Just to be Left Alone (25 page)

“Shhh.
That’ll be your cavalry. Chastity called me after the phone calls she had with
you two. I gave her my address and she came by here earlier to check on you. She
saw Jason’s S.U.V. hidden by the shed and called me back. I told her to head
next door before calling Montrose and wait for the police to arrive. Parker was
headed here when he found out that I was already on my way here.”

I
heard the barricade come down. Chastity yelled for me. I glanced over and saw
that Jason still wasn’t moving. Had we killed him?

Conrad
gently lifted me up into his arms and headed toward the couch where the
paramedics could check me out, further away from Jason. I heard someone come in
behind him, but was keeping my eyes closed. I couldn’t keep up with the
movement in the room.

“Identify
yourselves,” came an authoritative voice.

“Conrad
Forsyth and Samantha Malone. Jason Strickland is the unconscious man. His
victim, Samantha, needs medical attention.”

“We’ll take care of
that. Medic, in here.”

Chastity
ran past the officer at the door and crouched on the floor beside me.

“On
my God, what did he do to you?”

“I’m
okay, just please tell the room to quit spinning.”

She
laughed as the tears poured down her pixie face. She held my hand as the medic
checked me out. Conrad and I were asked a stream of questions. I lost track of
them all. I had a concussion and a badly sprained ankle. Conrad was bruised up
a bit and possibly had a cracked rib.

An
ambulance was taking me in for observation. Chastity was calling my parents and
the rest of the girls. I saw Blake and Parker waiting outside when I was rolled
out on the gurney. We all got silent as Jason was pulled out on one behind me.

He
had severe head trauma and a broken eye socket.
 
He was mumbling as they wheeled him past me and into his own ambulance.
Montrose was standing by the back door of the vehicle as they slid him in.

“This
one needs psychological testing. Don’t let him out of your sight. I’ll see if
he can be committed.”

Montrose
slammed the ambulance door shut. I jumped at the sound. The lights and noise
were too much for me. I dry heaved. The medic gave me a shot as Chastity ran
over to hold my hand. Where was Conrad? Then I closed my eyes and surrendered
to the pain.

* * * *

I
woke up in the hospital and felt something on my uninjured leg. I looked down.
It was Conrad, asleep. He had pulled a chair to the bedside and fallen asleep
while watching over me. My heart tightened.

I
ran my hand over his dark hair. He stirred.

“Hello,
you,” I whispered.

“Hi,
gorgeous. How is your head? Do I need to call in a nurse?”

“I’m
okay, dazed and numb. How are you?”

“I’m
fine now that you’re awake.”

“What
happened after I passed out?” I inquired.

“Well,
they carted Nutso off and Montrose had him temporarily committed, pending the
test results. He’s considered to be a danger to himself and others. He’s
stitched up and heavily medicated down in the mental ward. I won’t leave you
alone while he’s in the same building as you. Montrose bribed the nurse with a
date if I could stay with you.”

I
smirked and asked, “Has the doctor been in yet?”

“Yes,
they've had you under observation for the concussion and your ankle will be
fine in a week or two. You can use crutches at work, but driving might be an
issue.”

“I
can drive with the other foot.”

“Why
don’t you let your white knight drive you around?” asked a voice by the open
door.

I
turned to see Parker standing in the doorway.

“Hey,
bud. What's new?”

“I
see that you only behave when someone’s watching over you.”

“Parker,
you know that's not true. I was alone plenty of times and didn't hurt myself.”

“Sweetie,
we don't take bathroom breaks under consideration,” as he laughed.

“Ha
ha, funny.”

“I
see you have her in good spirits,” Chastity said as she came behind Parker with
a white paper bag.

“Did
Auntie Chaz bring me a goodie?” I asked.

“Yes,
but I don't know if you deserve it.”

“How
could she not deserve rich, yummy, three layer, strawberry mousse cake?” Parker
asked as he licked his lips.

“Gimme.”
I put my hand out to her.

“I
guess you deserve it. You’ve been keeping two men at bay, been kidnapped twice
and now get to shove an old flame into a nicely padded cell for messing up your
pretty hair. Yeah, you deserve the empty calories,” she said as she handed me
the bag.

Conrad
sat down beside me on the bed. I happily made room for him. Who cares if the
bed was too small?

I
dug out my dessert and heard my stomach growl. We all laughed.

Parker
stood by Chastity and held her hand as they watched me dig into my treat.

“Is
there room for three more?” I heard from the door.

“Always,”
I said with my mouth full.

Felicia,
Raven and Blake came into the room. Felicia had flowers, Raven had balloons and
Blake had his eyes on Raven.

 
“Thank you, guys. I’ll be out of here before
you know it.”

“So
where will you go? You have to be watched for a couple of days” Felicia asked
as she looked at Conrad.

He
laughed. “She can stay with me. The door will be fixed today and I can carry
her up and down the stairs.”

“Hey,
the danger is over. Can I have my life back?”

“Yea,
I guess you’ve earned that too,” Chastity replied.

I
winked at her.

Parker
squeezed her hand.

“Ok,
I’ll stay with Conrad for a couple of days and see what I need to do from there.
I’m sure the doctor has instructions for me.”

“Finish
your dessert before you try to bring more people in here,” Blake chimed in, while
he kept his eyes on Raven.

Raven
blushed and then said, “Please tell me you have no more stalkers to contend
with. I can't handle much more.”

Raven
made a joke. Nice.

“Nope,
no plans of kidnapping, sickness, crazy car rides or such nonsense.”

“Thank
God!” was heard around the room.

Epilogue

I
spent two days at Conrad's cabin before the doctor released me under my own
care. My apartment was repaired and I could go back home. I wasn't ready for
all of the stairs that lead to my front door, so I decided to stay with Conrad
until my ankle was stronger.

We
had a small BBQ at Conrad's place that following Friday and everyone was there.
I wasn't surprised to see Raven drive up with Blake. He couldn’t stop smiling.

We
dined on grilled chicken with all the fixings. The girls had made potato salad,
baked beans and fresh bread. Conrad had made a black forest cake for our dessert.
I had already added him being an amazing cook to my list of reasons to keep
him.

I
had gotten a call from Detective Montrose before everyone had arrived. I shared
the information with everyone as we piled food on our plates.

“So,
he's diagnosed as schizophrenic, which makes sense. The drugs he gave me were
his anti-psychotics and some sedatives that he stole from somewhere. They’re
checking into his sources. I was lucky to have woken up after that injection.”

“You
had to be lucky sometime during all of this insanity,” Felicia said.

I
patted Conrad on the hand. I had considered myself lucky on a couple of things
and tried not to think on any of it.
 

“So,
Montrose doesn’t see Jason getting released anytime soon since he’s claimed as
mentally unstable.”

“That's
an understatement,” Chastity interrupted.

“And
he admitted to the charges of stalking, breaking and entering plus kidnapping. We
even came up with an eyewitness for him being the one to pop the brake on the
truck that was parked at the dock door. Apparently, he was a very busy boy.
But, he won’t admit to anything else,” I said as I reached for my tea.

“It’s
a shame that you can’t get him for the poisoned truffles as well. That could be
considered as attempted man slaughter,” Parker said.

I
shivered. “No, this is enough to keep him locked up and away from me. It’s bad
enough that they dismiss some of it due to his insanity plea, except the
truffles were injected with only enough drugs to make me sick. We can thank
Parker for the idea of even having the truffles tested,” I said.

“It’s
spooky how he came into your apartment at night. How can you sleep after all of
this? Will you have to go to court?” Felicia asked.

“I
sleep with a huge protector, that’s how. And no, I’ve settled it all with the
police. Court isn't necessary. I wanted it over. Jason needs to get
straightened out and I want to move on with my life.”

“That's
too generous of you.”

“Yes,
Raven, it is. But what point would it make to go after everything he has when
it won't take back what he did to me? It's down, over and I’m okay.”

“Here's
to Samantha, the strongest fighter of us all,” Conrad said as he raised his
glass. They all raised their various glasses and saluted me.

I
was a fighter and I had made it, with their help.

I
looked around me. I had my life and my friends. I cherished it all. I was no
longer looking over my shoulder. Evil had left me alone at last.

*THE END*

About the Author

I’m Georgia born, with
Alabama roots, so I’m practically related to myself. I’m a mom, grandmother and
a part time student who’s sometimes seen in pirate wench or vampire gear. But,
no matter how many personas I have, I’m eternally a writer.

I started writing my first
manuscript at seventeen and it’s my second book published,
Just to be Left Alone
. I typically write paranormal, but there will
be a few other genres seeping out of my imaginative mental ramblings. I’m a
third place winner in the Ozark Romance Writers
Weta
Awards for the Paranormal Division in 2011 plus a member with Romance Writers
of America and Georgia Romance Writers. I currently have fifteen books plotted
out and only need to wrangle time to get all of the voices out. My Savage
Series will make up ten of those manuscripts, maybe more.

I live and breathe
creativity. It doesn’t matter if it’s making the fully boned lacing corsets
that I wear or if it’s coming up with wicked one liners, in my sassy southern
voice, for my fictional friends. I’m a firm believer in laughter being the best
medicine, so I always carry a double dose with me.

)))Corset Hugs(((

Ginny Lynn

Wench Writer

Sweet Cravings Publishing

www.sweetcravingspublishing.com