Chapter 74 - 73

Gabriel saunters into the hospital like he owns the place. He had been here often enough that he should be given his own office already. The women adore him and get excited whenever he comes around. They get flattered every time he looks their way, but he only looks around because it has always been his instinct to be aware of his surroundings.

He does a sweep of the lobby when his eyes landed on a lone figure sitting on one of the chairs. He doesn't know why but he was drawn to her, and as curiosity got the better of him he started walking towards her.

From afar, she looked like every other person in the hospital, devastated and dejected. As he got closer, he could see that she had gentle and delicate features, and her black shoulder-length hair, although a bit messy, had nicely framed her face.

She was not someone he would notice amongst a crowd or give a second notice to at a bar, but today something about her caught his attention, and he wanted to investigate what it was.

"Hey, miss! Is everything okay?" Gabriel asked as he stood beside her. Now he could see the tears streaming down her face, and she didn't even bother to wipe them down. She looked so pitiful.

Violet just sat there deep in her thoughts and misery, not noticing that someone was asking her a question.

"Did someone die?" he asked. People at the hospital died all the time, and it was not unlikely that her relative or loved one had suffered the same demise, that was why she was crying. 

At his question, Violet looked at him through her vision blurred with tears, she did not understand the question, she thought he was telling her to leave, so she stood up, wiped her face, and walked away. 

"Miss!" he exclaimed, "Miss… hello…," he repeated as he frowned. Nobody had ever ignored him before and thought he was bothered he did not follow her. He had other things to do, and following this woman was not one of them.

A few days later, Gabriel had just parked his car and was on his way to the entrance of the hospital when something caught his attention on the other side of the street. Several cars had passed by honking at something that was almost to the middle of the street, so he stopped and looked at what it was. 

A woman was walking on the busy intersection while the lights were still green. He saw the truck careening from afar, so he ran as fast as he could to try to get to the woman. His heart leaped into his chest as he pulled her to safety.

He thought they were goners as they tumbled on the ground. Gabe couldn't breathe, and he thought, they had been crushed by the truck, but they had gotten out of harm's way, and instead, the woman was lying on top of him. 

He chuckled, "Will you look at that, it's you again. I knew you were going to end up laying with me sooner or later." 

When Violet came to, she was on top of someone leering at her, so she scrambled away from him and got up hurriedly. It was the same guy from the hospital that tried to talk to her the other day.

The truck driver was cursing at everyone who came to watch but when he saw Gabe and Violet get up, he drove away, leaving everybody behind.

"What were you doing?" Gabe said to her angrily, "Are you out of your mind, crossing the road without looking? Do you have a death wish?" he badgered, "Did you even think about the truck driver and the other people on the street?"

The bills for the operation had filled her mind, and she was not aware that she had crossed the street when she did, "I...I…," the words couldn't come out of her mouth as the tears fell on both sides of her face.

Gabriel had towered over her, and the more he badgered her on the side of the street, the more scared she got, the more tears flowed.

"Shit!" Gabriel cursed as he saw her tears flowing.

"Sorry… I… I did not see…," she said in between sobs. Suddenly, he felt apologetic. Why was she apologizing when she was the one who almost got hurt. His eyes softened, and as he held her arm, she hissed.

"What?" he took his arm back and noticed there was blood on his hands, but when he looked at his suit, which was definitely ruined, he saw that he had no wounds, so that meant that the woman was injured, that was why she hissed.

"I'm sorry for screaming," he said frustratedly, as he checked her for other injuries, "Look at you, you have this big gash on your arm, and you're bleeding, why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't realize," she said as she raised her arm. 

"What is up with this girl?" he thought, "first she throws herself in traffic, and now she doesn't even know she was wounded. She's probably in shock. But what happened to her?"

"Come with me," he barked, and she could not even think to disobey him with the tone that he used. So she followed him all the way to the hospital.

She had a very deep gash on her arm from her elbow to her hand, where she hit the pavement before Gabe pulled her on top of him. And as the doctor cleaned her wound, she cried out in pain, clutching Gabriel's arm.

He never let random women hold or touch him, but in her state, he let Violet hold on to him until the doctor bandaged her arm, coaxing her whenever she whimpered in pain.

"Shh… it's going to be okay, just a little bit more," he said to her in a soft voice, something that came out of him naturally. 

After the bandage, the doctor told her that her wound was nothing serious. His only instructions were to avoid getting it wet and to drink the pain medication after several hours.

When Gabriel offered to send her home, she did not argue. A lot of things had been going through her mind, and after the incident earlier, she was not sure she could get herself home safely. 

"Thank you for saving me and… bringing me to the hospital," Violet said as they stopped in front of her house. 

Gabriel watched her retreating back until she was out of his sight. His hold on the steering wheel tightening as a memory from long ago invaded his thoughts. 

His tires squealed as he drove his car away from her.