Pt 9 - Not the plan

I was totally unprepared for what I had just seen. Could she be dead? What was I thinking about? Of course she was dead. I mean the bullet hole in her head looked like it killed her. Oh shit Ashley was dead already. Someone killed her before we did. I started to hear police sirens from a distance, could they be coming here? Well I was not going to stick around long enough to find out. I dashed out of the house trying to be careful not to drop anything that belonged to me. Shea was still in front of the building ready to go because he had also heard the police sirens getting louder.

"What the hell happened in there Mannie?" Shea asked. I did not want to talk about it. Actually I wanted to talk about it, but I was not sure if I could understand it enough to talk about it. Ashley is dead Shea, she's dead. Well okay that went according to plan, Shea replied sarcastically. He was visibly pissed, he paused for a second and took a deep breath. "What happened to kidnapping her, what happened to the fucking plan?" Shea yelled at the top of his voice. "Why is she dead already?" "I don't know!" I shot back at him. I started to explain to Shea that she was dead before I got there. Somebody shot the Ashley before we got there. That news put a smile on Shea's face. Why are you smiling brah? This is serious. Shea's reply was simple. Somebody did the job for us, she obviously pissed someone else off, hopefully the trail will lead to that person and we will not get bothered with anything. That made some sense, infact that made a lot of sense. It would be like we were never there. But how come the cops got alerted of our presence? That didn't add up. I could almost swear that there was nothing suspicious about us being there. I did not break in since I had a key, so who called the cops? Many things were not adding up in this situation. This was not the time to start thinking about it. I just wanted to be home. I just wanted to be with Val.

We got back to Maryland way earlier than we had planned. Drove straight to Easy's lounge and sure as hell, he was surprised to see us. He immediately pointed to his office and we headed there. Minutes later, Easy was also in deep thought after we told him what happened. And he had the same exact questions that I had. Who capped Ash? Had she gotten into something dirty? Boyfriend problems? We had no idea. There was no sign of a break in, so whoever shot her must have been somebody she trusted and she let into her house. Just then Easy decided that it was probably not anything that we should worry about. Hopefully the trail would lead to the real killer and we would never be involved with an investigation. This was all too weird, the cops almost catching us, Ash getting a bullet in her head, too much to take in. We called it a night after a few drinks and I headed back home.

Tears began to flow as I drove. Here I was driving home and the woman that I once loved lay dead. The reality of this whole thing just hit me for the first time since I saw the body. Ash was dead, and with her my unborn child. I could not believe this was happening. I mean I was going to kill her, but maybe I would have been better prepared if I had done it myself and I would not feel like this. Bullshit, I still cared about that woman. There was a part of me that longed for her even after her betrayal. There was a part of my heart that Valerie had not occupied and could never. That part still belonged to Ash and today I saw her dead.

I drove into my garage and parked. I saw a couple of lights on and I figured that Val was in the house. I did not want her to see me in tears so I decided to take a few minutes to get myself together before heading inside. I wiped my face and entered into a house that greeted me with with a delightful aroma. Hmmm, someone had been doing some serious cooking. Val emerged from the kitchen and came over to kiss me, I took time to look at the feast on the table and the wine also caught my eyes. Château Rauzan-Gassies. Val knew me  too well . Not bad at all Troisièmes Crus, what were we celebrating? She has just been in Paris not too long ago so the wine probably came with her but this wine was quite old, this had to be a special occasion.

Ok love, what are we celebrating? If I forgot I am so sorry, I have been occupied with work and some other things that have been stressing me out, but.. Stop baby, she said in that soft voice. She led me to my seat and sat me down. As she dished out some food for me, she told me I hadn't forgotten anything. I just wanted to show how much I appreciate you baby. I had no idea I needed a big celebration to do that. But if it has to be, then yes, we are celebrating love. I love you so much baby. Hmmm this seemed a little extravagant for a nothing celebration. I decided to help her pour the wine. I got up and as I filled her glass the year of the wine caught my eyes, 95, baby are you sure we are not celebrating anything? I got the same answer accompanied with a laugh this time. Well, she insisted that I did not forget anything so I allowed myself to relax. As we ate I decided to take this opportunity to do something special. Since there was nothing to celebrate and this was a special feast anyway, I thought I would make it a real celebration. Baby I will be right back. I ran upstairs to my room, got the ring I bought about 3months ago and ran back to the table.

Baby I did not plan on doing it like this but I just thought this would be a good time, I got on my knees, Valerie my love will you marry me?