Page 33 of Hollywood Fairytale

A flurry of fast spoken Swedish came down the line both from Luke and Leo.

On the monitor, her head swung from the door that she wanted to get into and down the hall. Was she hearing sirens? Could she hear them over the shrill noise coming from the alarm? I wasn’t sure, but if it would make her leave I was all for it.

“Luke,” I gasped out. “It’s Ashlyn.”

My heart pounded in my ears so much that I couldn’t hear what Luke was saying. It was almost deafening. Mason sat in my arms hugging me back just as tightly as I held him. Keeping his head down so that he wouldn’t see something that he could never unsee. Somewhere deep within me, I knew that we were safe but seeing her out there overrode that thought process.

“The police should be there in one minute. You’re doing great. Just a little while longer and it will all be over. Do you hear me?” he asked when I didn’t respond.

“Yes,” I managed to say faintly.

Ashlyn turned with an evil grin on her face and knocked on the door twice with the bat. Her body weight going with every hit. She meant business. When nothing happened, she turned around in a circle with her head thrown back, her mouth wide open. She was yelling. Even though I couldn’t hear it, I knew she’d been screaming. The question was, who was she after?

Stopping abruptly, she swung one last time before racing down the hallway and out the window she previously broke.

“She’s gone,” I choked out. “She went out the way she came in.”

“Stay on the line with me, Alex. I’ll be there in less than five minutes. Are they there yet?”

“Who?” I asked confused.

“They’re pulling up now,” I heard in the background.

“The police. I was asking Leo, he’s on the phone with dispatch.” He answered back distractedly. “They should be there. Sit tight and don’t come out until you see me on the other side of the door. The code is 0525.”

“My birthday is the code,” I stated. A sob catching in my throat.

Now that Ashlyn was gone my adrenaline crashed, making me a shaky, crying mess. Mason held my trembling hand with his eyes aimed at the monitor now that I wasn’t keeping him from looking. I hated that I was breaking down in front of him, but I had no control over my emotions any longer.

“Mama, I see police outside.”

“That’s good. They’re supposed to be here.” Squeezing his little hand, I brought it up to my cheek and held it there. Oh God, he was never going to want to come to California again. My heart broke a little at the thought, helping to calm me down some from my spiraling emotions.

Taking us over to the chair, we sat watching the monitors waiting for Luke. Police were all over the yard and in the house, but I didn’t want to leave the room and have to talk to them. I only wanted to be in Luke’s arms.

My breath caught as I saw Luke’s car pull into the driveway and he jumped out of the car. He took off running toward the house but got caught by one of the police officers. It looked like he was pulling at his hair. After a few moments, he was let go and running into the house and straight upstairs.

I stood with Mason in my arms as we waited to see Luke’s face on the monitor, but he was stopped by the locked bedroom door. How was he going to get in? He took in the damage created by the bat and then rammed the door with his shoulder trying to get in. I didn’t know what to do. Should we stay in the panic room or should we let Luke in the bedroom?

“What do we do?” I asked Mason. “I don’t want him to get hurt.”

There was a good possibility he might, unless he had the police knock it down. After all this I wasn’t sure what we should do, but I didn’t want Luke to injure himself or for anymore damage.

“Let’s go let him in.” Putting Mason on my hip, I keyed in the code and waited for the door to hiss open. Once it was open I ran to the bedroom door.

“Luke,” I cried out as we reached the door and heard a loud thud.

“Alex?” he yelled, frantic.

My hand shook as I tried to unlock the door. It took a couple of tries before I swung open the door and Mason and I were both enveloped in Luke’s strong arms. He sank to the floor with us. All of us were hugging and crying.

“We’re okay. We’re okay.” I kept repeating trying to reassure myself, but also Luke and Mason.

A few feet away an officer stepped forward, causing me to tense. “Mr. Sandström, we need to talk to your girlfriend for a few minutes. Can you please come down stairs?”

I felt Luke nod his head as he tried to stand with us in his arms.

“Does Mason need to be there for the questioning?” Leo asked from down the hall.

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