Chapter Twenty Five

“What have I done?”

The question was whispered to no one in particular. It had been almost an hour before he’d left his now ex-girlfriend back in the hotel room that, up until this point, they had shared. His anger with her had dissipated greatly. While he was not thrilled that she had gone behind his back and questioned a person who he’d expressly told her to leave alone, he could now think clearly enough to realize she had just been doing her job.

He glanced around the empty piano lounge, a forlorn sigh escaping from his lips. An apology at this point wasn’t an option; she would most likely just shut the door in his face anyway. Of course… sleeping in the hallway wasn’t an option either.

He let his fingers tickle the delicate keys of the piano gently, a mournful melody matching his mood. She had let him in. She had opened up to him; she had given her heart to him completely. He had crushed it. Just by the look in her eyes before he left her there, he saw it. The life he had brought to her had been extinguished.

Leaning forward, he rested his head against the cool wood of the instrument, letting out another frustrated sigh. He sat up and shook his head before standing. Maybe he could apologize to her after all. Even if she wouldn’t let him in, the doors weren’t made soundproof. He could stand in the hallway and spout off his apology. Perhaps he’d make a fool of himself in the process but at least then she’d know he was sincere.

He brushed off his jeans and headed out of the lounge, a feeling of dread washing over him. He wanted to cry. He’d never… he had never meant to hurt her. That was the last thing he’d wanted to do, but how in the hell could he make her see that?

He ignored the shouts of the overzealous fans in the lobby of the hotel and headed directly for the elevator. He stepped in and watched as the heavy doors slid shut. His only hope was that he wasn’t too late. Had he let her dwell on the fact that he’d hurt her for too long?

The elevator ride seemed to take an eternity. Finally, the doors parted, and he came back to face with a red-eyed Alana. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of her face, but when he finally did, he spotted it.

“You’re… you’re leaving?” He asked, motioning to the suitcase in her left hand.

“You didn’t really expect me to stay, did you?” She asked him. Though there was no menace in the tone of her voice, the words cut through him like a knife.

Yes. “No,” he said, biting his lip. “But I was… hoping we could… talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about” she assured him. “You… you’ve said everything that needs to be said,” she told him.

“But what about the case?”

“There’s someone flying in sometime in the morning to replace me.”

She was leaving. She was leaving for good. Those were the only thoughts going through his mind. She was leaving. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he told her softly as he stepped off of the elevator. He watched as she stepped on and looked up at him once more. Her voice cracked as she uttered the three single words that managed to drive the knife in just a little more.

“Well, you did.”

Watching the doors close on that elevator was the hardest thing JC ever had to do. That elevator was carrying the woman he loved, the woman that he was letting slip right through his fingers. He headed down the hallway to the room.

He pushed the door open and headed in. He could still smell her perfume, but the room had a coldness to it that had come with her absence. He felt sick to his stomach. After walking over to the bed, JC fell onto it much like Alana had, though he didn’t know if he even had any tears to cry.

He laid there for what seemed like forever, though he knew it probably wasn’t any longer than twenty minutes. He had just pushed himself up to go take a nice hot shower when a knock sounded on the door. His heart gave a leap… had she come back?

He crossed the room and threw the door open. However, he was sadly mistaken. Instead of the loving face of his (ex)girlfriend, he was face to face with someone he’d hoped he’d never see again.

“Oh my God.”

~*~

There was something missing. It had been eating at her since before she’d even thought of Melanie as the culprit and now that Melanie had been ruled out, it was back.

She shook her head and scolded herself. “You’re done,” she said quietly. “He doesn’t need you anymore, and as of tomorrow morning, it’ll be someone else’s responsibility,” she whispered. But why didn’t that help to cease the nagging feeling?

The ride to the airport did nothing to help her apprehension. It was driving her mad. What in the hell was she missing? There was always something to tie the case together neatly… why couldn’t she find it? What was the link that she was looking for?

And all at once, a look of realization dawned on her face. What if someone HAD been setting Melanie up to take the fall? That would easily kill two birds with one stone but who was angry enough to want to hurt both JC and Melanie?

It all came back to one person: Jude Hailey.

He had been Alana’s first suspect. He had gotten into some trouble involving both Melanie and JC which had resulted in his dismissal from a previous tour. That gave him the motive. Because he had worked on previous tours, he would have easily been able to figure his way around the backstage area and he would know the hotel room set up. That gave him information.

And because his dismissal had not been made public among the crew, if someone had seen him, so what? As far as they knew, he could have been visiting an old friend. That gave him access.

And that gave her more than enough to make an arrest.

“Turn the cab around! I need to get back to the hotel! And step on it!”

~*~

When he finally became aware of his surroundings once more, he let out a low moan. He could taste the metallic taste of blood in his mouth, and after running his tongue over his lower lip, he realized it had been split. His head was throbbing and his vision was slightly blurry. He shook his head ever so slightly in an attempt to clear his eyesight.

He could feel something tugging on his hands and he realized he was not alone. That was when everything came back to him. He had opened the door, hoping to God in his heart that Alana had come back, prepared to forgive him. However, he soon realized that he’d been sadly mistaken.

When he’d pulled the hotel door open, he’d come face to face with a man who he’d had fired a couple of years back. Jude Hailey had been kicked off of the tour after making some threatening and rude remarks against Melanie. JC was the one who had seen to the dismissal, and he’d known that Jude had been less than pleased with him after that.

He let out a groan as he could feel restraints on his hands tighten from behind. He was sitting in one of the hotel chairs and his hands were tied behind his back. He could hear the heavy breathing of the man behind him. It made his stomach turn.

He attempted to turn his head, but he didn’t even get a chance too before the man stepped out from behind him.

He looked even more grotesque than JC remembered. His hair was greasy and thinning, with gray streaking through the otherwise black hair. Several days’ worth of facial hair was growing on his gaunt face, hiding his blemished skin.

“We meet again, Joshua.”

The voice made his skin crawl. Giving Jude another once over, he quickly spotted the silver gun tucked safely in his waistband. His eyes widened.

Seeing that the boy had gone pale, Jude followed his line of vision and grinned, patting the butt of the gun gently.

“Ahh,” he said with a laugh. “You’ve always been a sharp one, haven’t you?” He smirked at JC. “You… were always finding a way to butt into other people’s lives… getting mixed up in things that didn’t concern you.”

Though the smile never left his face, JC could see the cruelty behind his eyes. They were dark enough that they looked black, and there was absolutely no trace of compassion or of mercy in them. And at that moment, he was resigned to believe that he was going to die.

“Do you realize that the dismissal did to me, boy? Hmm? I lost my wife. I lost my kid, my house. I even lost my dog. And all the while, you’re sitting comfortably in the lap of luxury. I bet you’ve never known suffering, have you boy?” JC didn’t answer, which caused Jude’s face to turn for a waxy yellow color to red with rage as he pulled the gun from his waistband, bringing the butt of it down onto JC’s face.

“Didn’t your elders ever teach you to speak when spoken to, boy?” He growled. He reveled in the sound of that escaped JC’s mouth as blood trickled from the now open wound on his forehead.

“Please don’t… do this,” he pleaded quietly. The blood was trickling down over his eyelid. It felt warm against his skin. His head pounded and behind him, his wrists were burning. He was trying desperately to free even just one hand. He felt so close and yet… he just couldn’t quite get there.

~*~

She was running down the hallway, her heart thumping in her chest. She reached his door and didn’t bother to knock before she threw it open. Her eyes widened. Standing in the center of the room was a grease ball of a man, a gun pointed directly at JC. She quickly reached to draw her own gun, but before she got the chance, he turned and fired.

The sound of the gun firing had been more than enough for JC. He yanked his wrist one last time and freed it before leaping out of the chair. He watched as Alana slid down the door, hands clutching her stomach as blood seeped through her hands. He rushed forward, catching Jude by surprise, knocking the man to the ground, the gun falling from his hands.

With an angry growl, Jude reached for the gun and brought it up, catching JC with it again sending him off. He pushed himself up and took aim, but at the same time, JC took hold and attempted to pry it from his fingers.

There was a struggle, and the very next thing JC knew, another gunshot was fired. For a split second, JC was afraid that he had been shot. He glanced up at his stalker’s face and waited for the searing pain to begin. Looking past Jude, he saw the gun in Alana’s hand, still smoking from the shot that had just been fired. Glancing down, he noticed that he had not been hit. She had saved his life.

The guttural growl that had escaped Jude’s lips was the last sound that the man ever made as he slumped forward, blood pooling underneath of him. It was over. His hellish nightmare had come to an end. He pushed himself to his feet shakily and rushed to Alana’s side cradling her in his arms as the gun fell from her hands.

She tried to speak, but words wouldn’t come out. Blood spilled from her precious lips, flowing as freely as the tears that now streamed down JC’s cheeks.

Alana knew this was it. The pain had become blinding. The sound of her ex-boyfriend’s cries barely reached her ears. She watched as he reached out, blindly grabbing for the phone before everything went completely black.