For Always (A Donovan Friends Novel)

by AC Arthur

  Tyler withheld the I-told-you-so that floated through his mind.

  “How do you know she tried to take your money?” he asked Jagger.

  Jagger chuckled. “I got two accounts,” he said, holding up all ten of his fingers.

  Tyler didn’t respond.

  “One where my paycheck goes,” Jagger said. “And another where all my bonus checks and incentives from special clients are deposited. You remember Dad telling us never to keep all our eggs in one basket.”

  “I remember,” Tyler replied.

  “So I don’t keep all my money in one place. I got an offshore account too. And some bonds and investment accounts. You know that kind of stuff.”

  “Right,” Tyler said. “That’s a smart business move.”

  Jagger nodded. “I know ‘cause I’m smart too. It’s not just you.” He tried to tap a finger to his temple but missed and almost poked his eye out.

  “You’ve always been smart, Jagger. Nobody ever said you weren’t.”

  “I went to Harvard.”

  “Yes, you did. And you became a very successful man. Mom and Dad would have been proud.”

  “No he wouldn’t have,” Jagger said shaking his head so hard his hair—which was in need of a cut—scraped over his forehead. “He never liked me.”

  “He loved you,” Tyler insisted. “He loved both of us the best way he knew how.”

  “It wasn’t good enough!” Jagger yelled. “Just like I wasn’t good enough for her!”

  “But Brooke wanted to marry you. She accepted your proposal and was wearing your ring.”

  “I took it back. The minute I got that call from my bank rep in New York telling me that a woman in Hobbs Creek, Texas walked into a branch and tried to make a withdrawal with one of my withdrawal slips. I gave her everything, man. My heart, my soul—” his words trailed off with a groan.

  Tyler cursed. He believed Jagger. He’d given Brooke Radison everything but what she’d really wanted. Money. The Westwind Ranch and Resort would have given her a ton of that.

  “So she tried to steal your money, you confronted her and took back your ring. What are you going to do now? And where is Brooke?”

  “She tried to blackmail me. Said she was pregnant and she was going to tell the president of our company that I was the father. We have a strict ‘no fraternization’ rule at the company. That’s why I had to marry Brooke, because we couldn’t keep sneaking around seeing each other. I had to make it right for her. I had to take care of her in the way she deserved.”

  “Brooke is having your baby?” Tyler couldn’t believe the words he’d just spoken.

  “Hell no!” Jagger yelled.

  Then his brother rolled over on the couch laughing. He was clenching his side as he chuckled and Tyler tried to wait patiently until he was finished. It could have been worse, Jagger could have been an angry drunk instead of an obviously happy one.

  “I had a vasectomy four years ago,” he finally said between guffaws. “It was after Dad’s sixty-first birthday. I called to wish him well and he had nothing nice to say to me. Didn’t ask about my job or how much I was making or anything. Just talked about the ranch and asked when I was coming back. I told him never. The next morning I called my doctor and told him to set me up. I never wanted to have a child I couldn’t love.”

  Tyler swore as Jagger broke out in laughter once more. He stood up finally and went to the couch.

  “Come on, get up. We’re going back to the ranch so you can sleep this hangover off.”

  “Nope,” Jagger said. “Can’t go back there yet.”

  “What? Why not? If you’re talking about the sale of your shares, we can discuss that later. I’ll sell them back to you. It doesn’t have to be this way now. Not between us and not about the ranch. Now come on.”

  Tyler leaned down and was prepared to help Jagger up, but Jagger pushed him away.

  “No. I can’t go back until I help you catch her. She was my mistake and I gotta fix it.”

  Sighing heavily because he was tired now, Tyler stood up straight and ran a hand down the back of his head. He needed to get back to the ranch to check on Gabriella and he was still waiting for a call.

  “What mistake are you talking about now, Jagger?”

  “Brooke, man. She was nutso. And when I sold you my half of the ranch she really went bonkers. Talking about how it was Gabriella’s fault. If she weren’t whispering in your ear to save her job, the ranch would have been sold. She said she was gonna get her back.”

  “What? When did she say this?”

  “She’s been saying it for days, but that bank lady called me yesterday morning and when Brooke finally got back in here it was past three in the afternoon. I told her I caught her and took my ring back and she said she was gonna tell our boss. I told her I was gonna tell you that she had it in for Gabriella.”

  Tyler cursed.

  “Where is she now, Jagger?”

  Jagger shrugged. “Don’t know. She left crying and screaming about scheming bitches. I thought that was pretty hypocritical of her. But then she came back here last night. I was totally wasted by then. She was cursing and walking back and forth talking about getting paint in her hair or something. She said she’d finally gotten some payback on Gabriella and when I heard about what happened at the resort on the news this morning, I knew it was her. But all her stuff was gone when I came out of the room to look for her.”

  “Dammit! So she’s gone?” Tyler asked.

  “Nope,” Jagger said laughing again. “Her phone’s got a GPS chip in it and the phone is in my name. So all you gotta do is have the sheriff put a trace on it and you’ll find her.”

  “Get up!” Tyler said pulling Jagger by his shirt. “Get up! We’re going to the police station right now.”

  And if Brooke Radison had already left Hobbs Creek, Tyler was going to use the private investigator he’d called earlier to find her scheming ass pronto!

  Chapter 12

  Her hands were still shaking. Gabriella wanted to scream. No, what she really wanted to do was pack her bags and get the hell out of this town. But where would she go? Back to Connecticut? Austin lived there. His ex-wife lived there with their two children. He worked at one of the largest real estate firms in the city and his father was a city councilman. So how was going back home going to be better?

  Gabriella dropped her head into her hands and cursed. She closed her eyes and thought about everything from last June up until this point. A little more than a year, and this man had torn her life apart.

  She hated the thought of giving someone that much control over her, but there it was. She’d trusted Austin. Fallen in love with him and had begun to plan her future with him. And he’d let her down. He’d hurt her physically and mentally and despite all of the daily motivational sayings she read online and prayers she whispered at night, Gabriella didn’t feel like she was anymore healed now, than she had been on the worst night of her life.

  Tilting her head back, she let the tears flow in hot streaks down her face. She sat still longer than she thought she probably should have and then she sighed heavily. Opening her eyes, Gabriella climbed off the bed and found her phone where she’d tossed it into the recliner across from the bed. When she’d come up here—she didn’t even know how long she’d been closed in this room—she’d intended to call Adriana and finally tell her sister everything. Adriana would understand why she’d kept the secret and why she’d thought she could handle this on her own because not only was she Gabriella’s big sister and best friend, but because Adriana had gone through something horrible in her life too. Her sister had also kept a secret, for her own personal reasons. And when Adriana decided it was time, she told her story. Gabriella didn’t have the luxury of time.

  She was holding the phone when she heard the quiet knock on the door.

  Until this moment, nobody had come to see about her. A part of her had expected Dessie, with all her mothering ways, to march up the steps and demand Gabriella s
top being foolish and open that door. But she hadn’t. And another part thought—or rather hoped—that Tyler would come up with a key and simply unlock the door. That he would walk into the room and lift her into his arms and carry her off into a happy ending. She chuckled at that thought because Gabriella always considered herself stronger than a woman who needed a man to rescue her. Still, when the knock came again, she wiped her face and slipped her phone into the back pocket of her shorts. She crossed the room and unlocked the door, pulling it open to see Tyler standing on the other side.

  He was carrying a tray with two covered dishes, a couple of bottled waters and a glass vase with a long stemmed pink rose.

  “It’s dinnertime,” he said, the corner of his mouth lifting into a smile. “Dessie and I thought you might be hungry. Especially since you only had that smoothie early this morning.”

  It was the strangest thing. Considering all that had happened today and the thoughts that had been running through her mind as each hour passed with her sitting alone in this room, it was the last possible reaction Gabriella imagined she would have to seeing Tyler. But butterflies danced in her stomach and a nervous chuckle escaped.

  “I thought that smoothie was supposed to provide an unlimited energy boost.”

  “I didn’t say you were tired, probably just hungry,” was his reply.

  He was too cute for his own good. And she was too smitten with that cuteness.

  “I could eat,” she said and stepped aside to let him in.

  He entered the room and she closed the door, leaning against it with a sigh.

  “I also owe you and everyone else that was here this morning an apology. I shouldn’t have run away,” she said.

  He was setting the tray on the opposite side of the bed from where she’d sat most of the day on and he looked over to her.

  “Apology accepted,” he replied. “On behalf of everyone that was here this morning. Well, maybe not for the sheriff, but he was being an ass anyway.”

  “I’ll pay for the damages—” she started saying.

  Tyler was already shaking his head. “Stop. You’re not a foolish woman and I’m not an ass. The person who did the damage is the person who pays. Dessie already has a crew in there working on the room. So let’s not go any further with this part of the discussion.”

  Gabriella didn’t argue. He was right. She hadn’t done the damage, even if it was the room she had reserved. She’d just felt like she should offer something. Apparently, Tyler disagreed.

  She cleared her throat and moved closer to the bed. “Then I guess the next topic is explaining why I left before the sheriff could ask me anymore questions.”

  Gabriella waited a beat to see if Tyler was going to interject and tell her that wasn’t necessary either. But he did not. Instead he walked over to the recliner and took a seat. So she decided to sit too. She climbed onto the bed once more, folding her legs beneath her.

  She began slowly, “Austin Sterner is my ex-boyfriend. He’s a forty-four year old real estate agent in Greenwich. While I was studying for my design degree I interned with Austin’s agency. When the internship was over, I was offered a permanent position with the agency. Whenever they listed a house, I was there to stage it.”

  Gabriella paused because she realized this was the first time she’d ever verbally gone through her history with Austin.

  “We began dating three months after I accepted the permanent position. He’d been divorced from his wife about a year. They shared custody of their two children, so we often scheduled our time together around their visits and our combined work schedules. We dated for seven months before I realized it wasn’t right for me.”

  She paused again, the pain in her chest heavy with the thoughts that followed those words.

  “So you broke up with him,” Tyler stated.

  Gabriella knew that he was in the room. She knew he was just a few feet away, sitting in a chair, staring at her. But she’d been talking as if she were in the room alone, recounting how the beginning of her end had occurred. To her ears it sounded very innocent. Girl meets boy, they date, they don’t work out, and they end it. But that was far from what happened.

  “I broke up with him,” she said. “I left his agency and with the help of my mentor began looking for other opportunities in the area. I liked being close to my parents, especially with all of my brothers leaving and making their own lives with their partners. I was the one who could get to my parents when and if they needed something in a hurry.”

  “And you were their baby,” Tyler said. “I’m sure they liked having you close.”

  “They loved it,” she replied with a chuckle. “I went to church with my mother on Sunday mornings and spent the rest of the day at their house while she cooked dinner. I watched football games with my dad.”

  And all the while they had no idea how much she was hurting inside.

  “They were my rock and whether they knew it or not they helped me through the messy break-up,” she said.

  “Messy because Austin didn’t want to let you go.”

  It sounded so simple coming from Tyler. Gabriella nodded even though she knew it was probably wrong to let him continue thinking it was that mundane.

  “I moved on and he didn’t. Or he wouldn’t. I don’t know. I really wanted him to, but he didn’t. So there were phone calls and text messages and the one night he showed up at my condo unannounced. I told him I would take out a restraining order if he didn’t cut it out,” she said.

  “And he stopped for a while, but then when you left town, he continued,” Tyler said. “Because it’s one thing to be able to see you every day and satisfy his unhealthy need to be near you, but it’s another entirely to have you out of sight.”

  She couldn’t speak. His words were so on point, it was almost scary.

  “I’ve seen stalking situations turn ugly, Gabriella. It’s not your fault. Guys have fragile egos, you crushed his when you walked out of his life and he was too weak to move on. No excuses, the guy’s an ass for continuing to frighten you. And if you think he’s here in Hobbs Creek, I’ll find him and I’ll make sure he gets the message to stay the hell away from you this time.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “Oh yes I do,” Tyler said as he stood and came over to the side of the bed where she was sitting. “Because if he does something to put that look in your eye that I saw this morning I might be the one the sheriff ends up arresting.”

  She looked away because she didn’t want him to see the tears welling up in her eyes. His fingers were immediately on her chin, turning her head to him.

  “I will not let him hurt you again,” he said solemnly. “Trust me.”

  Gabriella didn’t trust easily. She couldn’t afford to because she knew how quickly that oath could be broken. And she wasn’t even supposed to be in this position with Tyler West. But she was. So now what?

  “Thank you,” she said quickly, deciding to think about the rest later.

  Because the rest was big and it was more than she’d bargained for, but at the same time she knew it wasn’t something she could put off forever. Still, she just wanted this moment with him. The moment that she felt encircling them. Him looking earnestly at her, touching her with only kindness and compassion.

  “I really appreciate you understanding, Tyler.”

  “How could I not understand when all I’ve done is pull you into drama and dysfunction since the day we met?”

  He grinned and she smiled in return. “I guess that’s true.”

  He laughed out loud. “You didn’t have to agree with me so quickly. Come on, the food’s getting cold.”

  As if on cue, her stomach growled. Loudly.

  Tyler continued to laugh.

  Fighting for at least a little dignity and because she felt partially better, she reached for the bottled water and told him, “It’s not funny. You’re the one obsessed with smoothies as a meal.”

  “Not obsessed,” he said as he circled th
e bed and sat across from her on the other side of the tray. “They’re quick and serve a purpose.”

  “Well, so is,” she paused while lifting the cover off one of the plates. “So is this. Thank you so much, Dessie.”

  Gabriella inhaled the delectable scent of the cheeseburger with mustard, lettuce and pickles on her plate.

  “She said that so far this was the only favorite she knew of for you,” Tyler told her when he lifted the cover from his plate to reveal another cheeseburger.

  “It is my most favorite meal ever,” she said and picked up a napkin to set in her lap.

  As her stomach had indicated, Gabriella was starving.

  “Well, maybe I should tell you the news I have before you start eating. I wouldn’t want to ruin your most favorite meal ever,” he told her.

  Her shoulders sagged instantly. “Oh no. Did something else happen? Was there some clue left in the room at the resort that confirms it was Austin?”

  “No,” he said. “And for the record, I never believed the person who destroyed that room was connected to you. Like I said before, I apologize for pulling you into my dysfunctional situation.”

  “But I just told you about Austin. He’s sent me text messages since I’ve been here,” she insisted.

  “That doesn’t mean he knows where you are, Gabriella. Did you tell him? Do you know of anyone who would give him that information?”

  She hadn’t thought about that. Adriana knew where she was and why, but Adriana lived in Miami and she had no idea who Austin was. The only other person who knew, besides her team at The Proctor Group, was Mallory, her mentor. Mallory also knew Gabriella had dated Austin and that they had broken up and that’s why Gabriella left his agency. She did not know anything else and she would never tell Austin where Gabriella was.

  “No. I don’t,” she admitted.

  “It wasn’t him,” Tyler stated.

  And she knew from his tone that there was more.

  “Who was it?”

  “Brooke,” he said. “And before we go any further, she’s in custody. The sheriff tracked her down at the airport. It’s a crazy demented story of a woman that’s crazy and demented and I’ll gladly tell you every word of it after we eat this delicious meal.”