Page 106 of Ghost Note

“What bet?”

She rolled her eyes, but her amusement was obvious. “They said he couldn’t last the week without sinking his claws into you again when he came back to this place.”

“And Danny said he could?”

“He said it wouldn’t happen becauseyouwouldn’t want it to.”

I looked over to see Danny standing over his stool, slapping Archer on the back with the brightest smile on his face. Sure, I made him happy, but they did, too, in equal measure.

“When you showed up at the gig the other night, the lads cashed in their end of the bet.”

“And that was…?” I asked, turning back to her.

Saffron pressed her bottle of cider to her lips, taking a long drink before she raised it and tipped the end towards the guys. “That they could come to Danny’s hometown and shake shit up a bit. Danny always told them it was like a cove filled with zombies.” Her eyes found mine. “And these lot love nothing more than riding in and raising the dead.”

Thirty-Six

“And then Fletch throws himself off the platform—for no other reason other than he’s young, dumb, full of come—and he’s obviously expecting this big, burly guy in the front row and all his mates to catch him. But Fletch is a thick fuck, and he’s high on some shit, totally misjudging his jump… and he… and he lands straight on top of this bird.” Halo laughed as he stood over the table, holding our attention, one hand in the air waving around a glass of Jack Daniels. “She’s this skinny, petite thing, and Fletch knocks her back, and his face lands right in between her big, fake titties. It’s like a really bad scene that’s been set up fromNaked Gun,part a million.”

“It was pretty funny,” Fletch added, looking at me.

“The girl starts screaming. The big burly guy who Fletch wanted to catch him lifts him from her. Fletch goes to thank him and this guy—who paid fifty quid to see us play, I might add, and was wearing a Frogs T-shirt—smashes his fist straight into Fletch’s face before he points at him and says,‘You just had your face in my wife’s tits!”

The whole table starts laughing, while I’m staring at Fletch with wide eyes, admittedly unable to stop my smile from erupting. “Did thatreallyhappen?”

“Oh, yeah.” Fletch nodded, swallowing down his drink. “Security got involved. There was a big fight. The show had to stop. I had this bulging eye that made me see three of everything.” Fletch glanced over at Danny. “Which city were we in?”

Danny scratched the side of his head. “Moscow.”

“Moscow.” Fletch laughed. “I shit myself. Thought I was about to be rushed off to some dingy prison over there or sold to the Russian Mafia.”

“He’s watched too many bad Liam Neeson films,” Danny said to me.

“Fuck off. You can never watch too many Liam Neeson films,” Fletch argued.

By this point, Halo was doubled over laughing with tears rolling down his cheeks. “You should have seen him,” he squeaked. “All night long, he jumped every time someone walked into the trailer. ‘Let’s just get on the bus, man, and head back to the airport, for fuck’s sake. I don’t wanna die out here.’ Jules had to calm his arse down.”

“Slapped me straight across the cheek,” Fletch interjected, wafting the back of his hand over his face. “Stung like a bitch. That was the last time I ever pissed Jules off.”

“It takes a lot to get her to that point,” Archer added from where he was standing with his arm around Saffron’s shoulder. She didn’t look fazed by anything they were saying. The roll of her eyes and shake of her head told me so.

So far, I’d heard about Archer’s drum kit falling to pieces halfway through a set at a small venue and the crowd booing the band, to which Halo’s response was to whip his cock out to the crowd. The women screamed, and it wasn’t until after thirty seconds of him being on display that he remembered this wasn’t strictly an adult-only event. Jules had had her work cut out dealing with that PR nightmare.

Then there’d been the time that Theo secretly got videoed by two women who wanted to extort him for some serious cash by releasing a sex tape he hadn’t known was happening. Only halfway through the act, the rest of the guys from the band had barged into the room and disturbed Theo’s manage-a-trois, ‘blowing’ the girls’ plans to smithereens. Another PR impossibility that only Jules seemed capable of handling.

“And what about Danny?” I asked the guys with a smile on my face.

Halo sniffed back his tears of laughter, a long sigh blowing out before he glanced at Archer, who glanced at Saffron, who glanced at Fletch, who glanced at Theo, before all eyes landed on Danny sitting opposite me.

He showed no concern whatsoever, and when the silence got too intense, eventually Halo laughed, and Danny shrugged. “No flies on me,” Danny said with confidence.

“I’m pretty sure we could dig down to some shit,” Halo warned.

“Nothing… I don’t know… rock star-ish? Nothing scandalous? Nothing stupid?” I went on, very aware that I was walking on a very thin tight rope of happiness here.

Theo scoffed. “The most stupid thing he’s ever done was fuck JJ Jones.”

Danny’s face fell instantly, and he glared at Theo as though, if I hadn’t been there, he’d have jumped on him and beat him to a pulp.

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