Love Song to Simone Read online

  LOVE SONG TO

  SIMONE

  E.S. HART

  Love Song to Simone

  © 2016 by E.S. Hart

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of very brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  ==============================================================================================

  DISCLAIMER:

  "Love Song to Simone", is entirely a work of fiction, and the names, characters, places, and incidents are only a story of the author/author's imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual person's living or dead, events, locations, other publications, etc., are entirely coincidental.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  Other Books By

  PROLOGUE

  Simone Tyler had to be dreaming, there was no other way to explain this, she thought barely conscious. She was either dreaming or hallucinating; for there was someone towering over her car wearing a mask to hide their face. One minute she had been driving along the forest road and now she found herself lying there slumped against the stirring wheel in her car. She remembered having seen a deer crossing the road and she had swerved her car to avoid it, only to crash right into a tree.

  Simone again looked over at this person and wondered if they were real? She thought they looked like some sort of phantom or something, she surmised. Off in the distance, she could hear the distinctive bark of a dog. She wasn't sure if that meant that help was on the way or not, she thought dazedly. Yes, she told herself that help was coming. She clung to this thought as her memory went back to how she wound up on this patch of road, to begin with.

  CHAPTER 1

  Simone Tyler took one more bow on the stage at Sahara's Lounge in Las Vegas. The packed house applauded her performance with great enthusiasm. Most nights she fed off the applause, but tonight she just wanted to be able to get off the stage. Simone was relieved when the curtain went down and she retreated backstage where she saw a stocky, older man waiting for her in the wings.

  “You were amazing as usual,” Simone's manager, Mel Richmond told her.

  “Thank you, Mel,” she told him as they walked along backstage. Simone tried to avoid all the individuals backstage wanting to talk to her; like the members of the press who had been given backstage passes and the stagehands. She just wanted to get to her dressing room to start changing her clothes.

  Mel started to take care of them while holding them off which was something that he did quite well since he had been Simone's manager which was going on about ten years ago.

  Simone reached her dressing room and walked in followed by Mel. “Thanks for handling that mob outside,” she told him appreciatively.

  “No problem,” he told her while looking down at the tablet computer that he had started using a few years back to make sure all was in order. “Now the bus will be ready to leave at seven tomorrow morning so if we stay on schedule we should be in Los Angeles in three days time. That would give us time to prepare for the concert that takes place at the Hollywood Bowl next week,” he informed her.

  “Hold it, Mel I told you I need a little time to myself. I want to drive to California in my car which you said was fine with you,” she reminded him.

  Mel looked up from his tablet. “Simone, I wish you would get these silly ideas out of your head. Why is it so important to you to drive around the countryside?” He protested. “You are a celebrity who needs constant security and supervision; no telling what would happen if I allowed you to just take off on your own for awhile,” he tried to rationalize the situation.

  Simone folded her arms in front of her. “But that's what I need. In some ways, Mel I am still a small, town girl from Montana.” Simone argued. “I need some time to get back to nature and to clear my head. I don't want to argue with you about this, I just want to drive and take my time enjoying the outdoors," she defended her decision bluntly.

  “Fine, I will come with you," he admitted in defeat. "We will enjoy this so-called outdoors time together,” Mel suggested while he observed Simone shaking her head in disagreement.

  “Mel, I want to be alone for a little while just for a few days. I seem to go at it non-stop,” Simone countered. “I have seldom had time for myself. It's either promoters, paparazzi, reporters, concerts and fans. I know that I should be grateful for all my success, and I am, but right now I just want time to think on my own. I'm afraid if I don't I will reach burn out," she stated point blank.

  “I guess I am not going to be able to talk you out of this.” Mel sighed in defeat. “Just promise me you will be careful,” he cautioned.

  “I promise and I will see you in California in time for the concert at the Hollywood Bowl,” she told him while giving him a brief hug.

  ≈

  Simone found that the memories seemed to flood back to her as if in a dream state. She wasn't sure if she had lost consciousness for awhile but she found when she was starting to come around that she was lying on something that seemed extremely comfortable. It had to be a bed of some kind. She wondered if she was now in a hospital and that she had been taken there but couldn't remember it happening? She tried to open her eyes but found that the room seemed to be spinning. She knew she had suffered a head injury which might also explain the constant hallucinations she apparently kept having. What little she saw in her somewhat, lucid state didn't look like a hospital room in the least; it appeared to be a small room in some sort of cabin. She also saw that masked figure yet again. She had to be dreaming she told herself. She found that the person whoever they were was leaning over her and was doing something. What were they doing, she thought and realized that it seemed as if they were tending to her wounds. She had to be hallucinating she told herself because this person definitely knew what they were doing when it came to her head wound and also seemed to handle her with the care of a skilled physician. She had to be in a hospital she told herself so what she was obviously seeing couldn't possibly be real.

  “I need to set your leg,” she heard a distinctive, male voice tell her in a kind tone. “This will no doubt hurt. I am sorry for the pain I will impose on you but there is no other way,” the man told her as he proceeded to go to her right leg. The man started to pull at the leg as gently as he possibly could in order to place the bones back where they were intended to be.

  Simone found that she wanted to scream at the agonizing searing pain but nothing but a whimper seemed to come out of her. She then found herself gratefully going into complete oblivion.

  The man finished working on the splint on her right leg. He looked down at Simone and placed a gentle hand on her right cheek then stroked it gently. Even in such a disheveled and tattered state she was very beautiful, he thought. He knew all too well who she was, Simone Tyler the woman with a voice like an angel, he continued as he proceeded to look at his new, house guest with great intensity. He heard the whimper of a dog and looked in the direction of the
doorway to see a large German shepherd standing there.

  “I know, Max, I never let anyone come here without good reason but what else could I do?" The man addressed the dog in a gentle tone. “She could have died out there so I had to do something. I just hope that I don't live to regret coming to her aid,” he told the dog with a worried edge in his voice.

  CHAPTER 2

  Simone found herself drifting in and out of consciousness. She still wasn't sure if what she was seeing was real or not. She kept telling herself that it couldn't be. She found that she was given some sort of tea by the strange individual with the mask and whatever was in it seemed to help her to relax and relieve her pain before she drifted back to sleep.

  The man stood by her bedside watching her sleep. He slowly turned and walked out of the room. He proceeded to the living room of the log cabin. He found his dog, Max lying near the fireplace looking up at him in acknowledgment as he came further into the room. “The herbal tea seems to have done the trick," the man stated to his canine companion as he took the teacup over to the L-shape kitchen area that was located against the north wall to place the cup in the sink. He walked over to the small, grand piano in the room and rose up the cover to look down at the keys. He heard his dog start to whimper a bit at him as he glanced over not being able to fight back the smile that was forming behind the mask he wore. “You want to hear me play don't you, boy? Sometimes I don't know if I have my biggest fan in you or my biggest critic,” the man said as he then turned to sit down in front of the piano. He removed the leather gloves from his hands and tried not to look down at the scars on them. He placed his hands on the keyboard and started to play the piece he had chosen. This one for some reason was a happier one than usual. It was a piece that had been written about love and joy. He wasn't sure why this was the piece that came through his head but it was the one that he found himself now playing.

  Simone could hear the sound of beautiful music coming through her dreams. She was in what appeared to be a grand ballroom and she was wearing a beautiful, white flowing, chiffon gown adorned with silver rhinestones on the bodice. She found that she was alone in the room but then spotted someone instantly coming toward her in the distance. The shadowy figure came toward her and she saw the most handsome man smiling directly at her as he approached. He had dark hair and the most beautiful, hazel eyes. She thought that the eyes had so much warmth in them and she found herself smiling back at him. He came over to her holding a rose that he handed to her. He took her in his arms and they started to dance to the music. Simone looked up at the man finding herself completely mesmerized by him, yet deep in her mind, there was the desire to ask him what his name was. Yet, for some reason even in her sleep, she felt like she knew him from somewhere, but where? Just as she was about to ask him if they had met before the man seemed to disappear and Simone found herself alone again in the ballroom. She looked down at the rose the man had given her, the only indicator that he had been there with her.

  In the front room, the man stopped playing the piece and looked over at Max who was now fast asleep. He found himself smiling again. “So much for my biggest fan,” he observed. He put the cover down over the piano keys and got up from where he sat. He placed his gloves back on his hands and found himself instinctively going over to the room where Simone now laid. He opened the door quietly and watched her as she slept. She appeared to be sleeping peacefully and even seemed to have a slight smile on her face. He still wondered if it had been wise to bring her here. He knew when she started to recover she would have many questions for him. She would want him to get help for her, yet there was no way he could do that and how could he possibly explain that to her when the time came as he knew it eventually would.

  CHAPTER 3

  Simone stirred and started to feel herself waking up fully for the first time. She was totally alert and truly aware of her surroundings now. She almost bolted up in bed as she saw that the rustic room hadn't been a dream at all. It was very real. She tried to get up from the bed but found that it was almost impossible to move her right leg. She pulled back the blankets to find that the leg had been restrained in what appeared to be some sort of splint. She lay back down on the bed as the room started to spin a bit. Her mind drifted back to what happened from the car accident and losing consciousness. She could vaguely remember coming to and someone pulling her out of the wreckage, but who had it been? All she could recollect was seeing some darkly, dressed figure wearing a mask. No, that couldn't be right, she thought, why would someone be out here in the middle of nowhere wearing a mask? She could also remember intense pain and someone tending to her; but again, it was some masked figure. She started to wonder just how out of it had she truly been that she couldn't remember the face of the individual who helped her? But then she had to wonder why didn't they take her to a hospital for proper treatment; wouldn't that be the best course of action? Why bring her here, wherever here was?”

  “I see that you are more conscious this morning,” Simone heard a male voice say and she abruptly looked over in the direction of the doorway. Her eyes got bigger as she took in the man standing before her holding a tray. At that moment, she realized that she hadn't been hallucinating at all because there before her was a man who was wearing a cotton, long sleeve, white shirt, blue jeans and over his face was a mask. The man had dark, short hair from what Simone could see but she found that she couldn't take her eyes off the mask. She saw the man come over to the bed holding a tray and placing it down on the bed in front of her.

  “Did you bring me here?” she asked in a hesitant tone.

  “Yes, my dog Max alerted me to your accident. I found you barely conscious and I brought you here to treat your wounds,” he explained.

  “Well, Mr. Ummm....” Simone began realizing she had no idea what his name was.

  “Jake," he told her while sensing what she wanted to ask him. "My name is Jake and that's the only name you need to know,” he told her point blank.

  “Well, uh…Jake thank you for helping me the way you did but I think that I should call for someone to come and get me,” she elaborated. “I mean, how long has it been since you brought me here?”

  “You have been here a few days, Miss Tyler,” he answered.

  “So, you know who I am?” She questioned, not really sure that she liked the fact that he knew this.

  “Of course, you are Simone Tyler. I am quite familiar with your music. I have also seen a photo or two of you in the newspaper at times," he admitted while studying her.

  “Then you must know that there will be people who will be concerned about where I am,” Simone informed him. “So, I think it would be best if I used the phone to call my manager and maybe even get someone to take me to the nearest hospital,” she advised.

  “I don't have a phone,” he informed her.

  “Well, that's all right, if you know where my purse is I can get my phone to make the call myself,” she told him.

  “Your purse and your other suitcases are here in the closet. But as for that phone of yours, I turned it off so it couldn't be tracked and then threw it away," he informed her.

  “Why the hell would you do that?” she demanded to know while looking over at the man in horror, now starting to piece together what was possibly going on here. This man was wearing a mask, he didn't take her to a hospital which would be the best course of action, and now he had disposed of her phone. “You have kidnapped me, haven't you? What do you want, money, or is this some sort of sick fantasy where you get to have a singing star locked up in your cabin to do whatever you want with?" she spat on edge.

  “Calm down, Miss Tyler. I brought you here for one reason and one reason only, to help you and to save your life.” he countered. 'When you are strong enough to leave, I will take you down the road to your car which I have covered up to keep anyone from finding it in the meantime.”

  Simone wasn't sure she was hearing this man correctly. “Oh sure, you are going to let me go when you have done everythi
ng to make sure no one finds me here. Just how stupid do you think I am?” She asked trying to get up from the bed again while trying to grab hold of the man and trying to ignore the pain searing in her body as she did so.

  The man leaned over to try to stop her. “Miss Tyler…Simone please you shouldn't try to move around like that, you could break the splint in case you aren't aware of it. You fractured your right leg below the knee and broke your ankle as well. The leg needs to stay stationary so it can mend and heal.” he argued and tried to rationalize at the same time.

  Simone abruptly stopped when she realized something else as she looked down. She wasn't in the jeans and t-shirt she had been wearing when she set out on her journey, she was now wearing one of the two, cotton nightgowns she brought with her. “Wait, I didn't change into this nightgown did I, so how did I get in it?” She ordered while wondering worriedly what had come to pass in her unconscious state.

  “I put it on you when I tended to your injuries. I have also been keeping you clean,” he told her in a matter of fact tone.

  Simone couldn't believe what she was hearing. She found herself blushing for the very first time in years. This man whoever he was had seen her in all her glory, yet it didn't seem to faze him in the least. The idea of a total stranger having such intimate information about her made her feel very subconscious. “Listen, I don't know what is going on here but I refuse to stay here; bad leg or not,” she said as she started to struggle again against him. She was abruptly aware of growling and saw a dog that had jumped up to the foot of the bed showing its teeth to her in a menacing way. Simone found herself gasping in fear at the beastly animal.