“Okay, temporary reprieve. We’re going to backtrack to Ric’s and you’re going to let me clean you up. We’re going to drink some coffee, get slobbered on by the dogs, and then… then we can see where you’re at.”
It took a moment and some repetition, but he managed to get Spook to agree.
Xane: Don’t let her leave. I’m doing my best, but if she sees him in his current state, it might do more harm than good.
Luthor: Where the fucking hell are you?
Xane: Currently, Ric’s. Cleaning him up.
Xane: Keep her there. Get Paul and Ronnie to help.
Luthor: That might involve stealing her keys. What the hell happened?
Xane: Tell you later. xx
Xane: He’s a wreck, but he’ll be worse if she leaves.
-3-
Allegra
She ought to have known it wouldn’t be as simple as turning up and everything falling into place. The disturbed nights, the daytime agitation would have been evidence enough for most people. But most people hadn’t experienced what she’d been through. They hadn’t had their brothers betray them or had the man they loved disappear for six months.
Where are you?she texted Spook for the fifth time in the last hour. It still didn’t get her a reply. There was no indication he’d even seen her messages. This whole situation was bullshit.Please. Just let me see you.
The moment she’d realised he wasn’t waiting for her on the shore should have been the moment she about turned. She’d been patient. More than patient. She knew he’d been through shit, but really, she couldn’t allow him that excuse forever.
Six months of torment, and now another two, approaching three, of excuses upon excuses and a refusal to engage in anything but nonsensical chitchat.
What was she doing here?
Why the hell was she allowing this shit to continue?
Alle stood. It wasn’t a conscious decision that propelled her, more a coming to terms with the realisation that she couldn’t do it anymore. This had been the last chance. The one she’d thrown herself at wholeheartedly in some misguided belief that it would result in a happily ever after.
What a damned fool she was.
“Alle?” Ronnie shuffled to rise off the sofa, where he was contorted into a yoga pose. “What are you—?”
Doing? There was the question.
She couldn’t sit here idly any longer hoping he’d magically show up. She’d seen the surreptitious texting taking place. Had noted Luthor’s ninja exit. Hell, she wasn’t dumb.
“I know when I’m not wanted.”
“What? No. You are.”
Ronnie, bless him, he was all kinds of sweet, and he’d done his best, prompting the rest of the band to talk about the tracks they were laying down. Of course, there was an air of pointlessness to it when the two main composers couldn’t be bothered to show their faces.
“Not really,” she replied. “And it’s okay. Really, Ronnie… it’s okay.” She pushed him back into his seat.
It wasn’t. Her heart felt as fragile as if it were the thinnest of blown glass. One sharp tap and fissures would crisscross its surface and ruin the remains of her composure. Their relationship had always felt fragile, but between her brothers, Spook’s ex, and Xane, she was beginning to think there wasn’t much left of it to salvage. She’d been thinking of them like one of those Japanese pots, the ones that got cracked and fixed with gold, thus transformed into a thing of absolute beauty.
All this time, she’d just been fooling herself.
“Where are you going?”
Ronnie remained poised, ready to spring up like a jack-in-a-box.
