Gabriel's Story by Roxas Winchester (best ereader for textbooks .TXT) 📕

going at each other’s throats in front of him.
Gabe’s eyes whipped to Brian with an icy coldness that could freeze the fiery pits of Hell itself. “Stay out of this Brian.” Gabe told him warningly. Brian raised his hands a little in surrender then backed away. “I carry a gun with me because the bastard who killed my parents tried to come after me. I don’t share my past because there’s nothing to share about Gabriel Belbrin, and I shoot people I call ‘friends’ because I have none, only people who I dislike less than others.”
Mike looked up at Gabe questioningly. “Yes you do, you just told us it.”
“No, I didn’t. I told you the story of Michael Smith, not Gabriel Belbrin. Michael Smith’s story was in the paper and on the news, but Gabriel Belbrin doesn’t have a story to tell because he’s been around for only a few years.”
Mike’s eyes grew even wider and his mouth opened and closed like a fish on land trying to breathe. “But…but…but why didn’t you tell us that in the first place when you told us about you history? Why’d you wait till now to tell us about this?”
Gabe’s eyes flashed with anger and fury at the naïve Mike. “Because I knew this would happen. You wouldn’t let me work on any cases because everyone would think I was broken somehow.”
Furious about everyone’s ignorance about why he had withheld crucial information from them, Gabe almost ran out of the office, his trench coat flying behind him as he stormed out of the building to his Mustang.
Marks came out of the building right after Gabe. Gabe whirled around to face him, gun in hand pointed for the kill shot that would bleed out painfully until he died within seconds. “Why are you here Marks? Are you here to finish me off like my parents and the person who you dressed as Amelia?”
Marks looked partly confused, and mostly amused at Gabe’s accusation. “What are you talking about?”
“I know you and Amelia had a partnership in those murders. Amelia couldn’t have dropped off the face of the earth without your help, and my parents wouldn’t have let a stranger into their home the night they were murdered. Which means Amelia was let in and must have passed you off as her boyfriend or something. After that you and her each hot one, the dog knew something was wrong so he came to protect them. I noticed there was too much blood for only two people and Blizzard had no pool of blood around him which meant you slashed his throat inside then moved him tight away.
Marks’ amusement was palpable. “So, you finally figured it out have you?” Marks reached for his gun then had it pointed at Gabe’s chest where his heart beat rapidly with adrenaline. “Have you figured out your story yet Gabriel, or do you need me to tell you a bedtime story?”
“I know what you’re going to do. You’re going to shoot me, but can you shoot before I do? If I kill you and I live, Amelia’s going to come after me for it.”
Brian and Mike rushed out of the building and stopped abruptly when they saw the stand off going on before them.
“You know, your surviving that night I sliced you open was almost worrisome for me, because you might have recognized me when we met again, but luck was with me that might and prevented you from seeing me. How did you know Amelia and I did it now and not earlier?”
A small smile crept its way to Gabe’s face. “You goofed. That woman wasn’t her because she would have put up a fight and been freed. That, and blood is almost impossible to get off of cracked and callused hands isn’t it? Your hands hold blood like a starving dog holds a bone. When I was reviewing the tapes I stumbled upon that one, odd that it had your home IP address on it right?”
“Got ‘im Gabe!” Brian shouted from the door to the building. Startling Marks with the sudden noise from behind, he squeezed the trigger on his gun. The bullet sped through the air and connected with Gabe’s chest.
Gabe stumbled backwards as his life slipped away uncontrollably. Using his car for support Gabe shot Marks in the back, hitting his shoulder with one of his last bullets before life slipped away completely and he fell on the hard parking lot blacktop, near death.
“No!” Mike ran forward to Gabe who was unconscious and dieing on the ground. “You can’t die, not now! Gabe, Gabriel!!” but Gabe had bled out almost instantly from the wound. Mike turned to Marks whose legs had given out from pain and was on the ground with one hand at his shoulder and the other with a death grip on his gun. “You killed him.” Mike declared sadly.
Marks looked at Mike who was hunched over Gabe’s dead form. “At least I finished what I started before I die.”
Brian watched Marks as he pointed his gun at his left temple and pulled the trigger before anyone could utter a protest. The shot’s echo died as Marks fell forward on the blacktop dead with his blood spreading around him, the puddle growing.
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Publication Date: 05-25-2011

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