Love At Peace (Hometown Heartstrings #3)

Chapter 24

Roarke

“ G avin, look out!”

It was too late to warn my friend away. He rode his horse up close, coming to the fight. It wasn’t my horse that I worried about returning then getting hurt. It was Gavin.

David’s shot went awry, though, and from the way Gavin slouched to the side on the saddle, I could tell he was hit on the side.

“Gavin!” I held David back, forcing his arm up and away from the direction of where Gavin had fallen to the ground.

He groaned, making noise as he rolled from the drop. I wanted to assume making sounds meant he wasn’t dying, but I had no clue. I couldn’t tell with the few yards between us.

All I knew for a fact was that David wouldn’t shoot him again. He wouldn’t shoot me, either. Until my last breath, I’d fight this asshole in self-defense and in defense of my friend.

Over and over, David laid his finger on the trigger though. Shots fired one after the other, but I lost count in the thick of the fear and anger controlling me.

He had to run out of bullets sooner or later. But when?

I kept his arm back, aiming the gun away from us. It was a fight to the death, it seemed. Baring his teeth like an animal, scowling with so many deep creases on his tan face, and heaving fast breaths like a wild beast, David neared insanity with his drive to kill me.

“Gavin!” I had to know if he was all right. Fighting back David prevented me from checking on my friend, and I struggled to focus on knocking this asshole out and being done with him.

“Hold on now,” he said, groaning as he got up onto his knees. I couldn’t look at him for long, not while keeping David back and trying to get his gun out of his hand, but I was no longer alone in that effort.

Gavin grimaced, holding his hand to his side where his shirt turned red. He raised a gun at David. “Drop it.”

We didn’t ride with guns. We weren’t supposed to be armed, not unless there was a concern about wolves and other wildlife getting too close. Gavin had to have heard the gunshots on the call with me, then rode back to get a gun. If he’d done that, more help would have to be coming soon.

“Fuck you!” David fought harder, one last time to point the gun at me, but his shot didn’t come near us. Instead, it went off to the side, near the trees.

A woman screamed.

I turned my head while punching David, who was distracted by the scream.

Nevaeh was running closer, horror on her face. Behind her, a slim strip of orange was barely visible.

“Get down!” I yelled.

She, of course, didn’t listen, running toward us faster. “Don’t hurt him!” she screamed, begging.

I wasn’t in the mood to figure out if she was trying to warn her lover not to hurt me, of if she was pleading with me not to harm David. It didn’t matter. He was out of bullets now. We both realized it with the clicking of the trigger, and I reacted.

I rammed my fist under his chin, snapping his head back so he slumped to the hard earth. His arms fell down, and the gun was out of his hand.

Moaning and reaching up to his head, he retreated into pain. “You...asshole...” he muttered. “She was supposed to be mine.”

He wasn’t talking about Nevaeh, but she heard him. As she dropped to her knees to help Gavin compress his wound, she growled at his comment. “Oh, you still want her? You still want Heather? Huh?” She raised one hand streaked with blood. “Well, fuck you, David!”

A brief hit of relief struck my heart.

That furious scowl of scorn didn’t make it seem like she cared about him anymore. She’d screamed and begged for him not to hurt me .

A truck sped toward us as I kneeled over David, pinning him to the ground. My chest heaved quickly, and my lungs burned from the rapid inhalations from that fight. Catching my breath, I concentrated on keeping David down while Todd’s truck came closer.

“Gavin,” I called out, worried about that gunshot.

“I’m here. I’m here,” he replied.

“Where the hell did you come from?” I demanded of my niece.

Tears streaked down her face as she remained by my friend. It seemed she wasn’t so cruel and selfish to flinch from helping him from being shot.

“Over there. I’ve been camping in the tree line...”

“When you weren’t pretending to be a happy couple with this idiot?” I shot back.

“I... I thought...” She sniffled, squinting in the bright sunlight as Todd rushed out. Marty did, too, coming out of the passenger side. Behind them, another truck sped over the land.

“What is all this now?” Todd asked, holding his rifle as he ran over.

“Shit,” Marty commented, surveying the scene and instantly worried at the sight of Gavin on the ground.

“Call for an ambulance,” I advised. “He’s hit.”

Quick on his feet, Marty nodded, jogging up close and talking into his radio piece.

“I asked what in the hell is goin’ on,” Todd repeated, aiming his rifle at David.

“I was out here checking the fence, and this asshole ambushed me.” I got off David, letting Marty move in to cuff him.

“I didn’t know. I didn’t know he would actually try to kill you,” Nevaeh said as I reached Gavin’s side. No longer needed to hold David down, I rushed to help my friend.

“I heard the gunshots and came as fast as I could,” he told me.

I nodded, pressing my hands to his side as the other truck stopped. Heather ran out with Nance exiting from the driver’s seat. She also had a gun in hand, prepared to help.

“What happened?” Heather asked, running to me. She dropped to her knees, raking her worried gaze over me until she saw that I had my hands on Gavin’s side. “Oh, shit. David?”

I nodded.

“I didn’t know,” Nevaeh said, crying outright. “I didn’t realize how mad he’d get. He saw you kissing her, Roarke, and he kept talking about you moving in on his girl.” She sniffled hard, backing up and shivering. In a t-shirt and sweatpants, she looked frigid out of the warmth of her tent.

“Here.” Heather took her coat off and handed it to her. “And I’m not his girl,” she bit out, glaring back at David being taken toward Todd’s truck. Marty was busy at keeping him back and calling for backup.

“I’m not his girl either,” Nevaeh admitted.

“That’s a good thing,” Heather said.

She cried some more as we all did what we could to slow Gavin’s bleeding. The EMTs would be out here soon. They had to be. I couldn’t bear to think of losing my friend. I was no doctor, but I wanted to hope this bullet was through and through away from any vital organs.

“I thought he loved me. I thought he wanted to love me,” Nevaeh said around sobs.

“He tricks you,” Heather said. “Then he controls you.”

“I saw that video of him drugging that girl’s drink, and I started to wonder. I’d been suspicious all along, why a rich lawyer would want me .” She wiped her face, shivering under Heather’s coat that dwarfed her.

“Then I started to figure it out. I figured it out too late. He was just paying attention to me because he saw me walking by the cabins. He saw me and thought he could use me to get to you.”

“Did he tell you to get on my laptop?” Heather asked as sirens sounded in the distance, growing closer.

She nodded, crying harder. “He gave me the flash drive to put in so I could get all your documents. I thought he just wanted to hit back at you where you’d hit him. To get his money back that you stole.”

“It’s the other way around, kid,” Heather said.

“He hardly cared about me helping him. I thought he just wanted revenge on his ex. He made you sound so horrible. But then I heard him talking to himself last night in the hotel room he got. He was saying how he hoped that you getting caught for fraud would give him a chance to be your lawyer, and when he saved you in court, you’d owe him and be together again.” She broke down crying as the EMTs arrived.

We were so far out here that they had to use their truck.

Heather and I moved back as the paramedics took over with Gavin. She frowned, looking at Nevaeh. Then she caught my attention and tipped her chin to gesture for me to go to her.

I didn’t need her prompt. Now that my friend was being seen to, I was free to help comfort my niece. She looked like my niece, the younger version of herself who just wanted comfort.

She didn’t push me away as I hugged her. Nor did she fight me off her. All she did was cling to me and sob.

“He wasn’t over you. He never loved me. Never wanted me. He was just using me to get you back.”

“He never wanted me either, Nevaeh,” Heather said, surprisingly calmly as Gavin was loaded onto a stretcher. “I was a possession. He was obsessed with controlling me. It was never, ever a matter of him loving me.”

“He was so sincere. So slick. He was everything I dreamed of. A guy who’d take me out to eat. Who’d treat me to nice hotel rooms. He never gave me a hard time about not having a job and being a nobody. It was so easy to fall into the allure of being loved for who I was.”

I rubbed her back, glad that she had this moment of reckoning. It was too late. She’d already lost herself in believing him, but there was no more chance of her sticking with stubborn denial or protesting that she was right about him. About life.

“If he was being so good to you, why did you keep stealing? Why did you keep shoplifting?” I asked.

“Because he was starting to lie. To distance himself from me. I didn’t want to believe that he wasn’t interested in me anymore, and I just couldn’t bear to ask him for anything. I didn’t want him to see me as a charity case, but a woman he could love and desire.”

“He always lies,” Heather said. “That’s how he’s able to get his way.”

“Not with me.” Nevaeh wiped her face and glanced up. “He’s not getting away with this anymore. He came to my tent and was so mad about you kissing Heather, and that was the biggest clue that I couldn’t ignore. I told him to leave me alone so I could nap. Once he left, I started sending in all the things I’d recorded of him. Of him telling me how to get on your laptop. Of him admitting how he’d stolen money from judges and counted on bribes with cops. Of him...” She cried again, harder.

“I got it on video of him texting Eric and trying to persuade him to talk to him. He wanted to make Eric convince Heather to agree to talking to him because he was owed an apology for how she screwed him over in Chicago.” She growled, shaking her head and grinding her teeth. “He lied to me about seeing Eric at all. When you were there at the building, I started to worry. I was scared that I’d made a mistake about him. I was so scared of being pregnant around a liar like that. I didn’t see Eric. I never went that way. But I knew that David had to be at fault.” Still sniffling, she looked at Marty. “I’ll tell you whatever you need to know. Because that asshole is going down. Nothing will make me happier than seeing him suffer and rotting in prison!”

“I hope we can make that happen,” Heather said.

“We will make it happen,” I promised, letting Nevaeh out of my hug as she stepped toward Heather.

“I know this won’t matter. I’ve been such a bitch to you, but I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. And I feel sorry for you.” She sniffled again. “You were stuck with him for longer, and I don’t even want to know how bad it could’ve been. I’m sorry, Heather. I’m so fucking sorry I’ll never stop being sorry.”

Heather exhaled a long breath, looking over her shoulder to stare at me as she brought Nevaeh in for a hug.

My heart pattered faster, revved up to push more blood through my body at this selfless woman being so forgiving of my niece.

“You know what, Nevaeh?” she said. “More than once, I saw myself in you. I saw the teenager I was. Always feeling alone and not good enough. Judged. I never trusted anyone.”

I smiled slowly, at peace that she could grow from this too. Of course, she’d adjust to all that happened today. She wouldn’t have to fear David ever again.

“But since I came back, I’ve seen all these wonderful people come together. Like friends. Like a community. And I know I’m not alone. I won’t be alone ever again if I take the risk to let the right people in.”

“It’s not easy,” Nevaeh said as she backed up and wiped her eyes.

“No. It’s not easy to let people in when you’ve been hurt or looked over so many times in the past. But you learn to let the right people in. To accept help from those who really care. And that’s why I’ll continue to try to let you in, too. I forgive you because I’ve been there too. I know what it’s like to be alone but also to be a victim of his control.”

Nevaeh hugged her again, crying harder.

“But,” Heather said once they released each other. She walked up to me and took my hand. “Don’t expect a spare key to visit at our home.”

I grinned, so thrilled. It seemed strange to be so happy after the scare of a lifetime. “ Our home?”

She squeezed my hand, stunning me with the strength of her touch and the power of her love. “Yeah. We’re going to buy that house with the huge porch. I knew it would be our home the second I saw the pictures.”

“If you say so,” I teased.

She reached up to frame my face then kissed me hard.

It only took a lot of drama and a dose of danger to finally understand what it meant to come home.