but her lips were too heavy, like the body that had abandoned her as she dropped to the floor.
Thunder and lightening cracked overhead as Chestnut splashed through the rising, ankle-deep flood water. There was more flooding than Gabrielle expected, which could mean trouble for anything or anyone below street level—like Bret.
She slowed her horse and rounded the corner of the small street leading to the back of the Theogenesis building.
Gabrielle dismounted and hitched him to an old post near the wall. She studied the street level windows of the building. A flickering light glimmered from the first cellar window near the rear. Gabrielle crept toward it, bent on her knee, and peered inside.
She gasped and jerked back. My God, how could they? Her first thought was to confront Caden and demand an explanation, but the rising water in the cellar demanded she make an immediate decision regardless of the consequences.
Frantically glancing around, she spotted a broken brick on the back stairs of the building across the alley. She darted across, grabbed the brick, and without a moment’s hesitation, smashed the window.
Gabrielle cleared the broken glass from the frame. She whispered his name. “Bret?” Only the rising wind answered with a howl behind her. She shrank away in unconscious, cold fear as the word “dead” moved across her trembling lips. She couldn’t see clearly in the murky shadows. “Bret?” She heard a muffled sound. Gabrielle prayed for strength and lowered herself over the edge into the cellar.
Blood raced through her chest as she stepped through the almost knee-high water toward the bed. Bret had been gagged and strapped to an old bed frame and the water was almost over the edge. He coughed as the water sloshed up against his face.
Bret looked at her as if staring back from some awful place of impenetrable solitude. He shook once, then twice, his legs twitching as though he was shivering from the damp cold.
She untied the red lace gag from his mouth. “Bret, are you all right?” Recognizing the scarf, she tossed it aside in the shallow water. That conniving, lying bitch! Gabrielle fumed. “Why did they do this to you? Where are the police?”
Bret raised his head off the bed. “Thank God, Gabrielle . . . I thought I was going to meet my maker.” He shook his head and coughed violently. “Please, I need my medicine . . . on the barrel.”
Gabrielle picked up the small, blue medicine vial and examined it. “I’m sorry, Bret. It’s empty.”
Bret’s eyes went wild with fear and he gasped out loud. He hung his head and clenched his jaw tight as though he was trying with all his strength to keep his gut-wrenching howl inside.
Gabrielle slapped her hand over his mouth and whispered. “Shhh. Keep quiet. Caden and the others could still be here. You have to be strong, Bret.” He relaxed his jaw and nodded. Gabrielle took her hand away.
Bret took a deep breath. “I’ll deal with Caden later but now we have to get somewhere dry and safe. Please, untie me. I’ll tell them I escaped after I turn myself in. Nobody will ever know you were here.”
Gabrielle glanced at the bolted cellar door. “There’s a storm coming our way. It’s bad out there and getting worse by the minute. The water keeps coming further and further into town.”
Bret closed his eyes and looked away. “You think I killed Timothy. I can see the disgust in your eyes.”
“If you can . . . it’s not for you.”
“I know what Caden wants and so do you. He could be waiting outside with a shotgun hoping I’ll find a way to escape. Is that how you found me? Did he tell you?”
Gabrielle stared at him in silence for a few moments. She had to believe that underneath those fearfully anxious bloodshot eyes, there still remained the strength of character and caring soul of the man she had loved.
There had to be because the man she had loved, still loved, would never have done such a terrible thing to even a deserving enemy, let alone an innocent friend.
Bret was ill, his judgment confused, no wonder he distrusted everyone he thought was a friend, even her, after being tied up like a sick animal and left to suffer.
Gabrielle drew a breath and made her decision. She was determined to help him get well again and had to believe that after everything they had meant to each other, he would have done the same for her.
She stepped to