I Need You Forever

by Cynthia P. O'Neill

  “Declan’s dad ended up working alongside Frank at the construction company, once his term as state representative ended, and Declan followed in their footsteps getting his degree in Building Construction. He was set to take over the business once they both retired. Unfortunately, that never happened.”

  I needed to hear the rest of the story. I knew they were leaving something out on purpose. “How does Cain come into all this?”

  “I’ve been the one investigating him.” Rick chimed in. “Cain resented being left in that home. As he grew, he realized he needed to portray he had his emotions and anger issues under control in order to get the things he wanted. He’d received his basic education at the facility he was at, but was promised online college and private training sessions to complete his studies…”

  I shook my head, knowing what answer was coming, “Let me guess, a degree in Building Construction.”

  Everyone nodded as Rick continued. “I took a couple days off last week and flew out there to check out the belongings he’d left behind.”

  “Left behind? What are you saying? He’s free to roam around?”

  Rick nodded. “He’s been free from the facility for the past five years. He was able to be released when he hit twenty-one years of age and was able to gain approval from a psychiatric evaluation.

  “I just wish the doctor would’ve gone through his things. They would’ve discovered he wanted vengeance for being put in that place.” He looked at me directly. “He’d kept all of his feelings in a diary, citing that it was his time to emerge into life while Declan was put away. He blamed Declan and wanted his life, every part of it.”

  I swallowed hard, “Including Robin?”

  His words were soft spoken, “Yes. If you recall, she told us about how he suddenly changed one night at the club they’d gone to. She’d commented how he went from being somewhat docile and in control to a masochist with violent tendencies. We think that’s when Declan was jumped and later killed. He was found wearing leather pants and a vest, with an engagement ring in his pocket. We’re guessing he was planning to propose to Robin that night.”

  “And instead that sick son of a bitch showed up and hurt her. How did she not see it? How did anyone not see it? How did he get away with it?” I couldn’t wrap my head around any of this.

  Rick continued. “I was able to get footage from the club they were in that night, and it showed Declan welcoming Cain into the room; then, two masked men grabbed Declan from behind and dragged him out while Cain spent time with Robin.

  “The familiarity between the two brothers bothered me, so I dug deeper and discovered footage of other times their paths crossed. Cain had been invited to join them in the room before, to get to know Robin, but never anything more than a kiss or a touch. He did more than she admitted. Declan didn’t seem to like the idea of sharing her; he was definitely protective of what was his.”

  My mind was swirling with too much information. The words Robin had said before, “It’s like they’re one in the same.” Her dreams had included her deceased father morphing into Declan. Subconsciously, she knew. Somehow she’d guessed but hadn’t understood the significance behind her dreams.

  I felt the bile continue to rise in my throat. It was a struggle trying to hold it back as I listened to all the sorted details. Rick continued on. “Cain had been working for a competing firm for years to gain the experience he needed and the knowledge his brother had. He watched Declan like a hawk to know his every move. When he felt comfortable, he approached him, wormed his way into his life, and then killed him – opening up the door for him to become Declan.”

  The sound of a fist hitting the desk made us all jump. Alexander’s face was red, and you could tell his temper was holding on by a thread. “Do we have a location on this sick bastard? If not, use all available resources, spare no expense to find this malicious beast, and take him down if necessary.”

  I felt thankful to be on Alexander’s side and grateful that he wanted this killer found. Cain’s parents seemed to name him appropriately; he seemed to be emulating his namesake a little too much for my liking.

  Derrick responded. “We have all of Titan’s agents within the Austin area and its surrounding cities combing the region for him. We’ve submitted his picture to all the agents, local law enforcements, and bounty hunters between here and there letting them know he’s a suspected killer with violent tendencies. So far, we’ve had a few possible sightings, mainly in Texas, but nothing confirmed yet. He’s supposed to be traveling for Devlin Ridge Construction, checking on the various job sites, but he’s been off grid for a few days now.”

  I felt my shoulders slump forward as though the weight of the world were pressing down on me. This was dangerous, where I had the potential to lose Robin. I couldn’t let that happen. “Protect her with your love, and she’ll be fine.” I smirked to myself. Every time I felt Robin was in danger, I’d hear Gabi’s voices as if she were guiding me on what to do.

  “I can’t lose her. Can we do something about more security? We need to find where he’s at so we know when he’s coming. Isn’t there anything that can help us protect her?” I was frantic, needing words of assurance.

  Alexander came up and hugged me. “It’s okay, son. We’re using Titan to double our security team. We’ll have several eyes on her at all times. No one’s going to get through our defenses if we can help it.”

  I stepped back from him and tried to smile. “We can’t tell her all this; it will destroy her. She’s already handling more than she needs to with the news of her brother.”

  “I agree, son. Let’s just keep it between us until it’s resolved or becomes an issue. Are we all on the same page here?” He looked around to see Derrick and Rick nodding in agreement.

  I FELT GROGGY AND disoriented as I tried to move my head; I began to panic. “Shh. I’ve got you, honey.” I felt Jackson’s arms wrap around me from behind.

  I tried to make sense of why we were in bed. Hadn’t we already gotten up and dressed for the day? Weren’t we supposed to be shopping, or had I dreamed it all? That’s when everything came flooding back and the tears started pouring out. My brother was a possible hostage of a militant group somewhere overseas.

  I bolted upright in bed, out of Jax’s embrace, but he quickly pulled me into his chest and held me tight. I jumped when I felt another hand on my back. “It’s all right, Robin. Let your fear and your frustrations out.” It was Carol, but what was she doing here? That’s when I opened my eyes and looked around, realizing we were at Alexander’s place.

  “It’s okay, honey. You had a panic attack. We were close to needing an ambulance before Carol showed up with a sedative for you.” His voice was the only thing keeping me anchored to reality.

  The tears started to lessen, so Carol came to sit on the side of the bed closest to me while I started to relax against his chest. “You might feel a little grogginess from the shot, but it should wear off completely in a couple of hours. Have you had many panic attacks lately?”

  I looked over at her and shook my head. “I think this is only the second one recently, but the worst by far. I felt as though I couldn’t catch my breath no matter how hard I tried.”

  Her hand came out to touch my forearm as her face wore a soft smile filled with kindness and caring. “It’s understandable, sweetie. You were given some horrible news that your mind didn’t want to accept, so it went into panic mode. I’m hoping the worst is over, but I’ll write a prescription for a few sedatives to have on hand, just in case. Have you ever had them before?”

  I nodded. “Yes.” I’d been talking with Carol a couple times a week for the past month. I’d enlightened her about Declan and our past together. So it came as no surprise when she heard me admit, “My dad insisted I take some after I’d escaped here to Orlando. Every time someone would knock on his front door I’d panic thinking Declan had found me.”

  I watched as Carol pulled a prescription pad from her briefcase. “Since you’ve had
these before, I won’t go over all the ins and outs of them. I’ll give you a script for ten pills, and we’ll go from there. Try to refrain from taking them, since they can cause other medicines not to work, and don’t take them in coordination with the sleeping aid. You don’t want to overdose.”

  “Thank you.”

  The door to the bedroom swung open, causing us all to look. Alexander was a presence to be reckoned with. When he walked into a room, everyone stopped what they were doing. He could be intimidating, but if you had the chance to look underneath his tough exterior, you’d see a big teddy bear that fiercely protected the ones he cared about.

  A smile spread across his face when he saw I was awake. “It’s good to see you’re up and talking. You had us worried there, Robin.”

  Feeling ashamed of how easily I’d crumbled, I stared at the floor, not wanting to look at him. “I’m sorry, sir. I don’t know what came over me. I’ll try to keep my emotions in check from now on.”

  He waved his hand in the air in dismissal of my words. “Don’t worry about it, it’s all but forgotten. The reason I came in here was to see how you’re doing and to go ahead and give you and Jackson your Christmas gift.”

  I shook my head and opened my mouth to tell him it wasn’t necessary, but he held his hand high, blocking my attempt. “I don’t want any arguments when I say that Celia and I would like to send you both on an early Christmas getaway. We’re going to give you a few days off work so you can hide away, relish the ambience of your locale, and just enjoy one another. Call it a romantic vacation or a small escape from reality if you’d like. My only question is where would the two of you like to go? Celia and I can’t seem to agree on where we should send you, so we decided we’d ask.”

  “That does sound like a good idea, but what will we do with Nicola?” Jackson wondered.

  Alexander was quick to counter, “Celia, your parents, and I will take turns watching over her and keeping her busy for a few days while you both enjoy some alone time.”

  Jackson turned me in his arms and lifted my chin with his hands until our eyes met, “Is there any place you’d like to go that you haven’t been? Is there someplace that brings back special memories for you?”

  I shook my head. “I always enjoyed escaping to the beaches along the Gulf coast of Texas, but...” I shook at the thought, “Declan’s in Texas.”

  Jackson’s eyes narrowed and his voice deepened, “Nothing in Texas, honey. That’s out of the equation. Is there any place that you’ve always wanted to visit?”

  There were several places I wanted to visit, both in the country and around the world, but having only a few days in which to get away narrowed it down a bit. “Don’t we need to buy tickets, make reservations, and finish up some loose ends at work? We can’t just hop a flight overnight, can we?”

  Alexander shook his head. “Let me worry about work for a while. You’ll have use of the company jet to fly you anywhere you’d like to go. We only need a couple hours notice to get it ready. Celia can finalize the rest of the arrangements – leaving us with only the matter of the destination.”

  I watched as Derrick and Rick strolled in and whispered something to Alexander. His eyes had been alight with happiness, but suddenly turned dark – the smile completely gone from his face.

  “Is it about my brother?” I gripped Jackson harder, praying it wasn’t bad news.

  “No. It’s about your ex.” Derrick offered.

  Tightening his grip on me, Jax shook his head. “We agreed we wouldn’t bring this up today.” He was only making a statement, but the way he said it was filled with warning.

  Derrick held his hands up. “I only have a few questions to help us make sense of things, along with a few suggestions of where you two should go to keep safe. But only if Robin’s up to it.”

  I felt his hold on me loosen a bit as he looked at me with some strange emotion written on his face. He was hiding something – they all were – I could sense it. The tension in the room was palpable. There was something they didn’t want me to know, but what? Did he not trust me enough to tell me everything? Wasn’t that what a relationship was built on, a foundation of trust?

  I’d already dealt with the news of my brother, so it couldn’t get any worse, right? I looked over at Carol who offered, “It’s up to you. I can’t determine how you feel inside or how much you can handle, but I do know you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for.”

  I looked down at the floor and focused my attention on a small decorative tile square, when I said, “Okay, let’s have it.”

  “Let’s go ahead and get the questions out of the way so we can concentrate on your happiness and keeping you safe. There’s only a couple regarding your ex.” Derrick’s voice was soothing. By the way he phrased things, I could tell he hated asking me anything because normally he was rigid and to the point. This just raised my suspicions even more. Why was he being so careful with me?

  “Okay. What did you need to know?”

  “Can you tell us when you first started dating Declan and how you met?” Derrick asked.

  I nodded, taking in a sigh of relief when I realized they only needed some background information. “Yes. We ran into each other at a coffee shop close to my college campus. We’d each ordered a half caf decaf caramel macchiato with a chocolate drizzle on top. We both reached for the cup, when the barista put another one on the counter. I knew the combination was an odd one because every time I ordered it the cashier would make a face. Declan and I started talking and exchanged phone numbers after we realized we had some things in common. I remember it being December of my junior year, so it was four years ago this month.”

  “Wasn’t he already done with school? Why was he so close to campus?”

  I nodded and smiled. “He’d already received his degree in building construction. Declan hated the degree though. It was what his parents wanted him to do. They expected him to take over a family business that his uncle or someone… I forget who… had.”

  “Was he going back to school for something else?”

  I nodded. “Yes. He didn’t hate construction, but he wanted to design buildings as an architect, not oversee construction. So without his parents’ knowledge, Declan was taking classes at night and on weekends. He’d registered under a faux name, or at least that’s what he claimed, so he wouldn’t cause anyone to question things.”

  Rick piped up. “Do you remember the name he was registered under?”

  “Yes. It was Cain William Meyers. He’d kept his middle name. He said his parents wouldn’t approve of him following a slightly different path, but he claimed to have plans to bring in another family member to run one side of the business while he did all the design work.”

  I don’t know what I said, but the tension in the room spiked up another level and made me feel as though my guard needed to be up. What was going on here?

  A look passed between Rick and Derrick before he asked, “Did Declan ever tell you where he worked or what he did?”

  I shook my head. “I tried asking about his job, but he always shot the issue down. He’d said it was in the construction industry but never said where, and said that he worked for his family but had his own dreams to turn the company into something new and innovative.”

  “Did he ever introduce you to his family?”

  “No. He’d planned to introduce us after the spring semester was over but changed his mind when he told me they were having words. That was right around the time his attitude abruptly changed , and he’d gone from sweet and gentle to an overwhelming beast.”

  Derrick asked me to elaborate. “Do you know what he and his family were fighting about? And do you remember approximately what time period his personality shifted?’

  Jackson turned my head toward him, staring intensely into my eyes. “You don’t have to answer any of this if you don’t want to.”

  I raised my hand and cradled the side of his face. It had been a long time since anyone cared this much for
me. It brought back memories of a time when Declan had been this caring, but those times were lost forever.

  “I know and thank you for putting my feelings first, but I’m good. If these questions can help solve the mystery of why he’s after me and why he changed so much, then I’m happy to help.” I tried to reassure him.

  I looked back over to Derrick. “He wouldn’t talk about the issues with his parents, only that they were fighting about a close family member and didn’t want him to have any interaction with the person. As for the timing, it was the night after my last final for my junior year. I want to say April 26th. He’d wanted to take me out to celebrate and then swing by the club to enjoy a bit of a private celebration; he said he had a surprise for me.”

  My memories of that night came flooding back. “Everything had been so perfect during dinner; he treated me like a princess. Even at the club, he had the room decorated with candles, two dozen long-stem red roses, and rose petals strewn everywhere. He’d never been more romantic, but as I said before, something changed about him during our time at the club. His personality had made a complete one-eighty.”

  I could feel the tears on my face as I looked up. “It was like he was a whole different person after that. He’d hurt me that night. I tried to reason that it might be the pressure from his family or whomever he was protecting, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt; however, he kept hurting me over the course of the next couple of months, so that’s when I decided to leave him and go into hiding, and you know what happened after that.”

  I looked up at Derrick and Rick. “Why did you need these answers?”

  They looked at each other, no one wanting to say anything until Jackson spoke up. “I think they need to fill in the gaps and get a more definitive timeline to help them understand Declan and his motives better.”

  His words were believable, but they felt sugar-coated. I was about to ask questions, when Derrick quickly changed the subject. “Would you rather stay in a warmer climate or is the weather optional to you?”