Chapter 10

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"Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

He stared at her across the car's console, his face like a storm with the emotions in his eyes flickering like temperamental weather patterns. She could see him wrestling with it, what to tell her. The extent of it. If he should tell her at all. The struggle was plain as day.

"I'm afraid," he confessed. "I'm afraid that whatever I say will drive you away."

"Nothing you say would drive me away."

He gave her a sceptical look.

"Okay, that's with the usual caveats and I think you know what they are."

"Mm," was his only response.

"Why do you think I would take flight so easily?" she tried again.

"I just feel like we're at a crossroads and the universe is throwing everything at us to derail things and I'm trying as hard as I can to mitigate it all but there's only so much I can do." He bit his bottom lip waiting for her reply; the white of his teeth gnawing at the fleshy crimson.

They had just gotten home. Neither of them acknowledged their arrival, as they stayed seated in the car. Rain pelted down on the windows. Fogging everything up. With no engine running, no radio to drown out the long silence it was just them and the hard truth.

She thought for a while. She could see his point, they had endured a lot in such a short time. She felt like it had been six years, not a mere six months into their relationship.

They were at a tipping point, when it could all go right or it could go south depending on the circumstances. She felt guilt pool in her belly, she was contributing to those set of circumstances too. Tomorrow, she would talk with Ella and try to find a solution otherwise she would have to come clean about everything. She owed him not to be the hypocrite that she felt like.

"Hi."

"Hi?" He parroted, confused.

"I'd like to introduce myself." She undid her seatbelt, and shifted in her seat so she was sitting facing him with her legs crossed. She held her hand out and he stared at it like an alien limb.

"Nat, what?"

"Yes, I'm Nat. You know, the other party in this relationship."

"You dork," he laughed, a rich warm sound that echoed in the car, when he realised what she was doing and it was nice to see him relax and not look so worried about her reaction.

"I'm serious. I'm in this too. It's not up to you to carry it all. I have a voice too, and I want it to work just as much as you do."

"Okay," he said quietly. He took her hand, shaking it with a wry grin, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was doing. "Nice to meet you, Natalia."

She leaned over the console, pulling him into a hug, inhaling his scent and peppering small kisses into his stubbled jawline. "I love you."

"I love you more." There was a brief beat, where they looked at each other before simultaneously grimacing and pulling apart. "That was way too cheesy."

"I know," she groaned. "I almost vomited up my lunch. We're gonna have to do something gangster as fuck to redeem ourselves."

"Narcos marathon?"

"Yaas. But without your commentary, I don't need to know how you handled drug trafficking in the triple frontier of South America. Nobody watches Netflix for realism." They were out of the truck now and Gabe was opening the front door.

"My commentary makes the show, stop lying to yourself. You hated Narcos till you started watching it with me."

"Maybe I liked Netflix and chilling. Did you think of that?"

"No, but I'm thinking about it now. Maybe we should skip the Netflix part?"

"Maybe we —"

"— Howdy!" Natalia clutched her chest at the loud intrusion coming from their living room.

"—Y'all spent an awful long time in that truck. I hope y'all were keeping it PG-13, this is a residential neighbourhood. There are children around," he continued, whilst sitting perfectly still in the living room.

"Ty! How did you get in?"

"I have a key."

Natalia looked at Gabe, who avoided her gaze. "You know that voice I told you about?"

"Uh-huh."

"I'm about to use it," she smiled a fake smile that she knew didn't touch her eyes.

"Relax. It's just until all of this blows over." Ty said getting up from where he had made himself comfortable.

"Are you here for a reason or are you just aimlessly trespassing?" Ever since Gabe had come back from Mali, with a bullet wound in his shoulder, Natalia had been extremely wary of all things Ty.

"No, for shits and giggles."

"Tyrone," Gabe warned his voice low with authority.

Natalia snickered, "Is that what it's short for?"

"What's wrong with Tyrone?"

Natalia snickered some more, not elaborating on her point, she pulled out her phone. "I wonder if Lima knows about this."

"Can we stay on task please? Ty, what you got for us?"

Ty extracted a brown envelope from his coat pocket. Natalia and Gabe joined him around the coffee table. He was sitting on an arm chair and they took the couch. Ty spread out the documents on the table. There were lots of photos and printed sheets of paper.

Gabe picked up a photo, examining it closely. "The rookie take these?" he asked Ty, who nodded. "They're good."

Natalia peered over his shoulder. There was a man talking with an older man in the photos. They were meeting in what looked like a restaurant. When she looked closer; the older man looked suspiciously a lot like Gabe's dad.

Then there were endless photos of her. Her in glasses, Gabe's sweatshirt and leggings running errands around town. Her coming back home from school with boxes of books to mark in her hands. Her and Gabe coming back from a jog. There was a picture of her and Gabe hugging on the doorstep of the house with his arm in a sling. The surveillance must have been going on for months?

"What's going on, Gabe?"

"Turns out my father hired that PI, it took us a while to figure out but, Ty stayed on him and caught them meeting."

"Okay," Natalia said slowly, her mind trying to catch-up.

"I'm sorry about all this, I'm gonna fix it. Are you mad?"

"No, don't apologise, I'm relieved. At least we know it's your father and not some actual psychopath."

"My father is a psychopath," Gabe deadpanned.

"Do you know what he wants?" Ty asked.

"I can't imagine, he is a ruthless bastard and I wouldn't rule anything out."

"Luckily, I know where he is this exact moment," Ty grinned.

"There's only one thing for it," Gabe said, getting up and grabbing a hoodie which was hanging off the back of the couch.

"Hello, where are you two going?"

"We're going to see his father, do try to keep up," Ty said.

"I'm coming with you, I know all about your methods and you two aren't about to rough up a District Judge and a Senator-Elect." She had Googled his dad after seeing him on telly. The man had a Wikipedia page for heaven's sake!

"You're not coming with us. It's not safe," Gabe refused.

"It's not safe for me here either, all alone without you to babysit me," Natalia retorted sarcastically.

"Um...that's where you're wrong. The rookie's outside. He'll be babysitting you, while we go deal with Papa Mercier." Ty said.

"Gabe." Natalia crossed her arms, fixing him with a determined gaze.

"I'm —" She could tell he was torn.

"Oh wow, you're actually considering it?"

"Shut up, Ty!" Gabe and Natalia both said at the same time.

"Aight, whatever I'm out. I'll be in my truck."

"Okay. Let's go."

"You serious? I was just chatting shit. I didn't think you'd consider it."

"Let's go before I change my mind. But Natalia, what I say goes. Don't argue with me."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Captain."

"I'm regretting this already."

_______________________

I always get roped into writing action type things when I'm trying to write character driven stories. But I think it's more interesting this way. What y'all think?
Thanks again, for all your comments and reassurance. I feel like I have the best readers on this app *thug tear*

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