by Bev Dulson
Magenta looked over to him, her eyes had a glint in them. ‘Hmmm, think you could give him a run for his money.’ She reached out, a finger twirling one of his chestnut curls, she always liked it when it got a little bit longer and she could run her fingers through it. Her eyes rested on his aqua coloured eyes, which in this dark light, seemed almost iridescent. She never failed to be hypnotised by them, she could already feel her lips being pulled towards his. The spark of electricity as soon as his lips touched hers still surprised her.
‘How’s the date so far?’ He asked as they pulled away.
‘Perfect. I wouldn’t change my life, but I do miss moments like this when we can just be us.’
‘As long as we’re together, there will always be moments like this.’
She lifted her drink to her lips, never once breaking eye contact with him as she drank.
He shifted in his chair, leaning closer to her, the space between them crackling with electricity. ‘Do you want another drink here, or room service again?’
‘Room service just became my favourite cocktail.’
He pulled her up by her hand and led her out of the bar, in their rush to get out and back to the hotel, Magenta bumped into someone. She turned to apologise, but they’d already gone. They stumbled out of Grand Central and headed back towards the hotel, his arm wrapped around her shoulders and hers around his waist. Busy New Yorkers walking by didn’t even look twice at the couple. The noises the city made drowned out their voices, music, people, sirens, cars. New York was as busy as ever. Magenta had to raise her voice slightly as the sounds of sirens got louder. Oblivious to the direction of the sirens they carried on walking. It was only as they reached the entrance to The Dylan that the sirens screeched to a halt. Tango was out of the hotel and onto the side walk like a shot. Hunter pulled Magenta closer, aware that something wasn’t right.
‘Drop the bag and hands where we can see them.’ A cop shouted over to Magenta, a gun aimed at her.
‘What the…?’ She shot a scared look at Hunter.
‘It’s fine babe, just a misunderstanding, drop your bag and we’ll get this cleared up.’
‘Ma’am, drop your bag and hands up.’ The instruction was repeated, harsher this time and with the cop taking a step closer.
Magenta practically flung the Marc Jacobs bag at the officer. The gun remained trained on her as another officer inspected the bag.
‘Listen officers, I know you have a job to do, but there’s been a mistake, I’m sure if we go inside, we can sort this out.’ Hunter reasoned, he kept sideward glances on Tango who looked equally confused.
`I'm afraid that won't be possible, sir,’ the officer stepped forward. ‘Magenta Valentina I am arresting you for the possession and intent to supply of class A drugs.’
He carried on reading her Miranda rights, but Hunter zoned out, his focus was on the bag of what appeared to be cocaine in the other officer’s hands. He was then dazzled by flash lights as paparazzi cameras appeared from nowhere.
CHAPTER TWENTY
With Hunter and Magenta out of the picture for the day, Trina found herself at a loose end one, with which Johnny was only too happy to tie up. Despite telling him she’d be OK on her own, although privately she wasn’t relishing time alone to let her thoughts trample through the wreckage of her marriage. That’s why she now found herself at the recording studio with both Johnny and Fly.
Johnny was in the sound booth and she was sitting at the console desk with Fly. She had seen Johnny perform live on stage; she knew he was electric in front of a crowd. What she hadn’t been expecting in the recording studio was to see a vulnerable side of him emerge, watching him question his lyric choice or have a flash of inspiration, she was seeing him at his rawest and watching him through the window made her feel more like a voyeur. She wasn’t entirely comfortable with the situation, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on why. She leaned forward in her seat, mesmerised by Johnny.
‘Here, slide this button up, you’ll hear his voice more clearly.’ Fly pointed to a button, she followed his instructions and Johnny’s voice filled the room with more volume. She smiled. ‘Love this, makes me feel powerful.’
‘You don’t know how much power you got, sugar.’
She frowned at Fly, unsure of what he meant, but too scared to ask as she wasn’t sure she was prepared for the answer, instead she turned her attention back to Johnny. He was engrossed in what he was singing. He had headphones covering his ears, one hand on one ear and the other hand on the mic stand, his eyes closed as he belted out the words. His fingers gently tapped along to the beat on the mic stand. She was drawn to the rhythmic movements of his fingers; it gave her the strangest feeling in her tummy. She tried to push that feeling to one side. Johnny’s eyes flew open as he sang the last line in his trademark gravelly voice, his eyes were on her straight away… ‘You think you know me, you got me all wrong…’
Trine swallowed hard, she felt like she was hurtling out of control, Johnny’s words about wanting someone waiting for him when he came off stage raced through her mind. Wasn’t that what she was doing now? She needed to get away from Johnny before it was too late. Her phone rang, Hunter’s name flashed up on the screen. Saved by the bell.
‘Yes, mate...’ the feeling in her stomach turned to dread. ‘WHAT?’ She stood up abruptly, sending her chair flying. ‘I’m on my way; I’ll get onto Logan and sort out the lawyer whilst I’m en route. Text me the address.’
‘Sounds serious,’ Fly said.
‘About as serious as you can get, Magenta’s just been arrested. I’ve got to go.’
She dashed out of the recording studio. Johnny, who couldn’t hear what was being said, knew by her body language that it was something bad and probably Magenta related. He watched as she ran out of the room, would she ever drop everything for him? All he could do was watch her go.
Hunter was pacing the corridor in the police precinct. On the ride over with Tango he’d been trying to make sense of the situation, the fact that Magenta had drugs in her bag was the most ridiculous circumstance ever, he knew they’d been planted but the question was how and why. As Tango tore through the New York streets in the Audi 8 following the police car Hunter became more and more suspicious. Tango was the only person who knew where they were going today and the only person who would have the opportunity to plant those drugs, it had to have been him. Right now, he couldn’t bring himself to confront him, he had to make sure Magenta was OK first, so that meant calling Trine and getting her to sort out the lawyer and get Logan’s clout behind this. He glanced sideways at Tango who was focused on his driving. Yeah, he wasn’t going anywhere, he’d keep.
When Trina arrived at the precinct, it was bedlam, the press had already set up camp, on the car phone on the way over she’d managed to get hold of Logan who had just landed in LAX on his mission to confront Max, he had gone ape shit and was almost turning on his heel and heading straight back but Trina had managed to calm him down.
‘Logan, all I need you to do is put a call into the best lawyer you know and get them down to the police station, then go and kick Max’s arse, that will take you all of five minutes then you can come back to New York, Hunter and I will deal with everything else.’
‘God, Trina, what the hell is goin’ on? Out of all of my acts Magenta has always been the golden girl, I am gonna do more than kick Max’s butt, he must be behind all this, Magenta has always been anti drugs.’
‘I know, mate, let’s just get her out of this mess then we can deal with the fall out together.’
‘I’m glad she’s got you fighting her corner. I’m gonna call the lawyer now, they’ll be with Magenta before you even get there.’
She’d also put a call into Erika to get her to keep an eye on social media and to shut down as much as she could and to threaten anybody and everybody with lawsuits if they dare so much as retweet anything about this story – the official line was no comment until she’d spoken to the lawyer. She’d also
had missed calls off Johnny, but he wasn’t her priority right now.
Trina struggled to get through the melee of journalists, but managed it with the use of her elbows, finding Hunter was first on her list, she breathed a sigh of relief as she got through the door in one piece. She need not have worried, she heard Hunter before she saw him.
‘I know it was you, you were the only person who knew where we were going today.’
‘I keep tellin’ ya, it wasn’t me, if you’d calm down and just listen for like a half a minute, I can tell you what I know.’
She turned the corner to see Hunter with Tango up against the wall and an angry looking cop marching down the corridor towards them. She jumped in his way before he got to Hunter and Tango. ‘Don’t worry officer, I know you don’t have time to deal with these two idiots, I’ll sort them out.’
He looked at her, then back towards Hunter. ‘You’re right ma’am I certainly do not, but they are causing a disturbance.’
‘Just give me two minutes, if I can’t bang their heads together by then, you are more than welcome to arrest their sorry arses.’
He smiled at her, she knew her English accent was winning him over, it was like gold over here. ‘OK ma’am, but I’ll be at the desk over there, any problems and I’m straight back over.’
‘Right you two, I don’t know what’s going on but unless you calm it right down you’ll both be in a cell and then you’ll be no used to anyone, especially not Magenta so cool your fuckin’ jets now.’
Like a pair of naughty school boys, they both backed down. Hunter still glaring at Tango.
‘She’s right Hunter, we need to stay calm.’
‘You say that, but it’s your fuckin’ fault she’s in here,’ his voice began to rise. Trina put her hand on his arm and fired him a warning glance.
‘Listen to what he has to say and for God Sake, keep your voices down.’
‘Where’s the lawyer?
On the way, I’ve also instructed Erika to keep her eyes on social media.’
‘Thank God someone has some common sense around here.’
‘That might not be the best call,’ Tango looked concerned.
‘Why?’ She asked slowly.
‘Because, that’s who I think had been causing some of Magenta’s issues.’
Hunter frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’
Before he could respond they were interrupted by a stern voice. ‘Hunter Cole, I am Justine Clayton,’ she held her hand out, he raised his slowly a confused look on his face.
‘The lawyer,’ Trine provided the connection for him. His demeanour instantly changed.
‘Oh, thank God you’re here – can you get her out, it’s a total misunderstanding.’
‘These things generally are,’ she raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. Trine took a slight step back, this woman gave off a complete don’t mess with me vibe. Hunter was tall, but this woman matched him in height, OK, so she was wearing LK Bennetts, but even so, she was a woman of stature. Her charcoal grey pencil skirt and fitted blazer screamed success, that wasn’t a suit from a department store, it fitted her like a glove. Her long blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail and her DKNY glasses finished off her professional look, this woman meant business, which could only be a good thing for Magenta.
Magenta had never been so scared in her life, she knew this was all a mistake, but innocent people went to jail all the time. She tried to work out how on earth the drugs got into her bag. The only thing she could think of was when someone bumped into her coming out of Campbell’s Apartment, but it had been so quick, how could they have had time to get the drugs in her bag? A dark thought flooded her mind, what if they’d been there before she went out, planted by someone close to her?
The door opened. ‘Ms Valentina, I’m Justine Clayton, your lawyer. I’m here to get you out.’
Now the lawyer was here, who if she was half as efficient as she looked, would have Mag’s out at any moment. Hunter felt like he could take a breath for the first time since the police pulled up outside the hotel. He wanted to address the claim Tango had made earlier about Erika. He pulled both Tango, who had been attached to his iPad since the lawyer arrived and Trina into a corner of the waiting room so they could at least try and talk with some privacy.
‘OK, Tango, you say you have nothing to do with Magenta’s arrest. You need to convince me otherwise. Like I said before, nobody else knew where we were.’
Still looking at his iPad, he only gave Hunter half his attention. ‘I wasn’t the only one. I’ve been looking into the video’s which have been leaked over the last few weeks and I came up with something,’ he flicked the screen round and showed Hunter and Trina. It was the clip of Magenta going off her head after the concert with Johnny when she found out Roxie was number one. There had been some fans around and Trine had done her best to get them out quickly, they assumed one of them had shot the footage. Trine leaned in. ‘What am I looking at? I’ve seen this clip loads, it looks the same.’
‘Oh my God, I’m so stupid, why didn’t I spot that?’ Hunter took the iPad from Tango’s hands.
‘What are you both seeing?’
Hunter pointed to the screen, just behind the image of himself and Magenta was a stage mirror, the type with light bulbs around the frame and in the mirror was a reflection, someone holding a camera, recording the scene. ‘Damn, if only we could enlarge the frame.’
Tango leaned across and swiped the screen to the right. ‘I’m already a step ahead of you.’
The image appeared, larger and enhanced. Erika was taking the video.
‘Shit! The bitch.’ Trine’s hand flew to her mouth.
‘I needed more evidence, all this showed was she’d taken a video, I couldn’t prove she’d posted it online. So I needed to set her a trap. I told her this afternoon where you’d be, I made it out like I was letting all of Magenta’s team know, but I only told her. Then I had you both followed this afternoon.’
‘What the hell?’
‘Look, you’ll be glad I did, because about two minutes ago I got a video you might want to see. Already enhanced…’ he tapped onto the screen and another video came to life. Someone with a baseball cap on walking into Grand Central station, keeping their head low. The person walked towards Magenta and Hunter who were coming down the steps from Campbell’s Apartment, the person bumped into Magenta, this is where Tango paused the video, zoomed in further, the bag of cocaine found in Magenta’s bag was clearly seen being dropped in. He pressed play. Magenta turned round briefly but then carried on walking with Hunter. Five seconds later, the person in the baseball cap stopped and turned around, their face caught by the CCTV, there with a big smile on her face was Erika.
‘Bloody Hell, we need to get this to the lawyer.’
‘She already has it.’
Trine frowned. ‘How did you get it to her so quick?’
‘When she arrived I googled her, she’s on Linkedin, complete with work email address, sent it over to her just before you dragged me into this corner. I would expect Magenta to be released anytime…’
‘Hunter!’
He looked up, no sooner did she call his name than she was in his arms.
‘Babe,’ he pulled her tight, kissing the top of her head. ‘Let’s get you home.’
Justine was speaking to the officer in charge. ‘You can expect a letter of complaint citing wrongful arrest and we expect a full statement within the hour clearing my client of any wrongdoing and the arrest of the perpetrator also within the hour. Now officer, you have wasted enough of my client’s time, we’ll be leaving now.’
‘She is amazing, you should’ve seen her in the room she totally saved my arse.’
Hunter looked over her head and begrudgingly nodded and acknowledgement to Tango. ‘She had a bit of help.’
Tango responded with a nod of his own head.
Magenta was curled up in the back seat of the Audi, Hunter’s arm wrapped around her as Tango drove them back towards Loga
n’s apartment.
‘I can’t believe Erika was behind the leaks to the press and setting me up tonight. I’ll need to speak to Johnny, she’s supposed to be their Social Media guru, not doing stuff like this. She could’ve ruined my career,’ Magenta sighed.
‘We need to work out where she came from, she hasn’t been working for Broken Arrow for long, besides, Logan would’ve hired her…’ Hunter replied.
‘Everything is just so fucked up, I hate it when I don’t know who I can trust.’
‘You know who you can trust, your inner circle will always have your back, you’ve made it tight, it’s the people on the edge of that circle, the Erika’s of this world that you need to keep your guard up against, me too, I’ve had my blinkers on too much recently, just got caught up in us and the world we’ve created. Need to sharpen up my game.’
Before she could reply they pulled into the street, it was practically blocked off by paps.
‘I can’t face that tonight.’
‘We can go to a hotel,’ Hunter suggested.
She shook her head. ‘No, as soon as we’re spotted checking in, we’ll be in the same situation,’ she thought for a moment. ‘I know, we’ll go to the brownstone.’
‘You really wanna go there? Where you lived with Max…’
‘I don’t really wanna go, but there’s a lack of options. Besides, it'll be the last place they look, I haven’t been there in over two years.’
‘Hate to but in buddy, but she’s right. Safest place for you right now.’
‘Also, plenty of room so Tango can stay too.’
Hunter was about to object, then he remembered how far Tango had gone to help Mag’s tonight. ‘OK, probably best in the circumstances.’
He caught Tango’s look in his rear-view mirror. ‘You won’t even know I’m there.’
‘One more request, no phones or TV tonight, we’ll deal with the fallout from tonight tomorrow.’
