Healing Gabriel (18 page)

Authors: Elizabeth Kelly

BOOK: Healing Gabriel

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“I’m so glad you came tonight Morgan.” Lacey said.

“Well, it’s not every day a town celebrates its Centennial
with fireworks.” Morgan replied. She glanced around the park. It was filled
to the brim with people milling about. It looked like the entire town was
here, chatting amongst themselves as they waited for the fireworks to begin.

“What time do the fireworks start?”

“In about half an hour.” Peter glanced at the darkening
sky. “They’re just waiting for it to be dark.”

He glanced over at the monkey bars. “Nat! Be careful
honey.” He wandered away to the playground equipment as Lacey turned to
Morgan.

“How are you doing honey?” She asked sympathetically.

“Fine.” Morgan lied. She bit her tongue to stop from asking
about Gabe. He had texted her a couple of times to ask her how she was feeling
and if she needed anything, but other than that she hadn’t spoken to him at
all.

It’s for the best
, she reminded herself fiercely.
She ignored Lacey’s clear look of sympathy and sipped at her hot chocolate.

* * *

Gabe paced restlessly in the kitchen. Vincent trailed after
him, whining softly, and Gabe stopped to pet him roughly. It was Saturday
night and even after nearly two and a half months, it still didn’t feel right
that Morgan wasn’t here with him. He should be making her dinner while she did
her laundry and, with nothing more than her low voice and soft laugh, filling
the house with warmth and love.

He stared out the window into the growing darkness. She
would be at the park tonight. Her and the rest of the town would be gathered
together to celebrate the Centennial. Lacey had invited him, had even
mentioned that she thought Morgan would be there, but he hadn’t accepted her
invitation.

Morgan loved him but just as he had realized he would do
anything to be with her, even making an effort to stop hiding away, she had
changed her mind. He laughed bitterly. It served him right for breaking her
heart the way he had.

She needed to be with someone who was normal, someone who –

We had a deal you and I, didn’t we?

Mary’s voice spoke dryly in his head, and for a moment he
was so sure the old woman was behind him that he spun around.

Only Vincent and Delilah stared back at him and he rubbed
his hand across his forehead. The old woman’s voice in his head may have been
a figment of his imagination but her words weren’t. They had made a deal.
Morgan’s address in exchange for doing the right thing.

I tried.
He thought petulantly.
I tried and she
rejected me.

You didn’t try hard enough.
Mary’s voice answered
calmly in his head.

He swore softly. Mary was right. He hadn’t tried hard
enough. He loved Morgan and the thought of spending the rest of his life
without her was terrifying. He grabbed his jacket and shrugged into it. He
would find Morgan and make her understand that they were meant to be together.
Even if he had to do it front of the whole damn town.

* * *

Peter, Natalia in his arms, joined Lacey and Morgan. “I
think the fireworks are about to start.”

Morgan glanced up at the sky. The stars were out, shining
brightly, and she wrapped her arms around herself and took a deep breath. She
would stop thinking about Gabe, stop wondering if he –

“Uncle Gabe!” Nat’s delighted shout broke through her
thoughts and she stared bewildered at the little girl. She was staring over
Morgan’s shoulder and, her heart beating wildly, Morgan whirled around.

Gabe was striding towards them, his face grim, and his
shoulders set. If the others were staring at him, she didn’t notice. The
enormity of what he was doing, the gesture of love he was displaying in seeking
her out in a park filled with people, had brought on a surge of such overwhelming
love and pride for him that she thought she might faint.

Watching him have the courage to come to the park, even
knowing that most of the town would be there, she realized in an instant that
she had been wrong. Gabe loved her and was willing to face his fears to be
with her. She needed to give their love a chance. Nothing else mattered but
being with him.

She staggered forward on trembling legs, not resisting when
he reached out and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her firmly on the
mouth, his hand tangling in her hair and his arm sliding around her waist.

“I love you Morgan. I know you don’t think we can make it
work but you’re wrong. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you happy and I
promise I won’t resent you for it. Give me the chance to prove that to you.
I’ll never - “

“Be quiet honey.” She said softly.

He swallowed roughly and forced himself to stop talking as
she reached up and cupped his face.

“You’re right. I was wrong. I can’t live without you Gabe,
and I don’t care if we spend the rest of our lives never leaving the
farmhouse. I need you. I love you.”

He kissed her again, lifting her up and pressing her
trembling body against his. As the fireworks exploded in the sky in brilliant
streaks of blue and green, she laughed delightedly and kissed his scarred face
repeatedly.

“Finally.” Lacey said happily. “I thought the two of you
were going to be miserable forever.”

They turned to see the Peter and Lacey and Nat standing
behind them, and Gabe set Morgan down gently. She took his hand and led him to
his family. He stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling
her back against his chest and resting his chin on the top of her head.

They stared upwards, watching the fireworks light up the
night sky, and when she squeezed his arms lightly, he bent his ear to her
mouth.

“I’m looking for a place to rent. I heard you have a pretty
nice carriage house.” She grinned at him.

“Actually,” he said solemnly, “the carriage house has
already been rented out.”

She frowned up at him and he placed a quick kiss on her
mouth. “I do have a room at the farmhouse that’s available. If, that is, you
don’t mind sharing a bed with a stubborn, idiotic sheep farmer.”

She giggled. “Lucky for you, I happen to have a preference
for stubborn, idiotic sheep farmers.”

He grinned and pulled her close. “I love you Morgan
Wilson.”

“I love you too Gabriel Dern.”

END

Thank you for reading my book. Please take
a moment to leave a comment at the site you downloaded this book from. I
appreciate and encourage feedback!

* * * *

Please enjoy a sample chapter of Elizabeth
Kelly’s newest novel:
“The
Recruit (Book One)
”

“The
Recruit (Book One)”
will be available at
www.amazon.com
in
February
2013.

THE RECRUIT
(Book One)

By Elizabeth Kelly

* * * *

Chapter 1

“Sara, this really isn’t a good idea.” Hannah stared
nervously at the darkening sky.

Sara rolled her eyes. “God Hannah, you’re just like dad –
always worrying. It’s perfectly fine.”

“How well do you know these guys? I mean, you just met them
last night.” Hannah chewed at her bottom lip.

As Sara turned off the highway and down a gravel road, she
shook her head. “They’re perfectly nice Hannah. You have to give people a
chance sometimes. Live life on the edge, take a risk!” She winked at her.

Hannah laughed. Her baby sister was the exact opposite of
her in nearly every way. Where Hannah was tall and dark haired with wide hips
and full breasts, Sara was small and blonde and impossibly slender. At one
point in her late teens Hannah had attempted to become like Sara by crash
dieting and following an impossibly difficult exercise routine. She lost ten
pounds before, weak with hunger and in agony from a torn hamstring, giving up.
She learned to accept that her thighs would always touch a little, that she
would always have a soft, round belly and that she would always jiggle just a
bit when she walked.

It wasn’t just physical differences though. Sara was the
life of the party. Her laughter and outgoing personality had people flocking
to her. Hannah, quiet and reserved, tended to blend in and more times than not
become lost in the crowd.

“Listen,” Sara glanced at her, “these guys are really nice
and I think Justin could be the one.”

Hannah snorted. “You meet “the one” every weekend Sara.
Although you normally don’t agree to party with guys you barely know, out in
the middle of nowhere.”

“It’s not in the middle of nowhere. We’re only five miles
from the city. Plus, there’s going to be a bunch of people at this party.
It’s called a bush party Hannah. If you hadn’t spent most of your younger
years with your nose in a book, you’d know what a bush party was.”

Hannah sighed and stared out the window. Sara was right –
she did prefer reading to partying. She wasn’t a complete hermit; she’d had a
pretty serious boyfriend in high school and they had slept together on the
night they graduated. They were both virgins and although it had been pleasant
enough, there had been plenty of awkward fumbling and groping.

They had tried to do the long distance thing when Hannah had
left for college but that had lasted less than a month. One Friday night, in a
moment of weakness, she had agreed to go to a frat party with her roommate.
There, she had met Toby and they had started dating a week later. He was a
nice boy, much like her high school boyfriend, and while he was more confident
in bed than Mark had been she still wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about.

There had been one night, feeling relaxed and tipsy after a
few glasses of wine, where the usual warmth and tingling she felt during sex
had started to become something more. There was a slow, spreading ache
radiating from her core. As Toby grunted and thrust above her, she had closed
her eyes and concentrated, digging her hands into the sheets and bucking her
hips against Toby’s. The ache had grown with little spirals of pleasure
circling in her belly and she had panted and moaned, feeling like she was
standing on the edge of a crevice. Before she could take that last step, the
step that would bring the release she was searching for, Toby had given one
final thrust, gasping her name as he came violently. He had rolled off of her,
snaking an arm around her waist and falling asleep almost immediately. She had
laid there, body quivering with frustration and a need she didn’t fully
understand, until finally she had drifted off into her own restless sleep.

She had dumped Toby after a few months of listening to his
off-handed remarks about her weight and his not-so-subtle suggestions that she
should eat less and exercise more. She had stayed single for the remainder of
her college years and now, her first summer back, Sara seemed hell-bent on
making up for her lack of a social life.

They could see a few cars parked on the side of the road and
Sara pulled in behind them, shifting the car into park and shutting the engine
off. The wind was cool. It had been an unusually damp summer and although it
was only late August, it already felt like autumn. As they moved deeper into
the woods, the flickering light of a campfire could be seen just ahead of
them.

Sara smiled at Hannah and moved eagerly towards it. Hannah
cursed when she stumbled over an exposed root in the darkness and fell forward,
scraping her bare knee.

Sara helped her up. “Are you okay?”

“Fine.” Hannah grumbled. Her knee was aching and she was
pretty sure blood was dripping down it, but it was impossible to tell in the
dark.

Limping, muttering softly to herself, Hannah followed Sara
until they were both standing in a small clearing. A large fire crackled in
the middle of it, shooting small sparks of light into the darkness above it.

Hannah glanced around as Sara walked over to Justin and
slipped her arm around his waist. There were a couple of other girls as well
as Justin’s friend Nathan, who she had met last night, and two other men she
didn’t know.

Nathan waved at her and picked his way across the clearing.
He threw a friendly arm around her shoulder and smiled down at her. “Hey
Hannah, it’s good to see you again.”

“Hi Nathan.” She gave him a guarded smile and nonchalantly
shrugged her way free of his arm. She had never cared much for having people
in her personal space, especially people she barely knew, and she ignored his
disappointed look and sat down on a log to examine her knee.

“Are there more people coming?” She asked. She hissed
slightly as she ran her fingers over the large scrape on her knee. She had
been right – it was blood dripping down her knee.

When Nathan didn’t answer, she glanced up at him. He was
staring at her knee, his eyes glowing in the light from the fire.

“You’re bleeding.” He said.

“Yeah, I fell down.” Hannah replied. “I don’t suppose you
have any band-aids?”

She realized that Justin and Sara had drawn closer, and she
frowned when a look she didn’t understand passed between Justin and Nathan.

Nathan knelt at her feet and stared at her knee. He reached
out with a slightly shaking hand and ran his finger through the thin trail of
blood that was dripping down her leg. He stuck his finger in his mouth and
sucked the blood from it.

“Eww, Nathan! That’s disgusting.” She cried out.

He looked up at her and her breath stopped in her throat.
His eyes were glowing green in the light from the campfire and he smiled at
her, revealing his very long, very sharp incisors.

“No, it’s delicious.” He growled. Hannah had one fleeting
glance of Sara, her face pale and frightened, before Justin pulled her against
him and sunk his teeth into her neck.

Hannah screamed and leaped to her feet but Nathan pounced on
her, knocking her to the ground and pinning her down with his large body. She
was vaguely aware of the screams of Sara and the other girls as Nathan nuzzled
into her neck.

“Relax baby, this’ll only hurt a little.” He whispered and
she shrieked again as his teeth punctured her throat.

She struggled and kicked but she was no match for his
strength and her struggles turned into helpless whimpers as he suckled at her
neck.

She was growing weaker, the light from the campfire seemed
to be dimming, but as she faded towards the blackness, the crushing weight of
Nathan was suddenly gone and she heard his growl of rage turn into a gurgling
scream. She squinted as someone leaned over her and rough fingers prodded at
her throat.

A deep voice said, “This one’s still alive.”

There was a sharp and stinging pain against her face. “Wake
up girl. Girl!”

Another slap and she forced her eyelids open. Startling
blue eyes were staring into hers. Using the last of her strength, she raised
her hand and clawed weakly at the face above hers.

“Sara.” She whispered.

The man grunted in reply. There was the sensation of being
lifted, and she was placed over one broad shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She
whispered Sara’s name once more before the darkness consumed her.

“The Recruit (Book One)” will be available
at
www.amazon.com
in February 2014.

If you would like more information about
Elizabeth Kelly, please visit her at:

http://www.elizabethkellybooks.blogspot.ca/

https://www.facebook.com/elizabethkellybooks

https://twitter.com/ElizabethKBooks

Write to her at:

mailto:[email protected]

Other books by Elizabeth Kelly:

Tempted

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DYAU0YE

Twice Tempted

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F3G29QY