Page 28 of Replay
Dammit Alle, don’t take it personally that I distrust your brother.I’d be fucking wary of him even if he hadn’t sprung out of nowhere, and your other brother probably put him up to it.
Together, those factors didn’t add up to a desire to sit down for getting-to-know-you drinks.
Marshall Hutton worked for Ava.Xane had warned him Ava wouldn’t forgive him for calling her a cunt to her face.Digging up dirt was what she did.Even well-buried, cold fear ran through him at the possibility of his past being unearthed.Marshall Hutton knew something, and he had plenty of reason to hate him now.This was getting personal.Way too fucking personal.And now… Now Flynn Hutton had sprouted like a toadstool right in their midst.If some sort of shit didn’t start flying soon, he’d be fucking astonished.
“Guys, we have a problem,” Ginny hollered from the ballroom doorway.
Right on cue.
Ginny’s purposeful march ate up the yards of carpet.No bigger than a mite, she was a force he never intended to reckon with.Dani, looking rather more sheepish and subdued, followed in her wake.She split away from Ginny when she neared the stage, and went to Luthor sat behind the drums.
“What’s up, babe?”Ash hopped off the stage to swing his missus up into his arms.
“Ash, put me down.There isn’t time for this.Dani and I have scoured the ship, and we can’t find Liam anywhere.He’s not in his cabin or any of the bars, and we asked around.No one has seen him since we left Southampton.”
“Have you had them check the passenger manifest?”Flynn asked.
Ginny squinted at him, then her gaze slid sideways to Allegra and her frown deepened.“Flynn Hutton,” Alle’s brother introduced himself, thrusting a hand at Ginny.I’m the head of entertainment on this vessel.”
“Oh, right.Ginny Wal—I mean Gore.I’m Ash’s wife, and the deputy tour manager.”
Spook stifled a snort.That was not her official title, or maybe it was.Didn’t matter, it made Flynn straighten up and look eager.
“We appear to be missing a band member.Do you have some staff that could help us ascertain where he is?”
“No need,” Rock Giant spat, staring at the screen of his phone nestled in his palm.“The bastard’s bailed.He’s just mailed me his resignation.”
“Bailed!”Ash screeched, in a way that highlighted all the flaws in the room’s acoustics.The sentiment was echoed by both Xane and Luthor milliseconds later.“What do you mean he’s bailed?We’ve a gig tonight, he can’t just quit.”
“Just did,” Rock Giant replied, holding up his phone and a highlighted text message as evidence.“Good job there’s an ocean between us right now or I’d be nailing his bollocks to a plank.”
That was likely why Liam had waited until they’d left Southampton docks to drop his bombshell.Didn’t make it any less of a fuckwit thing to do, though.The idiot had just tanked his career.Regardless of whether he liked being on stage or not, word would get around.Road crews had their own codes of conduct, and stitching up your band was definitely a cardinal sin.
“Reason?”Xane asked, managing to sound scarily reasonable amid all the snarls and rumblings.
“Wasn’t for him, prefers being back stage,” Paul summarized.
All predictable.
“Heard some shady rumours, yada yada.”
What?A cold shiver ran right down Spook’s spine.“Rumours?”What fucking rumours?
Rock Giant checked his phone screen again.“He doesn’t say.Hey, don’t look at me like that.I’m just reading out what he wrote.In any case, it’s a bollocks excuse and we all know it.There’s no justification for this, other than him being a first class wanker.”
“We knew he wasn’t happy.”Ash scratched his brow.“Spook, you said as much yourself earlier.Fuck, though.He could have said something.Given a hint.I mean, if he’d told us a fortnight ago…” He raised his hands skywards and groaned.“So what do we do now, guys?Everyone on board is expecting a gig tonight.We can’t cancel.And it’s not like we can call up any keyboard players any of us happen to know and get them to bomb it down the motorway.We’re in the middle of the English Channel, about to hit the North Sea.”
“Helicopter,” someone muttered.A reasonable suggestion, if they had someone they could call on to drop in like that at zero notice, and said chopper on standby.
“Don’t even think about it,” Xane snarled in warning, when Rock Giant started scrolling through his contacts list.“I’m glad she’s looking better, but no.”
Spook found himself nodding in agreement, right along with Xane, and Ash, too, once the penny dropped.They did not need Elspeth showing up.That would transform this drama into an instant crisis.
“Any of you have a better idea?”Rock Giant snapped.Huffily, he shoved his phone deep into his jeans pocket, along with his fists.
“I do.”Alle tentatively raised her hand.God bless her.“I realise it’s not ideal, but you do have another musician on board.”
“Are you talking about the kid?”Ash spluttered.
