Fallen  47

She glanced in Gabriel’s direction. He seemed to hang on every word the  detective uttered. What must he think of her now? Would he still act like a  judgmental jerk and be rude to her? God, she really, really hoped not. The very last  thing she wanted to deal with right now was rudeness. Meanness. She needed  comfort. She needed someone to hold her in his arms and tell her it was going to be  all right.
She needed Gabriel to do that. Despite the fact that she didn’t know him, she  needed that more than anything.
Because secretly, she believed she did know him. Very well.
Finally the detectives stood, as did she, and she walked them to the door.
Offered them each a soft thank-you and good-bye and then shut the door behind  her. Realized that Gabriel hadn’t moved from his spot where he stood in the living  room as if rooted to the floor.
“Your mother tried to kill you,” he said when she stopped just in front of him.
Jordan nodded but didn’t say anything. There was nothing to be said.
“She poisoned you?” He sounded incredulous.
“For almost five years,” she admitted, the words barely audible.
“Jesus.” He then did something so surprising, so unexpected, all the breath  rushed out of her in one fell swoop. He crushed her to him, his arms like steel bands  around her, one hand sliding down her back in a soothing gesture. “I…”
“Don’t say anything,” she interrupted, her voice muffled against his chest. His  warm, hard, well-muscled chest. “You don’t have to say anything. Just…hold me.”
He touched her shoulder blade, and she winced. Felt him press his fingers into  the bandage he’d placed there himself last night, and it took everything she had not  to cry out. “You need to clean your tattoo.”
“Will you do it for me?”
“Yeah.” He sounded reluctant and she wanted to smile.
She had a feeling if she asked, this man would do whatever she wanted.

48  Karen Erickson

* * *
“Tell me.” Gabe let the shop door slam behind him, the bell that normally  indicated a customer’s entry clanging violently. He strode across the room to where
Darla sat calmly looking through a magazine at a table. He yanked the chair across  from her out and fell onto it. “Tell me about Jordan.”
She glanced up at him with those dark, mysterious eyes. They claimed to  others they were brother and sister, though they weren’t by blood, but they  certainly looked enough alike. “Tell you what about Jordan?” Her voice was  deliberately nonchalant, which made him want to kick something.
“How are we connected? I know we are. I just don’t know why.”
He waited for Darla to start talking. He needed an explanation. No matter how  much he racked his brain, he couldn’t come up with anything. After listening to  everything those two cops had to say, the few bits of information she had to offer  once they left, he had a glimmer of recollection. Nothing solid, nothing real.
It was driving him crazy.
“You honestly don’t remember her?” Darla’s perfectly arched brows rose, her  lips pursed in a little pout.
Gabe practically growled. “Don’t gimme your bullshit, Darla. I’m not in the  mood for it. Tell me how I know her.”
“The reason you’re here is because of…her.”
He waited, impatience bubbling inside of him.
“You fell for her, Gabe.”
No shit, he’d fallen for her, and hard. It made no damn sense. She was  completely and totally not his type. At all. And yet he wanted her. The kiss last  night still lingered in his mind. Hell, his lips still tingled from touching hers.
“The scars on your back, the sense of incompleteness, the reason you can’t  remember anything of your childhood is because you never had one. You fell eight  years ago and turned into a full-grown man in your early twenties,” Darla went on.

Fallen  49

“What the fuck are you talking about?” His head spun at her simple yet  confusing explanation.
“I can’t believe you don’t remember. I remember. Ryder remembers,” Darla  murmured almost to herself. “Why don’t you?”
“Remember what?” He pounded his fist on the table, making Darla jump, and  she glared at him, the anger clear in her eyes.
“Don’t act like that with me. I can’t help it if you have no memory of what  happened to you.” She sighed once he mumbled a quick apology. “I don’t know many  details myself. Just what you told me after I found you.”
“Fill me in on what you know.” His brows furrowed. She found him? What the  hell did she mean by that?
“We all come here for a reason, Gabe. And usually that reason is a person we  fell in love with. Human emotions are powerful motivators.” She smiled faintly.
“I’ve never been in love with anyone in my life.” He spoke those words with  such cocksure authority he sounded arrogant even to his own ears.
And knew within an instant Darla would prove him wrong.
“Ah, but you have. You just don’t remember it. And you were in love with her.
Though she was young and not ready for you then when you saved her. Saved her  from a horror no one should have to suffer. You’d been assigned to her. It was your  job to watch over her, but it was her time. She was supposed to die.” Darla paused,  her voice going soft. “That’s why you did it, you know. Because you felt that you’d  failed her and you had to save her.”
“A sacrifice.” The word fit. He thought of the earlier explanation by the  detective. The story of her mother poisoning her to the point of almost killing her,  and how it had taken years for Jordan to recover.
Gabe closed his eyes and breathed deep. The pain of Jordan’s suffering filled  him, made his heart ache.

50  Karen Erickson

“Exactly. A sacrifice for her. You gave up everything. Your life was easy there.
Easier, at least. And now you’re here and stuck, but luckily enough I found you and  took you in. And then we found Ryder and took him in as well. Established a good  life with a profitable business. I can’t complain.”
“You’re talking in circles.” His head spun right along with them, and he opened  his eyes to glare at her.
“Because I don’t feel right in telling you everything. You need to figure this out  on your own, Gabriel. You need to reach deep within yourself to find her again. Find  yourself again. You’re not what you think you are.”
“I’m just a man.” He rubbed at his chest, against the spot where his heart was  supposed to be, and it felt hollow, cold. Earlier it had thumped to life, when he’d  held Jordan in his arms and offered her comfort. Nothing more and nothing less  than simple comfort.
She’d needed it, only from him.
“No, you’re not, brother,” Darla said, her voice soft, her gaze beseeching.
“You’re much, much more.”

Fallen  51

Chapter Six

Jordan lurked outside the front of Tattoo Voodoo and glanced in the window,  saw that Gabriel moved around in the back of the shop. Same place where he’d  worked on her. His strides were long, purposeful as he went about his task, yet he  also moved with an easy grace, so surprising to see in such a large man.
A little sigh of longing escaped her as she studied him. She hadn’t seen him  since yesterday when he left her apartment, surprisingly restrained. That simple  hug he’d given her had been anything but. She’d felt warm, protected, and soothed.
He’d taken her into the bathroom and checked her bandage, cleaned up her tattoo.
His touch was gentle, careful when he heard her hiss with pain.
She’d fallen asleep soon after he left and slept through the entire night. Hung  out at her apartment all morning in the hopes he would come by, but no such luck.
So she went and sought him out.
Her gaze roved hungrily over him as she watched him work. He wore a faded  black T-shirt and jeans that clung low to his hips. She knew this because he reached  up to shove something high on a shelf, and she caught a glimpse of his flat stomach,  revealed with the movement, his pants hanging low.
Yearning swam within her veins, made her stretch her shoulders, tilt her  head. She wanted him with a fierceness completely foreign to her, and she didn’t  understand. She’d dreamed of him for days. He’d invaded her thoughts until she felt  consumed by him. His face, his voice, his harsh words, his delicious kiss.
Gabriel. The man with the angel’s name. Quite ironic.