For Always (A Donovan Friends Novel)

by AC Arthur

  “Let her go or I’ll blow your head off right now!” Tyler told him.

  Noah stopped fighting her. He rolled over on the floor and jumped to his feet, pointing his gun at Tyler. Now, they both had guns and they were in a stand-off. Gabriella quickly got to her feet.

  They’d all switched positions so that now, Noah stood with his back to the door leading out to the hallway and Tyler was closer to the closet. When Gabriella stood, she was beside Tyler.

  “Noah, just put your gun down,” she said, her heart beating so loud she could barely hear herself speak. “Just put your gun down and we can all sit and talk this out.”

  She took a step toward Noah and was rewarded with a roar that sounded like a battle cry before he turned the gun to her and prepared to pull the trigger. Everything from that point on happened like a movie playing in slow motion. The bedroom door opened and Jagger ran inside, pushing Noah out of the way just as a gunshot rang out. Gabriella fell to the floor with Jagger on top of her and then there were two more shots. The room went silent after that, except for the sound of someone choking, sputtering some unintelligible words and then falling into the dresser before hitting the floor.

  Gabriella immediately pushed Jagger off of her. Her feet scrambled beneath her as she struggled to stand and looked around the room. Noah was lying on the floor bleeding and Tyler…he was still standing, holding that gun, alive. He was alive.

  She ran to him and he hugged her close, whispering in her ear over and over again, “I’m so sorry for getting you into this. So damn sorry for all of it. I love you,” Tyler said. “I love you so much. If he had hurt you. If he had ki—”

  “I’m fine,” Gabriella told him. “I’m right here, Tyler. I’m fine. And I love you, too. I love you and you’re alive.”

  She didn’t know how long they stood there, but she heard when Alex and Monica came into the room. Because that was only seconds before Noah raised his arm and aimed the gun at her and Tyler as they stood embracing each other. Monica screamed and Jagger pushed the dresser on top of Noah, causing the gun to fall from his hand and clatter across the floor. Alex hurried to pick up the gun and handed it to Monica, who quickly aimed it at Noah. Alex lifted the dresser off of Noah and yelled for Jagger to find him something to tie his hands with.

  Tyler sighed and rested his forehead against Gabriella’s, still holding her tightly.

  “It’s over,” she whispered. “Everything will be fine now because it’s over.”

  Tyler nodded and kissed her forehead. “It’s over,” he said.

  Chapter 17

  The next hours passed quickly with sirens and police cars filing onto the ranch once again. Tyler sighed because this time his house was the crime scene. Police had been in his bedroom where they’d handcuffed and arrested Noah Windmyr. They’d been downstairs in the living room as well as every other room in the house and they dusted for fingerprints to prove Noah had broken in. Tyler wasn’t optimistic they were going to find any because when Noah was being lifted off the floor, the gunshot wound to his knee and his shoulder still gushing blood, a security pass had fallen out of his jacket pocket. It was a pass issued to a supervisor of the construction crew, a man who would now be questioned about a connection to Noah and the murders.

  Noah had walked onto the property that night he’d vandalized the pens, but after that he’d had to find another way to get inside. And he had. Sometime last night Noah had slipped into the house and when they’d locked up, they’d unwittingly locked themselves inside with a killer. How did that happen? And how did Tyler prevent it from happening again? Because the sight of Gabriella standing with a gun to her head wasn’t something he ever wanted to see again.

  “It’s almost over, Ty,” Clyde said after clapping a hand to his shoulder.

  Gabriella was in the kitchen with Alex, Monica and Dessie. Sheriff Alvarez was talking to Stephen in the office and Naomi was fixing coffee, going around the house making sure everyone had a full cup. It was almost dawn and the house was full of people like it was an afternoon gathering. Tyler stood in the den, next to the mantle over the fireplace that he’d told Gabriella not to touch in her redecorating. She hadn’t and the West family photos still stood proudly on that mantle looking on to the next generation.

  “He just wanted to carry on the family name,” Tyler said as he looked at his parents’ wedding photo. “And she wanted to make it bigger and better, to bring it into the 21st century with the glamour and style it deserved.”

  “Now it’s up to you,” Clyde told him. “You and Jagger. They loved and were proud of both of you. I know that George had a funny way of showing his pride and appreciation toward you boys, but that was just the way he’d been brought up. His father wasn’t affectionate toward him and so George did what he’d learned. You boys had Verna. Her light shines in both of you.”

  “Noah said Jessie proposed to my mother,” Tyler stated slowly, the words still causing him pain. “Is that true?”

  “Yes,” Clyde replied. “I’d forgotten about that it was so long ago. But the day before prom Jessie walked right up on Verna’s front porch and asked her father if he could speak to her. Verna’s dad had seen Jessie around town with George so he hadn’t thought anything untoward was going on. He sent Jessie in the house where Verna and her sister, June, were. Jessie went in there and got down on one knee, asked her right there in front of her sister. June told us later that Verna turned him down in the nicest way possible, but that Jessie left the house spitting mad.”

  “Why did my dad hire him at the ranch if he knew that Jessie was in love with his wife?” That was like Tyler asking Austin to come work for him at Ty-Fitness.

  “Jessie had been following me and George around since we were young boys. Right after Jessie’s father went to jail for burning down three buildings in one weekend, Jessie started acting strange. Rumor was, his father was looking for a black man who he said had stolen from him, so he followed the man and burned down every place he thought he’d seen him. Everyone in town knew that Windy, that’s what they used to call Jessie’s father, was a little touched in the head. Anyway, Jessie was about ten when that happened and he started acting strange kicking cats and breaking stuff for no good reason. That’s when George decided we should keep an eye on him. From that point on we just kept Jessie real close because we thought it would help him get past what his father had done and that bad reputation.”

  “And then his son grew up to murder my parents, the ones who only tried to save his father,” Tyler said quietly.

  The grief was heavy and powerful as it weighed on him. For his parents and for Hannah who, no matter how simple-minded she could be, did not deserve to die.

  “You will move past this,” Clyde told him. “We all will. The world keeps turning, no matter what.”

  “It does,” Tyler said with a nod. “And things just keep changing.”

  “Change isn’t always a bad thing. Dessie would say it’s necessary and I agree with her. You and Jagger have a new chance at a meaningful adult relationship. Both of you have business experience that George and Verna never possessed. This is your time here at Westwind. I hope you don’t waste it,” Clyde said.

  “I won’t,” Tyler told him. “I plan to carry on the family name with the sense of pride and loyalty that my parents instilled in me. Thanks for being their friend and for helping us through this, Clyde.”

  Tyler extended his hand to the man who had always been like an uncle to him. Clyde shook his hand but then pulled Tyler in for a hug.

  “You’re a good man, Tyler. I always knew you would be and I’m glad to have you home.”

  Home.

  Tyler was home and that finally meant everything to him.

  * * *

  The minute that front door closed Alex gave a sigh of relief. It had been a grueling five hours. And it had reminded him of another time—two other times to be exact. Third time was the charm.

  He walked into the living room where everyone had conven
ed just as they had last night. They all sat in similar locations, but Monica stayed close to Gabriella, sitting on the loveseat with her while Tyler had stood to fix them a drink. Alex did not stop, but walked right across the room and grabbed Monica’s arm. When he had her standing directly in front of him, her face affixed with shock, mouth open ready to ask what the hell was wrong with him, Alex kissed her.

  He touched his lips to familiar ones and closed his eyes as he poured his heart and soul into a kiss that was going to change his life. There’d been a time when Roland Summerfield and his daughter were so focused on revenge that they’d been willing to kill anyone in the Bennett family to get it. Shots were fired, but Alex’s family had remained safe and alive. Alex had been truly grateful for that fact. A couple years later, he found himself in a parking garage facing another lunatic who was hell bent on killing the woman Alex loved because she was no longer in love with him. Alex had stood staring at the gun Yates Hinton had pointed at him and then watched Yates crumple to the ground when Monica stabbed him in the neck. More death and grief had struck around his family and his friends in the years following and in the world in general. Mass shootings, police brutality, government corruption, racially charged protests and more, seemed to be getting out of hand. The country they lived in seemed to be burning down around them and Alex felt the need to grab whatever happiness he could in the time he had.

  He broke the kiss and stared into Monica’s still surprised face.

  “I want to marry you Monica Lakefield. Not later, now,” he told her earnestly. “You proposed to me five years ago and then asked me to wait until you were one hundred percent sure you could be a wife and a mother. Well, you’ve been the best fiancé I could have ever hoped for in those five years and while I love you with every breath in my body, I am not willing to wait another five years, or even five months. I want to marry you now, Monica. I want you to be my wife as soon as we can possibly make it happen. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

  Alex hadn’t realized until that moment that everyone in the room was quiet and staring expectantly at them. And he didn’t care. All that mattered was Monica and the words that would come out of her mouth next.

  “I love you, Alex,” she started. “You’ve been my strength for these past five years. And anybody who knows me, knows that I don’t lean on anybody else, ever. But you, you’ve been everything I’ve needed at every moment I needed it. For these past years I kept telling myself I wasn’t ready, that we were fine with our relationship the way it was, and that may have been true yesterday and all the years before. But I hear you, Alex. I hear what you’re not saying and I agree. Our time is now. It’s right now.”

  He cupped a hand to her face, letting his thumb run over her smooth skin. “Say it,” he told her. “Say the word and we’ll do it.”

  She was nodding rapidly, her eyes filling with tears. And if Monica Lakefield crying wasn’t a sight for all to see, the words she spoke next were what Alex and so many others had been waiting so long to hear. “Yes, Alex. Let’s do it. Let’s get married!”

  Applause erupted around them and Alex pulled Monica into his arms once again. He spun her around, closing his eyes and recalling all the time he’d been with her and all the nights he’d wondered when or if they would ever really get married. Well, he had his answer. They were getting married and he couldn’t be happier.

  “Beautiful!” Dessie cheered. “Just beautiful! Now, I know you city slickers won’t be getting married here in Hobbs Creek but I’d love for you to send me pictures of the big day. I know it’s going to be a spectacular event.”

  “What are you talking about Ms. Dessie,” Monica said when Alex finally released her. “You and Mr. Clyde are definitely on the guest list. So you’ll just have to come on up to the big city and celebrate with us.”

  “That’s right, Ms. Dessie,” Alex said. “We’ll even show you and Mr. Clyde around town when you get there.”

  “No,” Jagger intervened. “I’ll show Clyde and Dessie around New York when they come. And you’re both staying in my condo while you’re there.”

  “Well,” Dessie said with a big grin. “Then I think I’ll get on into this kitchen and start fixing us a celebratory breakfast. Come on Naomi, you can help me while Stephen checks on the ranch hands and the morning work around here.”

  “I call waffles, Dessie. And those buttermilk biscuits you make,” Jagger chimed in.

  “Then you’d better get your butt in this kitchen and help,” Dessie said.

  Alex chuckled at Jagger’s mock frown. They reminded him a lot of his family, the way love still shined through in the end, despite their differences. Monica had taken Alex’s hand and was leading him into the kitchen, but he told her to wait a second as he turned to see Gabriella still sitting on the couch and Tyler still standing by the bar. They looked so far a part, not just in the space of the room, but in their relationship and even though she was his little sister and he’d never planned to watch another man steal her heart, Alex wanted happiness for her.

  “No,” Monica said when he’d started to go to her. “Let her be. She’s going to find her own way, in her own time.”

  “But will her way make her happy?” Alex asked as he continued to watch Gabriella staring down at her hands folded in her lap.

  “Gabriella knows what she wants and she knows what she needs to do to get it,” Monica told him. “Her happiness will come, you just have to let it come when she’s ready for it.”

  Alex hoped Monica was right.

  * * *

  “Well,” Tyler said when they had been alone for a few minutes.

  The silence had instantly become deafening causing Gabriella’s thoughts to echo loudly in her head. She’d been thinking for hours now, since the moment Noah had pulled her off that bed.

  She’d thought of her life up until this point. The decisions she’d made. The things she should have done or said. She considered her situation with Austin and the child she’d lost because of it. She pictured Adriana becoming a mother and how happy Parker would be to become a father. She wondered about her job and what would happen after the company heard about everything that had happened here in Hobbs Creek. Especially the fact that she’d fallen in love with her client. One of the biggest taboos in a professional setting.

  And then she’d thought of Tyler.

  Slowly, she lifted her head to look at him.

  While they’d waited for the police to arrive he’d slipped into sweat pants and a t-shirt. She’d pulled on a pair of jean shorts and one of Tyler’s t-shirts. She wore only socks on her feet and had no idea how her hair looked at this moment. And she really didn’t care.

  Tyler looked tired. His normally neat beard was scraggly, his bright blue eyes, shadowed. He had bed hair, which always made her want to run her fingers through the thick dark brown strands again and again. And his shoulders slumped a bit. She wanted to go to him, to wrap her arms around his waist and hug him tight. But she remained still while thoughts continued to run through her mind.

  “Should we get into the kitchen to help Dessie?” he asked.

  Gabriella watched as he finally put down the glass he’d been holding. She squared her shoulders and replied, “No. I think we should talk first.”

  He didn’t say another word, but came to sit on the love seat next to her. He didn’t touch or look at her, he just sat. And she continued.

  “My family and I have wondered for five years if Monica and Alex were ever going to get married. I think it’s ironic that another one of my mess-ups was the catalyst for that to finally happen,” she said.

  “This wasn’t your mess up. It was Noah’s,” he stated seriously.

  She sighed. “I know. I’m not at all taking any of the blame for that. But I am owning up to the mistake I made. The misjudgment and the decision to keep it all a secret. That was on me.”

  “Everybody decides to deal with a situation in their own way,” he said. “I didn’t have to leave and stay aw
ay from here. I could have come back and continued to be connected. I chose not to.”

  “What are you going to do about that now?” she asked him.

  “I’m going to make it work,” he replied. “I’m going to move back to the ranch primarily, but I’m also going to work with Stephen on taking more managerial responsibilities for the times that I have to be away on Ty-Fitness business.”

  “That’s a good plan,” she said with a nod. “My dad always says it’s good to have a plan.”

  “Do you have one, Gabriella? Is that what you want to talk about?”

  She waited a beat and then extended her arm across the space between them until she could lace her fingers with his. He squeezed her hand and she looked down at them sitting on the leather love seat. Black and white. Man and woman. Lovers and friends.

  “I love you, Tyler. I meant that when I said it. And I know that I don’t have a glowing track record in the area of love, but I know what I feel. And this, what I’ve felt in the time that I’ve been here with you is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced or imagined.”

  “But?” he said the moment she paused.

  “But I have to go,” she told him. “I have to go back to Connecticut and deal with Austin.”

  “You can let the police deal with him,” Tyler said.

  He squeezed her hand again until she looked over at him. “Stay here with me. Move into the house that you’ve helped to make a home with your innovative design and your enthusiastic presence. We can both travel for work and—”

  “Stop,” she said, using her free hand to reach up and cover his lips. “Don’t say anything else. Don’t ask me to do anything. Not right now.”

  Looking into his eyes and telling him she was leaving may have been the hardest thing Gabriella ever had to do. But she knew it was necessary.

  “I’m going to fly back to Connecticut with Alex and Monica. Naomi can supervise the last days of the project. And I’ll be sure to report that she did to the Proctor Group. I’m going to go back and deal with Austin. Because if I don’t, it will never be over with him. He won’t stop unless I stop him,” she said.