Chapter 13 (B) The Show Must go On!

Back at Kat’s suite in the Paris St George Hotel, she and Jake were still comfortably numb on ganja. The wine and conversation is flowing into the AM…

“So Kat what’s your story? We hardly ever see you with a guy. What gets you off?” Jake risks.

“Oh, wouldn’t you just like to know, Mr. Coltrane? I have my moments here and there. I’m just more discreet than some of the girls round here, I like my privacy and my private life is just that.”

Jake promptly apologized, “Sorry Kat, don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t preying, just making conversation. You know an awful lot about me now, but I know very little of your life offstage.”

“It’s okay Jake, I just meant I like to keep things away from the limelight and the band. I can tell you certain things. I have a man, he’s in the business, a quite successful arranger/songwriter. He flies out to see me at regular intervals and we stay at a different hotel from the rest of the band for a few days. We have holidays together during breaks in tour. When the tour is over, I’ll go back home to him. We’re married, you know. He knows all about the rock business. We’re both broadminded enough to know that each of us may have the occasional fling, but we don’t tell each other about it, nor do we ask. We love each other very much and being on tour is hard on both of us. We talk on the phone a lot and email is good for us too.”

“How long you been together?”

“Forever, in the nicest way. I can’t remember him not being around and I want to think he always will be.”

“Yeah two. He takes good care of them whilst I’m on tour. He’s a good man.”

“Kat, he’s a very lucky man.”

“It works both ways, whilst I enjoy the touring, it always nice to get home for real hugs and kisses,” she responded.

He asked her how she came to be in the business. She regaled him with stories of her early music career and her being in another famous female band “The Flying Pans” when she was head hunted by Gracie for ‘PURR. The rest, as they say, is history…

“Now Jake it’s time for my beauty sleep and to kick your sorry ass right out the door. Baby, it’s been good havin’ your company. I like your company, but not your hours.”

“Anytime Kat. Thanks for your advice and smoke. It’s always great to spend time with you,” said Jake with affection.

“See ya in Rome, Jakey. Get a good nights sleep, what’s left of it anyway.”

Meanwhile in London inside the ‘La Vie en Rose,’ Gracie took Libby up on her offer of a tour of her dominatrix facility. As they walked to the elevator, they bumped into DeeDee and Johnny, who as it turned out were on their way to go up to Danny’s apartment.

“See you up there later,” remarked DeeDee.

“Seems like were going to be having quite a private party up there” grinned Gracie, as always, game for anything.

“It will be if Danny and Tess get their way,” chipped in Johnny. Then they parted as one couple went up, the other down.

Gracie began to feel deliciously decadent as she descended in the lift with her new domme friend. Suddenly, Libby spoke. “Gracie have you ever been tied up and fucked by another woman?” taking her aback a little.

“Er no, have you?” she stuttered.

“Gracie, I do the tying up. That’s my job. I’m a dominatrix, remember?” Just then the lift gently stopped, Libby pulled a card from her cleavage and inserted it into the slot and the doors slid open. “Welcome to Libby’s Labyrinth, this is reception“.

There were two cozy chocolate brown leather couches and a dark rosewood reception desk. The thick carpet was scarlet, the walls rosewood paneling, matching the desk. On the walls hung two large erotic sketches in ornate gold frames. One depicted a naked guy chained to a wall and a beautiful dark haired female on her knees sucking his cock. The sketch opposite had the roles reversed. Dim wall washers lit the pictures, a gold up lighter at each end of the desk shone a dim light on the white ceiling.

Gracie had been in some decadent places in her time, but this reception had an aura about it like nothing she’d felt before. What lay beyond? It made her flesh tingle and the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Libby’s presence became stronger as she gave a giggle.

“Come Gracie I give you the tour, the experience if you like, maybe even if you don’t like,” Libby said with an audible grin in her voice…

“Where shall we start?” The singer’s juices had been flowing. She wasn’t sure if it was a delicious fear laced with sensual anticipation or just a shear willingness to be dominated by this stunning female…or both…

First, she showed her into a mock dental surgery room with some very interesting modifications to the chair for holding the ankles and wrists ect of the occupant. The paraphernalia around was far from dental equipment, except for the gags. Next would be the jail cell complete with iron bed, chains, handcuffs and padlocks. After that, the dungeon itself, cold stone walls, stocks chains, coils of thick white rope, harnesses, iron beds, suspension devices, gags, whip, coffin crops, paddles, vibrators for every orifice. Next the plush private office with leather chairs and a large marble desk, this scenario left a lot to imagination but Gracie was one step ahead, her scull cinema was already creating a trailer. The tour had taken around an hour when Libby said “So Gracie, what’s your poison, sex and submission?”

Suddenly, Gracie’s cell phone rang. It was DeeDee. “Gracie get your ass up here quick, something’s happened to Tess! We’re out on the street outside the club!“…

As Libby and Gracie got to the front door of the club, they could see crowds of people just 20 meters up the street, red and blue lights were flashing and an ambulance siren could be heard rapidly approaching and a woman screaming… Gracie fought her way thru the crowd and was caught by DeeDee who threw her arms around her “Oh Gracie its terrible, don’t look, it’s Tess, poor Tess” DeeDee was inconsolable awash with tears her voice broken with intermittent sobs.

As she looked over DeeDee’s shoulder Gracie could see Danny’s black Jag overturned and smashed almost beyond recognition. Shattered glass diamonds were everywhere reflecting the blue and red flashing police car lights and two of the cars wheels were still spinning and one headlight pierced into the crowd. There was smoke and flames wafting around the bonnet, Danny and Johnny were frantically trying to bust open the door on the passenger side to try and get Tess out.

Danny wore no jacket his crisp white shirt was spattered in blood, his own and Tess’s. He was screaming out her name and swearing as they struggled with the door. Finally they managed to bust the door open just as the fire brigade and the paramedics arrived. Danny lay on the road and grasped her shoulders in an attempt to pull her out, she screamed in agony as he pulled at her but she was stuck. Johnny knelt beside him “Come on Danny leave it to the experts they’re here now she’ll be in good hands” Danny was distraught and tried to push Johnny away.

“Fuck off Johnny! I gotta get here outa this before this fucking car collapses on top of her!” In response to that, Johnny punched Danny so fucking hard he recoiled into the road, losing his grip on Tess. Johnny followed through and grabbed Danny, pulling him to his feet. Danny went for Johnny but he was in no fit state, claret ran from a wound in his head he fell into the gutter.

“Fuck you Johnny!” The blow seemed to knock him back to his senses. “How is she mate, this is a fucking mess init? It’s my fault she laying there, poor kid. Whatever did she see in an asshole like me?”

“Take it easy Danny. She’s in a bad way, but she’s a tough lady.” Just then, Danny heard her scream again. It sent sickening shudders through his body as he tried to crawl over to her. Johnny pulled him back and rolled him onto the stretcher the pararamedics had placed on the road beside him.

By that time, the emergency services were in full swing. The firemen had the fire under control. The paramedic had an oxygen mask over her face and had injected her with morphine to deaden her pain. She was in and out of consciousness. The firefighters cut her out of the smashed vehicle and eased her on to a stretcher. Gracie and DeeDee rushed over and followed to the ambulance. “How is she, what’s the score?” asked DeeDee.

“We can’t be sure at the moment, she’s in and out of it’ we have to get her to the hospital now!” replied the medic.

“We’re going with her,” Gracie stated.

“Okay ladies get in.”

The ambulance was at Charing Cross Hospital in five minutes and Tess was wheeled into the emergency theatre.

As DeeDee and Gracie waited, the minutes seemed like hours. After two hours, Danny appeared from casualty, his arm in a sling and a dressing around his forehead. He had a cane to aid his walking.

“What the fuck happened to you two?” Gracie demanded angrily.

“I don’t know. It was all over too quick,“ Danny lied.

After four hours, the surgeon appeared and asked if any of them were next of kin. Gracie answered that she was probably the closest thing present. He took her to one side and spoke in hushed tones.

She returned and related what she’d been told. Tess had suffered substantial internal bleeding as well as internal damage. She was in shock and traumatized. She also had a fractured scull, broken sternum, a broken ankle and her right hand and wrist had been crushed. The internal operations had been successful and saved her life. She was now stable and had every chance of pulling thru. The setting of her broken bones as well as other non-urgent surgery could be carried out when she was stronger. Right now she was being taken to the intensive care unit and would be under heavy sedation for at least the next forty eight hours. There was nothing anybody could do now but go home and wait and think positive. Danny refused to leave Tess’s bedside for the next 48 hours.

DeeDee and Gracie agreed they should go back to their hotel suite. It was around 6-30am when they got back, Gracie immediately rang Kat in Paris.

Kat was into a deep slumber when awakened abruptly by her bedside phone.

“Huh, Kat speaking, Gracie what you doing calling me at this ungodly hour a girl needs her quota of zzzeds ya know.”

“Kat, shut up and listen. Tess has been involved in an accident. She’s pretty busted up and has just been taken into intensive care.

“Oh my God, what happened!”

“We’re not sure at the moment. She was in a smash-up in the Jag with Danny. It happened right outside the club. The car is a write off and so was Tess, almost."

“Kat, it was dreadful, glass and blood everywhere. She was screaming, pinned inside the overturned car as Danny and Johnny were trying to wrench open the buckled door. All the emergency services were scrambling around. Oh, it was dreadful! It’s been a fucking shit of a night.”

“Yeah, sounds like it, you poor darlin’. Are you okay Gracie? What about DeeDee?”

“Yeah, we’re both right just about. We’re very shaken up. It was a hell of a shock and we were right there on the roadside next to it all. It was absolute fucking carnage! What I can’t figure out yet is that there didn’t seem to be another vehicle around.”

“What was she doing in the car with Danny anyway?”

“Kat, why do you think she came back to London? Come on, you know our Tess!”

“Oh shit no, Gracie! Jake’s goina be really fucked up when he hears all this. We spent the evening together, much wine and puff. He was in a bad way, until I calmed him. You’ve just confirmed his worst suspicions, and now she’s in an intensive care unit you say? Fuck! How am I going to break all this to him? He’s goina freak out! I’d better go down and wake him up” Kat was choking back the tears as she spoke. Gracie came back on the line, “Kat let him sleep it off. He’ll take it better after a good nights sleep.”

“He’ll take it better, Gracie? What better is going to be any good? Oh shit this is a fucking nightmare!”

“Easy Kat, we’re all stressed out. She’s heavily sedated at the moment and will be for the next for 48 hours. She’s goina pull through, but she’s goina need time, a whole lotta time. Danny won’t leave her bedside. They are completely besotted with each other."

“Kat, you deal with Jake. You know him better than most, you’ll be the best one to break it to him. Look I’ll keep you posted. Gotta go, bye, love ya Kat. See you in Rome!” Gracie hung up.

Next, she tried Tone on his mobile, but it was switched off…

Kat went back to sleep for a few hours, albeit fitfully. Images of Tess and the car, images of Jake and Tess filled her mind She got up around 12.30 PM and was dreading the awful task she had ahead. She took a shower dressed and had just put on her makeup when a knock came on her door. It was Jake Coltrane and he was holding a dozen red roses. He handed them to her saying “These are for you, just a gesture of my appreciation for last night, I think you stopped me from doing something real stupid.”

“Jake, you’d better come in and sit down, I have something serious to tell you.

"Gracie has been on the phone from London,” Kat didn’t pull her punches. “Tess is in hospital, in intensive care. She was involved in a serious car accident last night and things aren’t looking too good for her at the moment. Although they say she’ll pull through, it could be months before she can walk properly. She may never play keyboards again, she’s suffered a lot of blood loss and had major internal surgery.”

Jake was instantly distraught. “Oh shit no, Kat, No, that just can’t be, stop fucking around!”

“Jake, I’m not fuckin’ around. This is the truth man, this is like it is.”

“Oh shit, and to think I was here last night running her down and suspecting her of cheating on me. Fuck, how could I? Oh Kat, this is terrible, awful. What kind of an asshole must I be? I have to get to London now, oh fuck!”

Jake stood and threw his arms around her and began to sob uncontrollably on her shoulder. Kat didn’t hesitate it was now or never and she let him have it.

“She was in the car with Danny Bannion. Jake, you were right and I was wrong, so very, very wrong. I’m so sorry.”

Suddenly, the sobbing ceased and she felt him freeze. It was as if he had turned to stone, almost as if her words had turned his heart to stone. He stared into Kats eyes and knew she was telling the truth.

“Danny’s been by her bedside ever since and Gracie says he will stay there until she comes out of it. Apparently, they’re inseparable. Both Gracie and DeeDee say they have never seen her so wrapped up in someone as she was with him before the “accident.”

Jake was stunned and hurt at the same time. “I don’t know what to say.”

He threw his hands over his face and took deep breaths “Oh Kat, Oh Kat,” his voice fractured with mixed emotions of anger, sadness and despair. His mind was in a swirl of madness.

Suddenly at the top of his voice, he let it all out. “FUCK HER!” he screamed, “FUCK HER! SHE CAN HAVE HER FUCKING BAD BOY! I HOPE HE BREAKS HER FUCKING HEART! HE’S A FUCKING PROFESSIONAL! BANNION AND PILOT, A MARRIAGE MADE IN HELL!!!”

“That’s it, Jake, get it out, get it over with, and get over it. She obviously didn’t love you and certainly didn’t deserve your love, Jake. She just wasn’t worth it!”

He ranted on for a while and then sat down again and sighed deeply, looked Kat in the eyes and shrugged his shoulders, opening his hands out wide and said “Well I’ll never forget what’s her name” she was surprised that he seemed relieved almost…But knew in her heart he was putting on a brave face.

“Fuck her, Kat, the show must go on. Let’s get our asses to Rome,” Jake said arrogantly.

“Jake lets take a flight together “ Kat was reluctant to leave him to his own devices, fearful he might just think again of doing ‘something stupid’…

Back in London, Gracie and DeeDee went about town shopping and sightseeing in a halfhearted way, constantly concerned about Tess. In the evenings, they checked with Danny on his mobile to see how she was.

On the third day, Tess was back in the world of the living and had been moved to a private room. However, she was drowsy, if conscious at all and she was unable to sit up in the bed. Danny had kept a constant vigil by her side. He seemed to hold himself totally responsible for the “accident” and her condition.

By the time DeeDee and Gracie arrived that evening, she was more comfortable and slightly propped up with pillows, but a mess of tubes and wires connected to monitoring equipment. The following days, they were going to set her broken bones, The prognosis was that she would be in hospital for at least two months under observation and treatment.

It was painfully obvious that Tess would not be able to rejoin ‘PURR’ and finish the tour. Gracie would have to hold auditions for a replacement keyboard player and she knew in her heart that Tess’s essential sound and voice would be exceedingly hard to replace. The ladies made conversation but it was difficult, Tess was high on the medication and drugs pumped into her.

Gracie asked her what had happened that night and Tess mumbled something about them being hit by a truck more than once, but then she was out of it again, out for the next few hours. Gracie questioned Danny about the truck but he was evasive. He assured Gracie that he would give Tess every care and attention she needed.

Eventually, Gracie told him to tell Tess goodbye from her and DeeDee and that if she recovered in time, her place back in the band would never be in question at any time. Danny thanked her for that, but added that he’d rather she didn’t rejoin the band, but stayed with him in London. “Gracie, I’ve never met anyone quite like her. I want to look after her forever if she’ll have me. She’s some special lady.”

“UH OH! Gracie thought to herself she’s got him under her spell and vice versa. This could be a collision course born in hell!

Danny kissed both ladies farewell and said he’d look forward to meeting up with them sometime in the future.

That, of course would never happen.

It was around 8:30 PM as the two ladies left the hospital and hailed a cab to take them to their hotel. As they walked towards reception, Gracie suggested they go to the bar. She held an ulterior motive.

She led to a quiet, softly lit table and they both sat down. A waiter appeared and they ordered champagne and two glasses. Gracie poured and made her play.

“DeeDee, what do you think of this “accident?” It all seems suspicious to me. Something about it don’t feel right. Danny knows something and is keeping it to himself if you ask me. Tess said something about a truck, there was no truck around on the night of the accident that I could see. I reckon we would’ve noticed it, wouldn’t you?”

“Yeah you do have a point there Gracie,” DeeDee replied hesitantly.

“Did you go back to Johnny’s last night, Dee?”

“Yeah, so what’s it to you?”

“You wanna level with me, Dee? Don’t tell me you didn’t get the full story whilst you were fucking his brains out all night. I want to know all you know and I want to know now,” frowned Gracie knowingly.

DeeDee looked perplexed, but knew better than to fuck around once Ms. Pasquale got on the case.

“Okay Gracie, Johnny did put me in the picture last night. I got it all out of him. I know every sorry fucking detail in this cockney fucking bad boy saga we’ve got ourselves mixed up in."

“So why are you keeping it from me?”

“I don’t know really, fear I suppose.”

“Dee you aren’t afraid of me, are you?”

“No Gracie, not you, just fear. Johnny frightens me, Danny scares me, even something about Tone makes me uneasy now. None of them mean to, they’re all totally unaware of the effect they have on the people around them. I can’t wait to get out of London. I wish we hadn’t come back here. It’s a bad omen.”

“Relax Dee, I kinda know how you feel. I get that way with Tone sometimes. It’s just an occasional mood he gets and I feel anything could happen. It’s almost as if he’s possessed. So tell me what the fuck is going on,” Gracie demanded.

“Okay, okay. Johnny and I were in the apartment having drinks with Danny and Tess when his phone went. It seemed very urgent and Danny immediately got up and said he was sorry, but he had to shoot off somewhere, but only for a short time. Tess insisted she go with him, even though he tried to talk her out of it. He gave in the end and let her go along for the ride.”

“Almost the last ride of her life.” interjected Gracie.

“Yeah quite, so they take the lift to the car park and drive the car out. Harry is standing in the club door way and gave an acknowledging gesture to them as they pulled out of the underground carpark. Suddenly he sees something tearing towards the Jag at breakneck speed. It’s an armored security truck and it T-bones the jag full on turning it over and over. Then the truck reverses and comes full speed ramming them again this time the force burst the drivers door open as the impact is on Tess’s side, Danny as always to quote Johnny “Is Teflon fucking coated” and thrown clear. The truck stops for a while as if to survey the scene, then drives to the bottom of the unusually deserted street and disappears into London’s west end traffic. The rest after that you witnessed yourself."

Johnny said someone is trying to put the frighteners on Danny. Someone will pay dearly for what happened to Tess. Did you know Gracie that Danny is known to his enemies as ‘The Devil.’

“Dee, I think you’re right, the sooner we’re in Rome the better…"

The next morning, the two ladies took a cab to Gatwick airport and took the next available flight to Rome, never once looking back …