“I’m looking forward to seeing you up there again,” I said, as we were let into the festival grounds. I parked in the designated spot reserved for Shannon King. It kind of made me feel important. I had to admit, I was a little proud of having Shannon as my girlfriend. She was such a big star.
She sighed. “I don’t know if I can do this, Jack. This thing. It’s getting to me. I thought it wasn’t, but I can feel myself getting nervous. This email. I keep thinking about it. What if he shows up again today? What does he want from me? Maybe if I didn’t go on stage…”
I looked at her. “Don’t go there. Listen to me, Shannon. Don’t let a guy like that ruin everything for you. You’re smarter than that. There are always reasons to be afraid. Even driving here by car could easily have killed you.”
“You’re not that bad a driver,” she said with a smile.
“I’m serious, Shannon. Life is dangerous. There are so many crazy people out there. You can’t live your life without running into at least some of them. Just don’t let the fear rule your life. You’ll end up miserable. This is your passion. This is you. Standing on a stage. Singing your songs for your fans. This is what you love to do. No one should tell you not to. No one should scare you from doing what you love. Think about all the things I see in my line of work. If I didn’t have hope, if I didn’t believe that what I did made a difference, that there was still goodness in this world, in people, I wouldn’t be able to live. I wouldn’t be able to do my job. I can’t let it get to me. Neither can you. You’ve got to get this email out of your mind. This is exactly what this guy wants. Now, shake it.”
Shannon looked at me and then chuckled. She kissed me and stroked my cheek. “You’re so sweet, Jack. Especially when you say things like shake it.”
“No, I’m not,” I said. “I’m a bad-ass cop and you know it. Now get out there and sing.”
Shannon chuckled again and opened the door. “As you wish, Detective.”
We walked to her trailer, where she was going to change into her stage outfit. I told her I was going to make a couple of rounds and talk to the officers on duty. Make sure everything was running smoothly. Shannon wasn’t on until three o’clock. We still had two hours. It gave me plenty of time. Shannon kissed me, standing on the first step of her trailer, holding her guitar in her hand.
“Just make sure you make it back before I go on. I need to know you have my back.”
“I will.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
March 2015
Shannon looked at Jack as he walked away. She liked watching him. He didn’t know it himself, but he was so handsome. Girls walking by him stopped and looked when he passed them. He never noticed. Or maybe he didn’t care.
Shannon smiled to herself and walked inside of her trailer. She put down the guitar and found the outfit she had picked out for this performance. This was one of her favorite moments. The time when she got herself ready. The anticipation, the butterflies in her stomach, the thrill of it all was always biggest from this moment up until the seconds when she went onto the stage.
Shannon looked at herself in the mirror, then stripped down before she put on her outfit. This wasn’t an entire concert, but just four of her most popular numbers, so there wasn’t going to be any changing in between songs. She had to choose something that would go with both up-tempo songs and the one ballad she had chosen for this set. She had found this gorgeous dress…just right for the occasion. It wasn’t too much or too sparkly, since it was an afternoon performance. Shannon put it on and put on some make-up. That was the part she didn’t enjoy too much. Stage make-up was so heavy, but with the light up there, she was going to need it. She was starting to get lines by her eyes and mouth and the light was merciless.
When she was done, she put on her black jacket and favorite hat. She grabbed her guitar and began strumming it, when there was a knock at the door to her trailer. Shannon walked to it and opened the door.
Outside stood Joe.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Shannon asked.
He looked confused. “Well, you invited me.”
Shannon shook her head. “No, I didn’t. How did you get in here anyway? This is only for performers and their families.”
“Well, I am still your husband.”
Shannon closed her eyes with a sigh. Of course, he had sweet-talked the guards. Joe could sweet-talk anyone.
“What do you want, Joe?”
“You’re the one who asked me to come,” he said.
Shannon frowned. “No, I didn’t.”
Joe pulled out a ticket for the festival. “You sent me this. A ticket just for today. Backstage passes and everything. It came in the mail yesterday. I have to say, I was quite surprised. In a good way. Figured you’d finally come to your senses.”
Shannon grabbed the ticket and looked at it. “I never sent you this. Why would you think that?”
“Who else would sent me a ticket to a country festival where you’re performing?” he asked with a smirk.
“I don’t know, Joe. But certainly not me. We’re in the middle of a divorce, remember?”
“Well I kind of hoped we would discuss that, since you sent for me and all. I figured you were willing to finally talk about this, to come back to the ol’ man. Back where you belong.”
Shannon sighed again. “I’m not coming back, Joe. You know it and so do I. It’s over. I’m done.”
Joe grabbed her arm and held it tight. It hurt. “You’re not going anywhere. You hear me? I’m not giving you that divorce and you’re not getting Angela. Or else…”
“Or else what, Joe?” Shannon asked, trying to get her arm free from his grip. She tried to see if she could spot a security guard anywhere, but they were too far away, guarding the VIP entrance. The noise from the stage was too loud for them to hear her if she screamed.
“Or else I’ll tell your little secret to the entire world.”
“You won’t do that,” Shannon said. “It’ll hurt you as much as it’ll hurt me. You’ll never dare.”
“Oh, you better believe I will. I don’t mind going down, as long as I take you with me. If I reveal this secret, you know just as well as me that this will all be over. No more screaming fans, no more record label, no more millions.”
Shannon’s heart raced in her chest. She had no idea what to do or say. He was right. If Joe revealed this secret, it would all be over.
“And, don’t try anything,” he said. “I’ve put all the evidence in a safety deposit box, along with a letter explaining everything, and gave the key to my lawyer with the instructions to open it in case something happens to me. He will then reveal everything to the press. So, don’t send that boyfriend of yours after me.”
“Those are your methods, not mine,” Shannon said. She felt like crying. Joe was hurting her arm, and now she was slowly realizing she was never going to get rid of him. He was going to force her to be with him, wasn’t he?
“Hey, you let go of her this instant!”
The voice was Jack’s. He was running towards them. Joe turned his head and spotted him as well. Shannon smiled.
“Ah, the knight in shining armor, huh?” Joe looked at Shannon. “Enjoy him as much as you can. Tomorrow, you and Angela move back to Nashville with me, or else you know exactly what will happen.”
“Let go of her now!”
Joe let go of Shannon’s arm and pulled away. “She’s all yours,” he said with a smirk. “For now.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
March 2015
“Did he hurt you?”
I stared at Shannon. Her hands were shaking. She was about to cry. I grabbed her in my arms.
“Did he hurt you, Shannon?” I repeated.
She shook her head. “No.”
“What the hell is he doing here anyway? I need to talk to those security guards. They’re supposed to protect you.”
“He had a ticket. Backstage passes. He has a right to be here,” Shannon stuttered.
> I helped her get back into the trailer, then gave her a bottle of fresh water.
“Here, sweetie. Calm down. My God, you’re shaking. God, I hate that guy. I should have punched him right there when I had the chance.”
Shannon looked at me, then leaned her head on my shoulder. “No, you shouldn’t, Jack. You’re a good guy. Don’t stoop to his level.”
“I’ll tell you this much, I really wanted to. Boy, I wanted to. The way he had his hand on you, holding you. I could tell it hurt. Let me have a look, did he leave a bruise, ‘cause if he did, you can press charges. We should report this anyway. It would help your case when you fight for Angela. No judge will let a wife beater get the kid.”
I felt Shannon’s hand on my arm. I looked into her eyes. God, she had beautiful eyes. I felt so protective of her.
“Don’t, Jack,” she said. “Not now. Let’s talk about something else.”
I looked into her eyes. Something had changed. Something was different. These weren’t the happy warm eyes I was used to. These had a deep sadness to them, a secretive sadness. I didn’t understand what was going on, but something was.
“What did he say to you? He said something, didn’t he?” I asked, knowing very well I should leave it alone.
“Not now, Jack. I have a show in ten minutes. I can’t discuss…”
“Why not? I don’t understand.”
There was a knock on the door. Shannon jumped.
“Ten minutes,” the voice said.
Shannon put a hand to her chest.
“Look at what he is doing to you. You’re shaking again. Jumping from someone just knocking on your door. Let me report him for what he did to you today. You can just talk to me. I’ll take your statement, so you don’t have to face some other officer. That way, you’ll get to keep Angela. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
Shannon’s eyes hit the floor.
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” I said.
“Let’s talk about it after the set,” she said and kissed me. “I need to be backstage now.”
I nodded, feeling slightly hurt. I didn’t like that she was hiding something from me. It felt so uncomfortable. What could be so bad she felt like she couldn’t tell me? She told me about the emails, and I believed I handled that quite well. She knew I would listen and understand, didn’t she?
I walked with her backstage and held her hand while she waited for her name to be announced. Then, she leaned over and kissed me and whispered:
“I love you more than you’ll ever know,” before the crowd demanded her, yelling and screaming her name.
I watched her as she took the stage with the same presence and professionalism as she always did. The audience would never know she was hurting. Like she had done for years, she hid it behind a smile and the performance of a lifetime.
“A rare beauty, isn’t she?” a voice said behind me.
I turned and faced Joe. My blood was boiling. I wanted to wipe that smirk off his face.
“Enjoy her while you can,” he said, touching his goatee. “She’s coming home with me tonight.”
My heart stopped. “No, she’s not,” I said. “She’s never going back. At least not to you.”
“We’ll see about that,” he said and disappeared.
What the hell did he mean by that? Was that what Shannon hadn’t told me? Had she decided to go back to him? I couldn’t believe it. I stared at Shannon as she performed, while I felt like small schoolchild who had just had his lunch money stolen.
I refused to believe it. I simply refused.
Chapter Thirty-Five
March 2015
Barbara Robertson was at the concert of her lifetime. She had always wanted to see Shannon King live on stage, and now she finally had her chance. It was something she knew she would never forget.
Barbara clapped and screamed Shannon’s name when she came on stage. She had managed to elbow herself all the way up to the front, where she could see Shannon King up close and with no tall guy in front of her blocking her view. Shannon King yelled something and they all yelled back, before she hit the note of the first song on her guitar and the crowd went wild.
No Heart of Mine blasted out from the stage and Barbara screamed, in awe of her favorite singer. She started to sing along, her best friend since they were children, Lindsey, right next to her, trying to dance, even though the space was tight. They were sweating like crazy, salty droplets were running into their eyes and left a stinging sensation. Barbara felt how her hair was getting soaked and slapping onto her forehead. Lindsey laughed and sang along with the crowd.
“No Heart of Mine shall ever be, ever be, ever be yours to break again!”
It was Barbara’s favorite song. She knew the lyrics by heart from listening to it over and over again. It had meant so much to her when Sam broke up with her after they finished high school because he “felt like they had grown apart.” She didn’t understand why he insisted on saying that instead of admitting to her what she already knew, that he had slept with Tracy after prom night, even though he was still going out with Barbara. It was a tough breakup and Barbara had listened to Shannon King’s songs over and over again to get through it. It had helped her immensely.
“What a great crowd,” Shannon King said when she finished the song. She was sweating too. Barbara was so fortunate to be close enough to notice it. She looked at the woman on stage, who over the last year had become her hero, her idol. Barbara read everything they wrote about her in the magazines and knew that she had left her husband recently and that she was now dating some police guy, who, by the way, was really handsome in all the pictures, but who also had a lot of children. Barbara thought it seemed like a good choice for Shannon, even though the magazines wrote these stories about her destroying her family with her love affair and her cheating on her husband and him being the victim and all. Barbara didn’t believe it. And, even if she did, she thought Shannon King was allowed to be with whomever she chose to be with. She was a powerful woman. Barbara had decided to be one too.
“You can either be pitiful or powerful; you can’t be both,” her mother always told her, quoting Joyce Meyer, her favorite TV preacher.
She liked that saying.
“Y’all ready for some more?” Shannon King yelled out.
“Yeeeeeaaaahh!” the crowd roared back.
“All right, y’all,” she said. “I think I might have a little something for ya. A little song called Break my Heart Again and I’ll Put Two Bullets in Yours.”
The crowd screamed with excitement. Shannon King smiled and started playing, and the band followed along. Barbara screamed with joy. That was one of her favorites too. Lindsey had already started dancing with her beer in her hand. She grabbed Barbara and swung her around. Barbara accidentally bumped into the guy standing next to her. She spilled some beer on his western shirt. He looked at her from under his cowboy hat.
“Watch yourself,” he growled.
“Sorry,” she giggled, then returned to face Lindsey, who had closed her eyes and was dancing while singing along.
Barbara looked up at her idol on stage, as Shannon approached the crowd and started touching the hands of her fans. Barbara pressed her body towards the fence and reached out her hand as far as she could, as Shannon King approached her and touched it, their eyes locked for just one second, and Barbara screamed in excitement.
“Oh, my God, she touched me!”
Shannon continued down the line of people, not disappointing one single fan, while singing “If you hurt me, if you break my heart again, I’ll put two bullets in yours, and you’ll have no more hearts to break,” when suddenly, a terrifying sound cracked through the air. Barbara went cold all over, recognizing the sound from a drive-by shooting she once witnessed staying at a friend’s house. It was the sound of someone shooting into the crowd. The man in the cowboy hat next to her fell to the ground with a loud thud.
After that, there was nothing but panic.
Chapter
Thirty-Six
March 2015
“Cover your heads! Get down!”
I was screaming at the top of my lungs, while holding my gun tightly between my hands. Gunfire sounded through the air. It was coming from the other side of the stage. People were screaming. I ran out there and yelled to Shannon to get off the stage. People had started to panic and were trampling on one another.
It was the scene of a living nightmare.
“Help people in the front get onto the stage,” I yelled at the security guards. The panic had made the crowd move back and forth in waves, and was crushing the people in front.
“Help people get out of here!”
The guards started pulling people free. Some had fallen and were being trampled on. They risked getting killed. The gunfire had ceased, and I jumped down to help get people out. A girl was screaming from underneath people’s feet. I managed to get a hand in and pull her out. She had blood on her face and arms. She looked at me with terror in her eyes.
“Run backstage!” I yelled, while trying to pull another girl out.
“There was a guy,” the girl said, as I reached for her friend and she grabbed my hand. “He was shot. The guy next to me got shot.”
She was in shock. She was staring at her bloody hands.
“Get inside!” I yelled at her, while pulling out her friend who had been badly trampled upon. Her face was already bruised. I grabbed my phone and called for ambulances and backup, then went back to pulling people free.
The sound of gunfire blasted through the air once again. My heart stopped. It sounded like it came from backstage. People screamed in panic and moved for the exits.
“Shannon,” I whispered, jumped up onto the stage, and ran with my gun in hand behind the curtain. Terrified faces and people screaming told me I was right. There had been shooting backstage as well.
“Seek cover!” I yelled at all the faces. “Get down!”
I walked with my gun in hand through the corridor created for the musicians to wait before they went onstage. A woman was screaming not far from me.