Free Charity's Angel by Dallas Schulze Page A

word a stereo effect.
    "Move in with me," Gabe repeated. "It's the perfect solution."
    "I don't see how," Diane said, obviously removing him from her list of allies.
    "That's because you haven't seen my place," Gabe said without rancor.
    "Gabe, it's awfully nice of you to offer but you don't have to—"
    "I know I don't have to," he interrupted. "I want to."
    "But-"
    "Before you start making objections, let me explain why it would be so ideal."
    Charity subsided but her expression remained doubtful. Diane didn't even bother to look that positive. Gabe felt like an insurance salesman pitching a policy to a resistant client.
    "I've got a house in Pasadena—a good neighborhood. It's one story, all hardwood floors. There're three bedrooms and two baths so we wouldn't get in each other's way."
    "It sounds lovely but I don't—"
    "There's also a pool out back that you could use for physical therapy. You wouldn't have to come to the hospital all the time, and my next door neighbor is a doctor," he added as a final incentive.
    Diane's expression had gone from total rejection to interest. He could see that she liked the idea of having a doctor next door. Charity didn't look any more convinced than she had when he started.
    "It's really nice of you, Gabe," she said. "But there's no reason for you to disarrange your life. My apartment isn't as bad as Diane makes it sound. And if it really won't do, then I can find someplace else."
    "Why find someplace else when my place is so close to ideal?"
    His hands braced on the foot of her bed, he leaned forward. It was important to him to get her to agree to this. She might say that it wasn't his fault that she still couldn't walk, but he would never believe it. He'd fired the shot that had put her in this hospital bed. There was a fragment of his bullet still inside her.
    If he could help her, even in so small a way as giving her a place to stay, it might make it a little easier for him to sleep at night.
    "You know, Charity, he could be right," Diane said thoughtfully. Charity gave her sister a surprised look. Wasn't it Diane who'd urged her to be careful about getting involved with Gabe? Seeing Charity's expression, Diane shrugged defensively.
    "Well, it seems like a reasonable solution. There's no stairs to worry about and the pool would mean you could probably do more physical therapy than if you had to come into the hospital for it every time."
    "I could stay with Brian," Charity suggested desperately, feeling as if a gentle trap was closing around her.
    "Brian's place isn't big enough to swing a cat," Diane reminded her. "Besides, his hours are far from normal. He's as likely to be working at three in the morning as he is to be sleeping."
    "I don't want to be in your way," Charity said, giving Gabe a pleading look.
    "You wouldn't be," he assured her, knowing it wasn't what she wanted to hear. If she stayed with him, he could keep an eye on her, make sure she had everything she needed. Maybe in some small way, he could make up for putting her in here.
    Charity looked from Gabe to Diane, seeing her fate already decided in their eyes. Staring down at the outline of her lifeless legs, she wanted to scream and pound her fists against the unresponsive flesh, demand that the feeling come back so that she didn't have to depend on other people.
    She wanted to insist on going back to her apartment, her nice, safe little apartment where everything would be familiar and normal. Only nothing was going to be normal until she could walk again. If she went back to her apartment, Gabe and Diane were both going to worry about her—Brian, too, when he came home. They'd feel obligated to check on her, to make sure she had everything she needed.
    She sighed. Realistically she knew they were right. Walling herself up in her apartment wasn't going to make everything right again. And staying with Gabe would give him a chance to ease some of the guilt he shouldn't be feeling in the first place.
    "If you're