"Fuck," he growled. "Hang on Mary. We are going to get out of here."
Thankfully, the garage had a door that led outside. We made it outside, just in time for the windows in my living room to explode outward causing glass to spray my arms and the side of my face. The little picks of pain were nothing compared to the fear that was rushing through my veins.
I was set down on the ground and David had the phone in his ear, with his gun drawn. He was crouched defensively in front of me, protecting me from whoever was out there.
"This is David Knowles, yes. Someone has fire bombed the residence of Mary Montclair at 3443 Carol Drive. Suspect hasn't been seen. Okay." He hung up the phone and put it in his pocket. David's eyes constantly scanned the street. People were coming out of their houses to see the chaos at my house. I couldn't even cry that my home was going up in flames.
"Mary, let me..." he said nothing else, as shots rang out from somewhere. David's eyes went wide and then he slumped forward, his eyes rolling in the back of his head. I screamed and caught his huge body.
Tires squealed and a black Chevy truck came flying down the street. I did something that I hadn't done since my Daddy taught me when I was young. I pried the gun out of David's limp hands and crouched down over him protectively. I put a bullet in the chamber and started firing. Bullets hit the passenger side of the truck, it swerved, but recovered. I hit the back glass watching it shatter. The bumper I hit three times.
Sirens sounded and by the time the truck was out of sight, there were three police cars in my yard, and two chased after the fleeing vehicle.
"Mary," a voice I recognized called out to me.
Looking up, I saw the officer that had been staying outside my house after the package came in. He was holding his hands in the air. "Mary, drop the gun, honey. Everything's okay now. We got you."
The hot metal tumbled from my hands and I immediately dropped to David, "Get him some help!" I cried so hard. "David, please be okay. Please, please, please let him be okay."
The ambulance arrived about the time he was coming awake. He jumped as if he'd been shocked, "Mary!" he yelled out, but I was right there in his face.
"I'm here," I cried. "They're going to get you some help."
"Can't leave you," he said as he grabbed my hand.
"Not going to happen, D. I'm next to your side until Ash or Erik gets here, buddy."
He nodded and held my hand as they loaded him into the stretcher. An officer tried to hold me back to give a statement. As the doors on the ambulance were closing I said, "Ask me at the hospital."
David's vitals were stable. The gunshot wound hit his shoulder blade and didn't exit out the other side. He was about to be rushed to the operating room when the officer from before came into the room.
David pointed at him, "Greg, you have to watch her until Erik gets here."
"All over it, David." The two men smiled at each other and David looked at him affectionately.
I looked back and forth at the two and said, "You know each other?"
"For a while," David said.
"You're going to be okay," Greg said, tears in his eyes.
I finally understood when Greg walked over and put his hand on David's cheek.
Holyfuckingshit!! David was gay! And he was in love! Oh how freaking sweet!
I raised an eyebrow at him and he laughed, "Our jobs make it hard to be together, but we make due. This is the way it's always been. I'm not always with the band. When I'm not, I come and stay in Phoenix with Greg."
I just laughed and kissed David on the cheek. "I'm going with lover boy here to give a statement. I'll see you when you get out of surgery."
.
Greg and I were in an office at the hospital going over everything that had happened since the call I received while in Malibu.
"So, this guy said his name was Detective Adams?" he asked as he wrote down on a yellow notepad.
"My phone rang around noon and the guy said that his name was 'Detective Adams'," I paused to let him transcribe what I was saying. "He said that my house had been vandalized and that he needed me home as soon as possible to take stock of what was missing or whatever."
"Do you still have the number that called you?"
"Oh," I said grabbing for my phone. I scrolled through my recent calls and turned the phone toward him. "Right there," I pointed to the number. He wrote it down and continued with the questions.
My phone rang about twenty minutes later and my heart sank as I saw it was Ash.
"Ash," I sighed into the phone.
"Mary! I just landed in Phoenix. We are on our way to you. Are you okay?" I could hear cars whooshing by in the background.
"Just some scratches, but I'll be fine. David's in surgery. I don't know when he will be out."
I reached over and squeezed Greg's hand.
"I'll be there in ten minutes, where are you?"
I looked around the room, "In an office somewhere down from the ER."
"I'll have an officer bring them to us, just have them meet him at the ER entrance." Greg flipped his cell open and made the call.
"Got it," Ash said on the other end of the phone. "I'll be right there. Love you."
"Love you," I said before hanging up. Turning to Greg I said, "Are you sure it wasn't Steve Parnell?"
Greg looked grim and said, "I was waiting till David got back to have him tell you that as of two days ago, Steve Parnell was dead. He had a massive heart attack in his cell. Mary, he's gone."
Steve Parnell was gone.
Gone.
Dead.
Then who the hell was stalking me.
Ash
I opened the door to the office and found Mary sitting on a folding chair with her knees up to her chin and her face turned up while a nurse hovered over the left side of her face. She was wearing a sleeveless shirt that showed off the scratches and blood on her left arm.
The nurse turned when I stepped inside the room. Mary looked up through heavy lids, "Ash."
I started forward, pushing everyone out of the way. I pulled her up and kissed her preciously unharmed lips, "I can't lose you. I just can't."
"I'm fine Ash," she said as I sat down in the chair she'd been occupying. The nurse gave me a look and went back to checking over her face. "Well, Mary, there is no glass in your face, and there is no sign of a concussion. That's a good thing. Now, let me look at this arm."
Mary held out her arm and let the woman inspect it over. After she deemed it nothing but scratches and bandaging the worst of the wounds, the nurse left the room. The officer that had been posted outside of Mary's house last week was sitting across the table.
He informed me of what had happened tonight at Mary's house and the fact that it wasn't Steve Parnell, because that son of a bitch finally got what he deserved.
"You should have seen your girl, Ash," the officer said. "I found her crouched down over David's unconscious body, firing a damn 9mm at the guys truck."
I looked at her in shock. "You know how to shoot a gun?"
"I am from Tennessee," she shrugged.
My girl was calm. In control, like I've never seen her. Even with the blood on her face and arms, she was calm.
"How's David," I asked.
The officer stood up and said, "I'll go check on him and find out what's going on. I suggest you find a hotel you'll be comfortable in and let me know when I get back. We'll get you set up there for the night and get you some officers to take you over."
We said our thanks and he left the room, Mary smiling at him with a big goofy grin on her face. I didn't like the way she was looking at the tall dark haired man in uniform.
"Could you quit staring after the guy?" I squeezed her to get her attention.
"That guy," she pointed to the now empty door. "Is David's man."
"What?" I asked, sure I heard her wrong.
"It seems that David spends his time with a certain police officer when he isn't working for you."
"Wow," I
said. I had no clue he was gay. I'd walked around naked in front of that guy, for Christ's sake. That won't happen again.
"Yeah, wow."
Chapter 16
Mary
Three weeks later...
David had made a full recovery and was taking some much needed time off. He was, as expected, laid up with Greg, the police officer, in Phoenix.
I'd thankfully had my computer make a backup of all my work and I kept that in a safe deposit box at my bank, just for this reason. The fire destroyed everything I own. Glory, the cat, escaped with minor injuries and was now living with Ash and me in his Malibu beach house.
My life in LA was so much different than my life in Phoenix. Voice therapy was still an everyday event between Ash and I. True to his word, he was the best teacher around. After seeing the doctor in Phoenix last week, he'd given the go ahead to push my voice a little more. After hearing my performance on the TV show finale, Doctor Starlington agreed with Ash, that I'd soon be selling millions of albums in no time flat.
My singing career was currently my part-time job. I only did it when Ash needed me to, like for TV shows or in the studio. In the fall, we would strike out on tour with me as the official first lady of Glory Days.
Until then, I was just, Mary Montclair, freelance photographer.
I'd been editing the shots of the band for the album cover and was going to present them today after Ash returned from doing some touchup on the album. I stared down at the one I hoped they would use for the cover. It was all four band members standing in a line with their arms draped over each others shoulders. Ash had his ankles crossed and he was smiling so widely that he looked like he should've been on covers of magazines and not the lead singer in a rock band.
I'd just finished lunch and started fanning out the pictures on the table, when pain twisted my gut. I found myself running full force toward Ash's bathroom. I leaned over the toilet and emptied the contents of my stomach. The medicine I'd been taking the past week, for headaches, didn't seem to want to agree with me.
Ash found me, two hours later, up in the bed dozing on and off. "Hey, sleepyhead. What are you doing in bed at two in the afternoon?"
I pulled the covers up and over my shoulder before glaring at him, "That medicine is still making me a little sick. I think I'm just going to stop taking it."
"Only if those damn headaches away," he scowled. "Are you sure you don't want them to look at your head again. I know they had done all of those test, but could they've missed something?" I watched as he got up off the bed to go into his massive walk in closet.
"I'm fairly sure they didn't miss anything Ash," I laughed. "You made them run the test twice!" After the explosion at my house, the doctors checked me for a concussion after I told them I'd hit my head. Ever since then, even with the test showing no problems, I'd been having headaches. Now the medicine made me sick.
After he got changed, I sat up in the bed and swung my legs over the side. Testing myself, I stood slowly and sighed in relief that I didn't go down.
"Any phone calls today?" he asked, worried. Ash always worried. He's going to have an ulcer in the next year if he doesn't chill out on the worrying.
"No," I said honestly. It'd been eight days since the last call. The male caller would sometimes speak hateful things, or he would just hang up, but mostly he would just sit and not do a thing.
"Good," he smiled.
"Come see the photos and tell me what you think," I said grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the door, but was stopped.
Ash pulled me to his muscled chest and put his hand on the side of my face, "I love you, angel mine."
"And I love you," I replied.
"Let's go look at those pictures and when we are done I want you to sing to me."
I looked up at him and laughed, "Hey! You took my line."
He just laughed as he pulled me toward the kitchen.
"Have we heard anything from the police?" he asked as he went through the beautiful eight by ten photographs that were on the table.
"No," I sighed. "But I'm sure we will as soon as they know something."
We now know it wasn't Steve Parnell who'd been terrorizing me, but as to who it is, we are still clueless. The future of my past will eventually come about, but until then Ash and I have music.
And we have each other.
Until next time.....
.
Keep going for a look at the full lyrics to "Angel Mine" by Glory Days
Angel Mine
By Glory Days
Could you be the rock?
That grounds my soul.
The heart I demand to lock,
Until our days grow ole.
I'll make you bleed, baby
I'll make you stay, baby
Oh...Ohhhh
Oh....Ohhhh
The beauty of an angel.
The taste of sweet red wine.
Will you let me love you?
My angel mine.
For I need you now.
Can you tell me yes?
Can you teach me how?
I'll never be less.
I'll make you bleed, baby
I'll make you stay, baby
Oh...Ohhhh
Oh....Ohhhh
The beauty of an angel.
The taste of sweet red wine.
Will you let me love you?
My angel mine.
Learning to walk again
I need to fall before I run
The rules, they cannot ever bend
My need is like a red hot gun.
I'll make you bleed, baby
I'll make you stay, baby
Oh...Ohhhh
Oh....Ohhhh
The beauty of an angel.
The taste of sweet red wine.
Will you let me love you?
My angel mine.
About Theresa Hissong
Theresa is a mother of two and the wife of a retired Air Force Master Sargent. After seventeen years traveling the country, moving from base to base, the family has settle their roots back in Theresa's home town of Olive Branch, MS., where she enjoys her time with old friends and family.
After almost three years of managing a retail bookstore, Theresa has gone behind the scenes to write romantic stories with flare. A romance lover through and through, Theresa daydreams of the perfect love affair and takes those ideas to paper.
Look for other exciting reads...coming very soon!
Sing To Me: A Glory Days Production Page 14