Page 30 of For Always
Brown Eyes took off, galloping in a different direction, rattling Gabriella until she thought she heard her teeth chatter. She tried to hold on, to keep a grip on the reins, but they were slipping through her fingers. Probably her fear response because her heart was hammering in her chest the faster the horse moved. More shots rang out and Brown Eyes went up on her back legs. Gabriella screamed. She was falling. She knew it because she remembered that feeling all too well. There would be pain. It was coming soon. And there would be…no, there wouldn’t be blood. Not this time.
She hoped.
Tyler had waited for the Jeep. He hadn’t wanted to. He’d wanted to pick Gabriella up off the ground and put her on his horse to race her back to the house. But he’d thought better of that idea. She was unconscious and therefore he had no idea how extensive her injuries were. Moving her could make them worse.
He had tried to get to Brown Eyes when he saw the horse rearing off. Things had happened pretty quickly. GG hadn’t taken kindly to the gunshots either, but Tyler had been able to rein her in. He’d tried to get to Brown Eyes, to help Gabriella take control of him, when the horse went up on its hind legs. He knew then what was going to happen and he’d cursed. Jumping off GG he’d run to where she’d fallen to the ground. She was lying on her stomach, half her face on the grass, arms and legs spread.
“Gabriella!”
Tyler had called out to her he didn’t know how many times, but she hadn’t responded. He’d touched her face, pushed her hair back and felt along her neck for a pulse. It was there.
Thank God.
That’s when he’d yanked his phone from his back pocket and called the house. Stephen was on his way.
There were gunshots. Six of them. Tyler cursed and looked around. Nothing. About twenty feet to the west there was a copse of trees. Easy enough for someone to lay in wait. But nobody knew that he and Gabriella were riding this morning. There was no one on the ranch except staff and the new security system had been installed a few days ago. Yet, someone had been out there, shooting at them.
The Jeep’s tires screeched across the grass as Stephen arrived. The ranch manager was out of the truck and running over to them in seconds.
“What the hell happened? You said someone was shooting?” Stephen asked.
Tyler nodded. “Yeah. We need to get her back to the house and call a doctor.”
“Dessie was dropping off some curtains when you called, so she was on the phone with paramedics as I headed out.”
“I want to get her off this ground,” Tyler said.
Stephen touched a hand lightly to his shoulder. “We should wait.”
The ranch manager had come down on his knees too and was looking down at Gabriella until now, when he looked up at Tyler.
“It’s safer to let the paramedics do it. They’ll be here in a few minutes.”
A hawk screeched and circled above them. Tyler and Stephen looked up. But Stephen reached behind his back and pulled out a gun.
“You think they’re still out here?” Stephen asked Tyler.
Tyler looked around, going back to that copse of trees and narrowing his eyes. “I didn’t see anybody running away.”
Then again, he hadn’t really looked. He’d been much more concerned with watching Gabriella fall off that horse. In those moments time seemed to stand still, something clenching in his chest and constricting his breathing until the moment he’d felt her pulse.
“I’m gonna go and have a look,” Stephen said. “You stay with her.”
Tyler wanted to find who had done this. He wanted to go back to the ranch, grab his father’s gun from the safe and get out on the land just like Stephen, to find the bastard. But he wouldn’t leave Gabriella.
Moments later an ambulance drove over the grass, stopping with its flashing lights and blaring siren about ten feet from where Tyler still knelt beside Gabriella. He was quickly shuffled out of the way by a woman and a man who moved efficiently and had Gabriella’s neck in a brace in seconds. They moved her gingerly, getting her onto a stretcher just moments before her eyes fluttered open.
Tyler immediately went to the side of the stretcher, taking her hand in his.
Her fingers didn’t move and she didn’t try to find him with her gaze. She simply stared up to the sky and whispered, “Austin.”
“She’s staying here tonight,” Dessie said matter-of-factly.
They’d just returned from the hospital with Gabriella. She was walking on her own and looking much better than Tyler recalled seeing her six hours ago. That’s how long they’d been at the hospital while Gabriella underwent blood tests, head and body scans and exams by a general physician as well as a neurologist. It had seemed like so much for a fall, but they’d needed to be sure. Tyler had to be sure. Whoever was shooting was doing so because of him. His ranch. His problem. With Jagger gone, it was all on him.
“Nonsense. The doctors said I’m physically fine, just a little traumatized which is why I lost conciseness for a few minutes. But there’s no reason why I can’t go back to the resort,” Gabriella argued. “It’s probably best if I don’t drive myself, but if Stephen or one of the other ranch hands can give me a quick lift, I’ll just go and get out of everybody’s hair. I’ve already taken up your whole day.”
“Now, that’s the nonsense,” Dessie continued. She moved closer to Tyler and slapped him on the shoulder. “Help her upstairs. Put her in the guest bedroom and I’ll be up in a few minutes to run her a nice warm bath.”
