The barrier came up and she saw an opportunity. “Oi!” The belligerent security guard came pounding after her, but Alle kept running. Seemed that shipboard chase had served a useful purpose as well as a pleasurable one. She didn’t turn back, she kept on, following the ambulance through the numerous sets of barriers.
“Ash,” she yelled, recognising a familiar figure. He was frantically waving the ambulance down. Off that way, she interpreted his signals. Over there. What had happened? Something bad, clearly.
“Ash.”
A heavy hand landed on her shoulder and jerked her backwards towards the shadow of the building. “Fuck!” She wriggled, only to succeed in extracting herself to find Ginny, and not the security guard, scowling at her. The guard had stopped a dozen or so paces away and was watching them closely.
“What’s going on?” Alle asked. “Why is there an ambulance here?”
Ginny wrapped her manicured hands around Alle’s wrists. “Come inside.” She tugged, insistently dragging Alle back into the building that she recognised as the Arrivals lounge. “Me and Dani have been looking everywhere for you. Where’d you go?”
“You didn’t see Flynn cart me off?”
Ginny shook her head. “Lyra tugged us into a huddle to talk, and the next time we looked up, you were gone.”
“Yeah, bastard took issue with my choice of boyfriend. Look, I don’t suppose you’ve seen my phone? I dropped it around here. It must be somewhere.” She scoured the floor, looking under several of the sofas and behind the potted plants, but there was no sign of it. Someone had to have picked it up.
“Alle, can you just… Will you stop a minute? The ambulance… it’s for Spook.”
An icy chill cascaded through her body. Alle froze on her knees, one hand beneath a chair. It had just been one of those passing thoughts, the sort everyone had when faced with news of paramedics. The what if moment. How might life change? But doom scenarios were but thoughts in the wind.
This was real.
“How? He was fine. What’s happened?” She fastened her fists in Ginny’s shirt front. “What’s happened?”
“Hey, take a breath. I know it’s scary. I’ve been there, believe me, I know, but getting all wild and bolshie won’t help.”
The other woman’s voice stayed calm and level, but that only elevated Alle’s apprehension to DEFCON 1.
“Look, I don’t know the details, only that Xane found him, and the guys are with him.”
“Where?” She stood. But Ginny didn’t make any sort of guiding motion other than towards a chair. “We’ve been asked to stay here for now so as not to get in the way. I’m sure someone—Ash—will be over in a few to let us know the score. Just take a perch. Wait.” She tugged on Alle’s hands, but Alle refused to bend. Being still had never done a ha’porth of good in any trauma scenario she’d had the misfortune to be caught up in. All the days she’d sat by her father’s bedside hadn’t made a difference in the end.
Ginny proved to be surprisingly strong, her grip on Alle’s wrist unshakeable.
“If it was Ash, you’d want to go to him. You wouldn’t just stay put.”
“Alle, it has been Ash. I guarantee you, I got shoved out of the way. I’m not saying we stay here forever, but we’re not going to help by getting in the way. Let’s give it five, then I’ll call and get us an update.”
“From whom?”
“From whoever answers. They all have phones, and I have all their numbers.”
-3-
Spook
Spook bristled over Xane’s remark. Admittedly, in his current state, bed rest and not exerting himself made absolute sense and it had been a turn of phrase rather than a command. However, being strapped to a hospital bed meant he was exposed right when he needed to be invisible. His sense of vulnerability continued to spike the longer Xane was out of the room. Goddammit! It wasn’t safe for him to stay here. The paps were probably already parked outside, and he had no control over who came in and out. He had no control over anything. What they were pumping into him. What they’d done to his hair and his clothing. It made him itch all over.
The whole goddamned situation was sick, but he guessed that after hiding in plain sight for a decade, judgement day was due. Earlier, facing the band, Xane beside him, he’d thought maybe, just maybe he could weather this. That they’d ride it out together, and the world wouldn’t go entirely tits up again. It would be different this time.
Idle thoughts. Daydream reality. The truth was thatBang!had shot the final bullet. While he remained part of Black Halo, the band didn’t stand a chance. He didn’t need to consult the internet to know what was being said. If the guys stuck with him, their days as a powerhouse band were numbered. They’d go from selling out stadiums to playing for five drunks in the sort of dives where the floor stuck to the soles of your shoes. He couldn’t do that to them. Refused to be responsible for their demise.
It didn’t matter that they were his world. His needs were irrelevant right now. The truth likewise. No one gave a shit about the fact he was being victimised. Marshall Hutton’s opinion piece was out there. The verdict? Guilty. Even the band’s most hardcore fans were probably questioning their loyalty right now. What they’d witnessed at the docks, was no doubt being replicated across the country, across the globe. Horror. Despair. The swing from love to loathing.
One of the pale blue nurses stuck her head around the door. “Ah, you are awake. You’ve a visitor. If you’re up to it?”
“No,” he rasped
