Gabe had hoped that work would distract him from his concerns about Nadine, but no such luck. He found himself drifting when he should have been listening. He found his mind wandering to the fear that he’d seen in her eyes when he had argued with her about the text message he had supposedly sent to her. She had truly believed that he had messaged her to tell her the dinner had been postponed. That was when he had let go of his anger, but he hadn’t let go of the worry. Something was going on with her and she was keeping it from him.

Gabe understood how hard it was for her to trust. She had only ever had Jace and Vanessa to really lean on and even now those relationships were rocky. The adults in her life had let her down and she had grown up believing that she wasn’t worthy of love. He knew all this. He’d had a front row seat to her inner mind when she had sat in that chair and told him all about the way her parents had died. And the events leading up to it. And the fight where Louise had made it clear to her three children that they meant nothing to her. Except that had been her disease talking. Of course they didn’t understand that, not at that young age, but it had been reinforced when Louise had decided to kill both herself and her husband, leaving the children alone in a world that had no idea what they had lived through.

He also knew that Nadine’s breakdown over the summer had to do with her own fears of ending up like Louise. He had read the reports from the doctors at the facility where Nadine had been admitted. He had consulted with the head physician on her case. They had assured her that she wasn’t bipolar. None of her symptoms were characteristic of the disease, but she hadn’t really believed them. Or him. He could see that clearly now. She still thought she was heading down the same path as Louise. She thought that it was inevitable. And these latest episodes were only reinforcing her beliefs.

What Gabe didn’t know was what was actually happening. What was causing these blackouts and changes in behavior? He knew that she was feeling stressed out and worried over her relationship with Jace and he knew that the tour was scaring her, but were those things enough to cause her to act out in this way? And more importantly, what could he do to help her?

The phone on his desk rang and he picked it up distractedly, his mind still chasing Nadine around in his head.

“Dr. Rousso,” he answered.

“Dr. Rousso this is Detective Ramirez.”

“Detective,” Gabe said. “Are you calling to tell me you have found Jeanie?”

“Yes and no,” the detective replied. “We know that she is in the area, but we don’t know where.”

“Fucking hell,” Gabe swore softly under his breath.

“We would like you to come in and speak to us. Maybe you can help us determine where she might be hiding and what she might be up to.”

Gabe ran a hand through his hair, pulling on the strands in frustration. This was the absolute last thing he needed. He was too worried about Nadine to even begin to think about Jeanie and what she might be up to.

“Sure,” he said. “I have a few more patients this afternoon but I can come by after that. Will that suit you?”

“Yes,” the detective said, “whenever you get here is fine. In the meantime…” the detective faded out and Gabe sat forward. “Be careful. We believe she might have fixated on you again.”

“There’s no ‘again’ about it, detective,” Gabe said tiredly. “She never stopped fixating on me which you all would have known if you had listened to me when I warned you about letting her out of custody. The woman is a born actress and she is patient. She knew the only way to get out was to be the model prisoner and so that’s what she was. She probably even came across as soft-hearted and caring. No doubt she looked after other inmates who were bullied or marginalized in some way.”

The detective was quiet on the other end of the phone and Gabe wanted to swear again only this time louder and longer.

“That’s what she does. She lulls you into believing her act and then she springs her trap. I should know. She had me completely fooled right up until she stuck that needle in me.”

Still nothing from the detective. Gabe sighed. “I have another patient due. I will talk to you later.”

He hung up the phone and tilted his head back to the ceiling.

“Fuck,” he breathed as he closed his eyes and tried to find his calm.

He knew it was too much to wish for to have Jeanie flee the country. He knew she was not finished with messing with him or his life. He didn’t think she ever would be. The parole board had been so taken in by her and her act. He knew she had swayed the guards and that she had made people doubt that she could have possibly done any of the things she had been accused of. But Gabe knew better. He had seen the other side of her, the side she kept hidden from everyone else. He had been her god damned victim and no one had listened to a word he’d said. No one had understood just how dangerous she was and now she was out there and he had no doubt whatsoever that she was hunting him. And he had no idea what she planned to do when she finally got a hold of him.

Gabe took a deep breath and knocked on his sister’s door. They hadn’t yet discussed what had happened last night and now he would have to tell her about Jeanie. This was not going to go well.

“Come in,” she said and Gabe opened the door and stepped into her office, closing it behind him.

“Gabriel,” she said and he detected a note of hurt in her voice along with the not-so-restrained anger.

“Sister mine,” he said as he crossed the room and sat opposite her.

“Oh no you don’t,” she said giving him a narrow-eyed gaze. “You can’t try and charm me with your cute nicknames. I’m pissed Gabe. Well and truly pissed.”

“I know,” he said with a sigh, “and I’m sorry for what it’s worth.”

She crossed her arms and harrumphed, turning her head so she didn’t have to look at him. Amaya did pissed off like nobody’s business.

“Not that I’m making excuses, but there were extenuating circumstances.”

She raised an eyebrow but didn’t turn to look at him.

“I’m in love with her,” he said. There was no pleading or persuasion in his tone. He stated the fact just as it was without embellishment.

“Oh Gabe,” she said, turning back to him, her face draw down. “You’re in love with her?”

He shrugged. “I am and she loves me too.”

Amaya shook her head slowly. “No,” she said, “I won’t have it. Anyone, Gabe. Anyone but her.”

He felt the protectiveness and possessiveness rise up in him. Unfamiliar, foreign feelings but nonetheless strong. “What is it exactly that you have against her? You haven’t even met her.”

“I don’t need to meet her to know that she is bad for you. She has you wrapped around her finger. She is manipulating you just like Jeanie did. You have a soft heart Gabe and you gravitate to women who need rescuing. That’s not love, Gabe.”

“How would you know?” he spat at her. “You won’t let your guard down long enough to even experience the feeling of connecting with someone. How would you know what love is and what it isn’t?”

A flash of hurt crossed her face, but she controlled it quickly. “I know what love is,” she said softly.

Gabe blew out a breath and reined his temper in. “That’s not what I came in here to discuss,” he said. “I need to go down to the police station to talk to Detective Ramirez about Jeanie.”

“They’ve found her?”

“Not exactly. They know she is in town but they don’t know where.”

Amaya deflated, slumping back against her chair. “She’s here.”

Gabe nodded.

“She wants you.”

Gabe nodded again.

Amaya turned panic stricken eyes on him. “You need to leave,” she said. “You need to get out, now, before she does something.”

“No, Amaya—”

“Gabe! Jeanie almost killed you last time. I refuse to let her get anywhere near you again. You need to get out of town. Go to California or better yet, go to Canada.”

Gabe took a deep breath and tried to project calm towards his sister. “It’s too late for that and you know it. She has probably been here for months. She would already have found me and is probably spying on me. Whatever her plan is, it is probably already in motion. Leaving now won’t stop it. She will just follow me and then I won’t have the protection of the police or the support of my network.”

“But she doesn’t have you yet,” Amaya said. “Until she actually catches you, you can still run.”

“I am sick and tired of having this hang over my head waiting for the day that it drops. I want to deal with this head on once and for all. I can’t keep living my life this way. I refuse to run.”

“But she could hurt you,” Amaya said quietly. “I can’t let that happen.”

Gabe leant across the desk that separated them and grasped Amaya’s hand. “It’ll be okay, sister mine,” he said. “It will be okay.”

It was late by the time Gabe left the police station. As he thought, he wasn’t able to add anything to what Detective Ramirez already knew and speaking to the detective had pretty much been a waste of time. He had told them all the same things when they arrested Jeanie the first time and then he told them again when she was facing her parole hearing. The problem was that she didn’t look like someone capable of violence. She looked like the girl-next-door, someone you could trust.

Gabe had trusted her. He had believed all her lies. It was the one thing he couldn’t let himself off the hook over. He was supposed to be a master of reading other people, that’s what his job was all about. He was supposed to know when someone was lying to him or concealing the truth. But she had fooled him completely and it had taken him months to trust himself and his gut instincts again. It was a shitty day when he couldn’t even trust himself and that was how he felt after everything had gone down with Jeanie.

She had come to him because she was spiraling in cycle of anxiety and depression - or that’s what she told him. Her story had been convincing. A close friend of hers had died, cancer. She had helped nurse her friend, taking over her palliative care when she wanted to leave hospital so she could die at home. She had been there when her friend had died. Had held her in her arms as she breathed her last breath. Her grief had been palpable, which made it even more devastating to find out that none of it was true. She had made the whole thing up just so she could have an excuse to get close to him.

That had come out in her trial and yet still people had a hard time believing what she was capable of. It pissed him off, but what pissed him off more was that he couldn’t blame them. When Jeanie assumed a role, she assumed it so completely that even she believed her own bullshit. It was what made her so fucking dangerous. She was delusional. There was no reasoning with someone if they believed what they were doing/saying/behaving was the truth.

She had called him in the middle of the night. She had been crying and was threatening to kill herself. He had believed her. He had swallowed every word out of her mouth hook, line, and sinker. He had rushed to her to try and save her, to talk her out of taking her own life. He had found her in her apartment holding a syringe of something that he couldn’t identify. She was a wreck. She had been crying and her mascara had run down her face, giving her the look of someone at the very end of their tether. He had tried to talk to her and at first she hadn’t been responsive. He remembered the feeling of hopelessness and helplessness he felt when he thought he had failed her. Then she had shifted and he thought she wanted his comfort, that maybe his words had gotten through to her. Only it had been an elaborate trap and as he opened his arms to hug her, she injected him with what he found out later was a date rape drug.

Everything she had told him had been a lie and an attempt to get close to him. How he had come across her radar he didn’t think he would ever know, but he had and she had been single-minded in her pursuit of him. He had been blind to it. He’d had no idea that every word out of her mouth had been false. She had so convinced him that when he woke up in hospital he still pleaded her case. That was until he found out the truth of what had been going on. Amaya had been the one to find him. They had a policy to let someone else know where they were going if they ever had a patient who was spiraling like he had thought Jeanie was. Before he had gone to her, he had called Amaya and told her what he was doing and where he would be. When he hadn’t come home or called in, she had alerted the police. The police had caught up with Jeanie as she was trying to drive his unconscious ass out of the state.

If they hadn’t found them when they had, Gabe would have died. The drug she had given him was strong and she had given him too much, and he still had no idea what she had planned to do with him. The police had never found out just what her destination was. She told them she had no plan but he didn’t believe her. She had planned every detail of their every meeting. There was no way she didn’t have a place prepared and an airtight plan in place once she had taken him to wherever they had been headed. The police believed her and not him.

She pleaded temporary insanity. She told the court, with tears streaming down her face, that she had been planning on killing herself that night but when Gabe had come to her rescue she decided to kidnap him instead. She told them it was the desperate actions of a desperate woman. She told them that Gabe had taken such good care of her in her therapy and then coming to her when he thought she was in danger that she had fallen in love with him. She spun a story about a desperate young woman who had never had anyone she could rely on until he had come into her life. She told them she hadn’t really understood what she was doing only that she was desperate enough to do anything she could to keep him in her life.

It had all been a crock of shit.

The jury had believed her. Every. Single. Fucking. Word.

She had been charged and tried and sentenced to a low-security prison that was little more than a hospital. And there she had managed to hoodwink everyone again. They all thought she was just a misunderstood woman with a broken heart. She was a whole lot more than that and a whole lot more dangerous.

Gabe came out of his musings and looked up to find himself outside Nadine’s coffee shop. He couldn’t remember walking there, but there he was and he really could do with seeing Nadine and holding her in his arms. She soothed something in him and with the way he was feeling right now, he could do with some soothing.

He walked through the door and looked around. The place was practically empty and they looked to be closing up. The tables were empty and only two waitresses were left and they didn’t look happy to have a last minute customer. He approached the counter thinking that if Nadine wasn’t here then maybe he could talk to her friend Mandy.

“We’re closing,” the waitress said as he stopped in front of her.

“I can see that,” he said, trying a smile to see if she would lose the scowl. “I was just wondering if Mandy was working tonight.”

“Who?”

“Mandy,” he repeated.

The girl looked to the other waitress who shrugged and then went back to her mopping.

“I don’t know anyone called Mandy.”

“There’s not a waitress here named Mandy?” he asked, puzzled.

The girl shook her head.

“Are you sure?” Gabe asked and was rewarded with an eye roll. “My mistake,” he said with another smile, “it must be another cafe.”

He turned and walked out a little niggle of worry burrowing in his mind.