A Forever Christmas

Chapter Sixteen

She was being paranoid , but knowing that didn’t help. Angel still couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched even though, when she looked, no one was there.

That detective wasn’t there.

For all intents and purposes, she was among friends and safe, she silently insisted.

She was at the diner, in the kitchen, going about her job with a healthy complement of people all around her, even in the kitchen. Eduardo seemed more alert—and vigilant—than she’d ever seen him and the waitresses were forever coming in to fetch something.

Even Miss Joan would find various pretexts that had her pushing open the swinging kitchen doors, looking for one thing or another.

Angel was on to all of them, knowing that everyone was just checking on her. Looking out for her. She more than appreciated it. Especially Miss Joan’s efforts. The woman had to be peeking in at least every fifteen minutes if not more frequently.

Each time Miss Joan stuck her head in, Angel would flash a smile at the diner owner and continue to go about making whatever meal had just been ordered. As for Eduardo, it seemed as if he never really took his eyes off her even though the senior short-order cook went on working at a steady pace himself.

Angel pressed her lips together. She was surrounded by people who cared about her and she was protected. So why was this uneasy feeling rising up and taking hold of her over and over again, like the tide repeatedly lapping at the shore?

There was no logical reason to feel so edgy, she kept telling herself.

The problem was, she wasn’t listening.

When it came time to leave, Angel breathed a sigh of relief, confident that she could finally get beyond this nagging uneasiness.

But that feeling was short lived.

Leaving the diner with Gabe, she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck rising up for no good reason. Nothing seemed to be out of place and that police detective who’d shown up this morning claiming to be her fiancé was nowhere to be seen.

Detective Jake Wynters had apparently disappeared after Rick had ushered him out.

Apparently.

Angel looked around her one final time before getting into Gabe’s truck.

“He made you nervous, didn’t he?” Gabe said rather than asked, sliding in behind the steering wheel.

She cleared her throat, buying herself some time, and then asked innocently, “Who?”

Gabe’s smile was one of tolerance. “I think that’s the first time I’ve known you to lie.” His smile deepened. “I’m happy to say you’re not any good at it. You know who I’m talking about, Angel. That police detective who said you were his fiancée.”

The very thought of a relationship with that detective made her shiver. She looked away from the man at her side and stared out the side window.

With a shrug she hoped looked disinterested enough, she said, “He seemed a bit intense, but he did go away.”

Gabe had asked his sister to do some research on the man who claimed to be Angel’s fiancé. The San Antonio police detective had an impeccable record with several commendations for bravery and a long list of accolades in his file according to what Alma had managed to dig up. He sounded like an honorable, upstanding law enforcement officer.

But Gabe couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. Either someone had deliberately cleaned up the man’s file—or the detective was good at playing a dual role. Either way, Gabe had seen the fear in Angel’s eyes when she looked at Wynters and that was enough to convince him that the detective wasn’t going to get within ten feet of her.

“And I intend to see that he stays away,” he told her, commenting on her conclusion.

Oh, if only…

Angel shook her head in response to his words. “You’ve got no reason to make him stay away, Gabe,” she reminded him.

“I’ve got the best reason in the world,” he contradicted. “You.” Coming to one of the town’s few traffic lights, he stopped, waiting for it to turn green again. He studied her profile thoughtfully as he waited. Her jaw was so rigid, it looked as if it could shatter. “You’re sure you don’t remember him?” he prodded gently.

Exasperated with herself, Angel shook her head. “I’ve tried over and over again, but I just can’t pull up anything. I’m drawing a blank,” she emphasized. Angel sighed, looking up at the vehicle’s ceiling. “Wouldn’t I be able to remember him if I actually knew him?”

While Alma had looked into Wynters’s background, he’d spent the time trolling the internet, learning what he could about amnesia. The more he read, the less he seemed to know. Other than the condition defied boundaries.

“There are lots of different types of amnesia, Angel.” It wasn’t really an answer to her question, but it was the best that he could do.

“Right,” she murmured. “And I’ve got the annoying kind.” So where did that bring her? That she knew him? Or that she didn’t?

“Maybe there’s a reason you don’t remember,” Gabe suggested. “Maybe your mind is trying to protect you from something you couldn’t deal with at the time and maybe still can’t.”

She rubbed her forehead. Her head was beginning to hurt. “Well, I won’t know about that part until I remember, will I? If I remember,” she amended, the frustration in her voice growing.

He tried to lighten the mood. “Right now, all you have to remember is that you’ve got a starving man with you.”

And for that, she thought, she was eternally grateful. She was exceedingly lucky to have Gabe in her life and she knew it.

“Hungry, huh?” She laughed.

He glanced in her direction, his eyes sweeping over her. Loving what he saw. “In more ways than one,” he assured her with feeling.

A warm feeling rushed over her, banishing everything else into the background, as she anticipated their evening together. All that mattered to her, really mattered to her, she reminded herself, was in this car with her, driving her to his home.

To their home, she told herself, taking tremendous solace in the feeling that generated.

Everything was going to be all right, she silently promised herself. Clinging to that promise. And when everything died down again, then she’d tell Gabe her news. That was another promise.

* * *

“NEED HELP?” GABE ASKED as she began to head to the kitchen the moment they walked into the house.

Angel shook her head. This was her domain and she did best in it alone. “Thanks for offering, but it would only take longer that way.” She laughed.

Off the hook, he pulled his shirttails out of his trousers and began to unbutton his shirt. “Okay, then I’m going to go upstairs, wash up and change,” he told her.

A nervous anticipation danced through him. It had been like this for most of the day. His uniform shirt hanging open, he shoved his hands into his pockets and did his best to appear as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

Gabe curled his right hand around the item he’d tucked in there earlier. As his fingers made contact, his heart sped up, launching into double time.

He was still trying to decide whether to give it to her tonight, or tomorrow morning. Tomorrow was Christmas but the day was all but bursting at the seams with the activities planned into the framework of that special day. Alma and Cash had invited everyone in the family to come spend it at their house, and of course, there was the celebration in the town square.

But he wanted to snag a private moment with Angel because this was a private gift. He wanted it to be their secret for a few moments before they wound up sharing it with everyone else.

Tonight, after dinner. He’d give it to her after dinner, he decided, wavering again.

Moving toward the living room, Gabe caught sight of his reflection in the mirror. Angel was going to turn him down if he didn’t do something about the way he looked, he thought. He looked one step removed from a saddle tramp.

“Right now, I wouldn’t even say yes to me,” he muttered under his breath. He needed to wash up—fast.

Whistling, he hurried up the stairs and into his bedroom to get a fresh set of clothes.

He didn’t notice the shadow along the floor in front of him until it was too late.

* * *

ANGEL DID HER BEST to bank it down, but the tightness in her chest insisted on coming back the moment Gabe left her, quickly growing until it struck her as being almost too large to manage.

Certainly too large to ignore.

Relax, you have to relax, she silently ordered herself. There’s no reason to feel like a cornered rabbit. There’s—

Turning around, she barely stifled the scream that leaped to her throat.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded of the man who seemed to materialize out of nowhere. The very hair on her head began to tingle.

“Taking what’s mine,” Wynters snarled at her, abandoning any pretext of friendliness. Initially ready to forgive her when he’d arrived in town this morning, he was now furious with her for what she’d put him through. “Did you think you fooled me with that wide-eyed act of yours in the diner?” he demanded. Rolling his eyes and affecting a singsong voice, he mimicked what she’d said to the deputy this morning. “‘No, I don’t know him.’ Like I was nobody,” he snapped, reverting to his own voice. There was pure hatred in his dark eyes. “Well, it’s not working. You know damn well who I am and you’re coming with me, Dorothy.”

He tried to grab her wrist in order to drag her away, but she pulled back. Fear clutched at her but she struggled to rise above it. “Don’t call me that,” she ordered, desperately trying to sound as if he wasn’t really frightening her. “That’s not my name.”

“The hell it isn’t,” he spat out. “You’re Dorothy, all right. Too bad your boyfriend had that poster circulated. Up to that point, I really thought you were dead.” His smile was cold, deadly.

Where was Gabe? What had he done with Gabe? Angel thought frantically.

“I guess I didn’t do as good a job on those brakes as I thought. You’ve got a charmed life, Dorothy.” He saw her looking toward the stairs. “Oh, your boyfriend?” he guessed, taking great pleasure in what he was about to say next. “Save your effort. He’s not coming.”

Fear for herself turned to anger and outrage, infusing her with strength. “What did you do to him?” she demanded.

He laughed contemptuously. “Don’t worry, I didn’t kill him. He’s just going to have a killer headache when he wakes up. And an empty house. Now let’s go!” Wynters ordered. This time, he produced a gun to back up his command.

She had no doubts that the man with the cold eyes could use the weapon on her without blinking. Still, she backed away until she felt the stove against her back. “He’ll find you,” she warned him defiantly. “He’ll come looking for me and he’ll find you.”

“Doubtful.” He taunted her. “That hayseed deputy’ll be looking for a San Antonio detective and his slut—and we’re not going back to San Antonio.” He paused, letting his words sink in, savoring the fear he knew she had to be feeling. “I’ve got a whole new life planned for us. And if you don’t do what I tell you, if you give me any trouble, you can be erased real quick,” he promised malevolently.

“Now you either come with me, or I’m going to go upstairs and finish your boyfriend off.” He cocked the hammer on the weapon he had trained on her. The barrel was pointed at her throat. “You’ve got to the count of five to make up your mind. One, two, three—” He stiffened as he felt the cold steel against his neck.

“Put the gun down, Wynters,” Gabe ground out. He’d barely come to and had to hold on to the walls as he made his way down the stairs, praying he wasn’t too late. He didn’t doubt for a second that the rogue detective was going to kill Angel, if not now, then soon. His type didn’t tolerate being defied, especially not by a woman.

“Guess your head’s harder than I thought,” Wynters cracked. “The next time, I’ve gotta do it right.” Then he spun around, head butting Gabe. The gun in Gabe’s hand went flying.

With his vision blurred, Gabe scrambled to his feet, holding on to Wynters so the latter couldn’t lunge at Angel.

The two men fought, winding up on the floor. Because his head felt as if it had been cracked open and was still spinning, Gabe suddenly found himself on his back. Wynters was on top of him, his hands wrapped around his throat. The detective had fifty pounds on him. Gabe struggled to claw his hands off, but he was rapidly losing consciousness.

From a great distance away, he heard it, heard the guttural scream as a crack of thunder echoed.

Or was that the sound of a gun being discharged?

He felt the pressure against his throat loosen. Beginning to suck in air, he still couldn’t draw in enough to counteract the effects of being choked. His efforts to breathe were further impeded by the sudden heavy weight that slumped over him.

Wynters.

Angel dropped the gun she’d fired. Wynters’s gun. She’d shot him with his own gun.

Everything seemed surreal.

Her legs felt like rubber as Angel pushed herself to run the short distance to where Gabe was lying on the floor. Shaking badly, she grabbed one of Wynters’s arms and dragged his literally dead weight off Gabe. Once she’d separated the two, she dropped to her knees and anxiously scanned Gabe’s body to see if he had any other wounds on him.

Why wasn’t he opening his eyes? Her panic mounted. “Gabe, are you all right? Can you hear me?” She was sobbing now, afraid she’d been too late.

Behind her there was all sorts of commotion, but she could only focus on Gabe.

“Gabe, please. Answer me,” she pleaded.

He opened his eyes then, just the barest hint of a smile feathering along his lips. “I was right. You really are something else,” he told her weakly.

She let out a ragged sigh, sinking back on her heels. Tears fell freely. He was alive. Gabe was alive. She could handle anything else that came her way as long as Gabe was alive.

Only then did she realize people were talking to her, asking questions. It took her a few moments to orient herself and focus on what they were saying. And then she saw Rick. Angel could have cried with relief.

“Are you all right?” he asked her, taking her hands and helping her to her feet.

She slumped against him, completely spent. Only then did she answer his question. “Yes.”

With one arm around her, supporting the young woman, he looked around Gabe’s kitchen. A fight had obviously taken place before the gun was fired. Using a handkerchief, Alma was picking up the small handgun and depositing it into a self-sealing plastic bag.

“What the hell happened here?” he asked Angel.

But it was Joe who answered his question. “Looks like Angel shot an intruder.” The deputy squatted down beside the body and put his fingers against the side of Wynters’s neck.

She looked at the deputy, afraid to breathe. If Wynters was alive, he’d come after her. No matter how long it took, he’d find her.

“Is he—”

Thinking she was asking if the detective was alive, Joe slowly moved his head from side to side. “No, he’s dead.”

It was the tension and relief that brought on a fresh round of tears, not any sense of loss or grief. That had vanished a long time ago. Taking in a deep breath, she struggled to get hold of herself.

Beside her, Gabe had risen to his feet and now draped his arm across her shoulders, as much to comfort her as to help hold himself upright.

One look at her face and he knew. “You remember, don’t you?”

The nod was all but imperceptible. Everything had returned, not in bits and pieces, but almost in one blinding flash.

She recounted it very slowly, almost as if it had been a movie she’d been watching, starring someone else, not her.

“When I saw him choking you—when I thought he was going to kill you—it all came back, like it was there all along. Jake was a bully. He got off on terrorizing me. I knew he’d never let me go, that he would rather see me dead first. I knew I had to get away and I did. I got away clean. But then one day I accidentally found out that my mother had just died. She was the only family I had,” she told him as tears gathered in her eyes. “I wanted to say goodbye.

“I waited until everyone left after the reception and I slipped into her house to get her album of pictures and her locket. My late father had given it to her and she told me that someday it was going to be mine,” she explained.

“I was about to leave when I thought I heard a floorboard creak. I knew in my soul that it had to be Jake and I just took off without looking back.” She sighed. “I guess I was right. He was the one who must have partially cut my brake lines.” A look of disbelief washed over her face. “He’d told me more than once that if he couldn’t have me, he’d rather see me dead than with another man.”

She looked at Gabe, wanting him to know everything. “I never took his money. He lied about that. I wanted nothing to do with him. I just wanted to be free.”

Gabe knew she wasn’t the type to steal. “So your name really is Dorothy Mandra?” he asked. It was going to take time for him to get used to that, he thought.

She shook her head. “No.” That life was behind her and she wanted it to remain that way. “It’s Angel.” She looked up at Gabe, the man who had given her her name. The man who had given her her life. “My name is Angel,” she repeated again with feeling.

“We’re going to need a statement, Angel,” Rick told her, deliberately using the name she’d chosen to stay with. “We’ll take it the day after tomorrow,” he added. “Tonight’s Christmas Eve and tomorrow’s Christmas, this will keep until after that.”

But she shook her head. “No, I want to get this over with now, put it behind me once and for all.”

“Your call,” Rick told her obligingly. Turning toward one of the people who had been drawn by the sound of gunfire and had subsequently congregated around them, he said, “Get the doc out here.”

“Then he is still alive?” she asked in horror, staring at Wynters’s fallen body.

“No, he’s dead all right.” Rick’s voice softened just a touch. “I want you and my deputy here checked out. Wouldn’t want to risk losing either of you,” he said matter-of-factly.

Gabe offered no resistance, just asked for an indulgence. “Can I have a minute, Sheriff?”

“You can have ten,” Rick told him genially. “Just don’t go wandering off.”

“We’ll be just over there,” Gabe told him, pointing toward the pantry. Taking Angel by the hand, he went inside the pantry, switched on the overhead light and closed the door.

Most of the pantry shelves were empty. That still didn’t explain what they were doing there. “Gabe?” she asked uncertainly.

“I’ve got something to say before this night gets any weirder,” Gabe told her.

She braced herself, waiting to hear what she felt in her heart was going to be the beginning of the end. Their end. And why not? Taking up with her had almost cost Gabe his life. What man wanted a woman like that to keep hanging around?

“All right,” she whispered, an unbelievable sadness clutching her heart. “Go ahead.”

He reached into his pocket. Good, it was still there. He hadn’t lost it in the fight.

“All right,” he began, his mouth suddenly so dry it felt as if his tongue was going to stick to the roof of his mouth any second now, “before Doc starts poking and prodding me and Rick starts picking your brain apart for details about this horror show, I just wanted to ask you… I just wanted to ask you…”

This wasn’t going to come out right, he thought. His head was really hurting him and all the words he’d rehearsed so carefully had temporarily vanished from his brain.

“Oh, hell,” he muttered.

This was going to be worse than she thought. She could feel tears begin to sting her eyes. She decided to spare him the trouble. “That’s all right, you don’t have to say it,” she told him.

Puzzled, he looked down into her upturned face. “I don’t?”

“No.” She pressed her lips together, afraid she was going to start sobbing. “I’ll leave as soon as I give Rick my statement.”

“Leave?” Gabe echoed. The pain he still felt around his neck was nothing in comparison to what his heart was suddenly going through. “Why would you leave?”

How could he ask her that? Was he playing some sort of a game?

Or was he?

“Because you want me to,” Angel answered. “Don’t you?”

“No, I don’t,” he cried with feeling. “What I want is to give you this,” he said in an eruption of frustration, pulling out his hand and opening it to reveal an engagement ring lying in his palm. “I had a whole speech worked out, but now I can’t seem to rem—”

Snatching the ring from him, Angle quickly slipped it on the proper finger on her left hand.

She didn’t want a fancy proposal. All she wanted was him—for the rest of her life.

But first, she suddenly remembered her own news. “I have something I have to tell you first,” she said, “before I give you my answer.”

“What?” he asked uneasily.

She’d wanted to pick her time, but after what just happened, he needed to know—and the sooner, the better. “You’re going to be a father.”

He looked at her, stunned beyond words. “Are you saying—”

“I’m pregnant.” And then she took a breath, knowing this could change everything. “So if you want to take your ring back—”

He didn’t even hear her. His mind was stuck in first gear. “You’re sure? You’re sure you’re pregnant?” he asked.

She nodded. “Very sure. But that doesn’t mean you have to marry me.”

“Yes, I do,” he insisted. “I want my happy ending.” He looked at her and said, “You still haven’t given me your answer.”

He was one in a million. And she loved him. “Yes,” she cried, throwing her arms around his neck. “Yes, yes, yes,” she repeated, uttering each word in between the kisses she rained on his face.

The final “yes” was followed by a long, soulful kiss that was equal parts joy and relief.

Which was the way Rick found them when, concerned by the silence, he finally opened the pantry door. Taking in the scene, the sheriff of Forever smiled knowingly and quietly closed the door again.

“I can always take the statement later,” he murmured, pleased, as he walked away.

* * * * *