The Stolen Heart (Contemporary Romance)

by Emily Walters

  As she turned to go the dog pulled the leash out of her hand and ran. It was a stupid mistake, not holding a tighter grip on the leash or keeping a better eye on the wild dog, and as Sadie ran away she felt overwhelmed to go after her and catch her before the storm hit. Ashley ran after the dog, calling her name and whistling as loud as she could. It was no use, that dog only listened to Hunter and he wouldn’t be home for a few hours. Maybe she should just let the dog run and come back when she pleased, if she was caught in a storm it was her own fault, but as soon as that thought occurred she vetoed it. The dog was loose because of her and the poor thing would be pitiful in the rain. The dog also hated thunder and would hide under the bed whenever it stormed, so imagining Sadie wet and scared broke her heart. She needed to search for her and hopefully find her before the rainstorm started.

  Ashley rushed through her land, looking for the fast pup, but the grass was high and the weeds with thorns were harsh on her skin. Her legs were getting scratched and a few cuts were bleeding. It had been years since she had walked that far out in the property, probably since she was an adventurous child. Even then the weeds and grass were not so wild and unruly. Her grandfather had always taken better care of the yard than she was. He made sure that the property was maintained and kept up. Seeing the property like this, it suddenly dawned on her that she had failed his standards. As the sticker bushes scraped into her flesh, it was a harsh reminder of how much she needed to focus on the property again. Just when she thought that her body had enough brutality from Mother Nature, the rain came crashing down onto her skin. Well, the storm was there and the dog was still nowhere in sight, she was going to have to go home without Sadie and hope the furry rebel found her way safely home soon.

  The walk back to house was miserable. As the lightning flashed above and the thunder cracked over her, each step was not fast enough. The rain soaked her and she was covered in mud up to her calves. Perhaps as a child she might have enjoyed a journey like this, but as a grown woman it was anything but fun. Defeated and a mess, she went to her back door and entered her house. Her laundry room was the first room you entered when you came through the back door so it was easy for her to get undressed and throw her wet and muddy clothes in the washer. She had a clean towel there so she wrapped it around her cold body and decided to go upstairs and shower. As she went through her laundry room and opened the door to go into the kitchen, she was greeted by a dry Sadie who was happily wagging her tail in front of her.

  How had the dog got back inside? Who had let Sadie in the house?

  “Hunter, are you here?” She called out for her boyfriend and hoped it was him who let the dog inside. “Hunter, are you home?”

  No one answered her and she began to fill with fear. Someone had to put the dog in the house and Hunter was nowhere to be found. Her phone was next to her on the counter where she had left it. She grabbed it and called Hunter.

  “Come on, answer your phone!” After calling four times and not getting an answer she sent him a text, but she was still too afraid to move from where she was standing in the kitchen. She couldn’t even get up the nerve to open the door and go back into the laundry room because she feared someone would be waiting for her there. She was stuck, frozen in fear and held in place by what-ifs.

  Not wanting to search the home alone, she did the only other thing she could think of, she called Henry. He surprisingly answered after one ring.

  “Can you please come to my house? I am afraid someone might be inside,” she whispered into the phone.

  “I will be right there,” Henry told her without asking anything else.

  “Come to the back door,” she said before hanging up.

  It didn’t take long since he was off duty and only lived a few miles away, but each minute felt like an hour as she waited for him or Hunter to arrive. When she finally heard something behind her she prayed it was one of them and not a murderer.

  “Ashley,” Henry said her name quietly.

  “Henry!” She opened the door that connected the kitchen to the laundry room.

  “Stay here while I check the house,” he told her before he disappeared into the other room.

  It was intense and terrifying as she waited for her friend to search the house for someone who could possibly harm them, but when he returned he stuck his gun back in its holster and gave her a reassuring look.

  “There is no one here, Ashley. The house is empty,” Henry said.

  “Thank God.” She sighed. “I was so afraid.”

  “What happened?” he asked her.

  “The dog got loose and I went after her. I couldn’t find her but I got caught in the storm while I searched for her. I gave up and went back to my house. When I got back I came inside and found her in the kitchen. She was dry so someone obviously stuck her in before the storm started.” Ashley let out a deep breath of air. “Someone had to have been here.”

  “Maybe one of your neighbors let her in?” he suggested.

  “Maybe, but most people think she still belongs to Mrs. Murray, not me.” Ashley thought about the situation again. “I guess there are a few people that have seen me chasing her around. They could have put her inside for me.”

  “Where is your boyfriend?” Henry still seemed bitter when he talked about Hunter.

  “He isn’t home, he is at Mr. Logan’s helping him with the drywall on his new addition to his house. I tried calling him and texting him but he hasn’t answered, I have that effect on men,” she joked as she smiled up at her old friend.

  “This isn’t some made-up story to get me here and seduce me, is it?” Henry asked. “You play the helpless damsel in distress while wearing only a bath towel and getting me alone with you?”

  “That is a joke, right?” She rolled her eyes. “You are the one who always says to call you whenever I need you. Well, you used to say that.”

  “I am joking. You know you can still call me when you need help. I would never not come to your rescue.”

  “Am I interrupting?” Hunter came walking into the room from the front of the house.

  To him it probably looked so much worse than it was; her naked with nothing but a towel wrapped around her body, Henry declaring his devotion, and the happy look on her face as she was finally united with her friend again. It was just that though, a moment between friends that to the outside world would seem so much more than it was or would ever be.

  “No, you are only interrupting Henry rescuing me from what I thought was another intruder.” Ashley smiled at Hunter but he was too busy glaring at Henry to look at her.

  “What do you mean by another?” Henry asked Ashley.

  “Like a month ago I thought someone broke in my house but it turned out I was just being paranoid.”

  “Why didn’t you call me?” Henry asked her.

  “Because I was here with her and took care of it,” Hunter jumped in the conversation.

  “With all due respect, Hunter, you are not a cop, I could have been better assistance. Plus you promised me you would call if anything suspicious happened, Ashley.” Henry seemed irritated and she feared that his jealousy was going to continue the same as before. “Look, there have been some calls and tips that have concerned me about the robbery. Can I talk to you alone?”

  “You mean so you can bash me and try to get in her head again?” Hunter threw his hand up. “Nothing has changed.”

  “Hunter, give us a minute please.” Ashley saw more than just jealousy when she looked in Henry’s eyes now. She saw concern and interest, as though she had said something significant.

  Hunter mumbled under his breath as he walked away but he went out of the room without a fight.

  “Someone left a message on our tip line about their ex being maced and having the effects in his eyes around the same time as the robbery. When we checked out the guy they reported he had a small record, but what really caught my eye was he is from the same town as Hunter. So I made a call to the officer who nabbed Hunter in his case and it
turns out that the guy and three other friends were suspects in the same bank robbery that Hunter went to prison for, but he never ratted them out and there wasn’t enough evidence to connect them to the crime. Hunter was caught because was the getaway driver and was caught on tape without a mask on a nearby video surveillance.”

  “Hunter went to prison for bank robbery?” Ashley was stunned.

  “Yeah, I thought you said you knew all about his past and prison sentence?”

  “He told me he had a bad past and he admitted to going to prison for a while but he never said what for and I just never asked.” She had never thought it was relevant, but now it was like a dagger in her side. “I never knew it was for a bank robbery.”

  “The judge took it light on him since it was his first offense and he was seen on camera as being the getaway driver, but the crew he ran with was never caught,” Henry explained. “We have been looking into Hunter because it seems like more than coincidence that he would be at that bank at the exact time of the robbery but have nothing to do with it. The officer is trying to find some current pictures of the guys so you can look them over. Maybe you will recognize the one that you saw at the bank.”

  “I just don’t believe it.” She looked down at the floor and focused on the boards that were in need of being refinished. The wood was old and dull, but it was sturdy and strong, it had outlasted many tragedies in the house.

  “You need to open up your eyes and take a hard look at that man.”

  “But he saved my life.” Ashley was speaking to herself more than to Henry.

  “Maybe he was keeping the robbery from getting out of control. That might be why the robbers didn’t shoot him after he attacked one of them,” Henry told her. “When I told you I was just looking out for you, I meant it. This guy just doesn’t seem right.”

  “There has to be some explanation. I know him. He wouldn’t be involved in something like this.”

  “But he was involved with something like this. He went to prison for it. I know you think you know him and I am sure you care about him, but he is a criminal. You need to make him leave.”

  “No.” Ashley shook her head. “He is not involved in this. And frankly, if you had enough evidence to prove it you would have arrested him by now. I need to talk to him. I am sure that he can explain this all to me.”

  “Make him go, you need to get ahold of yourself before it is too late,” Henry warned.

  “I said no. Thank you for coming here and making sure my house is safe. Now please if you will excuse me I need to go get dressed. You know your way out.” Ashley headed towards the hallway.

  “You better call me if anything happens, you hear me, anything,” Henry told her.

  Ashley looked back at him and nodded. For a moment she had felt like she had her old friend back, but now they seemed more distant than ever. As she left him in the kitchen she hoped that he was wrong about Hunter, but inside she knew that Henry’s information had changed everything, even her suspicions about the man she had now fallen in love with.

  As she walked up her stairs she heard Henry leave the house. His absence was just another harsh reminder of how much her life had changed when those men chose to rob the bank with her in it that day. Now, the man she had been living with and sleeping next to each night was no better than them. He was possibly one of them.

  “Is everything alright?” Hunter asked as she came walking into the bedroom. He was sitting on the bed, the same bed that he had made such passionate love to her on so many times. “Sorry if I sounded like a jerk when I got here. I was just scared when I read your text and then I walked in and saw you half naked with Henry. You two seemed, well, we know his feelings for you, and I overreacted a little.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Ashley said as she stepped closer to him. “Why didn’t you tell me that you went to prison for robbing a bank?”

  Hunter was shocked as she blurted out the question. He jumped up from the bed and walked away from her to the window. By now the cloudy sky was growing dark as night was creeping in. The rain was coming down ruthlessly and the thunder and lightning was heartless.

  “You said that my past didn’t matter,” he finally said, his voice weak. “It is a part of my life I don’t like to talk about and you seemed to understand that.”

  “But it was relevant to the situation we are in. You were in that bank for no reason, you were in this town for no reason. Now I find out that you have been involved in bank robberies and the men you used to run with most likely were the ones who held a gun to my head. Tell me that you didn’t know them, tell me that you have no idea who those robbers were,” Ashley demanded but Hunter just stayed quietly still looking out of the window at the storm. She grabbed his arm and twisted him around to face her. “Tell me!”

  “I had nothing to do with that robbery, Ashley,” he said. “Look in my eyes, you know me, I did not rob that bank.”

  “Tell me that you do not know who those robbers were,” she begged him. “Just tell me and I will never ask you again.”

  “I can’t,” he whispered. “I can’t lie to you.”

  Ashley felt betrayed and foolish. How could she have not seen what was in front of her this whole time? This man was too good to be true and his appearance in that bank had all been set up, therefore their whole story was nothing but a lie.

  “I believed in you!” she shouted. “I gave you a place to stay! I gave you my heart!”

  He went towards her and tried to hug her but she pushed him away.

  “Do not touch me!” Her words were echoing through the house. “I thought you were a hero, but you are nothing more than a criminal.”

  “Stop, Ashley, you don’t know the whole story.” He reached for her again but she smacked his hands away. “Listen to me, I know them but it is all a coincidence. I used to run with them but that was my past. I hadn’t seen them in years until that day in the bank. It really was just the wrong place, wrong time.”

  “You expect me to believe that? You think that I am such a fool, don’t you? Well, why wouldn’t you? You have fooled me for so long.” Her hands were shaking and her voice was breaking as she spoke, but she had so much to say, so many words fighting to leave her lips. “How could you do this to me? I loved you.”

  “I love you, Ashley, none of this is a lie, especially that.” It was the first time they had said the words out loud to each other, but it was hardly a beautiful moment.

  “Well, isn’t that just wonderful?” A man’s loud voice rang through the room as Gavin walked in.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Hunter pulled Ashley behind him and put himself between them. “Get out.”

  “Oh, don’t be so rude to your old friends. After I have been in this house so many times and even have let your dog in, we can be considered very close friends. Right, guys?” Gavin stepped aside while three other men walked into the bedroom. One of the men was the one that Ashley had maced in the bank. His face was undeniable and very distinct. She knew immediately that they were in danger.

  “Hey, Hunter, you promised that you were going to keep your girlfriend in check, but sounds like she is out of your hands. Looks like we need to step in from here,” one of the men said. He was heavier than the others with blond hair and a beard.

  “Cory, you will not touch her, do you hear me? None of you come near her!” Hunter screamed at the men.

  “Oh, calm down. We just want to talk some sense into her.” The man Hunter called Cory stepped forward and Hunter punched him square in the face. His nose burst with blood as he fell back into the group of men. “You broke my nose.”

  Another man came forward and Hunter grabbed him and threw him aside. The man came back towards Hunter but Gavin stepped between them.

  “Enough, Jim. Let’s take this outside. We are all going for a little ride together,” Gavin told the men.

  “No, we aren’t going anywhere with you.” Hunter pushed the men away again.

  “Yes, you are.” Gavin
pulled out a gun and pointed it towards Ashley. “Or I will shoot her in the head right here.”

  Ashley felt the same fear as she had in that bank. It was sickening and consumed her whole body. These men were dangerous and she was helpless. All she could do now was pray and hope they didn’t kill her.

  “Don’t, just put the gun down. Take me, but leave her alone.” Hunter was doing his best to shield her. “Come on, she doesn’t even know who you guys are. We can just leave her and never see this crappy town again.”

  “Shut up, Hunter.” Jim, the man who had been trying to fight Hunter, yelled. “The only reason we haven’t killed you yet is because you didn’t rat us out back then, but now we all just heard you telling the bitch all of our business. Do you really think she won’t turn us in?”

  “She won’t. She just wants all of this to be over,” Hunter told him. “She doesn’t want any more to do with this case than I do. She and I are just bystanders, we will stay out of it.”