Chapter 55

Ordinary.

Kate had called her ordinary and the word had stuck to Lori all through the lunch date. She was right, Lori was pretty ordinary. Not a penny to her name, she was broke, no notable family except for her miscreant adopted brother and no education except for a high school diploma.

She didn't deserve Gabriel.

Why would she?

She wasn't even really angry at Kate, the woman was right. She had just stated the facts. But Kate had continued her taunting and the lunch had gone downhill from there. Even the sushi left a bad taste in her mouth.

She just wanted to go back home and climb into the sheets and not be reminded of how inadequate she was.

Kate had gone on to state other things, many of which Lori had no idea about. The woman would just not stop talking and Lori was grateful when Emilia was the one who provided her an exit.

She had given Emilia a bottle and Emilia had burped all over her romper, she didn't usually do that, which was how Lori knew even the baby was trying to get her out of the tiring situation.

She used that as an excuse to leave. And Kate eagerly waved back to her, mentioning that they should plan the next lunch date soon.

Absolutely not.

Lori would rather pull all her hair out than sit with the woman again and endure another round of humiliation.

The encounter left her feeling tired and her mood sour and she kept quiet all through the ride back to the penthouse. Even when she got home she went straight to the bed, snuggling Emilia close.

It wasn't until later when she heard someone opening the door that she roused from her sleep.

She and Emilia had fallen asleep. Emilia on her chest and Lori on her back.

It was Gabriel who had come and he was home early. Earlier than expected. He looked good, with his button down shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows and his dark blue pants.

He kicked off his shoes quickly, his face lighting up as he saw Lori and the baby lying peacefully in bed.

He crawled into bed with them and pressed a kiss on Lori's forehead.

"Hey."

"How are you doing?"

He asked as he cradled Emilia's little head.

Lori smiled.

"Good. What are you doing back here so early? I thought you would have a lot to do..."

She said and he nodded.

"Yes. I do. I'll head out later in the night. I just dropped in to see you."

Lori smiled.

"That's so sweet..."

She said as she snuggled up to him.

"How was lunch with Kate?"

He asked and Lori felt her mood dampen again.

She has decided not to tell Gabriel. No need for him knowing and it was of no use either. He already had so much on his plate she didn't want to add to it.

"It was good."

Gabriel's eyes widened.

"Really? Did you guys get along?"

Lori faked a smile.

"We did. She was nice."

Gabriel heaved a sigh.

"That's good. I'm happy you guys got along. Kate was so eager to meet you..."

Lori nodded.

"She was..."

She felt a knot forming in her stomach. Why did Kate say all those things if she was so eager to meet her? It all just sounded very weird.

"I have something to tell you..."

Gabriel said in a serious tone and Lori sat up quietly.

"What?"

She asked and Gabriel shrugged.

He lifted the baby from Lori's chest and put her on his. Emilia seemed to snuggle in deeper into his chest as he held her.

Gabriel had been thinking of how best to tell her that Asher was somewhere rotting in a basement waiting for his death sentence. Draco had told him to wait a little longer, till they found Jared but they had been looking for Jared for a long time now and he was nowhere to be found.

It would take some time to get him and he didn’t want to keep it from Lori any longer.

"What is it Gabriel? You're scaring me..."

"Oh it's nothing to be scared of."

He reassured her and she sighed.

If it was nothing to be scared of why was he taking so long to tell her.

"My men... they found Asher. They took him a few days ago. I have him in my custody."

Lori went mute.

Asher?!

Gabriel continued, his eyes on hers as Lori stared at him blankly.

"I remember when you told me he would keep getting away with everything he did because he had connections with the cops. I was angry that he would still be running free and you would always be scared of him coming back to hurt you..."

"I wanted to eliminate that possibility. I wanted you to know that he'd never be able to come back and hurt you..."

Lori's eyes became blurry with tears.

“Gabriel…”

She breathed, her hands on her mouth to stop the sobs from spilling out completely.

Asher. Captured. Those two words, she had never thought she’d hear them in the same sentence.

Gabriel reached for his phone in his back pocket and showed Lori a video.

It was a short video, but it was a cctv footage that showed a dark dirty basement. Although the lighting was dim, Lori could still make out Asher’s features. Her heart was beating sporadically in her chest as she watched the videos, Gabriel noticed how fast it was beating and he put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down a bit.

Asher was seating in a chair in the middle of the dark empty room, his hands and legs tied, his head was tilted back, facing the ceiling as he let out tired grunts.

She couldn’t believe it.

It really was him.

Gabriel paused the video and put his phone on the nightstand.

“I wanted to give you a choice… to tell me what you want me to do to him…”

Lori shook her head.

She was still in denial. She couldn’t believe it, that the one man who had caused her pain all those months, locked her up, beat her, raped her, abused her was now sitting in some dark dirty basement awaiting punishment.

From her.

It was surreal.

It felt like something out of a movie. She had given up on the idea of revenge. She never even thought about it for too long because it sounded impossible… for someone as weak as she was.

She thought all she had to do was live, live and survive every day while running from the evils in her past.

But now… not anymore..

Lori turned to Gabriel.

“I want you to punish him..”

“Punish him for the things he did to me… every single one of them.”

Gabriel could hear the pain in her voice, he could even feel it… how hard she was hurting.

“Even if the punishment includes death?”

He asked as he turned to her, her eyes darkened, her expression grim, he had never seen her look like that before… something in her had shifted.

“Yes.”

She replied.

“And before you punish him… let him know…let him know that I nailed him to the cross.”



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“When are you going to go back?! Can’t stay in this cheap motel forever can you?!”

Kevin asked and Vara grunted. The motel was cheap, dirty and falling apart, the rats walked around their room with unabashed arrogance, poking and everything and anything that resembled food. It took Vara a while to get used to them.


She should leave the motel. It wasn’t befitting of a beta of her status. But she was delirious and desperate and when she was bleeding out, it was the nearest motel Kevin could find while they cleaned up and patched her wound up.

She could leave. If she wanted to she could, but she had more pressing matters to attend to.

In fact, a lot of pressing matters and they had all started right after she led the failed mission that ended up killing all of her team except her and Kevin who had only luckily escaped because he was the designated driver.

Her wound was not healing. Worse, she could not yet go back to Sabine until she felt worthy enough. She had failed. Woefully and miserable and lost good men too.

Sabine would he pissed. Rightfully so, she had her reservations about them rushing the mission.

And oh well, Gabriel
would have increased his security, so there was no possible way they would be able to try going over there again without facing opposition.

“You know… I’m not holding you down so you can also leave when you want.”

She retorted.

Kevin hesitated, pacing up and down the small room. He was confused. Conflicted. It was supposed to be a clean and easy job but it turned out to be a disaster.

“It’s not that easy! I lost all my teammates. All because of you!!”

Vara shrugged.

“I did tell you that it was a dangerous mission! We all knew the risks!”

“You’re so very lucky to have emerged entirely unscathed.”

Lucky. Oh he was, because she, she was still in pain and she didn’t know if it was because it was a wound from an alpha or because she truly was close to death but her wound was getting significantly worse. Although the blood had stopped, the skin around it had turned to a dark purple color.

Human pain medication had kept the pain away, at least for an hour or two at most.

She needed just another chance to redeem herself, because this time she had a better lead. One that they should have thought about earlier.

When asked about Lori’s family, Tony didn’t know much, but he did mention that Lori said she was adopted and had a difficult relationship with her family.

Tony then recalled a conversation that Gabriel had with his beta while he was driving him to work, talking about Lori’s supposed brother who he was trying to find.

That man, that man was Jared Wyatt.

Getting to know who Jared was was not as hard as she thought it would be… he had a criminal record; speeding tickets, possession of drugs, breaking and entering, physical assault but somehow he never managed to actually do time for any of them. He had been released on bail, given a ticket and given community service.

Getting a hold of him… well that was the new problem she had.

She needed even more help, from a very old but reliable friend.