Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (78 page)

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 her 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.

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.

She sighed and thought I look like crap.  She brushed her dark hair back out of her green eyes and made a face at herself in the mirror.

Ami was 5’6 and slim with now jet black hair and her father’s green eyes.  She’d been told she was beautiful by many boys and men since she’d hit puberty, but Amelia Collins wasn’t interested in men.  She’d stayed away from them after what had happened with Corin.  The only man that she felt she’d truly trusted in a long time was her father and he was gone.

Ami rolled up her window and grabbed her purse as she got out of the car.  She pushed the button to lock the doors and stopped briefly to stretch before she headed towards the doors of the small diner.

When she pushed open the door, the smells of coffee and greasy food hit her almost immediately.  A waitress approached her and said “Just one?”

Ami nodded.  It was always just one with her.  She’d made it a point not to get too close to anyone since she’d left home.

“Table okay?”

“Sure.”

Ami followed the waitress to a table in the corner.  The diner was pretty much empty.  Two older men sat at the counter, and there was a couple openly making out in the back booth.  Ami hid a sigh.  Normally she was able to keep her occasional feelings of loneliness tamped down, but sometimes they bubbled up. 

“What can I get you to drink hon?”

“Coffee please.”

“Sure.  I’ll be right back.”

Ami yawned as she opened the menu.  She really needed to get some sleep she thought.  The energy drinks that she’d drunk to get herself through the night were starting to wear off.  She was hoping that she’d be able to find an apartment to rent today.  Otherwise she’d have to stay in a motel until she could find one and that tended to get expensive.  Regardless of where it was, today she was going to sleep.  Tomorrow she would look for a job.

By the time the waitress had returned, she’d decided on the biscuits and gravy with a side of hash browns.  The waitress dropped off her coffee and took her food order.  By that time Ami was already wishing that she’d brought her book in with her from the car.  She was getting bored and it was only serving to remind her of how tired she was.

The service was quick though.  The waitress was back within ten minutes.  As she started to walk away from the table Ami thought to ask “Are you hiring here?”

The waitress snorted out a laugh.  “Honey we haven’t hired anyone here in longer than I like to admit.  This was my Daddy’s place.  My old man took over when he passed away.”

Ami hid another sigh.  “Okay.  Just thought I’d ask.”

“You just get to town?”

“Yeah.”

“Gabe’s Place was hiring last I knew.  It’s a bar but it doesn’t get rowdy like The Lounge does.  It’s about two blocks up on the right.  Big neon sign.  You can’t miss it.  You need a place or you already have one lined up?”

“I was about to look after I left here actually.”

“I’m pretty sure old man Jenkins still has an apartment open.  It’s small but the rent’s not too high.  Only a few block from Gabe’s too.”

“Thank you.  You’ve been very helpful.”

“No problem.  Us women got to stick together.  To get to the apartments, take a right then it’s about two blocks up.  It’s a small building with a big parking lot, with a barbecue area.”

“Again, thank you.  I really appreciate it.”

“You just call me if you need anything else okay?”

Ami nodded.  She thought that she was lucky to find someone as helpful as the waitress.  She’d moved around a lot, and people weren’t always so friendly.

The food was good.  Ami felt that the three cups of coffee that she had drained would be enough to keep her alert through her apartment hunting.  She had an air mattress in the trunk of her car and that would work for the day.  She didn’t know how much furniture she’d bought and left behind over the past six years.

When the waitress returned with the check, Ami let her know how much she’d enjoyed the food and thanked her again, making sure to leave a generous tip.  She’d worked as a waitress before and it wasn’t an easy job.

Brunton was a small town and she was able to find the apartment building easily.  She pulled into the lot, got out of her car and headed towards the door marked office.

An old man was behind the counter, flipping through a magazine.  He looked up at her and said “Help you?”

“The waitress at the diner, I’m sorry I didn’t catch her name, said you might have an apartment open?”

“That would be Glendene and yes I do.  It’s small but should be fine if it’s just you.”

“Yes.  How much is the rent?”

“Five hundred a month.  Five hundred deposit.  I cover $50 on the electricity, if you go over you cover the rest.  Cash and money orders only.  I been burned too many times to take a check.”

“That’s fine.  Can I take a look?”

“Sure.  Let me get the keys.  It’s upstairs, the one closest to the stairs.”

Jenkins dug around and came up with a key ring.  She followed him up an uneven but sturdy staircase and stood back as he went through the keys to find the right one.

He gestured for her to go inside ahead of him once he’d opened the door.  The apartment was small.  The kitchen was tiny and the bedroom looked like it could barely hold a dresser in addition to a bed.  But it was clean and the rent was halfway reasonable.  She’d paid less but she’d also paid a lot more, too.  If she got the job at the bar and made good tips, she thought that she should be able to start putting away extra money again.

“I’ll take it,” she said.  “Can I move in today?”

“Yeah.  It’s not like we have a waiting list.”

“Great.  Let me get my money and I’ll meet you back in the office.”

She followed him back down the stairs.  Once at her car, she popped the trunk and dug around until she found the lock box that she kept her cash in.  Right now it contained approximately $7,500.  It had held as much as $10,000.  Ami didn’t like to deal with banks.  She did everything in cash and hadn’t had any problems.

She pulled out $1,500, figuring that it would be a good idea to pay for two months up front in case she couldn’t find a job.  She stuffed the cash into her purse and made her way back to the office.

Jenkins was waiting with a one page application form.  She handed him the cash and filled out the paper.  She had to dig her cell phone out of her purse to get her phone number.  She’d broken down and purchased both a pre-paid cell phone and a laptop the month before because both Lisa and her mother had been constantly bugging her about not being able to contact her easily enough.