by Bev Dulson
She followed him to the stage, leaving Juke in a state of abandonment. Whatever he wanted to talk about would have to wait. She let herself be led onto the stage by Logan. She was very aware of how hot the lights were illuminating the stage. She was used to this, but for some reason tonight they were making her feel far too warm. She felt a ball of anxiety in her chest, she was obviously more nervous about this situation than she thought. Hurry up, babe. Come back. She sent Hunter a silent message willing him to return.
Logan spoke first. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Logan International Music launch night for one of the brightest new stars to join our music family. We believe in letting our acts have the freedom to develop their style and personality,’ he paused. ‘I’m sure the recent antics of both Magenta and Johnny will testify to that.’ There was laughter from the crowd, Magenta threw him a bemused look and she could hear Johnny booing from the floor. ‘Of course I’m joking, we are very proud and honoured to have Roxie Myers join our dysfunctional family and now I’d like to welcome the one and only Magenta Valentina to say a few words.’
Magenta stepped forward as the room clapped and cheered. She took a moment to gather her thoughts, those lights really were hot. The champagne she’d had must’ve gone straight to her head, she was struggling to know where to begin.
‘Thank you Logan for those kind words,’ she paused, her throat felt dry. ‘I am really excited to help mentor Roxie, she has an amazing talent…’ she stopped again, her vision went blurry and she wobbled slightly on her feet. The next thing she knew, she was falling backwards. She didn’t hit the floor, fortunately Logan had seen her sway and he’d caught her before she landed. She had however passed out.
‘Medic,’ Logan shouted above the gasps.
‘I want you to go to hospital, you need to be checked over.’
‘Logan, I’m fine. I just need you to find Hunter.’
Magenta was in a side room with Logan and Trina. She had come round fairly quickly and was now resting on a sofa with some water.
‘Magenta, you fainted,’ Trina was obviously on Logan’s side.
‘I’m OK, the lights were just really hot and I was feeling a bit nervous knowing that Jax had rocked up, wasn’t sure what he was going to do.’
‘Take it easy for now, I’m still calling the company Doctor out to look you over,’ Logan took his phone out of his pocket. ‘I’ll be back in a minute.’
Magenta rolled her eyes. ‘God, he fusses.’
‘To be fair, you did give us a shock. Do you need anything?’
‘Just Hunter and a cuppa.’
‘I can sort out the tea, I’ve been ringing him, he’s not answering his phone.’
Juke popped his head around the door. ‘Hi darling, how are you feeling?’
‘I’m bloody fine, just wish people would stop asking.’
‘Any chance I could have five minutes with the patient.’
‘Yeah, you can take over babysitting duties, I’m off to track down a decent cup of tea for her. Back in five,’ Trina gave her a quick hug.
Juke closed the door behind him after Trina left.
‘Magenta, I had to send your dress back to Versace this morning and get them to send over the next size up.’
She screwed her face up. ‘Juke, why on earth are you telling me this? Do you think this is gonna make me feel better, you coming in here and telling me I need to get my arse to Slimming World?’
‘No darling, I’m telling you because, especially after what happened before, I think you’re pregnant.’
‘What?’
‘I noticed the other week, your hair was getting thicker, then I had to change your face creams as your skin had changed, but this morning when I walked in and saw how big your boobs had gone, that sealed the deal. I knew that Versace dress was not gonna go anywhere near those bad boys, the next size up was touch and go.’
Magenta looked down at her cleavage, her boobs did look massive, she thought it was the cut of the dress. She tried to remember her last period, she couldn’t, but she’d never really kept tabs on them, she wasn’t one of those women who made a note of their cycle. She couldn’t be pregnant, she was on the pill.
‘Remember the dodgy curry you had a few months back, gave you food poisoning and you were sick as a dog? That probably stopped your pill working.’
It was like he was reading her mind. ‘That was months ago,’ she placed a hand on her tummy, it felt flat as a pancake. ‘I’m not pregnant.’
‘There’s one way to find out.’ He produced a pregnancy testing kit from his man bag.
‘I am not weeing on a stick in a bloody Versace dress without my boyfriend even knowing about the possibility that I might be pregnant.’
The door opened, it was Tango. ‘Jeez Magenta, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there when you fainted.’
‘No big deal. Did you find Jax? Is Hunter with you?’
‘Wild goose chase I think, no sign of him, we’ve swept the whole building. Is Hunter not here? I saw him about twenty minutes ago, he said he was coming to find you.’
‘I haven’t seen him.’
Juke saw the colour on her face drain. He put a hand on her shoulder. ‘He’s probably looking for you in the other room, I’ll go and track him down.’
Although she nodded slowly, her heart was racing. She knew Juke wasn’t going to be able to find him, she didn’t know how she knew, but she just did. Something had happened to him. There is no way he’d have gone AWOL when she’d just passed out.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR
Magenta was back at Logan’s penthouse, out of the Versace dress and into jeans and a sweater, she was pacing the living room floor.
‘We’ve got NYPD out looking for him, Tango and Romeo are on the case too, I’ve drafted in extra security, the building is surrounded so you’re safe, we’ll find him.’
‘Logan, he has literally just disappeared in a puff of smoke, I have no idea where to start looking.’
‘Sweetheart, that’s not your job,’ Juke tried to put an arm around her, she shrugged it off, there was only one person’s arms she wanted to be in right now. ‘Let the cops do their job.’
‘I feel so helpless, if it was the other way round, he’d be out looking for me.’
‘I know he would, but I also know he wouldn’t want you to put yourself in danger, besides there’s a detective on his way round soon to interview us all, the best thing we can do is tell him everything we know and trust that the information we give will help them to find Hunter.’
Her eyes were a constant reservoir as tears streamed silently down her cheeks. There was no one to voice her inner fears too, the only person she could do that with was Hunter and right now, she had no idea where he was, she just knew he was in danger.
Tango arrived back at the penthouse. Magenta was straight over to him. ‘Any news?’
He shook his head slowly. ‘I’m sorry, I’ve been trying to get access to the CCTV at the event, but the head of security told me there was an issue with it and the signal was jammed. I questioned all the security team, which I know the police will do anyway, just wanted to check things out for myself. I just don’t understand. We hadn’t been able to find Jax anywhere in the building, he said he was going back to check you were OK, he was worried about leaving you in the room for too long without either of us there, so I said I’d just do a quick check of the perimeter and follow him up, that was the last time I saw him.’
‘What direction was he going in? Logan asked.
‘Obviously towards the elevators, he was going back up to the party.’
‘Someone must’ve seen him, people in the elevators, what about the CCTV in there?’ She asked.
‘Same as the main loop, all tampered with.’
‘That’s suspicious in itself, someone was obviously targeting him.’
Magenta turned on Logan. ‘No shit Sherlock, do you think he’s just gone MIA of his own accord?’
‘Sorry, Magenta, I’m just trying
to help.’
‘Well you’re not’
‘Magenta, darling, why don’t you go and have a rest y’all need to take care of yourself,’ Juke looked discreetly towards her stomach as he spoke.
‘I. am. Fine,’ she glared at him. ‘I just need to find Hunter.’
Johnny and Trina were on the balcony, she’d needed some fresh air to clear her head and to process what had just happened.
‘Sure you don’t need to be in there?’ Johnny flicked his head towards the penthouse, she followed his gaze, she could see Logan, Juke and Tango all getting the Magenta glare, quite rightly she was upset and she was taking it out on them.
She shook her head. ‘No, she needs to get her anger out first, I need to pick her up when she falls.’
‘I’ll pick you up if you fall.’
She rested her head on his shoulder, tiredness spread through her body like a wave. ‘How the hell did this happen? Hunter just can’t go missing…’
‘From what I know about the guy and you know him better than I know him, he’s a guy that can handle himself. Hell, he unmasked the person who wanted Magenta killed.’
‘That’s what worries me, if someone has him then they mean business.’
Magenta had escaped to the bathroom, she couldn’t deal with people right now. She splashed cold water on to her face, her eyes were stinging and her cheeks were red from all the crying. She looked at her reflection, seeing the look of fear in her eyes for the first time. ‘Where are you?’ She whispered into the mirror. ‘Please just come home.’
Tears were threatening to fall again, she blinked them away, Hunter needed her to be strong, the police weren’t going to find him, this was all to do with his book and she was the only person who knew the full truth, so she had to find her inner strength, she was his only chance.
‘Magenta?’ Juke popped his head around the door.
‘Bloody hell, can’t I even get a minutes peace in here?’
‘I just thought that while you’re in here,’ he waved the pregnancy test at her.
‘No! I am not doing it, not with Hunter missing. IF I am pregnant, which I highly doubt, it’s just your stupid cockeye theory, I will be doing a test with my boyfriend. Right now, my priority is to find him.’
‘Sorry Magenta, the cops are here to speak to you,’ Logan popped his head around the door.
‘Does nobody respect privacy in this place, I’m in the bloody bathroom.’
Logan’s cheeked flushed. ‘I just thought you’d wanna speak to them asap.’
She followed the boys out of the bathroom, she already knew it would be pointless talking to them. Whoever had Hunter would be completely off the radar of the police. The best thing she could do would be to answer their questions and get rid of them, she needed to do some investigating of her own.
‘Ms Valentina, I’m Detective Fox and this is my colleague, Detective Sanders.’
She nodded at the two heavily built guys in almost matching trench coats, she had a feeling that NYPD hadn’t put their best guys on the case. It just made the sinking feeling in her stomach fall even deeper into her soul. She placed a hand on her stomach to try and quell the feeling inside, Juke’s words came back to her, she brushed them to one side, she couldn’t deal with any extra emotion right now.
‘We’d like to ask you a few questions,’ Detective Fox looked around as if waiting to be asked to sit down.
The last thing she wanted was them getting comfy, she wanted them gone. ‘Go ‘ead,’ her scouse accent becoming even stronger in her time of stress.
‘Err, obviously we’ve got pictures circulated of Mr Cole around the force and strictly speaking he hasn’t been missing for 24 hours so…’
‘So, what you’re saying is, I should be very grateful that you’re here or should I wait until tomorrow to call you back when for all you know that could be too late,’ her voice waivered.
‘We’re doing everything we can Ms Valentina. I just need to check with you first that you can’t think of any reason why Mr Cole might just wander off and maybe forget to get in touch?’
‘Detective Fox, I have had threats against my life and one of the possible people suspected in sending those threats was sighted at the party, the last time I saw Hunter was when he was dashing off to try and find this person, so no, I don’t think he just ‘wandered off’ nor do I think his phone has just run out of battery. Something has happened to him.’
Detective Sanders took a step forward, checking something in his note book. ‘The person you suspect of sending those letters, is a Jax Buckley. Is that correct?’
She nodded.
‘Do you have any proof of this?’
She shook her head. ‘No, but he has been involved in a smear campaign against me and was behind a break in at my house here in New York.’
Detective Sanders wrote something down. ‘We have been unable to locate Jax Buckley.’
‘Sorry to but in officers, but my theory is that’s because he’s with Hunter, if he’s taken him, it’s obvious that’s why you can’t find him.’
‘And who might you be?’ Detective Fox raised an eyebrow.
‘The bodyguard, code name, Tango.’
A look passed between the two detectives. ‘Care to give us your real name?’
Tango shook his head. ‘That’s on a need to know basis and I am not willing to compromise Ms Valentina’s safety given the current situation, but as Jax Buckley is already a person of interest I would suggest that’s where you start.’
‘Thank very much for the lesson in police 101 Mr Tango, but we can take it from here,’ Detective Sanders turned back to Magenta. ‘Ms Valentina, what about your ex-husband,’ he looked back to his note book. ‘Max Maxwell?’
‘Max is a lot of things, but there is no way he’d be able to take on Hunter, he’d come off worse.’
Detective Fox looked up from his note book. ‘I see here that Mr Cole is Ex-Army. Could he have any enemies?’
Magenta swallowed hard, trusting her face not to give anything away. Where would she start? He’s an ex-assassin, so there’s probably a lot of people who hold a grudge, something she’d never wanted to think about now that he was a retired assassin, but could you ever really leave that life behind? ‘Not that I am aware of, it’s been years since he left the army so I wouldn’t have thought it could be connected to that.’
‘Anything else you need to tell us?’
She shook her head. ‘I just want him home.’
‘We’ll do our best ma’am and in the meantime, if you think of anything else, do not hesitate to call us.’ Detective Fox handed her a business card.
She nodded as she took it.
‘We’ll see ourselves out,’ Detective Sanders led the way out of the room followed by his colleague.
She took a deep breath, they’d made her feel like she was a suspect in Hunter’s disappearance, but she couldn’t tell them anymore, she had to protect him.
‘Hey, it’s OK.’ Tango was by her side, a hand on her shoulder.
‘It’s not though is it? And what about Jax? Do you really think he’s behind this?’
‘It’s just strange how he rocks up to that event and then the next thing Hunter is missing, I don’t believe in coincidences.’
‘That’s what Hunter always says.’
‘He’s right. The quicker we can find Jax the quicker we’ll find Hunter.’
She sighed. She knew what Tango was saying made sense, but she didn’t agree, this felt like too much of a coincidence. It was linked to the book, she was sure of it, all the messages Hunter had been sent were related to his book and his previous name, someone knew that Hunter Cole was Jason Lomax and she was fairly sure that person wasn’t Jax, but it had to be someone.
Romeo appeared. ‘Tango, I’m turning in for the night, Johnny is in bed, think we all need some sleep, think tomorrow will be a long day.’
Tango nodded. She felt a chill go down her back, Romeo’s stare always made her feel uncomfortab
le.
‘Keep an eye on him,’ she whispered as Romeo left the room. ‘I don’t trust him.’
‘On it, try and get some sleep yourself Magenta, you’re gonna need all your energy.’
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
Hunter had the worst pain in his head, whoever had knocked him out had done a good job. He had no idea how long he’d been out for, all he knew was he was tied up in the dark, where he was and how he got here, he had absolutely no clue. He tried to recall the last thing he remembered. He was at the Roxie Meyer’s launch, security had told him Jax was on site, he’d gone to find him, then he’d woken up here. Jax Buckley had been capable of taking him down? He’d seen pictures of the guy, he’d hardly seemed like a difficult opponent, certainly not someone who would be able to not only knock him out, but then move him to a whole new location and tie him up. He could feel the knots at his wrists, they were professional knots, the type he’d used himself in the past. This couldn’t be Jax, could it?
He tried to move slightly, his body was stiff, his lower back ached as he was tied up against an upright beam. That must mean he was in the basement of a building. Where though? He couldn’t still be in the hotel, he was fairly sure that would be searched from top to bottom when people realised he was missing. Mags, was she safe? What if someone got to her to? Why had he just run off like that? He should have let security deal with it, his job was to keep her safe and he’d failed by running off to save the day thinking he was James bloody Bond. Well, time to channel his inner James Bond, cos’ he didn’t have the time to die, not today and certainly not before he knew Mags was safe.
The rope was really digging into his wrists, he was trying the age old trick of rubbing them together. He groaned, both at the discomfort and the lack of patience he had.
‘So, you’re awake, then?’
Holy shit. It was so dark down there, he hadn’t been able to make anything out, but as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could make shapes out and he’d know that voice anywhere. There was a curveball if ever there was one, he didn’t think he’d be behind all this.
