Page 140 of Replay
Or rather those he owed an apology to were all sat around him.“I should have told you all this before, I know that, and I’m sorry I didn’t.”
“We get it,” Rock Giant mumbled.
“Now, at least, I get the obsession with taking all those photographs,” Ash muttered, his inflections still peevish.
“He’s hurt you didn’t trust him,” Xane said, when the two of them stepped off the bus for some air.Rock Giant had steered them into a more discreet parking spot, away from prying eyes in the shadow of a couple of warehouses.
Spook braced his butt against one of the coach’s large tyres.“Where did the ladies wind up?”He frowned at the phone as the five text messages he’d sent Alle which remained un-answered.He’d tried calling her a three times too.
“Graham said he saw them on the way in.They were in the Arrivals lounge.Security probably won’t let them back in.”
That didn’t explain why Alle wasn’t answering.
“What’s the plan?”They couldn’t stay here forever.By the sounds of it, the hordes outside the walls had only grown in numbers since they’d first disembarked.
“Hang tight and I’ll go ask Graham.”Xane hopped back onto the bus.
Spook had waited a couple of minutes and was almost on the verge of following him, when his phone screen lit with an incoming message from Alle.
Alle: Where are you?I’ve been trying to find you.
He shot back a reply providing her with some directions.The warehouse itself wasn’t much of a defining landmark, but there were several rows of shipping containers located about a hundred yards away.
Alle: Okay, I think I see them.Heading your way.
Spook: I can’t see you.
Alle: My case’s wheel broke.It’s being a bugger.
Spook: How far away are you?
Alle: Middle of the shipping containers.
Spook pushed himself away from the tour bus and began walking.Her case wasn’t that big.He could easily carry it.Compared to the kit they used to lug about back before they had dedicated roadies, it’d be nothing.
Spook: Which row?
He picked one at random when he didn’t get an immediate response, and continued on until he was roughly central.He’d just begun to get a little bit twitchy, when something skidded across the gravel in front of him.
Alle’s phone?
He bent instinctively.Lifted it, turning left and right trying to figure out where it had come from.“Alle?”
A figure emerged from the mossy shadows of a particularly aged container.Not Alle—Flynn.
Fuck!
He didn’t quite manage to straighten before the bastard pushed him on his arse.
The phone flew from his hand, and he skinned both palms on the gravel, little grains of which clung to the scrapes.Flynn.Of course it was Flynn.Who else?If he’d had more than a moment to wrap his head around events he could have predicted this.Not the time and place, but a confrontation with Alle’s brothers had been inevitable for a while now.Plus, it was the inevitable next step in the action replay of his fucked up existence he appeared to be reliving.
Screw the girl.Get hauled through the mud.Take a beating and wind up with a slate of cracked ribs and pissing blood for a month.He knew all about how this went down.
“I’ve seen what you’ve done to her, you freak!”
Spook righted himself, and planted his feet in a wide stance.There’d be no reasoning his way out of this.Flynn Hutton was here with a single purpose.The jet black saucers of his eyes glistened.Darkness combined with a scowl twisted all the handsome clean out of him.
Spook clenched his fists.Ready.Waiting.
