“I promise Neal. I love you too.”
She moved as fast as she could, and grabbed her purse on the way out the door. She was soon locked in her car and dialing 9-11 on her cell phone. She was still waiting for the operator to pick up when she heard the gunshot.
Her heart felt like a stone in her chest. What was she going to tell Ashlyn if Neal didn’t make it she wondered? Would the little girl have to go back and live with Tress? She couldn’t stand the thought of Ash having to go back to her mother.
Her thoughts were still spinning out of control in her head when the operator picked up. “9-11, please state the nature of your emergency.”
“I need police and an ambulance. My ex-boyfriend is fighting with my current boyfriend in my apartment. He’s got a gun. I heard a shot. I think Neal might be hurt. Please send someone quickly.”
“I’ll have police and an ambulance on their way in no time ma’am. What is your location?”
Robyn told the operator her address and then waited impatiently while the woman on the other end of the line repeated it back to her.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“We’ll have someone there right away. Stay on the line with me.”
Robyn listened with half an ear to what the woman was saying after that. It seemed to take endless minutes for the sounds of sirens to come. Finally, a cop car roared into the parking lot. She told the operator the police had arrived and hung up her phone.
There was no movement from her apartment. She was worried that Neal really was dead. It seemed to take forever for the two police officers to get out of their car and come her way. She got out of her car, and they finally came towards her.
“Are you the one that called 9-11 ma’am?”
“Yes, please hurry. My boyfriend is in there. He could be dying. There was a gunshot.”
“Are you injured ma’am?”
“I’m fine. Please help him.”
“We’ll be back to take your statement in a few minutes, once we have all of this sorted out. Go sit in your car please.”
“Okay.”
“It’s apartment three right?”
“Yes.”
Robyn watched the two officers approach her door. When they banged loudly on the door and called out police, the door was opened, but she couldn’t see who it was that had opened it. Heart pounding, she went back to her car.
It was another few minutes before her door opened again. She breathed a sigh of relief when Gabe was led out in handcuffs between the two officers. She didn’t think she’d seen a more beautiful sight in her life when Neal came over to her car after the police had passed by with Gabe.
She opened her door and got out of the car, practically throwing herself into his arms.
“Whoa, darlin’,” Neal said with a grin. “I’m okay. I promise.”
“I was so worried about you. When I heard the shot, I was sure you were dead. I don’t know what I would have done if Gabe had shot you.”
His smile faded. “Me neither.”
“Where’s Ashlyn?”
“She’s at the neighbors. I am so glad that I finally let her talk me into letting her stay over there over night.”
“Me too.”
An ambulance pulled in, but one of the policemen waved it off. The driver honked and pulled out.
“Are you sure you don’t want to see a doctor Neal?”
“I don’t like doctors babe. My head hurts, but otherwise I’m fine. Your ceiling on the other hand, now has a nice hole in it.”
“I don’t care. I’ll pay for it with some of the money that Gabe overpaid me. We’re leaving anyway.”
“What do you say we blow this popsicle stand tomorrow babe?”
“Tomorrow? What if they need you to testify or something?”
“You’ve noticed that the cops haven’t come back to take our statements yet, right? It’s because they’re talking to Gabe. This charge is going to get dropped and disappear right into the abyss. Gabe is very friendly with the police department. He’s got money and he’s not afraid to spread it around if he thinks it will get him something that he wants. Why do you think he hasn’t gotten picked up on stalking charges? He’s been watching women for years.”
“Then I guess we’d better get out of here before he gets out of jail, huh?”
“Yeah. We probably have a day or two. That way they can say he did his time if anything ever comes up. We’ll go upstairs and start packing after they’ve taken our statements. I know you probably don’t want to sleep in your bed tonight. I think there’s blood on your sheets.”
“I’m so sorry Neal.”
He squeezed her hand. “Don’t worry about it babe. It’s over. Or it’s gonna be, once we’re out of this town.”
They both shut up then because one of the policemen was coming their way. As he took their statements, and had them fill out paper statements of their own, Robyn thought that Neal was right. The cop seemed a lot less interested in the case now that he knew it involved Gabe Atkins instead of some average Joe.
Once they had finished their statements, the cop handed them both a card and walked away.
They went into Robyn’s apartment only long enough for her to pick up her night clothes and a change of clothes for the next day.
They went upstairs and spent most of the night packing, only going to bed when the light of dawn started to shine through.
A knock on the door woke both of them a little after eleven a.m. Robyn sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes, knowing that it was Gabe on the other side of the door.
“I’ll get it. You stay here,” Neal said. She knew that he was worried it would be Gabe, too.
But Neal came back with Ashlyn several minutes later. She was excited about having been able to spend the night at her friend’s house but was even more excited because Neal had told her they were moving and had promised her that once they were in their new house, she could have a dog.
The spent the rest of the day packing, and then all went to bed early, after having had pizza delivered for dinner.
There was no sign of Gabe the next morning when they went to rent the U-Haul truck. Robyn was glad. They pulled out of town a little after ten a.m. Neal was driving the U-Haul which had his car strapped to a trailer on the back. Robyn was delighted when Ashlyn chose to ride with her for the long trip.
None of them were sad to say goodbye to Brunton. Robyn didn’t think she’d been happier to leave a town ever before in her life.
They reached their destination early on Wednesday morning and pulled into the driveway of the friend of Neal’s that they were staying with until they could find a place of their own a little after eight a.m.
Ashlyn soon made friends with Neal’s friend Eden’s six year old daughter, and Robyn liked his wife Charlotte.
They put a down payment on a house a week after they got to town and were moved in two days later. Neal’s combination music store, internet café, and coffee house was set to open two weeks after the baby was due.
There was no word from Gabe. Robyn was glad that she had lied to him about where they were going. They weren’t in Neal’s hometown. They were in the city halfway across the country where Eden, who was Neal’s high school friend and new business partner, had moved after graduating college.
Robyn married Neal a week before her due date and the proceedings for her adoption of Ashlyn started soon after. Tress has relinquished her parental rights and didn’t want the visit she was allowed with her daughter before the order went through.
It made Robyn sad to think that Tress didn’t want to say goodbye to her daughter, but Ashlyn was adjusting well at her new school, and she loved the playful puppy that Neal had gotten her. She even called Robyn Mom sometimes. It made Robyn think that the pretty little girl had escaped from her mother without any lasting damage.
Angelina Catrice Barbara Jean Fletcher was born at 6:54 p.m. on a Friday night. Robyn called Fuller and notified him of the arrival of his daughter, but he told h
er he didn’t care and said that he would willing relinquish all custody rights.
Neal was more than willing to be little Angie’s father and a second adoption proceeding was soon started.
When Robyn left the hospital with her husband and her beautiful dark haired and dark eyed 6 pound 8 ounce daughter and went home to Ashlyn and the puppy that was named Bill, she thought she’d never been happier. Thoughts of Gabe Atkins and Gabe’s Place were far away, where she thought they belonged.
Thought of Gabe were still far away on the day she arrived home from the doctor a year later, having confirmed her second pregnancy. She grabbed the mail on her way to the door, stopping briefly to pat Bill’s head as she walked by. He followed her to the house. She let him inside, checking the time on the screen of her cell phone to see how close it was to the time Ashlyn arrived home from school.
She still had half an hour before Ash’s bus was due to arrive so she checked Bill’s water to make sure it was fresh and then sat down at the kitchen table, glancing through the stack of mail. Most of it was bills. She sat those aside to go through later. The only other envelope had no return address but was postmarked in Brunton.
Heart beating fast, she opened the envelope. Three photographs fell out onto the table as she pulled out the sheet of lined paper. One was of her, Neal, Ashlyn and Angie at the local park. The date told her that it had been taken the week before. The second was a shot of the front of Neal’s store. The third was a picture of Ashlyn on the playground of her school.
With her heart feeling like it was in her throat, Robyn opened the folded over paper.
‘My darling Robyn,’ it read. ‘I see that you have made a happy home life for yourself and your family. Good for you. Congratulations on the new addition to your family, and no, I don’t mean your dog Bill, either. We could have had such a beautiful family together my beautiful Robyn, but alas, you chose to leave with that loser Neal. I give his silly venture another year before it goes belly up. You will be happy to hear that I have moved on. Maybe she will be the woman that I had hoped you would be. We shall see. If you should ever decide that you want to take me up on my earlier offer, I may be willing to give you a second chance. Maybe. Farewell my darling. Be sure to watch your Neal’s roving eye. All my love, Gabe’
Robyn tore the letter into as many pieces as she could and then did the same with the pictures. She had just finished burying them in the trash when Ashlyn got home from school, excited to tell her about the new friend she had made.
Robyn let herself get lost in her daughter’s happy chatter. Thoughts of Gabe were soon forgotten. She heard no more from him after that and was truly able to move on with her family. Neal’s store continued to succeed and she gave birth to a healthy baby boy nine months later that they named Neal II. The last addition was made to their family three years later, a set of twins that they named Jezzebella Louise and Candra Bleu.
Girls of Gabe’s Place 3: Ami
Misty Reigenborn
Copyright 2011
By Misty Reigenborn
Chapter 1
After seven years, twenty-four year old Amelia Collins felt like she was still looking over her shoulder. She pulled into Brunton early on a morning in September, wondering if this time she’d finally feel safe. She was hungry, and she was tired since she’d been driving all night.
There was a diner up ahead and Amelia (or Ami as she preferred to be called) decided to stop.
She lit a cigarette as she pulled into the parking lot, pushing the button to roll her window down. Smoking was a habit she’d started because it reminded her of her father.
It drove her mother crazy, but then again everything she’d done since she’d left home seemed to drive her mother crazy. Even before that, she’d felt that she’d driven Desiree Brooks close to out of her mind.
It had started when she was sixteen. At sixteen, Corin Taylor had been everything Ami had thought she’d wanted. He was pure bad boy with hair that her mother thought was too long. He’d dyed it black and always had different colored streaks running through it. His lip, tongue and nose were pierced and he had a tattoo in a very intimate place. Ami used to wonder how he’d managed to get the tattoo at sixteen, but had never had the courage to ask him.
He’d told her he loved her within a week of their being together. In another week, he’d talked her into his bed. Ami had thought she was in heaven when she was in his arms. It hadn’t mattered that he’d refused to wear a condom, because she’d known that she’d never get pregnant. She’d just known.
Things had gone incredibly well for six months. Corin was an emancipated minor and had a good job working at a local mechanic shop. He put away money and bought her an engagement ring that she managed to hide away in her underwear drawer and wear only when she was with him. He’d liked it to be the only thing she wore when they made love. By that time, Ami had managed to convince her mother and even her stepfather that Corin was utterly responsible.
She’d soon found out that she was wrong. Within another month, Corin started hitting her. She was able to hide it at first, because he’d hit her in places where the bruises wouldn’t show. Ami still thought she loved him and the thought of leaving him never crossed her mind at that time.
In their eighth month together, she found out she was pregnant. She had felt so proud when she told Corin. She’d thought that he’d be happy. But she’d been very, very wrong.
When she’d told him about the baby, Corin had flown into a rage. He’d accused her first of cheating on him, then of trying to trap him into marrying her even though he’d already proposed himself. She’d tried to calm him down, to tell him that they could go stay with her father since she’d already talked to him and he’d said yes. She didn’t see him often, but it was in her parents’ divorce decree that if she ever wanted to live with her father, she could. He was easier to talk to than her mother, so he’d been the one she’d told about her pregnancy.
Telling him about her father’s offer only seemed to make it worse, though. Corin had started hitting her. She’d been terrified that he wasn’t going to stop until he killed her. He’d choked her until she’d passed out. Somehow, even though she’d been sure that if the point of Corin’s attack wasn’t to kill her, it was to make her lose the baby, she hadn’t miscarried.
She’d woken up two hours later, alone on his living room floor. She could barely move. He’d broken her cell phone. Luckily, he had a home phone and she’d managed to crawl over to it. It wasn’t the police she called, though. It was her father. Charles Collins had threatened to kill Corin when he’d found out what happened, but Ami had managed to talk him out of it. She hadn’t had the courage to tell her mother what had happened. Charles was the one that told her that Ami was coming to live with him. Charles was the one that took her to a retired doctor friend of his so he wouldn’t have to take her to the hospital.
Charles was the one who discussed the options for her pregnancy with her, though he cried when he mentioned abortion. Charles was the one who had made sure she got prenatal care and had paid for tutoring so she could get her GED and not have to go back to school.
Charles was the one who finally explained to her mother what had really happened. Desiree Brooks had demanded that her daughter come home. She and her husband Bruce had had to take a restraining order out against Corin because he wouldn’t stop calling their house, sitting outside of it at all hours of the night. When Ami had refused, she’d demanded that she be given custody of the baby when it was born.
It was her father that Ami had given custody of her son to, though. Then later his sister when her father had died three years before. It hurt her to think that she couldn’t stand to raise her own son because he looked so much like his father. She still called and saw him now and then, the little boy that was named after his Grandpa, and Lisa said that she would sign over custody when Ami wanted it.
She needed her son to be safe though, and she was never sure she could keep him safe while his father
was still around.
Her relationship with her mother was still strained. She wondered sometimes why she bothered to even talk to Desiree anymore. She knew that her mother loved her of course, and she adored her half brother and sister, and tolerated her stepfather, but Ami couldn’t take her mother’s constant nagging. How she barely saw her grandson, when Ami was going to come home.
Never, that’s when I’m going to go home, Ami thought. Her father had given her what was left of his inheritance from his parents when she’d turned 18, so she could go out on her own. She hadn’t wanted to take it, but she knew that her father and Charles II would be in more danger if she was around. She was the one that Corin wanted.
He’d managed to get her unlisted cell phone number and had called her two days before her eighteenth birthday. He’d been sweet at first, telling her how sorry he was about what had happened. He didn’t mention the baby, so she’d let him assume that she’d lost it. When she refused to give him another chance and tell him where she was, he’d told her he’d find her and that he’d kill her.
That was what had made her take the $25,000 that her father had given her. She’d begged her father to move at first, even though they’d moved twice before she’d left. He wouldn’t do it, though. And Corin had never showed up on his doorstep, or Lisa’s. She had seen him twice since she’d left, both times luckily before he’d seen her. She’d immediately packed up and moved both times.
She hadn’t heard or seen anything from him in four years but she still felt like she was always on edge. She had dyed her hair more times than she could count. She had cut her hair, let it grow out, curled it and straightened it. She’d pierced her nose and let the piercings in her ears grow closed because she’d always loved to wear earrings when she was a teenager. Ami Collins felt that she would never truly be free of Corin until he was dead.
Ami put her cigarette out in the ashtray and glanced at herself in the side mirror of her car.
Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set Page 72
