This is the raw, barely edited version, so bear with me. I just wanted to get it out.
*******
Gabriel breathed her in. His sweet Abby.
She was wrapped up in a light blue terry robe, making him wonder what she had underneath. He'd find out soon enough because he was carrying her straight to their bed when they got home.
He looked up a second to figure out how close they were to the house. Next to their SUV was another one; a black one keeping almost abreast with them.
Memories of being run off the road surfaced. He froze.
It was a woman. She had red hair, but...he couldn't remember her face.
Red hair.
"Is there something wrong, Gabriel?" Abby asked.
He looked down at into her concerned eyes.
Mikayla? Could Micks have been capable?
"Gabriel?"
He shook his head. "I..." he looked at the SUV again, growing nervous. "Mike, how long has that Mercedes been following us?"
Mike looked through his side view mirror. "I hadn't noticed before."
Gabriel pulled Abby closer within the cradle f his arms. "Don't go to the house. Head in the opposite direction when we get to the next intersection."
Mike nodded.
"What's going on?" Abby asked wide-eyed, craning her neck around to look out the window too.
Gabriel placed a soft kiss on her ear. "We'll be fine, baby."
He pulled his phone out of his pocket, scrolled the contacts, and hit the number he was looking for.
The cell rang four times before a hesitant "hello?" sounded.
He took a deep breath, eyes on the vehicle next to them. Over the line, he heard the rustle of bed sheets.
That wasn't Mikayla next to them after all. Still didn't mean she probably hadn't tried to kill him months ago.
"I want to know what you said to Abby?" he said making sure he put plenty of steel in his tone.
Next to him, Abigail stiffened. Her eyes were wide and her teeth indenting her bottom lip.
"What did that little liar say?" Mikayla whisper shouted.
Was Daniel near her?
Next to him, his wife clutched his thigh. "Gabriel. I know it happened before we met. I'm not judging you," Abby said in a small voice.
Gabriel frowned at her. "Micks stalking me? Look, baby, I know she's your sister and all, but Micks was always after me. Not the other way around. I want to know what was said that made you act all weird."
"Nothing," Mikayla insisted over the phone. "I said nothing."
Gabriel turned to Abby who could clearly hear her sister since he'd put the call on speaker.
Abby rolled her eyes. "There's no point hiding this anymore, Mikaylaβ"
"Noβ"
"Mikayla said she was pregnant and that you were the father."
Gabriel almost dropped the phone. Up in the front seat, Mike started laughing, loud and hysterically.
Gabriel might have laughed too if he hadn't remembered clearly how much it sucked to think Abby didn't want him anymore. She'd grown aloof with him.
Mikayla was quiet. Abby was quiet, staring at him. Only Mike was still laughing
"So, Micks," Gabriel began outwardly calm, inwardly seething, "tell me again, exactly how was it that I got you pregnant?" He couldn't anymore. His fingers gripped his phone with near crushing force as he snarled, "because last I heard women actually need to have sex in order to get pregnant."
"We did have sex, you Neanderthal!"
Oh, hell-no. Gabriel sputtered in outrage.
"Hon, please, you're turning all red," Abby pleaded next to him.
Gabe just ignored her. He really just wanted to reach through the phone and throttle her lying bitch of a sister. "You gave me head. Twice. In Vegas. That's it," he snapped. "What exactly is your problem? Aren't you happily married now? Why the hell do you need to put crap lies in my wife's head and try to fuck up our relationship?"
"Gabriel," Abby pouted up at him, her hand smoothing over his chest as if trying to soothe him. He was beyond soothing at this point.
"That's bull shit," Mikayla sputtered. "You were mine first. You hear me?"
What the fuck? This chick was clearly insane.
Gabriel's lip lifted in disgust. "Get a life, Micks. Leave me and Abs out of your twisted delusions."
He stabbed the off button on his phone so hard it was a miracle the screen didn't shatter.
"Don't you dare bust a window by throwing that thing, dude," Mike warned scowling back at him through the rear view mirror.
"Please calm down, Gabriel," Abby said softly.
He took a deep breath, collecting himself again. In a calmer, if somewhat resentful voice, he said, "I can't believe you believed her."
Abby blinked in the darkened interior of the SUV. "I-I wasn't sure it was yours. I just knew there was a possibility, Gabriel."
It all boiled down to the fact that Abby had been a virgin when they met, but he hadn't. He did his best to put himself in her place and understand where she was coming from.
He shook his head. "No. There was absolutely no chance of that baby being mine, Abigail." He took her hand and looked into her eyes. "Baby, it's been easy for me in regards to you. I'm the only one you've had. There's nothing for you to admit to me, and even if there had been, I don't think I'd be interested in knowing. What matters is just us from the moment we met."
"I know that, Gabriel."
He shook his head, staring into her innocent, trusting eyes. "No baby. I never thought once about how you might feel in regards to my past."