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Gabi – Present Day
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THE POLICE BURST THROUGH the door, armed and demanding for Cole and me to put down our weapons.
We both did as we were told, slowly lowering the guns to the ground. As I placed the gun carefully on the floor and sank to my knees, my hands behind my head, I glanced over at my dad. Thank God he was still conscious. I wanted to tell the police we were the good guys, but I knew how this looked—both of us armed while two men were bleeding on the floor.
Handcuffs clicked around our wrists, but neither of us put up any kind of struggle. Not taking any chances, the police also cuffed Ryan’s hands, and I took satisfaction in his yelp of pain as his smashed hand was forced into the metal bracelets. It was over for Ryan now. I just hoped this wasn’t going to get Cole in trouble as well.
“These people assaulted me,” yelled Ryan from the floor.
“Shut up, asshole,” said the arresting officer.
“Please,” I begged the first cop who had entered. “My dad’s been shot. He needs help.”
The police officer’s eyes widened as he glanced over in my dad’s direction. “Oh, shit. It’s Bill Weston.”
He hurried to my dad’s side.
My father was still able to speak. “It’s okay, Nate. This wasn’t done by my daughter and her boyfriend. The guy on the floor came in here with a gun and threatened us all. He’s the one who shot me.”
I nodded. “It’s true.”
Cole nodded, too, his lips pressed together, his square jaw tight.
“Okay, I trust you,” said the cop, Nate. He turned to the other officers. “Take the cuffs off those two. That’s Bill’s daughter.”
The cuffs were undone, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled my arms free.
On shaking legs, and struggling a little because of my prosthesis, I got to my feet. I turned to Cole, who had also stood, and he reached out and pulled me into his arms. My feelings about him were so mixed up, but right now I didn’t have the energy to fight him.
Paramedics entered the house, stabilizing my dad. “We need to get him to the hospital,” one of the EMTs said, as she placed an oxygen mask over my father’s face.
“I need to go with him,” I told Cole.
“You go. I’ll follow in my car.”
“We’re going to need a statement from each of you,” the police officer, Nate, said.
Cole nodded. “Of course. But first we need to make sure Gabi’s dad is going to be all right.”
***
I RODE IN THE AMBULANCE while the paramedics worked on my dad.
He was taken straight to surgery, leaving me worried and frightened in the corridor outside. Cole showed up and once more I fell into his arms. Even when I was hurt and betrayed, and angry with him, it seemed that was the only place I ever wanted to be.
Blood dribbled down one side of his face from where a bullet had grazed him. A nurse came to try to patch him up, but he shooed her away.
“You should have let her fix you up,” I said.
“I’m not going anywhere until we know your dad is all right.”
“Do you think he will be?” I asked, my voice breaking.
“He’ll be fine,” Cole said, soothing me. “Your dad is almost as hard to kill as you are.”
I choked back a mixture of a sob and laughter.
“Gabi, we have to talk about everything that was said back at the house, and what Taylor told you.”
“Please, Cole, not now.” I couldn’t hear any more. My heart was already broken.
“No, you have to hear this. I only said what I did to Ryan because I was trying to stop him hurting you. I thought if he felt you weren’t important to me, he might let you go.”
I shook my head. “But why did you do ... what you did... what you did with Taylor?” To my horror, I had started to cry. That hurt worse than anything else.
“I didn’t do anything with her. She just happened to be at the same bar I was in. I’d already had a few drinks, and she wanted to talk about you, which I was more than happy to do. You’re all I’ve ever wanted to talk about. Then I was too drunk to drive, so she offered to drive me home. I fell asleep—or passed out, I’m not sure—in the car, and when I woke up she was all over me. I’m telling the truth, Gabi.”
I wanted to believe him so badly.
He must have sensed my hesitation. “I swear to you, Gabi. Nothing happened between me and Taylor. Nothing has ever happened. I kissed her once, ten years ago, because I thought I was protecting you from Ryan by driving you away from me. Nothing else ever happened between us, and I hated myself for doing it. I love you now as much as I loved you back then, and I’d never do anything to jeopardize that.”
“You did do something, though,” I said, quietly. “You did something so stupid, you were taken away from me for ten years.”
“I was an idiot, but again, I thought I was protecting you. I planned on taking the money and getting out of town, so Ryan would never have had a reason to threaten you again.”
“But you were still arrested,” I said, needing him to know the truth of what I’d been thinking all these years, “and I’d believed it was my fault.”
He frowned, his face still handsome, despite the blood. “Was that what Ryan was talking about when he said you’d been responsible for getting me arrested?”
I bit my lower lip and nodded. “Part of the reason I left town and joined the Army was because I believed it was my fault you spent the last ten years behind bars. After you told me about getting involved with Ryan, and that you were doing trips for him and implied it was illegal, I went home and told my dad. I thought he’d taken that information and had you followed and arrested.” I covered my face with my hands and shook my head. “I’m so sorry, Cole.”
He pulled my hands away from my face so he could look into my eyes. “It wasn’t your fault, Gabi. None of it was. You were seventeen years old, and your dad was a police officer. I was getting myself into trouble, and you were worried about me. You did the right thing. I was the one who was stupid enough to go along with Ryan’s plans, rather than ask for help myself.”
“I know, but I could have done things differently. When I heard you’d be going down for so long, I felt horrible. It was part of why I ran off and joined the Army. I couldn’t stand to be around my dad, because I blamed him in part, too, but also because I couldn’t live the next ten years in the same town, knowing you were locked up not far away.”
“I knew you’d told your dad, Gabi. Perhaps a part of me wanted you to. At least it brought the sorry mess to a close. Of course, I didn’t know it was coke I was carrying, I did truly think it was only weed.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said again.
“Hey, stop saying that. Maybe this whole thing was fate. Maybe if you hadn’t told your dad, I would have ended up heading down the same route in life and gotten myself killed by some drug dealer, or ended up hooked on drugs myself. Who the hell knows? The point is we’re here, now, together and safe. Ryan won’t ever touch us again, and Taylor knows not to come anywhere in our vicinity, but even if she does, she can’t hurt us. I’m yours, Gabi, for as long as you’ll have me. I always have been.”
I nodded through my tears. “I’m yours, too.”
Cole pulled me into his arms and kissed me.