Silent Scream by Maria Rachel Hooley, Stephen Moeller Read Free Book Online Page B

vastly different men, or that years separated the crimes.  It didn’t matter that in helping Maddie he still wouldn’t be able to save his sister. 
    As he pulled into the hospital parking lot, Gabriel wondered what in the hell he would say.  He couldn’t keep popping in without looking like a stalker or some weirdo who might frighten her.  That was the last thing he intended.  Shoving his keys into his pocket, he crossed the lot and headed inside.  As he passed through the automatic glass doors, he saw two floral delivery workers carrying arrangements toward the elevators.  A handful of guests milled around the lobby.  A couple sat next to a table, where a woman spoke into a cell.
    Sauntering past, Gabriel headed up to the third floor.  Once the elevator doors had slipped open, he stepped out and ran into a blond woman as she stepped toward the elevator.  “Excuse me,” he said in passing.
    “Gabriel?  Gabriel Martin?”  The woman turned to look at him.  As she stared at his face, she brushed the bangs from her eyes.
    “Yeah?” he said, squinting to get a closer look at this woman who seemed to know him.  
    “You don’t remember me?”  The woman stepped back off the elevator, and the doors closed behind her.  Her hand touched his shoulder softly.
    Gabriel scrutinized her features, uncomfortable with her complacent familiarity.  Friendly blue eyes peered at him, and a smile he’d seen a million times before greeted him.  Of course he remembered.  Before he’d even thought about it, he embraced her.
    “How are you, Tammy?”
    Leaning against him for just a moment, she rested her head against his chest and then pulled away.  “I’m doing well,” she said.  “I finally finished my practicum hours and am working as an LPC.  I just moved into a new apartment over at the Eastside complex.”
    “Really?  Do you like it?” Gabriel asked, warmed by her smile.
    Tammy nodded.  “Yeah.  Now if you had asked me that last weekend when I was moving all the furniture up three flights of stairs, I would’ve told you that you were crazy, but today I’m good.”  She looked him over from head to foot.  “And you?  What are you doing these days?”
    “I’m a firefighter over at Station 17, have been for a good ten years now.”  He marveled at how different she appeared these days than when she’d dated his brother, right before Jessie’s murder—right before life had changed drastically for both of them, and he’d started believing in Hell.   Her hair, although she’d pulled it away from her face, was a longer, darker blonde than he remembered.  “You look really good.”
    “Thanks,” she said and nodded.  “How’s Sam been?  We haven’t exactly spoken since....”
    “Since he told you he didn’t need some future shrink poking around in his brain?” Gabriel finished for her.
    Taking a deep breath, she nodded.  “Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.”  She looked down at the keys in her hands.  “I guess my directness  is a quality most people hate.”
    “It’s not the directness, Tammy,” he said, patting her softly on the shoulder.  “It’s the fact you don’t lie, and sometimes everybody needs to be lied to a little, even if we know it’s a lie.”
    She shoved her purse strap higher on her shoulder.  “So how is he?”
    “He’s a cop in Owens.  Still single.  He still mentions you from time to time.”
    “Both of you still trying to save the world?”  She looked directly into the depths of his blue eyes, searching.
    “We do what we can,” he replied, looking toward the elevator.
    “What are you doing here?”
    “Visiting an acquaintance,” he said.  His watch beeped, letting him know noon had arrived.  “You?”
    “Working—or trying to.” she said, shaking her head.  “Therapy doesn’t do much unless a person is willing to let you help.”  She rubbed the smooth end of one key with her forefinger.  “I thought of Sam today when I