Chapter 14 #2
Peter walked out to his vehicle and drove around the building. He’d surprise her and help her lock up.
Horace had picked the lock on the back door and entered easing the door closed behind him.
The gallery was still being completed, and the only rooms finished were two bathrooms and Alexis’s office. He chose one of the bathrooms, entered, gently closed the door, and locked it. Then he listened.
Once he was certain everything was quiet, he crept out of the bathroom, his hand on the gun in his pocket.
Alexis was coming out of the office at the same time. She saw him and screamed and reached into her jacket’s pocket.
Horace rushed her, attempting to knock her to the floor.
He had a good fifty pounds on her, but there wasn’t much difference in height between them.
She struggled against him, finally got her right arm free and raised it, her hand facing toward him.
He had a split second to close his eyes before the pepper spray got him, and he didn’t make it.
His eyes burned, like they were being burned right out of his head. Horace screamed and released her. “Oh, my eyes. My eyes!”
Alexis scooted back on the carpet and stood.
She screamed and ran for the back door. She’d closed her eyes as she sprayed the pepper spray, so it didn’t get directly in her eyes but her nose and throat burned and her eyes still watered.
Pushing open the door, she ran toward the first vehicle she saw.
“Peter!” She screamed his name when she saw him.
He was just getting out of the car and his head snapped up. He ran toward her.
She threw herself in his arms and sobbed. “Horace assaulted me.” She sniffled. “I pepper sprayed him.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “It’s okay. We need to call the police.” He dug his phone from his pocket and held her with one arm and told his phone to dial 911.
“Yes, operator. We’ve had an assault at the Armstrong Gallery. Please send the police right away.” He listened. “Yes, we’ll wait. We’re by the black Chevy Tahoe out back.”
Suddenly, the gallery door flew open, and Horace ran out. His eyes were wild as he jerked around looking for her. He stopped when he saw them and raised his arm a gun in his hand.
“Down!” Peter dropped to a squat with Alexis in his arms. “Stay down.” He walked, with his knees bent, staying low, to the driver’s side of the SUV. He opened the door and leaned in to open the console. He grabbed his nine millimeter Glock pistol.”
Peter held the weapon with both hands, stood and glanced around.
Alexis looked behind her and saw Horace in between two of the parked cars. He had a clear shot to her. He raised his weapon and aimed.
A shot rang out.
Alexis fell face-first to the ground.
A second shot sounded.
Then silence reigned for a moment.
“Alexis!” Peter ran toward her.
Shouldn’t she feel pain? Did he miss her? No, pain seared her shoulder, in a delayed response, and she knew she was in shock.
Peter reached her. “Where do you hurt?”
“My shoulder,” She turned over to her back and raised her right hand to her left shoulder. It came away bloody. Her stomach lurched. “Horace?”
“Dead.” Peter didn’t say anything else, but what was there to say?
“I’m glad. Is that wrong?” asked Alexis.
“No, sweetheart. It’s not. I feel the same way.”
Sirens sounded getting closer. Finally, the flashing lights were seen coming down the street that ran behind the building.
The sheriff’s vehicle parked in back of the gallery and killed the siren but not the lights. Sheriff Taylor jumped out of the car, went around to the front, and bent down. He stood and called out. “It’s okay folks. The danger is past.” Then he walked down the aisle toward them.
“We need an ambulance, Sheriff,” Peter called out to him.
The sheriff spoke into the radio at his shoulder. “Send an ambulance to the Armstrong Gallery. Lights and siren.” Then he continued toward them. “Who’s injured? What is the injury?”
“It’s Alexis. She’s got a wound to the shoulder, and she’s going into shock. She’s shivering and turning blue around her mouth. I’m putting pressure on the wound, but she’s still bleeding pretty bad.”
“Okay,” the sheriff got on one knee next to Alexis. “We’ve got an ambulance on the way, sweetie. You just hang in there.”
“Thanks, Bob.” Suddenly, she grabbed his shirt. “You need to stop McNubbin. He’s part of this and murdered Heather. You have to arrest him.”
“Shh. It’s okay. He’s in my jail as we speak.
I arrested him as soon as he showed up for work.
You should’ve heard him. Hollering to beat the band.
Threatening to take my badge for false imprisonment.
Then I told him I knew about Heather. He sputtered a bit and then clammed up.
The only thing he said after that was lawyer. ” He used finger quotes around lawyer.
“I hope he rots in Hell.” Alexis felt no remorse for her feelings toward McNubbin. She believed he’d killed her friend in cold blood. Knowing Heather as she did, she’d probably thought he’d been her friend until he killed her. She turned her head away. No, she felt no remorse.
“Hey, how are you feeling?” Peter knelt beside her.
“Not so good.” If I could just get something for my nausea, I think I could handle the pain.
“The bleeding is stopped and the ambulance just pulled up.”
She nodded and then closed her eyes. All she really wanted to do was sleep.
“Honey.” He patted her cheek. “I don’t think you should close your eyes right now. I don’t know for sure but they always say not to let the victim fall asleep in the movies.”
She laughed and then moaned. “Don’t make me laugh. It hurts too much. Dang it, Peter. I hurt. Lord, I hurt. It never looks this bad in the movies.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t take the movies as gospel. They’re probably wrong anyway.”
“Excuse me, sir. I need to get where you are,” a young, handsome EMT said to Peter.
“Oh, yes. Sure.” Peter stood and backed up, but not too far away.
She was glad for that. He could have left, but he didn’t.
After the EMTs did a cursory exam they loaded her onto a stretcher and put into the ambulance for the trip to Aspen Valley Health, less than three miles away.
“I’ll meet you there,” Peter said as he walked at the end of her stretcher.
“Okay.” She looked up at the EMT. “Can I go to sleep now?”
“We’d prefer if you didn’t. We’ll have questions that need to be answered.”
“Okay. Ask away.”
The doors to the back of the ambulance closed and she was alone with the EMTs. She wanted Peter. What if now that she had medical attention, he left. Horace wasn’t a threat any longer, so what was keeping him there?
Ten days later
“There you go, young lady.” Doctor Colby finished taking out the last of her stitches. He was in his sixties if he was a day, with thick, white hair that he kept short.
The bullet had gone all the way through her shoulder and hadn’t damaged anything else on its trajectory. She was very lucky that Horace was such a bad shot.
“Now, I don’t want to see you here in my office again.”
“Understood. Thank you, Doctor Colby.”
“Good. I will see you at your gallery, though. I’m looking forward to the grand reopening.”
Alexis smiled. “Of course. I can’t wait to see it, myself.” She gave him a tight smile and turned toward Peter, all the while keeping the smile in place, almost afraid her face would become frozen that way.
The walk to the gallery was quiet with only a slight breeze and birds chirping. The sun shone brightly, but that didn’t improve her mood.
Finally, they reached their destination and as she was unlocking the door, she looked up at Peter. “What does he mean grand reopening?”
“I thought since the other gallery had been open, that this would be the reopening. I thought I was helping. We can change everything and cancel the program for tonight.”
She felt as if flames were shooting from her eyes and maybe they were, because Peter took several steps back.
He’d only been trying to help, she reminded herself and she calmed. “I’m sorry for being angry. I just wish I could have had more paintings to show. I wasn’t really ready for it to open.”
He smiled. “I filled in the spaces with my paintings. I didn’t think you’d mind, but if you do I can take them all down.”
Alexis’s jaw dropped and her eyes opened wide. Shock filled her that he would do something like that for her. “No. Don’t move them. You know I love your work and I’m not the only one. But why did you do this for me?”
He smiled and slowly, gently cupped her jaw. “Haven’t you figured it out yet? I love you, Alexis Armstrong. Come and stay with me.”
“Oh, Peter. I love you, too. But you know why I can’t just go and stay with you.” Her eyes filled with tears. He was offering her what she’d dreamed of. She couldn’t let the dream she’d had all her life go.
He pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and kept smiling at her.
“I’m not asking you to move. I’m building a house here in Aspen.
Well, not in town, but up by your cabin.
I thought we could stay in your cabin until the house is finished and then either rent out the cabin or sell it, whichever you prefer.
I’ll come to you. Now, will you stay with me? ”
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
She grinned and jumped into his arms. “Yes. A million times, yes. I love you so much. My heart was breaking because I couldn’t accept your offer. Thank you. Thank you for realizing that my dream is important.”
Peter wrapped her in his arms. “You are the most important person in the world to me. I love you with all my heart.”
“And I love you, too. Forever.”
Peter stepped back and kneeled. He took a small velvet box from his jeans pocket.
“I know it’s not fancy, and we aren’t having dinner in a great restaurant.
But Alexis Armstrong, will you marry me and become my wife?
I can only say that I will love you forever.
You’ll make me the happiest man in the world.
I know you said you’d stay with me, but I want you to marry me, too. Say it. Say you’ll marry me.”
She nodded. “I would love to be your wife more than anything.” She knelt in front of him and kissed him.
He pulled back and pushed the ring onto the third finger of her left hand.
“While you were in the hospital, I took one of your rings to the store with me to buy the engagement ring, so he knew it would fit.” He stood.
“Thank you, my love.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her deeply.
“You’re finally mine and I’ve never been so grateful for a blizzard in my life as the one that brought me to you. ”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, trying to put all her love into the kiss. He was her sun, her moon, her day, and her night. He was her everything. Forever.