Page 27 of The First Chord

“Lunch?” I looked at my phone, but it was dead. “I’ll need to charge it. I think my charger is in my handbag.”

“I have a couple, don’t worry. But, yeah, it’s lunchtime. Actually, it’s probably afternoon tea in some posh circles. It’s almost two-thirty.”

“What?” I scrambled out of bed, forgetting my lack of clothing. “I need to go and find a place to live and get a car and I need to speak to Amelie and Hugo and Brandon before Ji—”

“Hey, it’s fine,” Ronnie butted in. “It’s sorted. I spoke to Hugo earlier.”

“You did?”

He took a single step inside the room. “Is this okay?” I nodded. It was his house. “I hope you don’t think I over-stepped, but I didn’t want them worrying about where you were and calling the police.”

That was a logical thing to do, although… “I’m not sure Jimmy would care or even remember what happened last night.”

Ronnie cleared his throat. “He called Hugo before I did. Apparently, remembers that you were leaving but didn’t mention the fact that he hit you. Hugo is now aware of that fact, though.”

“Oh shit. What did he say?”

“That Jimmy is a fucker and he’s going to fucking fry his bollocks.” He grimaced. “And that he’s out of the band.”

My mouth dropped open in a gasp. “No.”

“Yes, so he says. I had to point out to him that he’s got a week to audition a new singer if he is. Otherwise, it’s going to cost them a shit load of money paying back sponsors.”

Burying my head in my hands, I groaned. “I didn’t want to cause any problems for the band. This isn’t their fault.”

“Hey, it’s okay.”

Ronnie’s voice was closer and when I looked up, he was standing near the bed. “How is it?” I asked. “They’re going to have to keep him when they don’t really want to.”

“I told Hugo if they want to pull out for a month until they find a new front man, then they can. Alternatively, I’ll cover Hugo and he can do vocals.”

“You’d do that for them?”

He paused and I saw his Adam’s apple bob. “I’d do it for you.”

My heart jumped in time to the beat of the butterfly wings in my stomach. “Really?”

Ronnie nodded. “Yeah. I would.” He scratched the back of his neck and looked around the room. “So, food. Are you ready for some because I’ve got sausage and bacon on the go.”

I hadn’t eaten since early evening the night before, so despite all the drama I was feeling hungry. “Can you give me five minutes to get dressed?”

“Yep, God, yes, sorry. Of course. The kitchen is down the stairs and head towards the back of the house.”

From what I’d seen the night before, Ronnie’s house was open plan with a back wall made of glass and the kitchen overlooking the garden. It had been just coming light when we got here, so I hadn’t seen much, but enough to know it was a huge garden with a pool.

“Will do. I won’t be long.”

Ronnie smiled before leaving the room, and I sighed with relief because I’d been close to dragging him into my arms, and I wasn’t sure it was to thank him.

* * *

“Here goes,” I said, plugging the charger into my phone. “Let’s see if he’s left me any messages.”

Ronnie and I had decided it was time to check in on Jimmy. We agreed we needed to have something to eat first, mainly because we didn’t want to spoil what looked like some really good sausages.

Ronnie reached for my hand. “Just remember that he can’t touch you. He won’t ever hurt you again. I swear.”

I nodded and switched on the phone. There were five text messages, one from each of Hugo and Brandon. Two were from Amelie. The last one surprisingly from Chris, evidently he found it much easier to converse via text than in person because it was at least six lines long. All of them wanted to know how I was and whether I needed their help. Chris even offered a room in the house he and Jerry shared which had me choking on my coffee.

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