Come Together

by Madelynne Ellis

  Ash deposited himself in his original seat. ‘I can’t believe this shit. Why haven’t we hired a cook yet? Spook tries to feed us yak testicles, everything Paul –’ he nodded at Rock Giant ‘– cooks tastes as if it was stewed in a muddy field from the available flora, and Elspeth never cooks because she only eats fucking cottage cheese with pineapple bits.’ He bounced to his feet again. ‘Where’s the pizza menu?’

  ‘They don’t deliver to car parks, dummy.’ Rock Giant rolled onto all fours and crawled towards the rear of the bus. ‘Yell when it’s ready,’ he said to Spook. ‘I’ll see if I can persuade Elspeth to join us.’

  Dani rather hoped he failed. She wasn’t looking forward to officially making the acquaintance of Xane’s ex. In fact, she was rather hoping they could spend most of the tour at opposite ends of the bus. Elspeth Shriik looked like a goddamned goddess, was always flawless, took a dress size at least three sizes smaller than Dani’s and had a voice like a cat’s purr. As if Dani didn’t have enough to feel insecure about already.

  Xane nudged her side with his elbow. ‘You all right?’

  ‘Fine,’ she mouthed, relieved that he seemed at peace with the world this morning. He slipped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her tight to his warm body. ‘Good, because I wouldn’t want to think you were unhappy.’ He nuzzled up against her and teased the curve of her earlobe with his lips. ‘Spook’s actually a real good cook.’

  ‘If you don’t mind eating reindeer nuts,’ Ash said.

  ‘Ash just enjoys whining.’

  ‘I do not.’ Ash watched them a moment. ‘I hope you’re not going to drool over one another for the whole of the next six months.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘It’s making me horny. OK.’ He stood. ‘I’m going to wake Iain. I seem to recall he makes an ace curry.’

  Dani waited until he’d disappeared out of earshot before remarking, ‘Curry, for breakfast?’

  ‘He’s just trying to impress you,’ Spook muttered. He’d finished chopping and was now adding ingredients to a variety of pans. He moved with easy confidence, and obviously not only knew what he was doing but enjoyed the process too.

  ‘So, I’ve had a rundown of the rest of the group’s cooking skills,’ she said, returning her attention to Xane. ‘What about yours? What’s your speciality dish?’

  ‘Dani sandwiches,’ he said, nibbling the edge of her jaw. ‘What’s yours?’

  ‘Well, I …’ She cooked a whole variety of things. Hell, she had practical homecraft skills coming out of her earholes. No surprise, given where she’d grown up. The Sisterhood of St Agatha’s liked to live a modest, uncomplicated existence steeped in supposedly ancient traditions, which meant they used few household gadgets. She could cook, weave, darn socks – though why anyone would want to when you could buy a new pair for less than the cost of the materials required to fix one, she didn’t know. She could also bang nails in straight, put together flatpack furniture and recite every line of indoctrination they’d tried so hard to make her believe.

  Spook glanced up from his pasta pan. ‘I’d keep your mouth closed, if I were you, because if Ash overhears you, he’ll have you chained to the stove for the rest of the tour. He’s been known to invite girls on board simply because they’ve offered to feed him.’

  ‘No way. So they cook him dinner and then he sends them on his way.’

  ‘After he’s fed them dessert,’ Spook elaborated. She didn’t think he meant ice-cream. ‘You realise that you’re probably the first pretty woman he’s met in the last four years that he hasn’t banged within twenty-four hours of meeting?’

  Dani wasn’t certain if that was an honour or not.

  ‘He’d better fucking not,’ Xane grumbled. He pulled her onto his knee. ‘If he so much as touches you, I’ll break both his arms.’

  ‘Ash, don’t touch Dani. Ever,’ Spook yelled up the stairwell. ‘One new addition to the lineup is hard enough to swallow as it is. And now answer your lady’s original question, Xane.’ He waggled a spatula at them.

  ‘I can follow a recipe,’ Xane admitted, which told her nothing. ‘And don’t believe what Ash says about not being able to cook. He survived university, and not on cheesy chips as he’d have you believe. He’s just lazy.’

  ‘And you cook?’ she prompted.

  ‘If you’re really good, I might make you a fish-finger sandwich.’ He laughed at her frown.

  Dani narrowed her eyes. She suspected Xane Geist, aka Alexander Tobias Liddell, was capable of accomplishing a lot more than a bunch of fish fingers wedged between some bread and smeared with ketchup, but it would probably take a very special occasion to get him to admit that. She didn’t push him too hard. It was good just to see him relaxed and smiling, and not focused on Steve not being around to enjoy the moment with them.

  Chapter 12

  Dani stayed on the bus to enjoy a shower when the guys all trooped over to the stadium to get in some extra practice. Xane wanted to bring Iain up to speed on the new material they’d been working on so they could incorporate it into the set. She was walking from the bus to the performers’ entrance to the stadium when the girl approached her.

  ‘Are you with the band?’ she asked.

  ‘I’m not. No,’ Dani lied, startled by the woman’s sudden appearance in what was supposed to be a secure area. Like many of Black Halo’s fans, the girl was dressed top to tail in black and had mimicked aspects of Xane’s ghoulish stage guise.

  ‘Yes, you are. You’re the girl in that sex tape with Xane.’

  Dani groaned. She dearly wished there was a way to scrub that hideous piece of gonzo reportage from both the internet and the human race’s collective unconscious. It didn’t help that the grainy footage of her and Xane on the night train to Penzance had been maliciously dubbed to make her sound hideous.

  ‘You can get us in to see the guys, right?’

  Oh, shit! Dani stiffened, realising that the girl had several companions, who had been standing off to one side so as not to be immediately noticeable, but now fanned out around her. Immediately her heart-rate sped. She’d suffered too many reprisals at the hands of the Sisterhood of St Agatha’s not to feel anxious about being surrounded by a bunch of fanatical women. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t.’

  ‘Aw, come on,’ the first girl wheedled. ‘We won’t cause any trouble. We only want to say hi and maybe get a few autographs.’

  As if she believed that for a second. She’d been with Xane when women had accosted him. What they generally wanted wasn’t a signature but an all-access pass into his pants.

  ‘Bitch doesn’t want to share,’ one of them muttered, which sent a rumble of discontent through the group.

  Dani’s phone beeped, letting her know she’d received a text, probably a message from Xane to see if she was heading over.

  ‘Is that a text from Xane? Let’s see.’ One of them moved in and attempted to snatch her phone out of her pocket.

  ‘Hey, get off.’

  ‘Tell him you’re bringing some friends.’

  ‘No.’

  Two of the other women stepped in to hold her so the pickpocket could finish her job. Dani kicked her in the shins, and then tried to twist out of the hold, and things got desperate really fast. False nails scored the bare skin of her arms. She kicked again, but the odds were against her. Even squirming like a crazy thing, she couldn’t shake them off. She was tripped, lost her footing and hit the deck face-first. Pain streaked along the side of her jaw and exploded in her ear. She shrieked as the tarmac shaved the skin off her palms. One girl jerked her head back and another pulled her hands out from under her and held her fast while they claimed her phone.

  ‘He says to use the side door by the hospitality suite.’

  ‘Let’s go, then.’

  The girl with the phone dropped it and ground her heel into the glass screen. ‘Can’t have you calling him back, now can we? Actually, maybe we need to keep you out of the way. Chloe, your cuffs,’ she demanded.

&nb
sp; The girl holding her hair released her and clapped something cold around Dani’s right wrist. Handcuffs! Shit, no! Dani wriggled like an eel but it made no odds with five of them on her. They easily dragged her over to a huge steel shutter by the equipment van and snapped the other cuff around the D-shaped handle at its base.

  ‘No. Please don’t.’

  ‘Too late. Too bad you didn’t want to share, but don’t worry, we’ll keep Xane warm.’

  ‘We know all the right lines to use.’

  ‘Oh, Xane,’ the girl who’d originally approached her moaned. ‘Please do it harder. You’re so big. Don’t stop. Yes, yes, yes!’ She finished with an ululating cry the whole group imitated.

  Seriously, that blasted video … Dani jerked the cuff in response, causing it to bang against the metal. ‘Please.’ They couldn’t leave her locked up like this, with no means of getting free. ‘Don’t you dare leave me here. Don’t you dare.’ The handcuff was fast around her wrist, and all her struggling was doing was giving her bruises.

  ‘Here.’ The girl named Chloe, whose handcuffs they were, tossed her the key. It landed about two metres away from Dani. Then they all stalked off, laughing maliciously.

  Heart racing, adrenalin pumping, Dani braced herself on one torn-up palm and stretched out a leg, attempting to reach the tiny key. No luck. She wasn’t nearly tall enough, even with both legs stuck out and her weight supported on one hand. Tears welled in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She was not going to let them beat her, or get to the band.

  Furious at the thought of them pawing at Xane, she banged her fist against the metal shutter. The cuff hit it too, making a horrendous racket. Someone had to hear that. She did it again, and again. Come on, somebody. She was rapidly tiring, when a tremor rolled through the shutter and it began to lift. She’d not heard anyone approach over the din she was making. ‘Yes,’ she hissed in triumph, only to realise that the shutter lifting all the way up might not be so great. It was easily twenty foot high. She’d end up dangling like a fish at the end of a line.

  ‘Stop. I’m fastened.’ She was already on tiptoe.

  ‘Who’s out there?’ a familiar voice called.

  ‘Luthor. Thank God. I’m fastened to the door, can you stop it rising?’

  The shutter immediately juddered to a halt, leaving her panting in relief.

  She saw his body first, cut-off shorts with bulging pockets, T-shirt, then his blond head as he dipped to step under the suspended shutter. The sun caught in his hair, making it appear as if it were spun from pure gold. She’d never been so pleased to see anyone.

  ‘Dani? What are you doing here? I thought you’d be with the band.’

  She clanged the metal bracelet against the door handle again to show him, only Luthor’s gaze fastened upon her face not her wrist.

  ‘Flippin’ hell!’ Deep concern shadowed his mismatched eyes and tugged his mouth into a tight straight line. ‘What happened?’ He gently curled his fingers against her cheek before running the tip of his thumb down to her jaw. ‘Oh, Dani.’ His gaze flicked back and forth between her mouth and eyes, so intently, it lit fires in her cheeks that flickered out across her skin as he embraced her tightly.

  ‘I … um … could you unfasten me? The key’s down there.’ She turned awkwardly to show him.

  Luthor went at once to fetch it, though the sensation of his fingertips against her cheek remained. He released her, and then dug into one of his bulging pockets while she rubbed the sensation back into her wrist. ‘Here.’ He produced a packet of tissues and offered her one. ‘For your lip,’ he added when she looked blankly at him.

  Dani took one. Her lip throbbed a little, but she hadn’t realised it was cut. She gasped in surprise when the tissue quickly turned red.

  ‘Who did you say did this?’

  ‘Some idiot girls. They wanted to get in to meet the band, and took offence when I didn’t lead them straight in.’

  ‘Descriptions?’ He turned his head as though he expected to find them lurking in a corner. ‘We need to alert security.’

  ‘They’re heading for the side door by hospitality, but don’t say anything about me, please.’

  The last thing she wanted was for Xane to feel she was in danger. He’d already suggested it might be necessary to hire a bodyguard for when she ventured out in public. The thought horrified her. Having only just freed herself from one set of restrictions, she had no desire to have another set imposed.

  ‘Dani, they attacked you.’

  ‘And I’m fine –’

  ‘Ish.’ His brows further knotted. ‘They’ve split your lip.’ He tugged her fingers away from her mouth so that he could reassess the damage. ‘We need to put some ice on that.’

  ‘Maybe,’ she agreed. It was starting to feel a little puffy, and now she was free she was struggling to keep calm.

  ‘I think I ought to take you to Xane.’

  ‘No. I’d rather he didn’t see me like this. Could you help me?’

  ‘I … sure, OK.’ He wrapped an arm around her and led her inside.

  Chapter 13

  Luthor got her inside and took her to the tiny kitchenette that the roadies had been given the run of. It had a kettle, a few cracked mugs and a fridge entirely packed with beer. There was nowhere to sit, besides the actual worktop, and barely enough room to stand, so he settled her on the worktop so that he could clean the wound with water. He managed to chisel a few bits of ice out of the tiny freezer compartment and wrap them in a tea-towel as a makeshift ice-pack. It wasn’t ideal, and he’d rather have taken her to the actual first-aider, but Dani was adamantly against it.

  ‘I’m glad you decided to stay,’ she said. ‘I worried, after the way you ran off, that maybe you’d leave. I know I’d find that sort of disappointment hard to work through, if it were me.’

  Yeah, and she only knew the half of it. Yes, he was still annoyed over having missed the opportunity to play for his favourite band, but he wasn’t going to lie to himself and pretend that was the main reason he was still annoyed. He’d had a whole fairy-tale romance for him and Xane worked out that involved Xane recognising him, declaring he’d been searching for him for years, and them screwing like crazy for evermore.

  Course, he’d come at the wrong time for that. Xane, if he even recognised him, wasn’t going to pay him any attention while he had Dani around, and for that he couldn’t honestly blame him. In other circumstances, Luthor would totally have hit on her. Physically, she was everything that appealed to him about women. Wide, beautiful, soulful eyes, tough but definitely in need of protecting, and possessed of a figure that was entirely built for pleasure. He disliked skinny women who were all elbows and knees and ridges you didn’t want digging into you. Luthor liked his men hot and wiry and his women with curves. Xane and Dani matched those desires a little too perfectly. Too bad they weren’t about to suggest sandwiching him between them. He could totally have lived with that. In fact, his body heated a little too thoroughly at the idea. He needed to step back and cool it before he started sporting something inappropriate.

  ‘So, what’s Mr Willows like?’ he asked, leaving Dani with the ice-pack to hold. Hearing about his rival was guaranteed to chill his mood.

  ‘Nice enough, I guess. I’ve hardly spoken to him. He did all right, at the gig last night, didn’t he?’

  Luthor nodded. Much to his disgruntlement, Iain Willows had done OK. There’d only been a few hiccups, which he’d covered well, and he had a lot to live up to. Steve Matlock had been up there with the greats, not quite at John Bonham or Neil Peart level but not bleeding far off. Anyone stepping into his shoes was going to have a lot of work to do.

  He still thought he could do better, though.

  Dani lifted the ice-pack from her lip. ‘How bad?’

  ‘Puffy. Turning purple.’

  ‘Damn, it’s not, is it?’ She searched around frantically for something shiny to see her reflection in, but the only thing that even vaguely fitted the bill was the
draining board.

  ‘Look up.’ He snapped her picture with his phone.

  Dani squinted at her image, while running her fingertips over the surface of the cut. ‘It’s not that bad.’

  ‘No,’ he acknowledged, grinning. ‘You’re not that bad. Actually, you’re pretty gorgeous, even with a split lip.’ The compliment just sort of slipped out. He’d never been much good at disguising his feelings.

  Dani ticked a finger against his nose. ‘Thanks, but I don’t think you’re supposed to say things like that. I have a boyfriend. I wouldn’t want him getting jealous.’

  Luthor shrugged. ‘I don’t see why you being attached to a rock legend should mean I can’t throw a few compliments about.’

  ‘What if he hears you?’

  ‘Then I’ll throw a few in his direction too. He does have a fabulously sexy arse.’

  Yep, there he went, couldn’t quite stop himself from dropping those hints, like his subconscious was set on laying the groundwork, only Dani didn’t react as he imagined she would. Her expression changed to one of fear.

  ‘You’re … you’re gay,’ she squeaked.

  ‘Eh?’ Uh, no, actually he wasn’t. He was more of an equal opportunist, which meant that sometimes he fancied guys and other times women. Currently he figured he wasn’t going to get Xane alone, so he was running with the notion of hitting on both him and his girlfriend. It was widely rumoured that Xane indulged in a polyamorous lifestyle. ‘Dani, he’s like Bowie or Johnny Depp, I’d be anything he asked.’ And had been. The explanation didn’t seem to lessen her anxiety any.

  Luthor guessed it was probably a good thing he’d only made a fairly innocuous remark about Xane’s arse and hadn’t been more lyrically graphic. The fact was, Xane Geist was one hell of a sensual package. It was there in his movement, in the way his eyes flicked across the faces of the people he spoke to like a sultry caress. And his voice, God, his voice …

  Just the thought of him made Luthor’s gut clench with potent longing.

  Forget being noble, if Xane walked in right now and offered himself up, he wouldn’t stop to check that Dani was OK with that first. He’d be too busy putting his hands and tongue to work.