Come Together

by Madelynne Ellis

  ‘I guess we’re practising.’ Iain joined them on the stage and took his seat behind the drumkit. ‘Hey, you’ve found your guitar. That’s great.’ He smiled at Spook. ‘What are we playing?’

  ‘“Fatal Error”,’ Xane muttered, because if they went over it enough times maybe one day Iain would get it right, and because he didn’t want to share the new song with him.

  ‘You know Spook’s lucky he got that guitar back,’ Rock Giant observed to Xane as Iain was settling himself in. ‘Those women could have stuck it on an online auction site. Even if they didn’t attach Spook’s name to it, they’d still have made a mint and he’d never have seen it again.’

  ‘Then let’s be thankful they didn’t think of it, and start being more vigilant about what’s going on. We don’t want anything else going missing, or any other nasty surprises.’

  ‘Life’s full of nasty surprises. Hey up, your girl’s here. Do we need to take a ten-minute break?’

  ‘Fuck off, Paul.’

  Rock Giant belted him across the back. ‘For what it’s worth, I’ve decided she’s OK. You’re cute together. But just as a warning: it’ll ruin your street cred if you start getting too domesticated. The fans come to see Xane the insane monster, not Xane the pussy-whipped. If you start getting too serious and muttering about rings and kidlets I’m going to hogtie you and ship in groupies to molest you until you see sense.’

  ‘Yeah, well, you know what my response to that is?’

  ‘Won’t work, I need to get guys to bum you too?’

  Xane shook his head, fighting back a smile. He knew perfectly well this was Rock Giant’s backwards way of saying he thought Dani was perfect for Xane and he ought to think about getting more serious. ‘Nope. Hair-puller.’

  Rock Giant laughed as he stepped back from Xane, strumming his bass. ‘You win. That’s plain mean.’

  Chapter 27

  That night’s gig went off without a hitch. To avoid communal trauma, they skipped playing the tracks Iain kept blowing. Afterwards they all piled into the dressing room for a quick celebratory drink, then trooped like good little rock stars onto the bus, to get on the road to Germany. Hamburg was the next stop, or was it Bremen? Dani was the first to admit her European geography wasn’t that great. She knew roughly where each country lay, and the names of their capitals and major cities, but no way could she pinpoint them on a map.

  ‘How did the new song turn out?’ she asked, as they all congregated in the lower bunk room-cum-lounge. She, Xane and Ash squeezed onto one sofa, while Iain, Elspeth and Rock Giant filled the other, leaving Spook sitting on a pillow on the floor with his back to the bedroom door. The two bunks were currently unoccupied. Luthor was travelling with Ulf and the equipment van again, Tony and Liam both seemed to prefer kipping in Graham and Sally’s motorhome, and Cave Troll was currently their designated driver. The band all seemed far more relaxed around one another than they had been so far on the tour, which suggested a lot of good had come from the new composition. They’d certainly been totally rocking on stage tonight, and there’d been a lot more interplay between them all – duelling back to back, sharing mics and other sexy nonsense that had been missing from earlier performances. Dani realised they’d all started to enjoy it again. They weren’t only here because of Steve’s death any more. They were here because that’s what the lot of them lived for – live music and putting on a stonking good show.

  ‘Ace,’ Ash answered for Xane. He raised his hand and the two men high-fived across her lap. ‘It goes like this.’ He made a series of finger movements as though he were playing guitar, while improvising the sound. ‘And then like this. The fans are going to fucking love it. All it’s missing is a bit of Matlock magic. It needs a kick-ass drum solo in the middle and it’ll be mwah! perfect.’

  The mention of Steve Matlock made Dani seek out Xane’s hand to offer him reassurance. He entwined his fingers with hers but didn’t seem unduly saddened.

  ‘What song is this?’ Iain asked, throwing a sour look first at Ash, then at the other members of the band as he realised they all knew but he’d been left out. ‘If you were working on something new, why didn’t you come and find me?’

  ‘Maybe we didn’t notice you weren’t there,’ Elspeth muttered under her breath. She stretched out her legs, forcing Iain further into the corner of the sofa, while she rested comfortably against Rock Giant’s chest.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Nothing,’ she smiled sweetly.

  Iain stood. ‘You’ve all been jammin’ without me? Wow! I mean I knew I wasn’t exactly welcome, but I am here doing you all a favour. You wouldn’t be on tour if I hadn’t stepped up.’

  ‘Chill out, Iain. We know that.’ Ash stretched out to grab his friend as he headed for the door, but Iain brushed past him.

  ‘Fuck you,’ he hissed. ‘It’s the last time I do you any favours.’

  Ash started to get up to go after him, but both Xane and Spook pushed him back into his seat. ‘Leave him,’ said Xane. ‘We’re not going to be held to ransom. If he wants to walk it’s his prerogative, but he won’t. He’s got an ego problem, but he’s not thick.’

  Dani agreed entirely.

  ‘We don’t have to completely alienate him, though.’

  ‘Sit down, Ash.’ Spook sat on top of him. ‘You didn’t exactly run off to find him earlier this afternoon. Besides, he makes too many assumptions about his position. We all agreed from the start that we were taking him on a trial basis and that his position wasn’t fixed. I’m not wholly convinced it’s going to work, and not because his image sucks. He’s not half as good as he thinks he is.’

  ‘He’s a darn sight better than no drummer at all.’

  ‘Agreed, but there are other rock drummers in the world. Maybe it’s time we started putting out some feelers. We all know people.’ He turned to Xane. ‘Haven’t you shagged any rock drummers in the past?’

  ‘You mean besides the obvious?’ Elspeth licked her lips, obviously more turned on by the idea of her dead husband shagging her former boyfriend than saddened by the reminder of her loss.

  ‘I’d rather we didn’t go delving about in my past, actually,’ Xane remarked, his eyes dark with annoyance.

  ‘I think I’ll head on up to bed.’ Dani stood, expecting Xane to follow. She didn’t care for the direction the conversation was headed. But Xane didn’t rise to follow her; he only stretched up to give her a kiss and send her on her way. ‘I’ll be up in a bit. Don’t feel you have to stay awake for me.’ That was a change – normally he was all for snuggling and sexy stuff the moment they climbed beneath the sheets.

  ‘I could stay,’ she said, concerned.

  ‘No. Go. I won’t be long.’ He sent her off with a gentle pat.

  Upstairs was quiet. She wasn’t sure if Iain was in his bunk or stewing in the recording studio, but his curtains were drawn across his bed. So too was the one across her bottom bunk. Dani frowned a little. She couldn’t remember closing her curtains when she was last up here, getting changed last night. She shed her jacket, leaving it on Xane’s bed. Odd. Maybe one of them was playing a prank on her, and she’d find a rubber spider dangling or some other nonsense.

  Dani tore back one curtain, but all seemed normal. Her travel clock still ticked in one corner. Beside it her mp3 player and headphones were as she’d left them. Mr B, her teddy bear, sat propped against her pillow looking woeful. She picked him up and gave him a cuddle. He didn’t get so many these days with Xane around to sub for him. It wasn’t until she lay down and put Mr B aside that she saw the envelope taped to the TV screen, below a message written in marker pen.

  Once an addict, always an addict. Want to see where he’s getting his fixes?

  Dani squealed in horror, before she could think better of it. She ripped the envelope from where it was stuck and stuffed it beneath her pillow, but there wasn’t time to rub off the offensive message before Iain dropped from his top bunk with a thump and wrenched back her other curtain.

&nb
sp; ‘Are you all right?’ He was wearing shorts and a crucifix, nothing else. ‘What is it? Is there a spider you need squashing?’

  ‘I don’t squash spiders,’ she said to him in shock.

  Iain’s attention flowed from her face along her still extended arm to the TV screen. ‘Shit! What is that? Who wrote this?’

  ‘I … I don’t know,’ she replied, hesitant to level accusations without proof. ‘I’m going to wipe it off. It’s probably just a sick joke.’

  Iain curled his fingers around her wrist to prevent her doing so. ‘I really don’t think you should. This is serious shit. Someone is obviously trying to scare you. You should tell Xane. They’ve already had to deal with one round of crazy today.’

  ‘No.’

  She could only suppose that the discussion downstairs was particularly intense, since no one had responded to the thump and her scream.

  ‘Don’t be silly, Dani.’ Unlike Luthor, Iain rode roughshod over her wishes. ‘Guys,’ he bellowed, so loudly people in the surrounding vehicles must have heard him. And they were on the autobahn. ‘We have a problem. Get up here.’

  ‘If it’s the skylight leaking again, stick a bucket under it. We’re talking here,’ Ash protested.

  ‘No, really. Get your arses up here. Dani’s been attacked.’

  ‘What!’ Xane was upstairs so fast Dani thought he might have teleported. Only the complaints being hurled at him by the rest of the band regarding sudden injuries convinced her otherwise. He dropped to his knees as he came through the bunk-room door so that he was on a level with her. ‘Dani, are you OK?’ He wrapped her in a full-on bear hug that squashed her up against his chest. ‘Did somebody hurt you? Who?’ His gaze swept the room, searching for someone to pounce on. His buddies, who’d limped up the stairs after him to see what the commotion was, looked astoundingly grim, and that was before they saw the message.

  ‘Christ!’ Spook swore.

  An assortment of other swearwords echoed around the room from different voices.

  ‘Who’s been up here?’ Xane demanded. It seemed the obvious question. Nobody asked who the message referred to as they all looked round at one another. There was only one acknowledged addict in the group.

  ‘All of us, on and off,’ Rock Giant replied for the group.

  ‘Except me.’ Elspeth had no actual cause to come upstairs, since she’d co-opted the downstairs bedroom and all her clothes were in the wardrobe there too. Still, she was the one person Dani gave an extra hard glare. She might claim not to have been upstairs, but she was the only member of the band with a motive for doing something like this.

  ‘No one touch it. Ash, pass me your phone.’

  Ash reluctantly handed it over to Xane, who snapped several images of the scene from different angles.

  ‘Spook, call Graham and Ulf, tell them we need to pull over for a chat somewhere. Everyone else, downstairs. I think you’d better all start talking about last night and who the fuck you let on this bus.’

  Spread around the kitchen, everyone seemed hesitant to start, until Spook got off the phone with Graham. ‘He says no stopping, and to clean up. He doesn’t want the police involved. He’d rather we handled this internally. I think he’s worried an investigation might muck up the tour schedule. Don’t bite my head off, Xane. I’m only relaying the message.’

  ‘The police won’t do anything anyway,’ Elspeth added. ‘Here, honey.’ She slid Dani a beer. ‘The chances are they’ll put it down to a jealous fan and advise us to hire more security or send you home. That might be safer, if someone following the band has it in for you.’

  Xane started making a low rumbling noise deep in his throat that sounded a little like a growl. He held onto Dani, tugged her into his lap, as if he expected someone to scoop her up that second and ship her home. ‘Not happening.’

  ‘I’m just saying what they’re likely to say,’ Elspeth huffed in her defence. ‘I wasn’t trying to part you from your beloved. Why would I? I know what that feels like. It’s hell.’ She sniffed, and Rock Giant put his arm around her shoulders.

  Aren’t you? Wasn’t that your intention when you scrawled that crap over my bunk? It was difficult not to blurt out the accusation, but Dani refused to be the one to pull apart the band.

  ‘Elspeth has a point, Xane. Dani doesn’t need to be here, and if someone is threatening her, it’d be safer to get her out of harm’s way,’ Rock Giant said.

  Whump! Xane struck the table with his fist, making everyone jump and sending beer bottles flying. ‘She’s not going anywhere. Don’t even think of suggesting it to Graham, or I’ll fucking walk too. Now listen up, you bunch of clowns, how about we stop victimising the victim over what’s happened and show some support. You can all start by telling me what the hell you did last night. One of you must have let someone on board.’

  To a man, they all shook their heads.

  ‘What? I’m supposed to believe you all bypassed the comfort of the bus and did like Iain, shagged down by the canal?’

  There were various mutters of ‘No’ and ‘Did you do that?’

  ‘I already said, I didn’t get laid last night,’ Ash muttered in his defence. ‘I slept in my bunk alone, and that goes for everyone else that slept on board too.’

  ‘Where were you and your hair-puller, then?’ Xane demanded of Rock Giant.

  ‘She only lived across the street. I went back to hers.’

  ‘So somebody magically sneaked on and off then, without being noticed?’ He clearly didn’t believe that, nor did Dani.

  She wished she could tell him her suspicion that Elspeth was behind this. But if she did and Xane believed her, that’d be it. Game over for the band.

  ‘This is fucking serious, folks. Someone is trying to stir up shit, and split us up or something.’ As if their lives weren’t screwy enough already.

  Spook curled his fingers around Xane’s shoulder. ‘It’ll be fine, as long as we stick together, and give your girlfriend some credit. She knows you’re not cheating on her.’

  ‘Except with me,’ said Ash, blowing Xane a kiss.

  Xane kicked him. So did both Rock Giant and Spook. ‘Not the time,’ hissed the latter. ‘He’s being a dick, Dani. Don’t listen to him.’

  ‘It’s all right, guys. If he wants to muck with me, I can hit back. I know his secret.’

  Ash shot a look at Xane, who lifted his shoulders as if to say: nothing to do with me.

  ‘What secret?’ muttered Elspeth. ‘Ash doesn’t have any secrets. He’s an open book.’

  ‘I’m going to hire you some personal security,’ Xane said, getting them all back on track.

  ‘I don’t –’ Dani protested. She really didn’t need someone standing over her constantly. There’d been far too much of that in her life already. ‘I’m no more at risk than anyone else, probably less so.’

  ‘Has anything else like this happened?’

  She shook her head, not trusting her voice with an outright lie. Admitting the truth was out of the question. For one, it’d only pour more fuel on an already blazing fire. She wanted neither babysitting nor the band thinking it’d be easier to pack her off home. Secondly, she didn’t want to discuss or explain the set of photographs she’d passed on to Luthor instead of showing him, or to have the second set passed about for everyone to look at. That was no doubt what the envelope she’d shoved under her pillow contained.

  ‘Xane, nothing’s going to pull us apart. We’re too good together, you and I.’

  As soon as she got an opportunity, she was going to burn those pictures. It didn’t matter what he’d done in the past. He was with her now. Nor did she believe he was cheating on her, despite what the message written on her TV screen implied. Fantasising about a dead lover didn’t count. That was part of grieving, and she knew all about that. She’d spent enough time praying for her father to come back. It was only when she’d realised he never would that she’d moved on and sought other outlets for her pain.

  Chapter 28
r />   Denmark

  ‘This is insane,’ Ash bellowed, competing with the drone of the tour-bus engine and the torrential rain. ‘Why are we doing this? Where are the fucking crew?’

  ‘The fucking crew are setting up our goddamn equipment so we can play in the middle of this lake,’ Xane yelled back. ‘Now stop whining and push.’

  They’d reached Denmark and the Roskilde Festival, where they were one of the headline acts. Unfortunately the inclement weather had turned the site into one big muddy lake, and their lovely new tour bus was stuck in the sludge halfway to where they were supposed to park up.

  Cave Troll put the bus into first again, and they watched the wheels spin, failing to find any traction. Even with five of them putting their backs into moving the bastard thing, it was no go. It probably would have helped if Cave Troll had been pushing instead of driving. He was a man mountain, and they were trying to shift something the size of a baby brontosaurus. If they’d still been in the old bus, Xane would have said, park up and be done with it. Who the hell cared if the thing got muddy? Then again, they wouldn’t have had the same problem with the old bus, because it’d been a darn sight smaller and lighter and wouldn’t have sunk in the first place.

  Ash turned and put his back against the taillights. ‘This is utter bollocks.’ He was covered in mud up to mid-thigh level and had streaks of it across his arms and face. Xane imagined he looked just as dire with his black hair plastered to his scalp and his clothes soaked. If their fans saw them now they’d desert them in droves. Rock stars were supposed to be durty, not dirty. No one looked good with rain in their eyes and mud on their nose. No one.

  He just thanked God that there wasn’t anyone with a camera around.

  ‘Maybe we should just say fuck it and leave it here,’ Ash moaned. ‘Sod the show, we’ll just chill for the night.’

  ‘We’re not here so you can get laid, emo boy.’

  ‘Yeah, but I need to get laid,’ Ash replied, putting emphasis on ‘need’. ‘It’s all right for you, with your little piece of ecstasy travelling with us. I haven’t seen any action since Paris.’