“What the hell?” he said in an impossibly deep voice. “Who the f**k are you?”

Gabe was several inches over six feet, but this guy towered over him and outweighed him by a good fifty pounds of solid muscle. Gabe supposed if he’d retained a shred of intelligence, he’d have been terrified of such a massive dude, but he was too pissed off to think clearly. And the idea that this beast had used all that muscle to rape a woman, and not just any woman, but someone who Melanie loved dearly, caused Gabe to lose his mind entirely.

He advanced on the massive fighter, just wanting to hit him and hit him and never stop hitting him. A sense of satisfaction suffused Gabe as his fist connected with Dick Bailey’s gut.

For some stupid reason, Gabe wasn’t expecting the guy to hit back. Or for the force behind the blow to knock the wind out of him.

“I don’t know who the f**k you are—”

“The cops might have let you go, but I’m a whole ’nother story,” Gabe said.

“The cops? Of course they let me go. I didn’t do anything.”

Gabe managed to hit him in the face this time. The return blow felt as if it dislocated Gabe’s jaw, but damned if he cared.

“You don’t think raping a defenseless woman is wrong?” Gabe yelled.

“Is she your sister or something?” He sidestepped Gabe’s next punch. “Look, dude, I don’t know what she told you, but I did not rape her. We got a little rough maybe, but she said she wanted it that way.”

Gabe might have believed him—God knew Nikki was a master of manipulation—but he’d seen how emotionally torn up she was. That wasn’t an act. Even if this jackass didn’t think what he’d done to Nikki was rape, she’d been violated body and soul. She was a victim. Gabe believed that from the depths of his soul and he was done talking. He’d come here to kick some ass, and he wasn’t leaving until he was satisfied that he’d done the job properly.

After he’d been pounded on a couple times himself, however, he decided that perhaps a job mediocrely done was sufficient. He got in his licks, but the retaliating blows soon had his head swimming and his body protesting its punishment.

Perhaps he should have challenged this guy to a match of wits instead of fists.

“Had enough?” Bailey asked after several minutes of bruising give and take.

Gabe was happy to see that the big guy was breathing hard. He personally felt as if his lungs had collapsed, but he was not giving up. He refused to give Dick Bailey the satisfaction of rendering him unconscious or defeated.

Gabe was somewhat relieved when security came to break up the fight. He wished he’d been able to beat the guy down, but at least he himself was still standing. Someone grabbed him by the back of the shirt and hauled him toward the exit. By the time he found himself face down in the parking lot, his shirt had been ripped clean off.

“Get out of here, punk. Before we call the cops.”

He knew they wouldn’t let him back inside to finish the job. He climbed to his feet and spat gravel out of his mouth. Or maybe it was teeth. Gabe tipped his head back to send the flow of blood down the back of his throat as he considered his options. He wouldn’t mind getting arrested. What he did mind was that Dick Bailey was only going to have one black eye while he was pretty sure he’d be sporting two.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Melanie had just shifted Nikki’s head from her shoulder onto a pillow when her phone rang. Gabe’s ringtone. She considered not answering it. She still couldn’t believe that he’d abandoned her at the police station with no idea why he’d left or where he’d gone. He’d better have a good explanation. Wanting to hear what excuse came out of his mouth was the only reason she answered.

Or so she told herself.

“Where are you?” he asked. “I came back to our room and you’re not here.”

“I got my own room.”

“What? Why?”

“Because Nikki needs me and you apparently don’t.”

“What are you talking about? I don’t need you? Where did you get that idea?”

“You just f**king left us there at the police station, Gabe. You didn’t even bother to say goodbye. Don’t you think I have enough to worry about with Nikki without you acting like a complete ass**le?”

“I didn’t think. I just…” He took a deep breath. “Fuck, Melanie. What did you expect me to do for her?”

“Not a damned thing, Gabe. I didn’t need you there for her. I needed you there for me!”

Nikki stirred beside her, and Melanie took a deep breath to calm her frayed nerves. “I have to go. Nikki’s sleeping. I don’t want to wake her.”

“Are you in this hotel?” he asked. “I need to see you, Mel. I need to touch you. I need to know that we’re f**king okay. Are we okay?”

Irked as she was, she wanted to see him too. She wanted him to hold her while she fell apart, but she couldn’t leave Nikki alone again. She just couldn’t.

“I just… I just need to be with her right now.”

He was silent for a moment. Even listening to him breathe was making her chest ache. Making her miss him.

“She’s sleeping, isn’t she?” he asked.

Melanie stroked Nikki’s silky brown hair from her face. Nikki smiled peacefully in her sleep and snuggled into her pillow.

“Yeah. She’s sleeping.”

“Can we talk in the hallway or something? Where are you? Wherever you are, I’ll come to you.”

She hesitated, considering. What harm would it do to talk to him as long as she was in earshot of Nikki?

“Melanie, please,” he said.

“We’re in Shade’s room. Adam gave us Shade’s spare key because you left us and Nikki forgot her key in the room.”

“Oh,” he said. “So you didn’t leave me because you were mad.”

“I would have if I’d thought of it,” she snapped.

He chuckled and there was a soft knock at the door. “I think someone at your door wants to see you,” he whispered. “But I don’t think you realize how much.”

She disconnected the call, climbed from the bed—careful not to disturb Nikki—and hurried to the door. She blinked in the bright glare of the hallway and gasped when she saw Gabe’s face. Both eyes were well on the way to being black, and he had a cut on the bridge of his nose, a horrible bruise creeping up the strong line of his jaw, and blood on his upper lip.