Stealing Their Forever

by Lonnie Doris

  Sean begins pouring the gasoline around the outside of the barn. “Helena, the rain is going to cause us a problem here.”

  “It will stop eventually.”

  “The ground is still damp because of it,” he argues.

  “Drench the place, Sean. I don’t care if it is a slow burn. That means they suffer longer.”

  When Sean finishes, we head to the farmhouse to wait for the barn to catch fire.

  Thirteen

  “This is taking forever,” I complain.

  “I tried to tell you that the rain made the barn damp, even on the inside. It’s not going to ignite like you want it to. But it’s trying. You can see the smoke from here.”

  “I want them dead,” I whine. “Turn that stupid shit off.” I can’t stand the sound coming out of that small old-style television. The rain is causing it to be nothing but static. “Go make sure the barn is still burning. That fucking rain has messed up all my plans. I don’t want it to stop burning before it gets to the good parts.”

  Sean stands and steps out of the room. “You’re a twisted bitch, cousin.”

  “Who cares? I paid you well for helping me. Now go do as I said. It shouldn’t take too long before the thing starts falling. When it does, call me so I can come watch.”

  Sean stomps his way through the house, and I began thinking about what Plan B would be if the damn thing doesn’t go up in flames. I leave the kitchen and use the small bathroom in the hallway.

  The rain has washed away my makeup, so now my birthmark is exposed. As I stand there looking at my soaked reflection in the mirror, I hear a loud scraping sound coming from the living room area, along with footsteps.

  Sean is done that quickly?

  “Sean?” I call out. “Are you back already?”

  I enter the room just as that bitch Gabriella is trying to exit out the back door.

  “You!” I cry out in surprise and rage. Fuck, this bitch is nothing but trouble. I should have had Sean pop her earlier. “I’ve had enough of you.”

  “Same here, bitch.” Gabriella turns and glares at me.

  I reach around and pull the gun from the back of my waistband and point it directly at her face, grinning when she pales.

  “Fuck,” she whispers.

  I’ve really had enough of this bitch getting in my way. If she would have just kept her nose out of my business to begin with, she would be safe with her rocker hottie right now. But no, she had to go and try to play hero, and now I have one more person to deal with before Shane and I can finally be together.

  “I’m going to end you once and for all, Moreitti,” I promise as I step toward her with my gun still pointed at her head.

  “It’s Bryant now, bitch.” She turns and starts running.

  After a pause, I take off after her. Several times, I have to regain my footing because the ground is wet. I see Gabriella with a phone to her ear.

  “Damn it, she’s going to ruin everything again,” I whine.

  Fuck, Sean should have thrown out her phone and not brought it here. They have probably been tracking it all along. Fuck! I take off running faster. I have to stop her.

  Even with the distance I am from her, I can hear Shane asking about Harper. He’s fucking asking about Harper? No! He is supposed to love me. He does love me. My rage burns hotter than the flames now overtaking the barn in the distance. No way am I going to lose it all.

  I stop running, point the gun at Gabriella, and pull the trigger. I watch with pleasure as she falls on her face, but she quickly jumps to her feet and takes off running into the surrounding woods.

  For a brief moment, I begin to question myself and Shane. Did he ever love me? Is this all in my head?

  I shake myself out of it.

  No, Shane loves me. Emmie made him love that simpleton. Harper manipulated him into believing he loved her. He didn’t want to love her. He loves me.

  “He loves me. He loves me. He. Loves. Me,” I chant over and over again.

  I’ve got to catch Gabriella before Emmie and her gang of suits show up and rescue them all. I got sloppy this time. I didn’t think about cell phones being tracked. I sure as hell didn’t think this little bitch would get out of a locked stall in the rickety old barn.

  I take off running after her. She can’t get far; she’s been shot in the leg, but I have no idea which direction she went.

  Then I see him.

  The rock hottie who is married to Gabriella.

  Shit, they’re here.

  He doesn’t see me sneaking up behind him, and then I hear her.

  “Liam!” she screams, alerting him—and me—to her whereabouts. I change direction and run toward her, but so does Liam.

  I get to her first. But he isn’t far behind me, and he throws himself over her body to shield her.

  “Don’t do this,” Liam pleads with me. “She’s done nothing to you. Let her go and take me. I’ll do whatever you want.”

  I can’t help but think how sweet and pathetic it is at the same time that this hottie rocker is willing to give up his life for her. It’s only going to get him killed right along with her.

  “She’s done nothing but get in my way. Over and over again. She refuses to die!” I blow out a frustrated sigh. “She had to save the little brat, and even though I shot her twice in the chest, she just wouldn’t die. I can’t let her go now. She knows who I am and will tell Shane.”

  Liam shakes his head at me. “She won’t. Shane won’t know. Just let her go. Please. You can shoot me, I don’t care. Let me take her place,” he continues to plead, his deep voice cracking with emotion.

  “Sorry, rocker boy. I can’t do that. You’re Shane’s friend, and he won’t like it very much if he has to bury his friends.” I sigh and crouch down over them. “Besides, I kind of like you.”

  “Touch him and I’ll gut you,” Gabriella snaps at me.

  “Ballsy, aren’t you?” I laugh. She’s got grit. If she’d minded her own damn business, we could have even been friends. Having double dates together with our rockers. Hanging out every now and then and loving our men. But no, this bitch had to go and fuck everything up.

  “I got bigger ones than you, cunt-face.”

  “I can actually believe that. Definitely bigger ones than Reginald, that’s for sure.” My face twists in disgust at the thought of him touching me. “My husband never really had enough balls to satisfy me. Too bad you have to die, Gabriella. I might have liked you in another life.”

  “I can do without friends like you, psycho,” Gabriella spits out. “Shane is going to kill you when he finds Harper. Just wait. I wish I could see your face when he ends you.”

  “Shut up, Brie,” Liam pleads. “She’s going to kill you.”

  “Nah,” Gabriella assures him, which stuns me. “How is she going to do that when Emmie’s about to beat her ass?”

  What?

  A gasp leaves me as I stand, looking around. I glance behind me and then to my right. Finally, I hear her charge at me. I hit the mud, my head bouncing off the ground and thudding so loudly, it makes my ears ring. The force of the fall causes the gun to slip out of my hand, and it slides across the damp grass.

  Emmie’s hand slams into my face, and I can taste blood from my now-split lip. I can’t get out from under her. She’s raging harder than I can ever remember doing myself. She continues an unrelenting assault on me. She punches me again, and I hear my nose break but don’t immediately feel the pain of it. She punches my face over and over. I’m useless to stop her.

  Emmie twists us so I’m beneath her, before grabbing my head and beginning to sling it like a yo-yo. I can feel my hair ripping out at the roots, but the adrenaline keeps me from feeling the agony. My scream isn’t from the pain but my anger, and I start to fight back, scratching her arms and her face with my nails.

  I become disoriented, but I know I need to get my hands on my gun. It’s the only thing that can save my life. And I can finally end Emmie. After all the years of misery this stupi
d bitch has caused me, I finally get to put a bullet in her.

  “Emmie!” Gabriella yells. She must have seen that I have the gun in my hand. I press the gun into Emmie’s stomach.

  But Emmie seems to grow even stronger, and we fight for the gun, both of us trying to keep a hold of it. Emmie rolls me, attempting to get control of the gun. She hits her head, but all the while, she’s still holding the gun, her finger on the trigger.

  This is it.

  All I ever wanted was for Shane to love me. And now, the woman who got in our way is going to end my life.

  For a flash of a moment, I feel remorse.

  I’m sorry, Reginald, for all the pain I have caused you. You deserved someone who could love you far better than I ever did.

  I’m sorry, Shane.

  I love you.

  With Shane filling my mind and heart, I hear Emmie’s manic laugh, and my world goes dark.

  Epilogue

  Rex

  I stand there looking out the window of my office. It is finally over; I am a free man. Free man in the unmarried way. It definitely hasn’t been an easy process. I had to run announcements in a lot of newspapers that went unanswered. I had to swear under oath that I had no idea of her whereabouts, and then I had to wait. And wait.

  I really had no idea where Helena was. Technically not a lie. I had an idea of what happened to her, but not where she was. I married a psychopath. I was just a means to an end for her. She had set her sights on Shane Stevenson from Demon’s Wings, and when she failed, she used me as her backup plan. I didn’t know it at the time. I honestly thought we fell in love. On my end, I fell in love with her, but she didn’t feel the same.

  I had felt sick at Harper’s baby shower, listening to every detail unfold. I really didn’t know the woman I was married to. She had been tormenting Harper right under my nose. The days she would disappear, saying she just needed some alone time, she was destroying tour buses, stabbing animals, trying to kidnap a child, and shooting Gabriella Moreitti, now Bryant. Then she came home like she’d had an uneventful weekend at the spa.

  It was a couple days after the baby shower that Shane and Emmie came to see me at Rock America.

  “Rex, we don’t have to worry about you, right?” Emmie asked.

  “I don’t know anything, and I don’t want to know anything, Emmie,” I responded to her, unable to wrap my mind around the fact that this had happened to me. “I still can’t believe she was the stalker tormenting Demon’s Wings—”

  “Well, believe it, Rex,” Shane interrupted. “That bitch was deranged.”

  “I know. I guess the part I can’t believe is that she did all of those things and I had no idea about any of it.” I shrugged. “But you have nothing to worry about. The police think she is on the run with Sean.”

  “I’m sorry, Rex. You didn’t deserve to be dragged into any of this,” Emmie assured me with a pat on my back.

  “I found my press badge from the night I was supposed to interview Nik and Jesse,” I said as I pulled it out of the top drawer of my desk. “She must have swiped it from me the night we spent together. I’m going to presume she kept it on her when she snuck into the secure areas to destroy your bus.” I looked to Shane.

  “I need to know my wife is safe now.” Shane stood up from the chair he was sitting in.

  I stood too. “I adore Harper. She is a great editor and an asset to this magazine. I’m glad this nightmare is over for her and all of you.”

  “We’re all on the same page, then,” Emmie chimed in.

  I reached out my hand to Shane, and he took it.

  “My wife is on the run and hiding out. That’s enough for me,” I said, shaking Shane’s hand.

  Shane and Emmie turned and walked out of my office, and we agreed never to speak of this again.

  And now, here I stand with my divorce papers in hand. Free to live my life. I can put my past with Helena behind me. I went through the grieving process. Grieving the loss of the love I felt for her, not the loss of her. I had to work through the feelings one by one. If I hadn’t, the hate would have consumed me. These divorce papers are the final piece to put my life back together.

  Even though I knew Helena was never coming back, a part of me felt like I was cheating on her when I met Velinda Tilley, who had been hired to manage the HR department, and I experienced an immediate attraction. Velinda was the complete opposite of Helena in both looks and attitude.

  The more time we spend together, the more attracted I become. At first, we would have lunch together, getting to know each other as friends. Then we started flirting. Now, I am free to take her out on a real date, and tonight is the night I’m making that happen.

  I turn around and walk to my desk, placing my divorce papers in my bottom drawer. Then I grab my phone and send Velinda a text.

  Me: Do you have lunch plans today?

  I stare at the phone, waiting for her reply. Sometimes she replies right away, and other times it takes a little while. I feel like a teenager again, waiting for my crush to write me back. I’m excited to see where this relationship can go. If I’m honest with myself, I checked out of my marriage long before I found out what was actually going on.

  I don’t want Velinda to be a rebound; that’s why I stayed true to my vows and didn’t cross any lines. I needed all of my baggage packed up tight before I moved forward. That’s the only scenario I felt was fair to me and to Velinda. We’ve discussed Helena, and she knows exactly what the rest of the world knows. Helena stalked Shane and his family and then went on the run and is hiding out, missing, whichever.

  I’m deep in thought when I hear a tap on my office door, bringing me back to the present.

  “Come in.”

  The door opens and in walks Velinda. She looks beautiful in her gray pencil skirt and lavender top. Her strawberry-blond hair is pulled back in a low bun with a few ringlets curling around her face.

  “Hey there,” I say, moving around my desk to meet her as she walks into my office, shutting the door behind her.

  “I was on this floor when I got your text, so I figured I would come see you.”

  “I’m glad you did,” I murmur, walking closer to her.

  “I don’t have lunch plans.” She smiles at me. Her smile is gorgeous, and her blue eyes sparkle

  “You do now,” I respond. “And if you’re not busy tonight, you have dinner plans too.”

  “It’s final!” she exclaims and throws her arms around my neck. I wrap my arms around her waist and hold her close to me. She smells exquisite. She’s told me before she uses an Egyptian oil instead of any type of perfume. Her scent is driving me mad and making my dick swell with excitement. I want to eat her up, tasting every inch of her skin.

  “Yes, it’s final. I’m a free man.”

  For now, I think to myself.

  Two years later

  “I can’t. I can’t do this!” Velinda screams as she crushes my hand in hers.

  “Precious, you can do this. You can do anything you put your mind to,” I soothe.

  “Okay, Mrs. Brannen, one more big push and your little girl will be here, and you can rest,” Dr. Moyer tells us.

  Velinda bears down, still holding my hand with great strength. The next sound I hear is our daughter’s cries filling the room.

  “You did it, my precious. You did it.” I plant kisses on her forehead, tears streaming down both of our faces.

  “Would you like to cut the cord, Mr. Brannen?”

  I take the surgical scissors that are being handed to me and cut where I’m directed to. The nurse in the room takes our little girl over to get her cleaned up.

  “I love you, Velinda. Thank you for giving me this amazing gift.”

  “I love you, Rex.”

  That night, I sit in the recliner chair in the private hospital room and hold my daughter in my arms as her mommy gets some sleep. My perfect family.

  I don’t think about the past anymore. I have more than I ever thought I would with my
precious Velinda and our sweet Melissa.

  Playlist

  “Unsaid” by Angels Fall

  “The Scientist” by Coldplay

  “Skinny Love” by Birdy

  “Every Little Thing” by Carly Pearce

  “Hearing Damage” by Thom Yorke

  “I’m Gonna Show You Crazy” by Bebe Rexha

  “Gasoline” by Halsey

  “Different for Girls” by Dierks Bentley ft. Elle King

  “Always Remember Us This Way” by Lady Gaga

  “A Drop in the Ocean” by Ron Pope

  “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi

  “Back to Black” by Amy Winehouse

  “Wrong Side of Heaven” by Five Finger Death Punch

  “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence

  “Monster You Made” by Pop Evil

  “Give You Up” by Dido

  “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus

  Final Note from Lonnie and Terri Anne

  Some of you may be asking yourself why we created a story for Helena.

  The answer is quite simple, we needed content for Helena to bring her to life on your TV screens…along with all of the beloved characters of The Rockers…Series.

  SURPRISE!!!

  Get ready for Emmie, Nik, Jesse, Layla, Drake, Lana, Shane, Harper, and all of your other favorite characters from The Rocker… Series Universe. We are very excited to let you know that The Rockers… TV series is currently in development.