The band was already gone to the label's headquarters to work on some paperwork from their previous tour, leaving me all alone at his home.
His beach house in Malibu was beautiful. Wherever you were in the house you could see straight through the back windows to see the Pacific Ocean out back. The inside was painted all white, with the kitchen having black countertops. There were black accents all throughout the house. He had six bedrooms all done up in various themes.
I'd just finished up eating lunch when my phone rang. It was a Phoenix number that I didn't recognize. "Hello."
"Ms. Montclair," the caller said. "This is Detective Adams. There have been some things disturbed at your home. We need you to come home right away, to have you identify the things that were vandalized."
"Oh," I gasped. "Yes, sir. I'll be on the next flight out of Los Angeles. I can be home by probably eight tonight. Can you meet me at the house?"
"Sure," the detective said. "See you there."
After hanging up, I found David sitting out back and told him what was going on. I needed to call Ash. I'd have to fly home early. He wasn't going to like it, but I had to go. Someone had fucked with my house!
"Ash," I said, frantic when answered the phone. "I'm packing. I have to go home, now!"
"W...why," he stuttered. "What's wrong?"
"I got a call from Detective Adams in Phoenix. My house has been vandalized. He needs me there as soon as I can get back."
"Fuck," he growled. "I can't go with you. You're going to have to take David." I looked up at David and he nodded, understanding. He was in motion one second later.
"He's packing now."
"I love you," he whispered. "Please be careful. I'll be there in the morning."
"Ok," I said. "I'll see you tomorrow. Love you."
Time to go back to my home, even though it wasn't feeling like home much anymore.
.
When we arrived at the house, there were no cars in the driveway. David went ahead of me to check things out. Once the house was clear, I followed him inside. The detective was due in the next few minutes. I took my things to my room and set them on the bed. Running my hands over the mattress, I remembered the times that Ash and I had tangled up in the sheets. Scooping up a pillow, I held it to my face, still smelling his sweet musk.
David came in the room and I dropped the pillow, like I'd just been caught with my hand in the cookie jar. "Hey, I don't know what this guy said was messed with, Mary. I don't see anything out of order. What did you say his name was?"
"Detective Adams," I answered. David's brow creased and my heart started pounding. Something wasn't right. The house suddenly felt wrong. Like it was too quiet.
"Mary," he looked at me with a pained expression. "There is not a Detective Adams working on your case."
My wrist was grasped and I was yanked away from the bed as my bedroom window shattered. The smell of gasoline hit my nose and half a second later by room exploded into a ball of flames. We were thrown into the wall and my head cracked against the doorframe. I saw stars.
David threw me over his shoulder, fireman style and ran down the long hallway to the front of the house. His gun drawn with his right hand, he turned for the back door, only to stop when another Molotov cocktail came through the kitchen window.
"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.
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."