“Of course.”

“Fuck.”

Gabriel glared. “I don’t expect you to understand, but for reasons I won’t delineate, we can’t be together. I’d still walk through Hell for her. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let some motherfucker with a senator for a father embarrass and humiliate her. You don’t want the money of a cokehead who broke your niece’s heart? Fine. Do your job and do it right, or I’ll find someone who will.” Gabriel stuffed the envelope into his pocket and moved to stand.

Jack held out his hand to stop him.

“I’ll call you when it’s done.”

“Good. I expect you to keep this conversation between us.”

Jack looked up at him in surprise. “Don’t you want her to know?”

Gabriel’s expression tightened. “The important thing is that she’s safe. No blackmail, no blowback. They stay out of her life forever. And she gets to sleep peacefully at night.”

A long look passed between the two men before Gabriel strode out of the diner.