For Always (A Donovan Friends Novel)

by AC Arthur

  “What is it?” Tyler asked.

  “It’s bad, Tyler. It’s real bad.”

  * * *

  The moment she heard the beeping of the security system Gabriella was fully awake. Oh, who was she kidding? She was never going to fall back asleep after the tense moments she’d just shared with Tyler. As if her night hadn’t already been filled with tossing and turning because of him.

  She’d finally put her finger on what had been going on with her emotions for the last week. She was afraid. Because she had fallen for Tyler West. There was no denying it for her after last night. She’d just needed to figure out what she was going to do about it. But now that her heart had begun to race thanks to that incessant beeping, she’d thrown back the covers once again and was headed to the door. She’d just gotten to the top of the stairs when she heard Stephen’s voice.

  “It’s bad, Tyler. It’s real bad.”

  Gabriella rushed back into her room. She hurried into the bathroom and took a record twenty-five seconds to relieve herself and do a quick teeth brush before she was in the room again. Grabbing what was first in her drawer she pulled on sweatpants, a bra and a better tank top. After pushing her feet into her tennis shoes, she rushed out of the room and down the steps. Tyler’s truck was still parked in front of the house which meant he must have rode with Stephen. They were somewhere on the ranch.

  She got into her car and drove to the first place she could think of, the equestrian center. When she pulled up there were four other Jeeps out front and the horses were going crazy. She thought of Brown Eyes, the horse she’d ridden three times now and had grown particularly fond of. And then there was GG, Tyler’s horse. Gabriella hoped they were all okay. She ran until she was through the open doors, her feet skidding to a halt as she looked down to the floor.

  “No,” she whispered at the familiar sight of red.

  So much red, thick and running like a river. The world around her begin to spin. On shaky legs she managed to take one step and then another and another. Until she was there, seeing, smelling, feeling.

  Somebody called her name. Over and over they said her name, but she couldn’t answer them. She couldn’t see them. Couldn’t see anyone or anything but the blood. There was so much blood. Her throat was tight, her breaths coming in quick heavy pants. It was everywhere. On the walls, stuck against the strands of hay, on the floor, and on her tennis shoes. Gabriella lifted her arms in front of her face. They felt like they were weighted down, but she didn’t care. She had to see. Wiggling her fingers and turning her hands from front to back she looked and she saw it, more blood.

  Her stomach cramped and she pitched forward, leaning over until her head was at her knees. The putrid scent of blood was stronger and she grew so dizzy she thought she might fall to the floor.

  But there was blood on the floor. If she fell it would get on her. It would be on her legs and her thighs, just like it was before. She closed her eyes and tried to wish it all away, but when she opened them again, it was still there.

  Her arms and legs streaked with blood. Her chest and midsection, a bloody mess. And her face…Gabriella gasped because it wasn’t her face she saw now. It wasn’t her lying on the floor the way she always ended up in the dream. It was someone else, another woman with so much blood. It was…Hannah.

  The first tear fell and then another, until she was screaming with the remembered pain and despair. She moved back, trying to get away. She bumped into something or someone, she didn’t know. The world was still spinning and she was moving, but the blood was following her. She could see it on the ground as she moved and when she looked back the river of blood pooled after her. She had to get away. She needed to get away from it once and for all.

  Run!

  That’s all she could think was that she needed to run, long, fast and hard! She had to run!

  Jumping into her car Gabriella sped off, driving to where she didn’t know. All she knew was that she had to get away from the blood and from all that pain. What had happened to Hannah? Why was she bleeding the way Gabriella had? In her bedroom and at the hospital, Gabriella recalled all the blood and the fear. It had snaked around her throat like a noose and squeezed until she’d thought she would die. But she hadn’t died, not at that moment, at least. She’d spent a few days in the hospital and then she’d returned to her apartment. But the blood had still been there and no matter how hard she’d scrubbed it hadn’t gone away.

  Whenever she closed her eyes she saw it. If she inhaled too deeply, she smelled it. When she looked at her hands she imagined it was still there.

  Tears came faster now, blurring her vision as she went through the ranch’s front security gate and turned out onto the open road.

  Gabriella cried for her pain and how much she’d suffered in the last six months. She cried for the agony of carrying her secret for so long. She cried for Hannah whose body had been mutilated and left like she was nothing more than an animal. She cried because she couldn’t stop.

  The car was moving but she had no idea where she was going or what she planned to do once she got there. And her hands were sticky. They were stuck to the steering wheel and when she tried to move them there was a gooey stickiness. She looked down to see what was going on and screamed when she saw more blood.

  It was all over the steering wheel, dripping down onto her lap. Glancing up again the sight of blood pouring down onto the windshield like rain was too much for her to handle. She yanked a hand from the steering wheel to turn on the windshield wipers. That did no good, because the blood was too thick and coming down too fast. She couldn’t see so she slammed on the brakes. But they didn’t work.

  Nothing worked!

  Nothing took the memories or the pain away. Nothing stopped her from hating herself more and more every day and for making the biggest mistake of her life. And nothing was going to stop her from eventually killing herself with guilt and shame.

  Nothing except the swerving of the car and the quick tumble down into a brush before the blaring of horns echoed in her mind.

  Chapter 14

  Gabriella could still hear the horns blaring but she didn’t care. She didn’t care about anything else. Not anymore.

  She was so tired. Her body felt week and her mind was empty. The memory had played out. All the feelings she’d kept stored had been cried out of her and now there was nothing. She was still and for the first time in too long, that felt right. It felt like what she was supposed to be doing.

  As soon as she resigned herself to that fact Gabriella felt herself being yanked out of the comfort. There was pulling on her arm and then she was weightless, as if she was being carried. She didn’t open her eyes. Somewhere deep inside she knew that if she opened her eyes it wouldn’t be to anything good. So she kept them closed, even when she heard voices around her. They were familiar voices, but she hadn’t heard them recently.

  Light permeated the dark corner where she’d found solace and she closed her eyes tighter. She’d thought she had found light before. She’d traveled to someplace new and there had found more light, but that had been wrong too. It was impossible and she should have known that sooner. She should have stopped it before she got in too deep.

  “Gabriella! Open your eyes, Gabs! Come on, open your damn eyes!”

  It was a male voice. He was yelling but not in anger. There was panic to his tone. Irritation and panic.

  “Gabriella!”

  He kept yelling her name.

  “Come on Gabriella, you can do it. Just open your eyes for us. Everything is going to be okay, just open your eyes, Gabriella.”

  Now there was a woman. She had a firm tone, authoritative, yet caring. Gabriella knew them both. She knew them and she’d missed them. Just as she’d missed so many things in her old life.

  Somebody brushed her hair back from her face. Somebody held her hand. They kept calling to her, insisting that she open her eyes. But she didn’t want to. It was over, wasn’t it?

  “Gabs, please, just o
pen your eyes for me. I know you’re in there. You’re breathing and you’re alive. Gabriella, please!”

  He sounded so sad. He was usually bossy with her and protective, but never sad. It made her heart hurt and she didn’t like that she was the one making him sound that way.

  Gabriella decided to open her eyes but it was harder than she thought it would be. She tried again and again, but it wasn’t working. Why couldn’t she just wake up? Because she’d thought for so long that she didn’t want to wake up. She’d been walking around smiling and living as if things were as they had been before, but they weren’t. She knew it and now she had to live it.

  With that thought her eyes shot open and Gabriella gasped for breath. She coughed and blinked a couple of times, sure she had to be seeing things.

  “Gabs! There you go! That’s my girl!” he said lifting her head and shoulders up into an embrace. “That’s my Gabs!”

  He was rocking her back and forth and Gabriella inhaled deeply. She knew his scent. Her arms went around him and she sobbed, “Alex.”

  “Yes, you little troublemaker. It’s me,” he said with a chuckle.

  He held her back away from him and smiled. “You scared the hell out of me! Twice, Gabriella! Two damn times, in twenty-four hours you’ve scared me to death!”

  “Alex,” Gabriella said again. “But how? I’m not home. I mean, I left town and he kept calling me and I didn’t want to talk to him. But I wasn’t home. I was…what are you doing here?”

  “We can get to that later. Right now I think we need to get you to a hospital.”

  That was Monica. Gabriella knew that cool voice anywhere. She looked to her other side to see Alex’s fiancé kneeling on the ground beside her.

  “Monica,” she sighed. “Oh, it is so good to see both of you.”

  Monica had been holding her hand and she squeezed it as she smiled at Gabriella. “It’s good to see you.”

  “But I don’t know why you’re here. Or where we are exactly,” Gabriella said and then tried to sit up on her own.

  Alex kept his hands on her, but she managed to come to a sitting position as she looked around.

  “We were on our way to see you at a place called Westwind Ranch & Resort,” Monica told her.

  “Then we were almost hit head-on by some maniac driving erratically,” Alex said before tweaking her nose. “You almost killed all of us. What’s the matter with you, Gabs? And don’t you dare tell me nothing. Because I’ve come all this way because I know that’s a big fat lie.”

  “We’re on the road,” Gabriella said, ignoring her brother’s words. “I was leaving the ranch. It’s back there, not too far.”

  She tried to stand up but Alex quickly grabbed her arms.

  “Whoa, wait a minute, champ. You’ve got quite a lump on your head so I’m sure you’re dizzy,” he said.

  “No, I’m okay.” But she felt queasiness overtake her as she attempted to get up again. “Well, maybe not. But I will be. Just help me up.”

  Alex and Monica helped her up and walked her slowly to their rental car. Once they had her in the backseat and Gabriella felt like she wasn’t going to vomit all over the place, she said, “Let’s go back to the ranch. I have to go back there.”

  “Wait a minute, Gabs,” Alex said. “Just hold on. You were clearly upset to be driving the way that you were. You look like you’ve been crying. I’m not taking you back there until you tell me what’s going on.”

  He had come all this way to check on her. Gabriella wanted to cry again. This was love right here. Of course he was her brother, but this was the bond she wanted to one day have with someone. It was what she’d dreamed of, but had been wondering if it would ever happen for her.

  “I know. I’m going to explain. I just need to go back. I need to make sure he’s alright and see if I can help. I was so awful, the way I acted and then I just left and he’s probably worried. I don’t want him to worry.”

  “Oh, you mean like I’ve been worried since Adriana finally broke down and told me you were out of town,” Alex said.

  He was irritated now, his brow furrowed, lips going into a thin line.

  “Alex, give her some space,” Monica said. “If she wants to go back, we’ll go with her.”

  Alex glanced over his shoulder to Monica who gave him a calm, but stern look. He shook his head as he turned back to Gabriella. “Alright, we’ll go back to this ranch with you. But I promise you Gabriella, I’m not letting you out of my sight again until I get an explanation.”

  She tried to nod but it sent shooting pain from her temples throughout her head and down to her neck. “I know. And I’m going to tell you, I promise. Just take me back.”

  Alex reached over her and fit the seat belt into its holder with a resounding click.

  “I’ll ride in the back with you,” Monica said when Alex moved from the door and walked around the car without another word.

  When Monica was seated on the other side of the back seat, her seat belt in place, Gabriella sighed. She was nervous and still a little queasy, but she knew she couldn’t leave like this. She shouldn’t have left the way she had. She would go back and she would help Tyler with whatever was happening now and when he asked what was wrong with her this time, Gabriella swore she was going to tell him. Because this was too much and it had gone on for far too long.

  Monica taking her hand again added a layer of calm to Gabriella’s decision and she lay her head back on the seat, hoping the pain would stop before she arrived at Westwind.

  * * *

  The day wasn’t going at all the way Tyler had planned. He’d wanted to get his work done as quickly as possible and then sit with Gabriella to talk about their trip. He hadn’t expected to walk into the equestrian center and see Hannah’s bloody body lying in one of the empty stalls.

  And he definitely hadn’t expected Gabriella to come running in minutes later. She’d totally lost it.

  That was the only way he could describe what he’d watched happen, just about forty minutes ago. She’d run into the equestrian center, stopping quickly and staring down at the floor. Tyler had no idea what she’d seen on the floor because where she was standing there was only strands of hay and cement. But she’d looked down as if there were something there, something that absolutely terrified her. He’d walked to her in an attempt to get her to leave before she actually did see something heinous. But she pulled away from him.

  She’d gone straight to the third stall as if she’d already known what she would find there. And then she’d screamed. The sound had echoed throughout the stalls, sending the horses that were already agitated into a complete state of hysteria. The ranch hands scrambled to get to them before they hurt themselves and Tyler had focused on Gabriella. She wouldn’t let him touch her. Each time he’d tried, she’d move or do something strange with her arms and hands. He didn’t know what was going on or how to help her.

  At one point he considered just picking her up and tossing her over his shoulder so he could carry her outside. But he hadn’t wanted to make whatever she was going through worse. When she’d finally backed out of the stall, he thought she was going to calm down and that he could assist her at that time, but she snapped again. And this time she took off running. He’d chased after her, but by then the sheriff and four other police cars were pulling up with sirens blaring. She jumped into her car and pulled off and Tyler told himself she would return to the ranch house to get herself together.

  But when he’d finally been able to get back to the house, Gabriella wasn’t there.

  “What do you mean she didn’t come back here?” Tyler had asked Jagger when he’d come into the living room.

  “I haven’t seen her since the two of you took off running out of here earlier. You could have told me what was going on,” Jagger insisted.

  Tyler cursed. He’d walked over to the window to look out but he didn’t see her car. All he saw were police cars and flashing red and blue lights.

  “What the hell is goin
g on around here, Tyler? Nevil said Hannah’s dead. She was stabbed on our property.”

  Jagger wore jeans and a faded blue t-shirt. That seemed to be his style lately, as he’d walked around the ranch as if he was here for the first time.

  “I don’t know what’s going on,” Tyler told him. “Stephen said when he pulled up this morning and rode past the equestrian center he could hear the horses whining and kicking against the paddock doors. So he got out and went in to check on them. He smelled the blood as soon as he got inside and thought one of the horses had injured itself, but it wasn’t the horse. It was Hannah.”

  Tyler couldn’t believe it himself. Seeing Hannah lying there like that, naked and sliced open. It was horrible and he didn’t understand it. How had Hannah gotten onto the property? How had whoever had done this to her gotten onto the property? And where the hell was Gabriella?

  “I gotta go out and look for her,” he told Jagger.

  His brother looked at him incredulously. “We’ve sort of got something going on here, man. How are you going to up and leave when this place is crawling with cops?”

  “I can’t stay here while she’s out there. You didn’t see her. She’s upset and anything can happen to her. I just have to go!”

  He headed for the doorway when Jagger grabbed him.

  “Hold on a second, what are you doing? Somebody was killed and you’re gonna run after her!”

  “Yes I am dammit!” Tyler yelled and pulled away from Jagger. “I’m gonna find her because I don’t give a damn about any of this without her!”

  “Stop all that yelling and call Dr. Morrison,” Dessie said as she came bustling into the living room. “Here, right here,” she continued. “You can lay her right down here on the couch.”

  For one brief moment Tyler sighed with relief as he saw Gabriella’s face. But she was limping and there was a bump on her head. A man was on one side of her and a woman on the other. Tyler jumped into action, racing over to help her.