Enjoy the 4th chapter ;) How crazy is Leo? And how protective is Alex?...You are about to find out
... ... ...
"What!?" Alex stood up and walked to the office, where he could talk privately.
Regan answered. "Yeah I think Stevie shouldn't come home. Leo was furious and kept talking that he had to see Stevie, he even threatened Kate, can you believe it?"
Alex his blood started to boil. "Regan, whatever you do, don't tell him where she is. You have to make sure you don't, ok? And don't be scared of him, he wants Stevie, not you."
Regan sounded unsure. "Alex, what happened? I can feel there's more to this."
He sighed, deep inside he wanted to tell her, but he just couldn't. And he promised he wouldn't. "Look, you're not wrong, but it's up to Stevie to tell you what happened." He honestly said and then repeated what he said before "Please, make sure he won't find out anything about Stevie. She's missing, that's all you know. Ok?" He insisted.
Regan agreed to do what he asked from them. When Alex put down the phone he turned and saw Stevie standing in the doorway.
He looked sad. "Im sorry Stevie."
Stevie freaked out. "He was at Drovers wasn't he?! I told you I can't go home!"
Alex walked up to her and without hesitation he wrapped his arms around her. "Hey, it's ok. He's not going to hurt you again."
Fiona walked in the office. "What is going on here?" Alex startled, because he was so close with Stevie, so he let go of her. But Stevie didn't even hear her.
"What if he comes to Killarney Alex? Then what do we do?"
Fiona asked again. "Alex? What is going on?
Alex walked through the office and put both hands on his head, he didn't really listen to both of them. Then suddenly he turned around and stared in front of him. "I reckon we should call the police."
Stevie still was afraid, Alex ignored his wife and walked towards Stevie again to talk to her. "All we have to do is call the cops and we better do it now."
Fiona got mad because no one told her what was going on. She walked to Alex. "Have you got a minute?"
"Not now Fi!" He walked past her to the living room, Stevie stayed in the office and sat down on a chair there, to calm down. She was fed up by everything and didn't want to cry.
Fiona followed Alex, who already busy calling the police. He asked for one of the officers that was on Stevie's case. The police was kind of exiting, thinking he was about to give them some important information on the death of his father.
Alex started..."I'm in the middle of a huge problem here. First of all, you should know that I've found Stevie Hall, who was missing from Drover Run. You were looking for her? The girls thought they were helping by not telling you she was missing, to avoid getting her into more trouble...But the real problem is that Stevie's in serious danger right now..."
And he kept on talking, telling them the whole story. In the end the police asked for them to come to the police station. But Alex told them it was to risky, because Leo was hunting Stevie. The police officer believed him, but they had doubts about Stevie's story so they wanted to hear her.
Fiona was totally flabbergasted when she heard Alex talking on the phone about what happened to Stevie. After the phone call she was very sweet to him and promised to keep her mouth shut. She stepped into the role of the perfect wife.
… … …
Alex smiled when he entered the office again. He saw Stevie standing there, staring through the window.
She jumped up when she noticed him. "What did they say?"
He blinked his eyes. "They're on their way to Killarney."
Stevie turned to look at him and sighed. "You reckon they're going to believe me?"
Alex got worried again, he noticed how tired she was. "Of course they do." Then he walked to her and gestured her to come with him. "Come on, we'll get you some tea and that blanky Fi promised ya." Stevie stood up and noticed how close he was, she felt warmer when she looked into his eyes. He blinked his eyes and smiled. They just stood there, staring in each others eyes.
Alex put his hand on her shoulder. "You can do this Stevie, I know you can." He softly spoke and kept looking in her eyes. But she didn't reply. "Come here." The hand he had on her shoulder moved to her back and he gently pulled her against him "It will all be over soon."
Stevie pressed her face against his chest and sighed. "I'm just worried that they won't believe a murderer."
While they started walking back to the living room, Alex tried to calm her down. "Hey, you're not a murderer. It must mean something to them that you are here -at Killarney- and that I'm supporting you." He looked at her but she didn't respond.
Fiona entered the room with the tea. She observed the two best friends who were chatting on the couch, she decided not to say anything.
Stevie said. "I'll just tell them exactly what happened and then I hope they find him soon so they can put him behind bars. Then it will be safe to go home."
Alex listened carefully but when Stevie made eye contact he quickly looked down at his mug and stroked it with his thumb. Fiona followed everything and noticed the body language of her husband. Alex felt it and was uncomfortable, it was harder for him to look at Stevie when Fiona was there too.
… ... …
After some wearing time, someone banged on the door. They all looked at each other, Alex stood up. Stevie held her breath when he left the room. He thought it was the police, but when Alex was about to open the door, someone yelled.
"Open the fucking door!"
That obviously wasn't the police! His heart was racing and he was nailed to the floor, it was Leo. Now what?
"Who's there!" Alex yelled.
Leo laughed. "I know she's here Alex. Open the door!"
Alex closed his eyes, he couldn't think straight. Should he ran to the living room to warn Stevie? Or should he open up and try to convince Leo that Stevie wasn't there?
He decided to open the door, at just a chink. "What do you want?"
No answer, but Leo suddenly surprised him by kicking the door, luckily Alex suspected he would do such a thing and had his foot against it, so the door barely moved.
"Oi! Settle down you idiot!"
Leo laughed at him, he wasn't scared one bit. "You have quite a big mouth for someone who has a gun pointing at him!" He straightened his arms and aimed the gun at Alex and said. "You know I'm here for Stevie. And I know you're protecting her."
Alex looked down to the gun and was hoping the police would hurry up, before something really bad happened. He suddenly fully opened the door and started bluffing. "Just for the record; I'm not scared of you. And about Stevie, I don't know where she is. She's gone missing for days."
Leo laughed it off, he didn't believe him of course. By seeing that creepy nasty smile on the face of the rapist of his best mate made Alex furious, he couldn't keep up the act and frowned, even had the guts to step forward, despite the fact that he had a gun on him. He didn't care.
He looked straight into Leo's eyes "What the hell did you do to her?!"
Leo startled for a sec but quickly stepped back to keep some distance and to aim the gun again. He didn't feel intimidated by Alex and suddenly pushed the gun in his stomach.
"You're not in a position to ask any questions! One move and I'll pull the trigger." He pulled the gun of his stomach and added "Now get inside, start walking!" Alex just kept staring in his eyes for a moment, he was raging inside and wanted to hurt him so bad. But, he noticed Leo meant what he said and realized that if he wanted to help Stevie he had to make sure that he wouldn't get hurt.
"Move!" From the look on his face Alex could see that he was ready to shoot, so he did what he said to prevent an escalation and to protect Stevie. He thought there would be another moment that he could take the gun from him. There just had to be.
He was aware that Leo was dangerous and able to do some crazy things to get what he wanted. Leo was filled with hate, he hated Stevie for having such a strong personality, but mostly because she ruined his reputation...and for turning him down.
... ... ...
Thank god there was no one in the living room, Stevie and Fiona heard that it was Leo and of course hid somewhere...Alex felt kind of relieved when he walked in.
"Sit down!" Leo forced him to sit down on the couch by pushing the gun hard in his back, it was intimidating, but Alex tried not to show his emotions.
Leo took a seat in front of him on the coffee table and had a nasty smile on his face. "So, now you're gonna tell me where she is?"
"Maybe I would if I knew." Alex said, sounding calm.
"Don't play games with me Alex, or I'll swear you'll end up just like your old man."
Now Alex just stared at him, he kept his mouth shot, to protect himself from attacking him.
Leo laughed out loud, he knew what Alex was doing. "Aaww...you know? It's kind of sweet that you're protecting her by keeping your mouth shut." He stood up and went from a smile into anger in just a few seconds. "But if you're not going to tell me where she is, there's no other option." He moved his eyebrows and raised the gun.
Alex felt his heart beating faster, he swallowed. But he rather died, then to betray Stevie. "I already told you, I don't know where she is."
Leo got more and more frustrated and suddenly he fired the gun! Then there was a scream and Stevie came out
"No!" She ran towards her best mate, but saw he wasn't hurt at all.
Leo laughed out loud "Ah there you are. I knew you were here." Then he waved the gun from Alex to Stevie and raised his voice. "Sit down next to him! And both of you keep your mouth shut."
Stevie did what he said and looked at Alex another time to see if he was really ok.
Leo sat down on the table in front of them again and laughed. "Now you two listen very carefully; don't pull me any tricks, next time I won't shoot past you."
… … …
Stevie said nothing, but Leo just wanted her to respond, he saw she was weak and different from how she usually was and that felt satisfying. Leo stood up and gestured her with his finger to come closer.
"Come here."
Alex looked at her, Stevie was trying to be strong and reluctantly got up. When she slowly started to walk towards Leo, he suddenly made a quick move forward and roughly grabbed her, which made her scream again. Then he pushed her tightly to his body, one arm around her waste and he made sure she was facing Alex. As Stevie's breathing got faster, Leo widely smiled and talked to Alex.
"Isn't she just gorgeous?"
With the gun he caressed her body, all the way down from her neck to her hip. Alex moved to the tip of the couch, he was ready to attack, but it was to risky.
"One other move like that and I swear; I'll hurt her."
Alex had a very hard time seeing his best mate in the arms of this freak, it even made it harder when he thought of what he already did to her.
Leo continued, but now he talked to Stevie. "So there you finally are...I wasn't finished with you."
He couldn't hold it much longer, so Alex responded. "Haven't you hurt her enough?!"
But Leo kept his eye on Stevie, he whispered in her ear. "Tell him to shut up."
Stevie froze, she was scared to death.
Alex felt his blood boil, he felt his heart pounding in his throat. "Leave her alone, take me instead."
Suddenly Leo put his hand in Stevie's hair and pulled hard, she moaned and said. "Shut up Alex."
Leo laughed, he really had fun in doing all this. "Good girl. Now listen to me; I never gave you permission to leave my place, did I? It wasn't very nice of you to leave. And you even promised to be nice to me."
She was short of breath and did her best to cooperate. "I tried to be nice." She whispered.
It made Leo laugh again and he gave Alex a mean look. "That's right, we've had a great time together." He caressed her another time with the gun, Stevie softly started to cry, she just wanted this to end. Alex couldn't stand to see all this and looked away. It was a hopeless situation, there was no other option then to pray the cops would arrive soon.
Leo turned again to look at Alex, provoking him. "To bad that you're not with her, you two would've been such a nice couple." Alex tried to ignore him, then Leo talked to Stevie again "But he didn't choose you, unfortunately." He laughed and then looked at Alex again, his laugh disappeared and he suddenly sounded serious. "That's why she killed your dad."
"I didn't do it." Stevie softly cried out.
Leo ignored her and still kept his eyes on Alex. "You never had her, but maybe you will someday. Just remember that I had her first." And then he had that nasty laugh again.
Alex became extremely frustrated. "You bastard!"
"You're not such a smart cowboy, are you? If you don't shut up I'll shoot you and then I'm going to have another go with her!" He yelled.
It was so incredibly mean, but Alex tried to breath again and gambled with his life. "You might consider to give up. The cops will be here soon."
That pissed Leo off. "You're bluffing!" Then he looked at Stevie. "Or, did you call the cops? Did you?!" He pulled her hair again.
She moaned, but answered. "Yes, to report what you did to me."
"You bitch!" He pulled her hair even harder. Alex was worried that he would freak out and kill her. "Stevie, don't." He said, but Leo wasn't going to quit that easy.
Suddenly his voice went down. "You promised to be nice to me, remember?"
"I always tried to be nice." Stevie answered.
"Except for that one time, when you almost shot me!" Out of anger, he fired the gun again, aiming on the wall this time.
"There. Now you know what it feels like. I told you: I'm the one who's going to decide how this will end, not you. My goal was to destroy you and I think I'm pretty close to that."
Stevie knew the police would arrive any minute now and gave in. "There's nothing left of me. So yes, you have succeeded."
Leo laughed, then they heard cars coming up the drive way. Leo startled and loosened his grip on Stevie.
Stevie immediately saw an opportunity and started to fight, she managed to get the gun from him.
"Sit down on the floor you bastard!" She yelled, her hands were trembling when she pointed the gun at at Leo. Then she glanced at Alex, who was just standing there, observing everything, he was kind of shocked how she did it. He tried to be calm, but inside he was freaking out more and more.
He gave her a moment and then he calmly said. "Give me the gun Stevie."
But she screamed, almost dropping the gun because she was shivering "No! He's not getting away with this."
Leo was staring at her and smiling. "There we go again...I'm not scared of you this time. You don't even have the guts to kill me! It's like you've said yourself; there's nothing left of you."
"Shut up!" She stepped forward and straightened her arms to aim the gun and stop the shivering.
Alex his heart was racing, he got really frustrated inside, but couldn't do anything.
He called her again "Stevie stop, this is just what he wants." He walked closer towards her, his voice went down. "Please, give me the gun and let the police deal with him." Alex waited, but Stevie didn't move one bit.
"It's alright Stevie..."
Despite the situation they were in he sounded calm and loving. It was like they got everything under control, but when Stevie started crying and finally looked at her best friend, Leo tackled her. Her weakness was another opportunity for him. Stevie fell and the gun dropped on the floor, which made both men go straight for the gun and luckily Alex won! At that moment Stevie grabbed Leo to keep him away from Alex, so they got into another fight.
It all went very fast...
Burning with rage combined to that strong feeling of protection made it easy for Alex to fire the gun when he had Leo in sight. He aimed for his arm and Leo screamed because of the sharp pain. And he got scared because he was loosing power. He wanted to safe himself and grabbed Stevie once again. With one arm and all the power he had left he held her tight against his body, she struggled but couldn't free herself. Then Leo looked at Alex and yelled at him.
"You stupid idiot! Give me back my gun!"
Alex was firmly standing, pointing the gun at him without moving one bit. He felt strong and that feeling increased because of the adrenaline and the fact that he was raging inside. His eyes were spitting fire and he kept Leo in his sight.
Alex demanded, very clear "Let her go."
Leo laughed, it was amazing that he still could, but he did. "I let her go if you give me back my gun."
Alex played along. "Right. I'll give you the gun and you push Stevie towards me, on three."
Leo nodded and Alex started counting right away "1...2..."
But Leo got suspicious and interrupted. "Wait, you give me back my gun first! And then I let her go."
Then it was quiet, Leo waited if Alex would agree. "You see, I can't trust you, therefore you have to hand over the gun first. And if you don't? I'll squeeze her throat, until she chokes." He still thought he was in charge.
Alex slowly shook his head just one time, out of anger and then looked him straight in his eyes. He just couldn't believe the craziness of this man.
"You crazy piece of shit! You're completely insane! I've told you before that you've hurt her enough! Now let her go or I'll give you another bullet."
Leo brutally replied "Then you have to shoot through your girlfriend first, before you hit me." He whispered something in Stevie's ear and put his hand around her throat. When he started to squeeze, she started to struggle to get away and suddenly she knew what to do. Stevie slammed her head backwards, so she hit him in the face and the sharp pain of his broken nose forced him to let go.
… … …
There was relieve but Alex his blood was still boiling and he reached the point that he couldn't control himself any more. So he fired the gun 3 times in a row.
At the second shot Stevie called out his name "Alex!" At the third she yelled again, but it was to late.
Leo was already down, there was blood and he didn't move. Stevie ran towards him, even touched him. "Leo" She then turned to look behind her. "Call an ambulance!"
Alex just stood there. He was nailed to the floor, staring at the lifeless body of Leo Coombes.
He seemed uncaring and sounded dull when he replied."There's no need to do that."
Stevie didn't respond, she just stared at the man she loved, who couldn't even look her in the eye.
Alex walked a few steps closer, his eyes still locked on Leo's body. "He's dead." Stevie stood up and tried to make contact, but Alex didn't respond.
Then she suddenly said. "You killed him."
But there was still no response. The white of his eyes became red and he looked pale, it was scary when he just kept staring. When Stevie's words reached him, the gun slipped through his fingers and fell on the floor.
Right after that, the police stormed in. They where all armed and quickly observed the room. One of them walked straight up to Stevie, he looked at her but Stevie just froze. Then he looked at the floor and frowned. The gun was laying there, right in front of her.
Another cop walked towards Alex and others where busy with Leo, checking for a pulse, but he was indeed dead.
The officer who was with Stevie said right away "Miss Hall, you have to come with us."
She just stared in front of her and didn't respond.
"Miss Hall?"
There was another officer who was waiting in the hallway with Fiona, hearing her.
Alex was flabbergasted when he understood they wanted to take Stevie. "No, please, don't take her! She has done nothing wrong."
The officer that was with him tried to explain and to calm him down. Stevie said nothing, she had no power left in her to defend herself, she was in shock.
Fiona suddenly ran into the room, the officer followed her "Miss Ryan, you're not allowed to enter the scene of crime."
But he couldn't hold her and on the other hand he thought she might be useful, so he let her, to look after her husband. She started crying when she saw all the blood, but walked straight to Alex and wanted to wrap her arms around him...
The police was amazed when they saw Alex pushing his wife away from him, he ignored her and took the anger that was left in him out on the officer that was with Stevie.
"Damn it! Can't you see she's exhausted and completely wrecked!? You must be a fool if you don't see that. Let her go, she didn't do anything!"
The officer didn't respond, but his colleague that was already standing beside Alex tried to make eye-contact. "Mr Ryan, you better calm down and step aside. This is a police matter, I understand a lot has happened here, but this behavior of yours isn't going to help."
Alex was desperate and depressed, he too was exhausted. "Just hear me out will you? You should take me instead! I did it, I'm the one who killed him."
But the officer found it hard to believe him and thought he was trying to protect and help Stevie by taking the blame.
The officer next to him replied. "You have to understand that Miss Hall here is convicted for another murder. On top of that she has been gone missing for days, which is illegal relating to her case. And now we find her here at the scene of crime. Look, I can assure you, we will do anything to find out what happened, but we have to follow the procedures. There will be enough police out here to hear you out. In the meantime we have to take Miss Hall so we can hear your statements separately."
Alex was still angry and confused, tears welled up in his eyes. "You don't understand!"
The police officer stayed calm. "Mr Ryan, do you heard what I've just said?"
He nodded and rubbed his eyes to stop the tears from coming.
"Then we understand each other."
Alex sighed and then softly replied. "But, she needs medical care."
"We will provide for that. We've got medical care available at the police station." The officer made eye contact with Fiona, gesturing her to look after her husband.
It was the first time after the shooting that he actually looked someone in the eye, when he looked straight at the officer and pleaded one last time. "Please let her go. I'm telling you; I did it. It was me who killed him."
The officer pointed at the gun that was lying in front of Stevie. "Can you assure us that we won't find her fingerprints on this gun?"
Alex couldn't answer the question, so much had happened and things got so complicated.
"I thought so. Now, you just got to trust us and let us do our job."
The police officer nodded another time at his colleague and held his arm in front of Alex, to keep him there. Alex said nothing, embraced by his wife his eyes drifted of to Stevie, but she couldn't look back at him and stared to the floor.
Alex softly tried one last time. "She can't handle it."
The officer did everything he could to calm him again. "Look I promise you we will take good care of her. There's going to be an investigation here and you should be here too, at home, with your wife."
In a painful way he got reminded that he wasn't with Stevie, that he was a married man now, a man who had let his best friend down, to many times.
It hurt deep down when he saw how Stevie got handcuffed, especially when she moaned out of pain because of her sore wrists. The officer looked at her wrists and asked her something, but she just couldn't respond. Alex wanted to scream and save her, but he knew it was hopeless.
Things got even more painful when he heard the officer say:
"Stephany Hall, I arrest you for the murder of Harry Ryan and for the murder of Leo Coombes. You are not obliged to say or do anything unless you wish to do so, but whatever you say or do may be used in evidence. Do you understand?"
Stevie nodded, but the officer strictly waited for her answer, when she finally agreed with a very soft "yes" they started walking outside.
Alex felt everything inside him disagree, this was all so incredibly unfair! The officer with him and Fiona both tried to keep him inside but he was strong and managed to follow Stevie anyway.
He wanted to say something to her, something to encourage her. But outside Stevie finally glanced at him, she gave him an empty, heartless look, which made his heart ache instantly. And he couldn't say a word.
While the officer held his hand above her head to get safely inside the car, Stevie saw Fiona and Alex, from the corner of her eye. But it didn't touch her this time to see them so close, she felt numb...
