Page 140 of Rock Giant

“Murphy!”

“Was?”

“Was.”He pulled her into a tight hug.“You’re still cute, Jo-Jo, but I’m not looking for a relationship now, and even if I was, there’s already a man out there with his heart set on you.”

“Nash.”

“No, dumbo.Rock Giant.”

When she gulped, he patted her on the back.

“He said he loves me,” she whispered into his shoulder.

Lee teased her away from his body, so they were looking one another in the eyes again.“If you mean Rock Giant, I don’t think he says much he doesn’t mean.If you mean Nash, I hate to say it, but I think he’s talking crap.If he loved you, he wouldn’t have stood you up, he wouldn’t spend his time watching Balin screw, and he’d be ready to put you ahead of his own interests instead of using you as a convenient scapegoat for his own shortcomings.”

A cry wriggled its way free of her throat.Lee pulled her fast against him, entwining her in a more aggressive hug.

“Lee, I’m frightened you’re right.”

“Nah.You’re frightened because you know I’m right.”

“Murphy, so help me God, if you don’t—” Samson wrenched the door open.He stared at the pair of them entwined, then made a thumbing motion indicating Lee needed to move up front.“You stay here,” he barked at her.“I don’t want to hear a peep from you.Got it?”

“Yeah,” she squeaked, cowering away from his rage.

Lee caught hold of the doorframe with both hands as Samson attempted to shove him over the threshold.He looked back at her.“I’m sorry I put the band ahead of our friendship.I should have said all this before.”

CHAPTER 42

Jodi Castle

Jodi woke with a raging thirst and her mind cobwebby.She’d dreamed she’d been driving a succession of cars through labyrinthine lanes that kept getting narrower until she was certain she was going to wind up embedded in the hedgerows.

The vibrations through the bunk told her they were in transit.Presumably, on the road south towards the port and back to Britain to whatever fate the Ghost Boys awaited.She’d heard bits of the conversation between her boys, Samson, and Brian, but not enough to know the outcome.When three of the four had trudged into the bunk room long after midnight, grim-faced and tight-lipped, she’d asked, “What happened?”but Balin, Jez and Lee, had all crawled straight into their bunks without answering.Nash hadn’t appeared.Whether that was because he’d been arrested, disciplined, or simply sent to Coventry by the rest of them was unclear.

Flugwhump, who’d been settled by her shoulder, jumped down from the bunk and started scratching at the door to the lounge area.“It’s too early,” she told him.The square of sky visible through the skylight confirmed it was still hours before dawn.Her girls, Mel and Zar, were cosied up with Balin, one on his legs, the other tucked against his side.Lee’s curtains were drawn across his bunk, but a yard of blond hair spilled from beneath them, proving he was in there.The bunks belonging to the crew had their curtains drawn too.

“Meow,” her little bestie complained, followed by the scritch-scratch of his claws against the door.

“What is it?Do you need to pee?”

So did she, but she didn’t want to move, and more likely Flugwhump just wanted to sit on the back of the banquette and watch the world roll by from the window.Jez’s eyes glittered in the dark from up near the ceiling, but when she returned his gaze, he rolled out of sight.

“Mee-ow!”

“Okay, I’m moving.”

Flugwhump trotted through the door the moment she cracked it open.She could see straight through to the front windscreen.They were on a narrow grey road, sandwiched between pine forest and rolling snow-topped mountains.There was no other traffic, and no illumination besides the headlights.

Nash lay asleep on the left-hand side of the leather banquette, still dressed in last night’s clothes including his boots, a leather jacket pulled over his shoulders, and his head on a pile of merch shirts.

He stirred while she was unlacing his boots.

“Jo?”he enquired, cracking one shadowy eyelid.

“Thought you’d be more comfortable.”She kept on with the task and pulled his foot free of the boot, avoiding making eye-contact.“The bunk’s free if you’d rather…”

“Aren’t you going back there?”