Gabrielle Carrington

Thirty-three

Fallon and I walked into the room that Jeff was recovering in. Monica and Kaitlyn were stood either side of him. I hugged Kaitlyn and Fallon hugged Monica.

"Hey." Monica and Kaitlyn said.

"Hey." We said.

"How's he doing?" Fallon asked.

"Who knows?" Kaitlyn asked.

"We can't get a straight answer out of anyone. Where the hell is Culhane and Austin?" Monica asked.

"Well, just so you know, he feels awful." Fallon said.

"Of course he does. This is all his fault. My brother is still unconscious, and from what I hear, Culhane and Austin barely have a scratch." Monica said.

"Hold up how's Austin involved in this?" I asked.

"Did he not tell you?" Kaitlyn asked.

"Tell me what?" I asked.

"Austin has as much a part to play in this as Culhane." Monica said. "Have you seriously not spoken to him?"

"I haven't seen him. I dumped him because he wouldn't tell me why he was sneaking off and Culhane made out like he didn't have a clue." I said.

"I'm not going to defend him, but, I mean, I don't think he'd crash his car on purpose." Fallon said.

"Right. Because he always tells the truth." Monica said.

"And what about you? You knew all about his secret
life of crime and you didn't say anything to me." Fallon said.

"Culhane was supposed to tell you everything about Ada and Austin with you. I'm not the one you can't trust."Monica said.

"Someone is seriously gonna have to explain this to me." I said.

"You're coming with me and we're finding out." Fallon said. We walked out to Fallon and Culhane's room to see Austin and Culhane sat on the end of the bed.

"Fallon, I've told you a hundred times now. I had no choice. Everything that I did was..." Fallon cut Culhane off.

"To protect me. Yes, I know." Fallon said sarcastically.

"It was. I did what I had to do to get that blackmail back from Ada. The less you knew, the better." Culhane said.

"So you just lied to my face. This face. This face that you could still be lying to now." Fallon said.

"Uh, Fallon, I didn't start any of this. If it wasn't for your crazy escort plan that got Max Van Kirk killed,
none of this would've happened." Culhane said.

"And where do you come into all this?" I asked Austin. "Because I wasn't a part of Fallon's escort plan." I said.

"I dragged Austin into this and I would never of done it if I knew it was gonna damage your relationship." Culhane said.

"And that's it? That's everything?" Fallon asked both the boys.

"Yes. I promise you, and your perfect face, that's the whole truth. But we still have that Nico problem. It's the Van Kirk Industries guy that was at the drug deal. The FBI has him, and he can ID us. If he knows our names, we're done." Culhane said.

"If he knows your names and even then, he might not do anything." Fallon said.

"He has nothing left to lose. They probably have him
holed up somewhere, negotiating a plea deal right now." Austin said.

"You are lucky I'm engaged to your brother or I would kill you but I'll take care of it." Fallon said.

"Absolutely not." Culhane said.