Chapter 7

                                    

                                          
It was eight am when I woke up from my deep sleep. Gabriello was sitting at the wooden desk wearing a black T-shirt and dark Jeans. He was drinking coffee from a paper cup whilst writing something down on a legal pad, whistling a tune that I had never heard before. 
                          
"What are you doing?" I asked, rubbing my eyes. 
                          
"Waiting for you" he twisted his body to face me. I quickly jump out of bed as he handed me a paper cup filled with coffee, "did you sleep well?"
                          
"Super," I said with no enthusiasm, taking the coffee from him and sipping it cautiously. 
                          
"Don't worry, it not poisoned" he smirked. 
                          
I'd be lying if the thought hadn't crossed my mind. 
                          
"Funny" I rolled my eyes. 
                          
"Well we better get going if you want to catch him," Gabe stands up. "His flight will be leaving shortly. 
                          
"What?" I furrowed my brows in confusion. 
                          
Why is my dad catching a flight?
                          
"Your dad is being transported to Iceland in twenty-five minutes" he explained, slipping his tanned arms into his leather jacket. 
                          
"How do you-" I started. 
                          
Gabe was always five steps ahead of me which unsettled me. I knew I needed to trust my instincts and they were telling me something wasn't right with Gabe. However, I found myself knowingly ignoring every fibre of my body telling me to part with him. It was as though Gabriello Larrunzario were a drug that I found myself addicted to. I ended up consumed by all things Gabe and it all happened so quickly. I was a goner from when our eyes met in his Grandfathers office. 
                          
"It doesn't matter" he interrupted, "we've got to leave now" he threw me my denim jacket and grabbed his suitcase and a new backpack that he bought the night before. 
                          
"Why are you helping me?" I asked, following him out the hotel room. 
                          
"What?" He cocked a brow while we quickly walked down the hallway. 
                          
"Why are you helping me?" I repeated when we entered the elevator, "I mean, I usually know things without them needing to be said, even if they're not incredibly obvious but I can't workout your motive here" 
                          
"I'm not a puzzle Taylor, you don't need to try to assemble all the pieces," he snapped, pressing the big bold 'G' at the bottom of the keypad in the elevator. 
                          
"But I need to know what you have to gain from all this" I blurted out. 
                          
"I told you," Gabe meets my gaze just as the elevator doors opened. "I can't watch my family hurt anyone else"
                          
Although his answers seemed genuine, I didn't buy it. Sure what he said may be part of it but I knew that it was not the full story. It couldn't be. 
                          
Once we checked out of the hotel, we jumped into a taxi cab and went to the airport where we'd hopefully meet my father. 
                          
"Okay so you want to protect me from your family" I said from the backseat of the taxi. "But why are you helping me find my father?"
                          
"Because its important to you," he looked over at me, "and if it helps you get answers than I'm all for it, as long as I can keep you safe in the process" 
                          
"You're not my bodyguard" I raised my brows. 
                          
"I never said I was" he shrugged, his voice low and calm. 
                          
"Than why are you acting like it?" I meet his tone. 
                          
"Again, I'm just trying to do the right thing" he sighed. 
                          
"By who?" I asked but he just looked away. "...You were raised just like me Gabe. To be an elite player in this game. Why would you try to help your opposition?" 
                          
At that moment he looked at me, raised his right brow while resting his forehead on his clapped hands whilst leaning forward, elbows sitting on his knees. This was the first time that he demonstrated his frustration with me. 
                          
"Look I don't expect you to believe me but I'm nothing like my family," he admitted with his sad brown eyes. "I was raised to tell right from wrong"
                          
I found that hard to believe. The Larrunzario's had always been more ruthless then us Ashton's, which is why Uncle Nate feared them so much. 
                          
"You still live in that house, Gabe. You're one of them, even if you don't want to believe it." I sighed, "and now I feel like an idiot for allowing myself to let you lead me straight into — what is mostly likely to be — a trap" 
                          
"There's no trap here, Taylor" he assured, "I was mostly raised by an associate of the family...she lived with us for years but left the family business a few years back to go solo...i don't know why she cared for me. I guess she missed her own children so much that she had to care for someone" 
                          
Suddenly the violent rain amplified. The raindrops hitting against the taxi cab's windows, resembling the  sound of sizzling hot dogs on a scorching barbeque flame. The windows began to fog, and the sounds of the rain grew louder by the second. 
                          
"She raised you"
                          
"It wasn't her job, she was an asset, but she cared for me far more than my own parent's ever did"
                          
I found his story hard to believe. 
                          
"If she was so great why was she working for your family?" I asked softly. 
                          
"She didn't exactly have a choice" Gabe admitted. 
                          
So this woman was forced to work for the Larrunzario's and eventually became their secret weapon. She didn't have a choice, perhaps neither does Gabe?
                          
"do you?" I raised a brow. 
                          
"...no" he shook his head, "my rights were taken away from me a long time ago"
                          
His words resonated with me deeply. I was never given a choice. Being in this business was what was expected of me. I never questioned it until that moment in the taxi cab. 
                          
"I guess I don't either" I admitted nervously, "have a choice...if you chose to leave, you can never return...I can't survive eternity without my family...hell I can't even last a week...no matter how shitty they treat me"
                          
"Alright they'd be seven dollars," the taxi driver told us as he parked at the kerb. 
                          
Gabriello pulled out the money from his wallet and handed it to the man in front of him. I immediately jumped out of the cab and walked down the side walk quickly. 
                          
Raindrops fell from the sky at a rapid speed. Looking ahead was a struggle, everywhere I looked was foggy. Gabe walked beside me. He grabbed my left hand and we began running full speed into the airport. When we looked up at the screens, it revealed that a storm was coming and as a result, all the flights were cancelled. My dad's flight was the last one to leave. 
                          
"I'm sorry" Gabe looked at me and sighed, placing his hand onto my shoulder. 
                          
My body flooded with a red hot flame that forced my jaw shut. I squeezed my fists in anguish. 
                          
"So close" I cried, "so fucking close"