Gabriel Read Online Free PDF

room—anywhere but at her and her too-perceptive gaze. Not that there was
     much in the room—or the condo for that matter—for him to observe. The apartment contained
     the bare essentials—a desk with a computer and laptop, couch, table, chairs, and bed.
     And Leah, Mal, Rafe, and Chay used the couch, table, and chairs more than he did.
    “Thanks.” She sighed, and the weary sound dragged his attention back to her. For the
     first time he noticed the tight pull of her full lips, the grim line of her jaw.
    “Hey.” He set his mug down on the low table in front of the couch and scooted closer.
     Though his mind screamed “hands off!” he placed a fingertip under her chin and turned
     her face toward him.
    Alarm struck him.
    Except for at his family’s funerals, he’d rarely seen Leah without a sparkle in her
     eyes. When her dream of being a police officer had fallen apart, he had been crawling
     out of the worst of his grief, and he hadn’t been there for her. Not that she’d allowed
     him to see her disappointment. Within a short amount of time, she’d moved on, turned
     to the private sector as an investigator. And like everything she did, she gave it
     all her passion and effort; she held nothing back. Yet this was the first time in
     years he’d glimpsed…sorrow…that wasn’t his own. The sadness, more than her words,
     set his warning bells clamoring.
    “What’s wrong?” he barked, worry sharpening his tone to a razor’s fine edge. “Talk
     to me.”
    She studied him for several long moments. Finally, she leaned forward, placed her
     mug on the table, and opened her bag. She straightened, and his gaze dipped to the
     long, white envelope resting on her lap. Curiosity roused, he waited. When she didn’t
     speak immediately, but fiddled with the piece of mail, sliding it back and forth between
     her fingers, his interest spiked even higher.
    “It’s like a bad case of déjà vu,” she finally murmured, lifting her head. She inhaled.
     Blew the breath out slowly. “We were just talking about him this morning and then
     this came to the office today.”
    He stiffened. With effort, he steadied his voice and blanked any hint of emotion from
     his face. A yawning, black pit filled his stomach that food couldn’t fill it.
    Nothing could .
    “Richard.” The name echoed in his head even as he said it aloud . “That envelope has something to do with Richard?”
    She nodded. “It’s weird. First the conversation with Dad and then with you. It’s like
     I conjured him up after such a long time.” She shook her head. “When he disappeared,
     I believed something had happened to him—something bad. But you said he had probably
     left Boston and started over somewhere else. That he was alive, fine.”
    Gabriel shrugged. “You were terrified, having nightmares. Besides, men pack up and
     leave their homes, family, and friends for any number of reasons. I should know—my
     father did it. Why wouldn’t Richard? He had the money to begin a new life.” He stated
     the explanation with a calm belying the storm shrieking in his head.
    She nodded, still fiddling with the envelope. “I latched onto your assurance then.
     But there always remained this small part of me that knew— just knew he was gone.”
    Gabriel’s heart shot to his throat. Lodged there. “What are you talking about?” he
     rasped.
    “This.” She held up the mail, and her name and address seemed to expand in size until
     the black letters covered the entire envelope. “This contained a letter and an old
     missing-person flyer. Richard’s flyer from twenty years ago.”
    Gabriel stared at her. Shock robbed him of speech, but questions, denials, and protests
     howled in his head in a cacophonous din. He had the sense of hovering on a ledge,
     waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop.
    “What did the note say?” he managed.
    She met his gaze again, and the sadness he’d detected earlier darkened her expression.
     But something