Chapter 27 #2
She shuts me up by yanking me around and bringing me to her level for a deep kiss. My mind goes blank. All I can focus on is the taste of coffee on her lips, the wash of her perfume over me, the zap of electricity across my skin. She’s fucking perfect.
Her tongue tries to slip past my lips, but I pull away. I might not be on shift yet, but she’s at work. Promises. We must remember them.
‘Tonight. You stay. My flat. Yeah?’
She must be fluent in horny Rhys because she breathes out, ‘Yeah,’ then adds, ‘We already agreed that earlier.’
‘Fucking brilliant.’
I unwrap myself from her, although it’s the hardest thing in the fucking world.
‘Gethin’s waiting for you,’ she tells me. ‘Don’t be late.’
The kissing might have started it, but my cock goes rock solid in my boxers at her bossing me around.
Her gaze flits to my jeans, and her smirk would be enough to have me dropping to the floor. It speaks a lot to my self-control that I stay upright. Gethin’s stupid unsexy moustache. Gethin’s stupid unsexy moustache.
She continues, oblivious to the turmoil I’m in. ‘I’ll let you know when I get to the arena, yeah? Tell you where I am for you to come find me.’
‘Like it’ll be hard. If Cai’s busy, you gravitate towards Gethin like a magnet. Green room or control centre. That’s where I’ll find you. Can’t wait to see you later. I love you, Luce.’
‘Love you too, Rhys.’
I push forward, raising a hand to wave goodbye, then go and find Gethin.
Can’t fucking wait for tonight.
The atmosphere at the stadium’s electric.
There’s an hour before the doors open, but fans already pile onto the concourse outside, stocking up on drinks, eating dodgy hotdogs and buying over-priced merch.
The noise they create buzzes through every open window, soaks through the walls.
Everyone’s got a smile on their face, adding to my already fan-fucking-tastic mood.
None of it makes me slack at my job. I assess anyone who passes me, scrutinising them even if they’re wearing a crew ID. If I don’t recognise their face, they get an interrogation. Nothing’s gonna slip through my fingers today.
I round the corner into the backstage area, which matches the rest of the arena with its activity and tone.
Stagehands dart left to right, some guy in the corner lays a thick length of cable around the bottom of the scaffolding, and the edges of the stage glow, stop, then glow again with the testing of the rigs.
Colin twists a peg of Cai’s acoustic guitar, tuning it.
‘All right, Col? How’s it going? Did you do another search?’
‘Yeah. We unpacked everything this morning, including the crate of spares, but no sign of the Gibson.’ Not that we expected to find it.
We must have emptied and refilled those boxes a hundred times over the past couple of days.
‘One of the maintenance guys added an extra lock to the kit boxes, and only I have the keys.’
‘Won’t the maintenance guy have a master?’
‘Nope. Went out and bought the locks myself this morning.’
‘Good shout.’ I clamp a hand over his shoulder. ‘Get the receipts to Lucy and she’ll get finance to reimburse you. Can you get me a copy of the keys?’
‘Yeah. I’ll do one for Gethin, too. Will go first thing tomorrow.’
‘Cheers, mate. Go and grab your break. I can keep an eye on the kit.’ I settle into a seat next to the crates. Had my break a while ago, but it won’t hurt for me to sit for five and keep an eye on things here.
He heads off, and I dig my phone out of my pocket.
I scroll through the news for a bit, enjoying a moment of peace, but then I catch the time.
It’s getting late, and Luce hasn’t texted me or anything.
Not that her lack of a message surprises me.
She probably checked in hours ago and stowed herself away somewhere.
Her brilliant mind gets wrapped up in work, and her waiting boyfriend doesn’t get a look in.
I know where I stand in her hierarchy of important things.
My fingers gravitate to my walkie-talkie. I’d like to hear her voice, and I have a reason to get hold of her now. If it’s about work, it won’t sound like I’m worried or being possessive or clingy.
I press the talk button. ‘Lucy? Are you there? Sending you a heads up that Colin needs a refund on some padlocks he bought. Might be on his way to find you.’
Silence follows. My brain drifts to what I could order when we get home. I fancy Thai food, and she loves a green curry. Might stick a quick food shop on it too, even though I’ll pay through the nose. Grab the essentials until we’ve got time to make it to a supermarket.
‘I was about to call you, Rhys.’ It’s Gethin’s voice interrupting my daydreams, not hers. ‘Lucy and Bethan haven’t made it to the venue yet. I take it you don’t know where they are?’
‘They went into the city earlier for some shopping. They should be here by now.’
‘Lucy’s walkie is waiting for her on the side and Cai hasn’t seen Bethan yet.’
I push aside the wrong conclusions my brain wants to leap to and take a deep breath. It’s nothing. They got distracted or stopped for food.
Another voice pipes in over the airwaves, telling us it’s mental outside the stadium and that they’re probably caught in the crowds. It doesn’t settle me. Lucy’s dependable. She’d never be late to work, and she would have called if something got in the way.
So where is she?
The question sits in my mouth, bitter. It’ll show weakness if I have a full-blown panic down the network, and it’s the last thing Cai and Gethin need from the head of security. I can solve this; it’s my job.
I call her phone. Doesn’t ring.
Shit.
My brain works overtime, pulling apart today’s schedule to find a pinch point while also building a list of the ways I can find them. The device management system’s my next shout. I can use it to ping their phones and it’ll give me an idea of where they’re stuck.
‘Alina,’ I say back into the walkie, ‘Can you come swap with me? I’m backstage with the guitars.’
While I wait for her, I scribble a quick note to Colin to apologise for abandoning my post and stick it to the nearest case. Then I turn my attention to the device management system, sending the ping out to the phones.
Nothing comes back.
Alina switches with me, and I hurry towards the green room.
My fingers fumble over my phone. They could be in a signal deadzone.
It takes me three attempts to get Lucy’s number back up on my screen – delayed by heavy, lumbering fingers jostled by my speedy pace – but I eventually lift the phone to my ear.
Only to get her voicemail. Fuck.
I slow to a stop so I can keep my voice even. The last thing I want to do is panic her.
‘Hiya, Luce.’ I brace one arm against the wall.
‘Thought I’d give you a call because I miss you.
We’re starting pre-checks soon, and I don’t know your part of the job well enough to cover for you.
I never paid enough attention. Call me, and I can send someone to come and get you.
Doesn’t matter where you are. Rwy’n dy garu di. I love you.’
The phone beeps, signalling the end of the message and I hang up.
Next, I try Beth, but I get the same response: nothing.
I leave a less soppy message with my sister then start looking for more clues.
It takes all of a minute to find the driver’s credentials in my emails.
At the bottom of Luce’s email is his phone number.
A quick copy and paste, then I press the green button to dial him.
Absolute bugger all.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I let myself into the green room. Cai and Gethin look up but as soon as he realises I’m not Bethan, Cai flops into a lounging position on the sofa, looking glum.
A few of the crew linger, and I send them to pre-check positions.
The show must go on. We can’t afford for everyone to get wound up, especially for no reason.
Cai’s had a great run this tour; we don’t want to ruin it at the last hurdle.
‘Where are the girls?’
I don’t have an answer for him. No story to tell, not yet, and like the crew, Cai needs keeping calm. I shrug.
‘They got lost in John Lewis or something.’ I shove the biggest smile on my face, and in the most casual voice, I can muster, I add, ‘Don’t suppose you’ve heard from either of them this afternoon?’
‘No and Gethin asked me that too. Beth did say about needing to go to IKEA, and you know what traffic gets like. They’ve gotta be stuck somewhere. I’ll drop her a text.’
‘Thanks.’
IKEA. Beth better have bought a fucking bathroom and got stuck getting it home or I’ll kill her. Getting across the city this time is a nightmare during the normal commute. It’s ten times worse on concert and game days.
It’s a perfect storm – what with the piss-poor signal here.
For a city, the cell infrastructure’s fucking shit, especially when there’s more people crammed onto the streets.
But it’s okay. Any minute now, they’ll burst through the doors, a BL?HAJ in their arms. Luce’ll be keen to get caught up with her jobs.
She’s gonna be fucking annoyed she’s late, and I can’t wait to tease her about it.
‘I’ll go brief my team,’ I continue. ‘I’m sure the girls will be here soon.’
A glance at Gethin confirms I’ve done the right thing. No point in stressing Cai if he has a show, and the pop star looks placated for now, his thumbs pattering across the screen. I wish I was allowed to be less panicked.
When Cai first employed me, I went too deep into the things that could go wrong in the industry.
In the ten years I’ve worked here, I’ve seen the worst of people.
Especially the more extreme of his fans.
Parasocial relationships are dangerous as fuck.
His groupies are supposed to love him, but they’ll do whatever they can to get hold of him, have him for themselves.
It’s scary, and I’m always gonna jump to the worst conclusions now.
But the girls are fine. They’ll be here soon.