Chapter Twenty-Six
IT didn’t take Tyler long to respond to the cry of a woman. His inner cop fought through the shock and the fear and propelled him forward. He picked up pace, ignoring the cries of Austin’s brothers and Michael, and just ran towards the blood curdling screams.
He darted for the door, stepping inside, he noticed almost immediately the eerie feeling to the air around him. The howls had died down, now nothing more than horrified sobs of disbelief. He edged forward inch by inch, feeling Michael shadowing his every last move. When he rounded the corner he found Diane in a crumpled heap on the floor right in front of the pantry door.
Noticing the door was open; Tyler allowed his gaze to drop and felt himself choke on his inhale as he noticed a twisted foot wedging the door ajar. Quickly, he looked down to Diane who looked to him and shakily rose her hand to the door.
“H-he’s dead,” she managed to say before dissolving into her grief all over again. “Th-there’s so much bl-blood!”
Tyler didn’t need to be told twice. Training and years of preparation in a small town police department boded well and he felt ready to tackle this efficiently and effectively. “Get her out of here,” Tyler instructed, looking behind him to Tom, “Now!”
“Call for back up too,” Michael countered, playing Tyler’s right-hand man in this.
No one moved until Tom led the inconsolable woman from the room and consequently from the house. As the crying weakened the further away they went, Tyler looked to Michael and Dean before reminding himself that he had to take command. Forcing himself to move towards the door, Tyler had to use every ounce of willpower he possessed to reach for the door and open it. The moment the light filtered in, Tyler gagged at the sight and the smell that combined together and took over his senses. There before him was Robert Truman’s dead body, obviously left to be found after being brutally attacked.
Stepping back in disgust, Tyler put the back of his hand to his mouth and fought with his gag reflexes. He half expected Michael to do the same, but remembered what his job entailed. Suddenly he was thankful for Michael’s presence here and knew he could take control until his composure came back to him.
Realizing the need to keep himself from contaminating the scene more, he headed to the kitchen to find a plastic bag or anything he could use to open the door wider. When he came back he noticed that Michael was onto something and Dean was nowhere to be seen. When the door was open the entire way, Tyler now noticed Robert’s entire side of his head was caved in, and he had to close his eyes. The culprit had been vicious.
“There are signs of a clean up,” Michael pointed out suddenly as he traced the rooms for any disturbances. “Clearly it was a rushed job considering the amount of blood splatter that was missed.” He crouched down, looking closer. “We need forensics here. Anything we can get, we need to be able to place Natasha here. It had to be her.”
“To be quite honest, Mike, I’m more concerned with my daughter’s whereabouts than pegging Robert’s murder on Natasha,” Tyler spoke up, trying to keep wild panic on lock down. “She’s already sentenced to be away for life, this alone will cost her dearly. Add on that,” he pointed back towards where Robert’s corpse was and his aggression just continued to heat. “She’s obviously not getting the psychological treatment she needs.”
“With all of this, she’s looking at more than a minimal security prison. She’s fitting a profile,” Michael began to say.
“Don’t deduce me down to the sciences of your job,” Tyler sneered, not caring about his tone. “I won’t rest until I can say to Austin our daughter is coming home, because if she doesn’t I dread to think what my life will end up like. I dread to think what Austin will end up like.”
“We’re all here to help,” Michael defended, putting his hands up in the air. “We’re all on the same side here, Ty. We’re all trying to find Gracie.”
“Good, then we’re all on the same page,” Tyler bit back before turning back to Robert and taking a closer look. “His gun’s gone,” Tyler stated, looking to the empty holster on Robert’s pants. “We know Natasha has a gun.”
“You don’t think she did this to her own father do you?” Dean asked aghast, the disgust roiling up inside of him. He had just walked back in to hear the end of the heated discussion between the two men, and couldn’t help his curiosity.
“Right now, my speculation is driving right towards Natasha,” Tyler stated fast, looking to Michael who promptly agreed with the conclusion made. “After all, how does she just wind up with a gun to then shoot my wife and my sister-in-law? Especially after her escape.”
“What if he helped her and now she’s done with him, she needed to get rid of him?” Michael asked, throwing ideas together. “She doted on her father, and he did the same to her. Why would you get rid of the one person that was always on your side?”
“Because he knew too much,” Tyler muttered and ran out of the house. “Diane,” he said running over to her as she sat with Tom. “I know this is distressing for you, but to help us, you need to tell us if Robert told you anything about helping Natasha escape custody.”
“No,” she shook her head. “No, nothing. I’ve barely spoken to him. I wanted nothing to do with him after he supported her. God, I’ve only just forgiven him, and now he’s gone!” She then began to wail, her grief tumbling out in heavy onslaughts.
Tyler was going to go back inside, but when the new squad of police and forensics turned up, he knew there were no clues in that house than what he had already. It wasn’t a lot, but it helped him understand how they got to the point they were. He just wished Robert was still breathing enough to get more answers out of him.
“I’ve something to say,” Dean suddenly announced, coming up between Tyler and Michael.
“What’s that?” They both asked in unison.
“You two do well as a pair,” Dean threw the comment at them as he walked out, allow the professionals to do what they needed.
“Our women would love that,” Michael joked, nudging Tyler slightly.
“Yeah,” Tyler agreed, not sounding so convincing. “Maybe it’s something we need to look into once Grace’s back.”
Michael nodded as Tyler began walking out of the house. “Tyler?” he called out quickly, taking his chance. He waited for the other man to turn and face him and he gave a weak smile, “Don’t tell anyone else this, but I’m not going back to New York.”
“What?” Tyler’s face loosened with shock as he watched Michael cross the distance between them. “I thought your whole life was there?”
“I did too,” he remarked, agreeing originally with the statement. He lifted his gaze, meeting Tyler’s squarely. “Until I was told Sienna was shot. Like I told Austin, my world stopped, and the moment I was here I didn’t want to leave again. I don’t want to leave again. Austin means the world to me, she always will, but Sienna-”
“Means more?” Tyler cut in, giving him an honest smile. “Austin will always be something more than any other woman to me. Now you’ve found yours, don’t let her get away. Life without her will be unbearable. Take it from the fool that let her go once.” Tyler shook his head and smiled. “If I have any advice to give to you, it would be to allow her to get under your skin. Let her in on all counts because loving that one person that makes you whole is stronger than anything else in the world. I have Austin, and she’s given me everything I’ve ever wanted.” He watched as Michael took in his words, allowing them to sink in. “I gotta go,” he suddenly muttered, taking off.
“Where are you going?” Dean asked as Tyler passed him by.
“I need my wife,” Tyler merely stated, heading off towards the car again. He had done his job, but he was emotionally worn down, and he didn’t know how much he could cope without having one clue as to his daughter’s whereabouts.
***
When Tyler marched into his wife’s hospital room, he found her lying silently still, her eyes staring off, her hand wrapped lightly aroun
d Grace’s doll Clara. The sight weakened him and he just halted all motions.
Slowly Austin moved her head around to look at him. She couldn’t offer much more than a sad smile to him. She then noticed that his eyes were at her side and she looked before returning her gaze to him. “I had to ask mom to go and grab it,” Austin admitted, looking down at the doll. “She’s going to be so scared without her.”
“We’ll have it ready and waiting for her,” Tyler commented, not knowing what else to say in that moment. He knew that Grace barely slept without her doll, especially when she wasn’t sleeping in her own bed. He just worried how, at nearly four years old, she would cope with seeing what she had and being kept from her mother and father. “Are you okay?” Tyler suddenly asked her, concern etching into every curve of his face. “Dean received a call and told me you got to talk to Gracie again.”
“Yeah,” Austin whispered, her eyesight dropping. “Grace managed to tell me she was close, and Natasha, she was so harsh. Gracie doesn’t deserve this and I just kept seeing these horrible images in my head of our baby. She can’t expect someone of Grace’s age to be compliant.”
“I know,” Tyler agreed, taking Austin’s pain on as his own. “She must know that too. If not, she’ll learn pretty quickly.” He watched his wife just nod, pushing herself to believe in his words. “Now, Sunny,” he whispered, moving a little of her hair back out of her face. “How are you really doing?”
“Apparently I’m doing better than expected,” Austin said, offering a small, sad smile. “I can be discharged within a day or two. Then I can help find Gracie.”
“No,” Tyler defied her, his voice weak and pathetic to the ear. “You won’t be helping. You’ll let us find her, and you’ll get better. Grace needs her mom to be ready to hug her when she comes home, and not risking her health to do so.”
“And what about you?” Austin quipped sarcastically. “She needs her dad not to do the same.”
“I wasn’t the one that took a bullet,” Tyler stated harshly, still plagued by sights of his wife injured.
“She still has a gun,” Austin replied simply, and she had to close her eyes. The image in her mind of Tyler taking a bullet was still too vivid and haunting for her to shake it off. “She still has a gun and our daughter, and I dread to think of what lengths she will go to get what she wants, Tyler.”
“Hey,” Tyler soothed the moment he heard her heart monitor as it began to race as her agitation began to multiply. “She won’t hurt her,” he stated. He might not have shouted the words, but with the ferocious note in his tone, he didn’t need to raise his voice to make Austin listen. “She needs our daughter to win me over. She needs Gracie to work this. She has to know that if she dare touch even a hair on her head, I will kill her and not look back.”
“Don’t,” Austin croaked, shaking her head vehemently. “Don’t talk like that.” She closed her eyes, her empathy shining through. “I need her back, and I need you, Ty. I need you. I don’t want you risking anything for her. I know we’ll both do anything to get Gracie back, but I don’t want to see you get into trouble for her.”
“We won’t get into trouble,” Tyler spoke, trying to believe that his actions wouldn’t cost him dearly, but he knew if he reacted to the emotions boiling in him now, he wouldn’t see a day of sunlight again. “We’ll get her back,” he told Austin, climbing onto the bed to hold her, Tyler didn’t want to tell her just yet about what they found at Robert’s house. “We will have her back soon,” Tyler vowed, kissing his wife’s head.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“I never did to get bake cookies with her,” Austin whispered into the dead air that hung around them. Her tone was soft, distant, and piercing all at once. She didn’t move away from Tyler’s body, she just lay against him, staring off, her fingers entwining absent-mindedly with the hair on Grace’s doll.
“You’re going to have so many more opportunities to make cookies,” Tyler stated back. He wasn’t giving up on the idea that Grace was going to be back in their arms soon. For that reason, he wouldn’t let Austin give up either.
“Am I?” she asked him, pushing off his body so she could twist to look up. “How can you say that, Ty? How? We don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“Why are you being so negative?” Tyler asked, deliberately getting off the bed to look directly at his wife. “This isn’t you.”
“There isn’t much to be positive about,” Austin admitted weakly. She felt pathetic under the strain of life and she hated it. She hated every moment that she allowed Natasha to rule any of her emotions, but her yearning to hold her daughter was too overwhelming. She was weak without her family together.
“I need you to kill this mood you’ve allowed yourself to get into, Austin. It’s not like you. I know, right now, you feel like you’re to blame, and that you are solely responsible for everything that’s happened to us in our past and now, but we vowed to never let our past define us,” Tyler stated, only stopping when his tirade finished.
“It’s hard to stop it when our past won’t leave us alone,” Austin fought back feebly with him. “I just feel swallowed by it all and I can’t stop myself from feeling like this. I don’t want to be like this, but can you blame me?” She suddenly looked up at him, her eyes emblazoned with a multitude of emotions. “I can’t cope with this anymore. She’s winning.”
“And you’re letting her,” Tyler snapped at her, he was unimpressed. “I can’t take this! This isn’t the Austin we watched come back!” Tyler bellowed, everything topping him. “Look what you’re becoming, Austin.” He threw his hands up, running them through his hair. “I understand that this is hard, it’s hard for me. I also get that you’re in pain and you feel helpless, but, Aus, I’m trying everything here. But right now I feel like I’m losing you too!” He stepped forward, crouching slightly to be at her level. “Do you know how that feels?” he asked her, begging her to react.
Austin nodded at him. “This is what she wants,” Austin mumbled, her head dropping as her gaze lowered furthermore to her lap. “She wants us at loggerheads with one another. I know she does.” She slowly looked up to meet his solemn gaze, her heart beginning to pound violently behind the walls of her chest. “I can’t be okay with this, Tyler. I’m terrified and I feel trapped. I can’t do anything but sit around and wait for you to come back to me and tell me something new. What happens if you have to come and tell me bad news?” she asked him, her voice quaking under that one question. “What happens when Natasha gets what she wants?”
“She only gets what she wants if we let her!” Tyler argued back, unable to see how all the fight was lost from his wife. “Why are you being like this, Aus? You’re usually the strong one. Where has she gone?”
Austin lifted her gaze to look at her husband, and lost her cool entirely. “I don’t know,” Austin began to cry out, drawing her legs up slowly to her chest. “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.”
In the moment that weakness completely beat his wife down, Tyler felt the terror he had kept controlled strengthen and it quickly consumed him. He couldn’t believe how broken she had become in the course of a few days. He could never be disappointed in her. He had expected her to break under the pressure. Hell, he was breaking out into a sweat under it all, but he had always expected his wife to remain strong and in control. Now she wasn’t and he felt like his entire world was crumbling down completely. And as he watched, he felt a part of him snap. His mentality tested and he needed to make this right before she gave up.
“Aussie,” he whispered as he swooped to her side, ready to take command and soothe her.
Austin shrugged him off. “Leave me alone.” She looked at him, trying to get him to back away from her. She wanted him so much, but a part of her wanted to push him away, make him leave her alone. “I’m sorry I’m like this, Tyler, but I’m not strong. Why can’t you see that? I’m weak. I’ve been living under an act and for what?” she asked him, her tears beginning to fall in
torrents down her damaged cheeks. “All for me to disappoint every single one of you when you realize how easily I falter and fall.”
As her words hit him, he realized she had addressed them all inappropriately. She had played a guessing game, labeling them all with a reaction that wasn’t true. With the ante getting heavier, Tyler knew he had to save Grace in order to save Austin. However, he couldn’t just let her sit around and behave like this. Swallowing the lump that had cemented itself into his throat, he calmed himself down before he gave her a final blow. A plan struck up in his mind instantaneously, and he knew that if anyone was going to annihilate Austin entirely for her to hit rock bottom and jump back up with her fighting nature, it would be him. He hardened his gaze, told himself that this would end one day soon, and he would never have to administer the next words to his wife ever again.
“If you want to throw a pity party, Aus, do it,” Tyler suddenly stated. “When you realize this isn’t you, call me. Until then I’m going to bring our daughter home. If that’s what it’s going to take to get you back to the woman I know and love, then so be it. This isn’t you, Austin, and I refuse to sit here and watch you be like this. If you want to act like a child and not the woman I married, or the woman that is Gracie’s mother, then fine. Just don’t expect me to hang around.”
He said nothing else. He just left.
What have I done? She thought to herself. With her vision swimming, she looked around the empty room, praying it was all an awful hallucination, but Tyler was no longer here. He was no longer with her in the room. Feeling her lip begin to tremble, she clung onto the Clara doll as if it were her lifeline, and just gave in to everything that was coursing through her body. She didn’t care that each new sob that wracked her body only exacerbated her pains, she didn’t care that each new cry set a shockwave to the gunshot wound to her chest. She just didn’t care, and she knew she wouldn’t until her daughter was home, and her family was safe. This shell that had taken over her body was impenetrable to all of her attempts to free herself. She had felt herself slipping further and further into an icy darkness, but now she knew she couldn’t remain like this.
Watch What Burns Page 22