Sylvain Reynard - Gabriel’s Inferno

“I think I’m a better judge of character than you are.” Tom was in Gabriel’s face, trying to physically intimidate him, but Gabriel met him toe to toe.

“Well, clearly you aren’t, Mr. Mitchell, or I wouldn’t have had to drag that animal out of your house before he raped your daughter in her own fucking bedroom.”

“Gentlemen, this is a hospital. Take it outside.” Richard was stern as he walked toward them.

Tom acknowledged his friend briefly then turned back to Gabriel.

“I’m glad Julia is okay. And if you rescued her, then I owe you. But I just got a phone call from a police officer telling me that you beat the shit out of Senator Talbot’s son. How do I know you didn’t start the whole thing? You’re the drug addict!”

“I’ll take a drug test.” Gabriel’s eyes flashed. “I have nothing to hide.

Instead of worrying about the senator’s son, don’t you think you should be a little more concerned about your daughter? Protecting Julianne was your job. Your job as a father. And you’ve been doing a lousy fucking job of it her whole life. Christ, Tom. How could you have sent her back to live with her mother when she was a little girl?”

Tom clenched his fists so hard he nearly burst the blood vessels in his hands. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, so you need to shut the hell up. You’ve got some nerve lecturing me about my daughter. You’re just a cokehead with a history of violence. I don’t want you anywhere near her, or I’ll have you arrested.”

“I don’t know what I’m talking about? Come on, Tom, get your head out of your ass! I’m talking about all those men traipsing in and out of the apartment in St. Louis, fucking your ex-wife in front of your little girl. And you did absolutely nothing. In fact, you finally rescue her before she becomes another statistic for child molestation, and then you send her back. Why?

Was she a delinquent nine-year-old? Was she too needy? Or were you too busy being volunteer fire chief!”

Tom looked at Gabriel with an expression of utter hatred. It took all of his self-control to keep from either punching Gabriel’s lights out or grabbing his hunting rifle from his truck and shooting him. But he wasn’t about to do either around the corner from a waiting room full of witnesses. Instead, he swore at Gabriel a few more times and stomped over to the Admissions desk to make arrangements to pay for Julia’s hospital bill.

By the time she returned on crutches, Tom had calmed himself. He stood by the door of the emergency room with his hands in his pockets, swimming in guilt.

Gabriel walked to Julia immediately, his eyebrows furrowing when he saw her bandaged ankle. “Are you all right?”

“It isn’t broken. Thank you, Gabriel. I don’t know what I would have…”

Julia swallowed her words as tears fell down her face for the first time that evening.

Gabriel put his arm around her shoulder and tenderly kissed her forehead.

Tom watched the exchange between his daughter and the violent but valiant cokehead and walked over to Richard. The two friends spoke for a minute before they shook hands.

“Jules? Do you want to come home? Richard says you’re welcome to stay at his place if you’d rather.” Tom shuffled his feet uncomfortably.

“I can’t go home.” Julia pulled away from Gabriel and hugged her father with one arm. He immediately teared up and whispered an apology in her ear before walking out of the hospital.

Richard bade the couple good-bye, leaving Julia to dry her tears.

Gabriel turned to her immediately. “We can pick up your prescrip-tions on the way back to Richard’s. I’m sure Rachel has clothes that you can borrow, or I can lend you something. Unless you’d rather go home and pack your suitcase.”

“I can’t go back there,” she whimpered, curling in on herself.

“You won’t have to.”

“What about him?”

“You don’t have to worry about him anymore. The police have already picked him up.”

Julia looked into his eyes and almost lost herself in the warmth and concern that radiated from them.

“I love you, Gabriel.”

At first he didn’t react to her statement, he simply stood there as if he hadn’t heard. Then his expression softened. He drew her into his side, crutches and all, and kissed her cheek, saying not a word.

After dinner, Scott had dropped by a friend’s house for a visit. When he arrived home, he was shocked to discover two police cruisers in the driveway. Officer Jamie Roberts was interviewing Julia in the living room, while Officer Ron Quinn was interviewing Gabriel in the dining room.

Richard had already been questioned.

“Will someone please explain why there are cops in the house? What did Gabriel do now?” Scott stood in the kitchen staring down his sister and their father.

Aaron walked to the refrigerator and pulled out a Samuel Adams. He opened it and handed it to Scott, who drank it gratefully. “Simon Talbot attacked Julia.”

Scott almost spat out his beer. “What? Is she okay?”

“He fucking bit her,” said Rachel. “And he almost broke her ankle.”

“Did he…” Scott’s voice was matter-of-fact, yet he couldn’t bring himself to say the words.

Rachel shook her head. “I asked her. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I did. And she said no.”

Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Scott slammed his beer down on the counter. “Well, where is he? Let’s go, Aaron. Someone needs to teach him a lesson.”

“Gabriel got to him first. Ron told me that they had to take Simon to the hospital to have his jaw wired shut. Gabriel smashed his face in,”

Aaron explained.

Scott’s eyebrows shot up. “The Professor? Why would he do that?”

Aaron and Rachel exchanged a knowing look.

“I’d still like to pay the asshole a visit.” Scott cracked the knuckles on his right hand. “Just to talk to him.”

Aaron shook his head. “Listen to yourself. You’re a prosecutor; he’s the son of a senator. You can’t tune the guy up. And besides, Gabriel finished it.

They’ll take him into custody when the doctors are done with him.”

“You still haven’t explained why Gabriel would get his pretty little hands dirty for Julia. He barely knows her.”

Rachel leaned over the kitchen island toward her brother. “They’re a couple.”

Scott blinked like a lazy stoplight. “Come again?”

“Just what I said. They’re — together.”

“Holy shit. What the hell is she doing with him?”

Before anyone could offer a hypothesis, Gabriel walked into the kitchen.

He looked at the worried faces of his family and frowned. “Where’s Julianne?”

“Still being interviewed.” Richard smiled at his oldest son and clapped a hand to his shoulder. “I’m very proud of you, for what you did for Julia.

I know we’re all grateful you arrived in time.”

Gabriel pressed his lips together and nodded uncomfortably.

“Clocking Simon Talbot will earn you a medal. But screwing around with Julia will earn you a beating. You aren’t good enough for her. Not by a long shot.” Scott put his beer down and cracked his knuckles again.

Gabriel’s eyes glinted coldly at his brother. “My personal life is none of your business.”

“It is now. What kind of professor screws his students? Don’t you get enough tail already?”

Rachel inhaled deeply and slowly moved toward the door, away from the impending titanic clash.

Gabriel’s fists clenched at his sides, and he took a step closer to his larger but younger brother. “Speak about Julianne that way again and you and I are going to have more than words.”

“All right, you guys, no more Cain and Abel bullshit. There are cops in our living room, and you’re scaring your sister.” Aaron stepped in between the seething men, placing a light hand on Scott’s chest.

“Julia is not the kind of girl that you screw around with and then dump. She’s the kind of girl you marry,” Scott said over Aaron’s shoulder.

“You think I don’t know that?” said Gabriel, with evident hostility.

“Don’t you think she’s had her quota of assholes?”

Richard held his hand up. “Scott, that’s enough.”

He looked at his father curiously.

“Gabriel rescued Julia from her attacker.” Richard nodded slightly.

Scott stared at his father as if he’d just told him that the earth was flat.

And everyone, except him, already knew it.

Rachel jumped in, eager to change the subject. “By the way, Gabriel, I didn’t know you knew Jamie Roberts. Did you go to high school with her?”

“Yes.”

“Were you friends?”

“Vaguely.”

All eyes swung to Gabriel, who turned on his heel and disappeared.

Richard waited a few minutes for the tension in the air to dissipate before turning his attention to his remaining son. “I’d like a word with you, please.” His voice was calm but firm.

The two men climbed the stairs to the second floor and walked into Richard’s study. He closed the door behind them.

“Have a seat.” He pointed to a chair in front of his desk. “I want to talk to you about your attitude toward your brother.”

Scott sat opposite his father and prepared himself for what was to come. Richard only brought his children into the study for the most serious of conversations.

He gestured to a reproduction of Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son, which was proudly displayed on one of the walls. “Do you remember the parable behind that painting?”

Scott nodded slowly. He was in trouble.

* * *

Julia sat bolt upright in bed, gasping for air.