Page 71 of For Always
“Noah!” Tyler called to him. “Look at me, Noah. Your gripe is with me.”
Noah didn’t release her breast completely but he did loosen his grip so that pain wasn’t ricocheting through her body anymore.
“You’re damn right, my gripe is with you. Spoiled little pretty boy!” Noah spat. “You and Jagger, the West Boys. Rich, good looking, good at sports, driving fancy new cars, getting all the girls and all the job opportunities. You both suck! I hated you when we were younger and you pushed me in the lake when you knew I couldn’t swim and I hated you more when your dad told you to clean the horse shit out of the stalls and you made me do it!”
“Your father wanted you to learn how to do ranch work,” Tyler said. “I was assigned to teach you.”
“You were a rude bastard who treated me like the pigs you sold to market,” Noah spat. “And Jagger was worse. He made me do everything he didn’t want to do. He even told me to look out for you when he took Hannah back behind the barn that day. He didn’t want you sneaking up on them. But you did.” Noah laughed then. “That was one of the best days of my life. Watching you, watch your brother, getting his cock sucked off by your girlfriend. It was epic!”
Gabriella squirmed. She lifted an arm and tried to elbow him in the ribs, but Noah was faster. He stepped back so that her elbow only brushed over him, instead of impacting the way she’d planned. He lifted his arm, squeezing it harder around her neck.
“Keep still, bitch! Or I’ll put you down right here and now,” he told her. “And you!” he yelled to Tyler. “Don’t you move another inch or I’ll make you watch me take her before I kill her.”
Gabriella’s gaze shot to where Tyler had moved from the head of the bed, down to the foot, as if her were about to run across the room towards them.
Noah had extended his other arm, pointing the gun at Tyler now.
“I’ll do her just like I did Hannah, making her scream my name instead of yours,” Noah taunted.
Gabriella gasped at his admission.
“Yeah, that’s right. I killed Hannah. It was messier than I thought it would be, but I wanted to try it with a knife,” he said and then giggled. “I’d already shot someone, or no, I shot two people. That’s right. Both of them were in their shiny black F150 when they ran out of gas. And just a short distance from their precious ranch. I timed that pretty damn good.”
“You piece of shit!” Tyler spat.
Noah continued to giggle.
“You sound just like your daddy did when I showed up to help them. He didn’t want my help. Didn’t want me anywhere near his ranch after my father had stolen his money. It was my father’s money!” Noah yelled again. “My father worked here all his life. He sweat and broke bones riding those horses, falling off the fence he was made to fix all by himself. Everything that’s here my father had a hand in building and if your father had just paid him what he was worth, things would have been alright.”
“He stole from his best friend. That’s not alright, Noah.”
“Well, his best friend stole the woman my dad was supposed to marry! If that gold-digging Verna had just said yes to my father’s marriage proposal, I wouldn’t have been born a half breed and treated like the spawn of the devil all around town because of it!”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Tyler asked. “My parents were high school sweethearts. They got married as soon as they graduated from high school.”
“And my dad loved Verna all his teenage years. He asked her to marry him the night before their senior prom and she turned him down because he wasn’t a West. He wasn’t going to inherit this big ‘ole ranch. He could only work on it,” Noah spat.
His arm shook as he continued to point the gun at Tyler.
Gabriella wanted to try to get out of his grasp again, but she was afraid he would pull the trigger and Tyler would die. She couldn’t risk that. She had to think of something else.
Tyler took another step toward Noah.
“So your dad moved on. He found your mom and then they had you,” Tyler said. “That’s life Noah. And those decisions had nothing to do with you.”
“He fucked the black bitch that had been panting after him because she was there. And you know what she did after she had me? She took all my dad’s money from the bank account and ran off. She didn’t want my dad, just his money. And she didn’t want me ‘cause I was a half breed,” Noah said.
Gabriella could feel his whole body shaking as he said those words.
“Nobody wanted me!” Noah continued. “And your family treated my father like crap! Your father accused him of stealing and fired him, making him the laughing stock of the town.”
“That’s not true, Noah,” Tyler said. “Nobody in town even knew what happened between my father and yours. They just thought that Jessie retired.”
“You’re a liar! Just like your daddy! You all lie and cheat. That’s why I came here after the funeral and broke into those pens. Because I wanted you to leave! I wanted you to put the ranch up for sale because you were too afraid to be here! But you didn’t. You stayed. So I had to do something else. Those damn birds got in my way when you were out riding. I had a clean shot of both of you until they were all swooping down around the tree getting me all confused!”
“Noah,” Tyler said.
“No! You shut up! It’s over! I killed Hannah to set you up, but I don’t want to wait anymore. I’m not waiting for a trial or that ass backwards sheriff to get his facts in order! It’s over! I’m claiming what’s mine.”
