Adam leaned back in the limo with his arm over his eyes. Press interviews were a pain in the ass. The same questions asked over and over. Do the brothers get along? How’d you break your arm? Can you still play? What’s a typical day for a teen idol? “I can’t wait to get this day over with and get the heck out of New York.”
Everyone became extra quiet. Adam moved his arm and glanced at his parents, brothers, and Wally, all crammed in the stretch limo.
His mother avoided his eyes as did Peter and his Dad. Garrett stared and said nothing.
“What?” Adam asked, already annoyed, but received no answers. He knew he wouldn’t like whatever it was they weren’t telling him.
“You’ve got to tell him. You can’t keep him in the dark all the time,” Peter said to their parents.
His mom and dad looked at each other, both with an expression of guilt. “Well? What?” he demanded.
His father cleared his throat. “Adam, things don’t always work out the way we plan.”
“Oh my god! You’re not gonna let me go to LA!” When they said nothing, yet looked guilty as charged, he threw his hands in the air. “Un-fucking believable!” They’d done it again!
“Adam. Language!” His mother scolded.
“You were never gonna let me go, were you? You just said yes to shut me up. That’s bullshit!” He slammed his fist against the leather seat.
“Adam, enough!” his father barked. “You have no reason to talk like that!”
“You’re saying that I can’t go?” He wanted to hear them speak the words that would ruin his plans again.
His dad didn’t answer. Instead he said, “There’s a high-profile fundraiser tomorrow night, and it’s an opportunity for some great press.”
“And when were you going to tell me this?” he said through clenched teeth, fighting the urge to blow up at them.
“The reason we didn’t tell you is because we knew you’d act like a big baby, and we didn’t want to deal with it,” Garrett said, looking down his nose at Adam.
Adam shot Garrett a death stare. “You are the biggest horse’s ass. How does this awesome opportunity drop out of the air the day before? You wanna tell me that!”
“The other band had to cancel, so we got the gig. It’s math, Adam; with the new album dropping, we need every bit of press we can get.” Garrett looked at Adam as if he was a mindless idiot.
“I don’t give a shit about the album. I need a goddamn life! You can’t keep controlling my every minute.”
“Adam!” his mom scolded. He ignored her.
“Ah, actually, yeah we can. You’re underage.” Garrett pulled at the cuffs of his shirt.
“Garrett, stop badgering your brother. Adam. You can’t expect to take off whenever you please to see some new friend. You have obligations,” his mother intervened.
“That you guys made without asking me! Again!” Damn them! When would he ever get a choice in his life?
“Honey, your friend will understand. These things happen,” his mother tried to soothe him. “What’s his name again? Marty?”
Garrett interrupted. “Mom, he’s not going to see a guy. He’s going to chase after some skirt he met at camp.” Garrett shot Adam a childish “I got one up on you this time” look.
Adam drilled Garrett with a venomous glare.
“Oh for crying out loud, you’ve got to be kidding me. All this over a girl!” His dad rolled his eyes.
“Adam! Is that true?” his mother looked appalled.
“It doesn’t matter who I want to see. It’s no one’s business but mine!”
“If it’s that important to you, we can probably find time in the next couple of weeks. If I can’t make it, we’ll have Roger fly out with you,” his mother offered.
“I don’t need a chaperone, and I’m not waiting a couple weeks just to have you book me into some other bullshit commitment!”
“What is so urgent that you need to go tomorrow?” she asked.
He knew his mom wanted him to be happy, but nothing would at the rate they were going.
“He wants to go see if his new girlfriend is knocked up,” Garrett blurted.
If looks could throw poisonous darts, Garrett just became a dead man.
“What!” His mother exclaimed, and her face turned pale.
“You asshole!” Adam flew across the limo and tackled Garrett.
He tried to get a punch in, but between the leather seats and the movement of the vehicle, Garrett evaded him.
Adam wrestled him to the floor and tried to get him in a choke hold, ignoring the yelling of everyone else.
His father yanked him off of Garrett, which was no easy task.
“Let me go!” He fought his way out of his father’s grip and slid back into a seat, ready to punch out a window. He avoided his mother’s devastated expression.
“Adam, explain yourself,” his dad demanded.
“You really think I’m going to talk about this right now, in front of everyone?” Unbelievable. He wanted to kill Garrett.
“Damn right you’re going to discuss it right now! What is wrong with you? You know better than to get a girl pregnant!”
Adam crossed his arms and shook his head. Absolutely not. We are not talking about this!
“She’s the daughter of Steven Hunter,” Garrett provided, earning another glare from Adam.
“Garrett, shut your trap!” Peter said.
His parents shared a confused glance. “As in the Graphite Angels?” his dad asked.
“That’s the one,” Garrett boasted.
“Oh, dear lord,” his mother said.
“At least he lost his virginity to a rock princess!” Garrett grinned, so proud of himself. Adam fought the urge to knock out his front teeth. If he weren’t trapped inside a moving limo with his parents watching, he’d do it!
“Garrett! That’s enough!” their father bellowed.
Garrett crossed his arms, quite satisfied with himself.
“This is just great! Not only do you control my life, you think it’s fine to discuss my personal issues like it’s national news. When the rest of you want to plan my life, you go right ahead and do it. But as soon as I have something private, you think you can all butt right in. Not going to happen!”
His mother covered her mouth with her hand. His father looked fit to be tied, while Garrett relaxed.
“You may not want to discuss it, but I assure you, young man, you will,” his father blustered. Dad wanted to control everything in their lives, but he was in for a big disappointment.
The limo stopped at a red light.
“Well, guess what?” Adam said. “I’m not going to talk about it now or ever. And you know what else? I’m not in the mood to do interviews today.” He shot them a calm, silent look. See how they liked them apples!
His mother’s forehead creased and his dad looked more pissed off, but that wasn’t Adam’s problem. Peter shook his head in frustration.
“You know what? Garrett likes to speak for me, so he can handle it! I am so sick and tired of all this bullshit! This family. This life. All of it!” He glanced around at everyone, and all he saw was their inability to understand him.
He was just a cog in the wheel, and he was sick of doing what everyone else wanted. “You know what? I quit!”
The stoplight turned green. Adam opened the door and as the limo began to move, he hopped out into the slow moving traffic.
“Adam!” his mother screamed.
“Let him shake it off. Give him some space,” Peter said.
The limo keep going, the driver unaware he’d lost a passenger. Adam dodged the traffic and crossed the street.
Shake it off? You bet. He planned to shake off New York and his overbearing family. He was so sick and tired of them running his life and making decisions without including him. Let them figure out how to handle this one! He needed to see Marti, and he refused to delay it any longer.
* * *
After a quick cab ride back to the
Waldorf, he grabbed a duffel bag and stuffed in a couple changes of clothes. Then he crossed a line he knew he shouldn’t. He went to the safe in the master bedroom and entered his parents’ wedding anniversary date, the code they always used for hotel safes.
The safe clicked open, and he pulled out a small bag containing cash and credit cards in his dad’s name. Adam took three hundred dollars and one of the charge cards. He closed the safe, hoping he’d make it out of the city before anyone noticed he was gone.
Once outside, he hailed a cab and hopped in. “How long to the airport?”
“Which one?” the cabbie asked, with a foreign accent.
“Which is closer?”
“This time of day, it shouldn’t take much more than forty minutes to LaGuardia.”
“Perfect! If you can make that thirty minutes, I’ve got another fifty bucks for you.”
The cabbie grinned. “Hang on!” He swerved the car around a delivery truck and floored it through a yellow light.
Adam braced himself as the seasoned cabbie cruised through the maze of big city traffic. Adam called the airline for the next flight out. Bingo! If traffic didn’t hold them up, he could be airborne and on his way to see Marti in a little over an hour.
He sat back, a huge grin across his face. There would be hell to pay later, but he didn’t care. Right now he couldn’t be more pleased. By tonight he’d be with Marti. When they were together, life was so much better. They needed to find out for once and for all if she was pregnant. Neither he nor Marti wanted that, but if she was, they’d deal with it together.
While he stood in the security line at the airport, his phone rang. The caller ID displayed his dad’s number. He silenced the ringer. After removing his shoes and belt and walking through the x-ray machine, he saw two more missed calls, his mother and Garrett. He didn’t plan on talking to any of them until he was safely on his way.
A text popped up from Peter. “Where are you?”
Adam contemplated what to tell him. Certainly not the truth. His dad would stop him from boarding the plane in an instant.
Adam texted back: “Central Park. I needed to blow off some steam.”
“Don’t be too mad at them. They can’t help it,” Peter texted.
“Of course they can.” Adam shook his head.
Peter knew only too well how overbearing their family could be. They had once sabotaged his relationship with his girlfriend, Libby. It took many months before Peter tracked her down and they were reunited. Adam refused to let it happen to him and Marti.
He pocketed the phone and hurried to the gate. Only a few people remained in line to board. He just made it! Onboard, he took his window seat in the middle section of the plane. He couldn’t remember the last time he flew coach.
The flight attendant instructed him to turn off his phone, which he gladly did. The missed calls and messages piled up.
A few minutes later, he was airborne. He’d never felt so free in his entire life. And Marti didn’t know he was coming. He couldn’t wait to surprise her.
* * *
True to his word, her dad threw the biggest party she’d seen yet, with more people, more food and more booze being delivered. Early in the evening, she directed the caterer, as Rosa had left for the day. Marti brought food back to her room and decided that if ever there was a party to avoid, this one, with more people expected than ever, was it.
Strong wind blew through the open bedroom patio door, along with sounds from the party below. Marti glanced out as she slid the door closed. Even though her room was far from the pool area, she heard the massive crowd celebrating. She pulled the curtains closed to shut out the crazies. “What do you think, Kahlua?” The cat lounged on a pile of clothes Marti hadn’t put away.
Tonight, Adam would perform on SNL with his brothers, and tomorrow he’d fly out to see her. Her heart fluttered with joy. She could hardly stand the wait. She glanced at the bag with the pregnancy test and then dismissed it. Life was turning a corner. Everything was going to be fine. She and Adam could talk about it and maybe she’d take the test when he was here.
She cranked up the Jamieson tunes and imagined she was singing along, live in concert. She picked out a bottle of purple nail polish and settled in to paint her toenails.
Once all her toes received two coats, she considered painting her fingernails as well. As the brush touched her first nail, she heard a loud beeping that sounded like a smoke alarm. She turned down the music and sure enough, a smoke alarm bleated loudly in the hall. Lord only knew what insanity was happening at the party. Someone probably lit the couch on fire when they set their pipe down.
As she rose from the bed to check the hall, her nose wrinkled at a strong, smoky odor. She opened the door.
A wall of black smoke poured down the hall toward her. Her jaw dropped and she watched, stupefied. Billowing clouds rolled and bounced to the ceiling.
The house was on fire!
Chapter 21
Marti slammed the door and leaned against it.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!
Her adrenaline kicked into panic mode.
The mansion was on fire! Really big, swallow-you-whole kind of fire!
Acrid smells filled the air. She pictured the wall of black death behind the door. She had to escape. She had to get out fast!
Her mind raced. If she went down the hall, she’d probably die of smoke inhalation, or she’d run straight into the fire.
She rushed to the patio door and yanked it open. She stepped onto the balcony, the wind whipped the hot air around. Flames licked from below like the tongue of a gigantic dragon.
“Oh dear god, it’s really on fire! But where were all the people?” she said out loud. Not even a half hour ago, the place had been jammed with guests. Now she saw no one below. The howl of sirens filled the air, clashing with the constant bleat of the smoke alarm.
Marti gripped the balcony railing. She’d have to jump. It was the only way down. She quickly did the calculations in her head. The first floor ceiling was probably sixteen feet high with its floor to ceiling windows. The second floor was the same. That put her at over thirty feet up. Way too high. Could she survive the fall?
The cement slab below was cluttered with wrought-iron furniture, trash bins, and lawn equipment. None of it looked like a safe landing. No soft grass.
If she jumped, she’d break a leg, maybe her neck. A small flowering tree grew to the side of the patio, but was too far for her to reach and too small to land in, anyway. She returned to her room, closing the door tight, and, checked for other escape options.
Tendrils of smoke curled in under the door. The fire was spreading fast, or at least the smoke was. She needed to keep the smoke out if she wanted to survive. She grabbed pillows off her bed and jammed them against the bottom of the door.
Kahlua mewed, unhappy with the smoky stench. The sight of her cat, crying for help, set Marti into action. She would not let Kahlua die in this fire! This was one thing she could control.
She hoped.
Marti approached her beloved cat. Kahlua tried to dart away, but Marti scooped her up. “Gotcha!”
She pulled Kahlua close. “This is going to be scary, but you’re smart and stubborn and I know you can do it!”
Marti opened the balcony door and scorching air blasted her. New terror hit as she edged her way into the volcano-like winds.
“You better have nine lives, ‘cause I think you’re going to need them.” She kissed Kahlua on the head, then gripped the cat by the nape of the neck. With every ounce of nerve and strength she possessed, she flung the cat as far as she could toward the distant tree.
Kahlua screamed and disappeared into the tree branches. Marti prayed she hadn’t just killed her. Her tears welled. She would never be able to erase the snapshot of her cat flailing through the smoke-filled air.
A spray of sparks flew at her. She jumped into the bedroom, yanked the door closed and dropped to the floor. A couple sparks made it inside and burn
ed holes in the carpet. She grabbed a shoe and furiously rubbed them out, frightened by how quickly the carpet burned.
Marti’s throat tightened. She swallowed back her newfound panic. No one even knew she was up here. Rosa did, but Rosa wasn’t here. Her dad would have no idea. For all he knew, she was at the party.
Smoke seeped into the room from air ducts like the hands of death. Oh god. She would die alone, and they might never find her. Adam would hear about her death on the news.
She wanted to call and hear his voice one last time. She picked up her phone, about to dial, but realized her only hope might be to call 911 and tell them her location. She refused to go down without a fight.
She entered the number and the first ring took forever. Outside sparks flew by like the fireflies at summer camp.
“Hello, 911, Emergency Call Center. What is your emergency?”
“My house is on fire, and I’m trapped!” She tried to stay calm and not freak out.
“What is your name, please?”
“My name is Marti Hunter, and I’m at my dad’s house.” She recited the address. “I’m trapped, and I can’t get out!”
“Marti, try to calm down. We have units on site. Where in the house are you?” The woman used a slow, patient voice. Marti wanted to scream at her that this was life or death!
“I’m on the third floor at the far end of the south wing. Please have someone help me.” Marti spit the words out as fast as she could.
“I’m alerting them now. Exactly what room are you in?”
Marti gave her all the details of her location and the entrances. The smell of the burning mansion overpowered her. Outside, flames reached the balcony.
“The fire’s at the balcony door!” she cried.
“Marti, I need you to stay low to the ground and try to calm down. Help is on the way. They will find you, but you need to keep your wits,” the dispatcher continued in a soothing tone.
Snapshot (The Jamieson Collection) Page 25
