Page 143 of Rock Giant

She hadn’t torn that ring from her finger because she was ready to ride off into the sunset with another man.She’d done it because she deserved better than binding herself to a shitty excuse for one.A man who didn’t love her and never would, and who thought far too fucking much of himself.Christ!She’d spent her teenage years being lorded over by an arsehole of a father and two chips off the ol’ block.How had she been so blind as to believe her future security was dependent on another copy from the same mould?

“So, we’re over, are we?Fine.Well, if we’re over, you can just fuck off then, can’t you.”

She’d reached the edge of the parking area, where the tarmac gave way to the grass of a children’s play area.Ahead of her, Flugwhump paused beneath the toddler swing, his form a solid black silhouette against the nighttime shadows.

“You can fuck off and go back to being the pointless thieving waste of air you were when we met.Bet you thought I didn’t know that, you sad bitch.Juan-Luis was right about you; you are aputa ladrona británica.Rock Giant know that about you, does he?”

Happened that he knew a heck of a lot more about her than Nash, but that’s because he saw people, and didn’t only look at them in terms of what he could get out of the relationship.Not that it mattered.She wasn’t doing this so she could be with him.

Out of breath, Jodi sagged against the metal A-frame of the swing.A moment later her little bestie was rubbing up against her calves.This time when she reached for him, he let her pick him up without making a fuss and nuzzled his soft furry face against her cheek.His little pink tongue lapped at the tears coursing down her face.“It’s okay,” she said.“It’s okay.It’ll be okay.”The guys would still be there for her, even if her and Nash were done.Lee had said as much.No matter what happened with the band, they’d stay friends.They’d work something out.This wasn’t a parting of ways between all of them, only between her and Nash.

She could live without him dictating the terms.

The shock of it was starting to sink in.She’d finally told him.“I told him,” she said to the cat.“I told him.You gave me the strength.I couldn’t stay with him after he did that to you.”She’d been planning to tell him it was over, but, “That was the final straw.”

Across the lot, the bus’s engine made a sputtering start.Ray had evidently returned and was eager to get going again.

Her foot had only just hit the tarmac when the bus began moving.

Jeezus, what?“No!”

In her surprise, she squeezed Flugwhump too hard, making him yowl and squirm out of her arms.He landed lightly on his feet, while her bare foot came down hard on a spiked stone.The automatic wince and withdraw routine left her off balance.Her other ankle gave, and she went sprawling to earth, scraping open her palms in the process and jarring both her shoulder and knees.

For a crawling span of seconds, she lay wounded and winded, tears clouding her vision, but even through that veil she could see the bus’s taillights moving towards the slip road.They winked out completely as the road curved to join the main carriageway.

Did Ray realise he’d left her behind?He probably didn’t.Maybe he didn’t even realise that she’d left the bus.What had Nash done, given him a nod, and offered no explanation to her whereabouts?The roadie would assume fight done, she’d retreated back to the bunkroom.The bunkroom she ought never to have left.

Slowly, she peeled herself off the ground and looked around.She was alone in the dark.Her and a cat.Barefoot, wearing her sleeping shorts and a tatty vest top.No phone, no money, no passport.No clue where she was, let alone how far away the nearest town or village lay.She wasn’t even certain what time of night it was.

And now that she was no longer running, her skin registered the nip of the wind.

Oh, God.Oh, shit!

White noise futzed up her hearing and tunnelled her vision.

She’d screwed up again.Dramatically.

CHAPTER 43

Paul “Rock Giant” Reed

Paul had fallen asleep with his head on Alle’s lap, while she massaged his stiff shoulder.He had numerous welt-like bruises across his body, but none of it pained him more than the realisation that Jodi had left with the Ghost Boys, and without even stopping to see if he was all right.

He woke to his phone’s choral wail, and grumbled when having silenced it, the damn thing burst into a second rendition immediately.Who the hell was calling him at 5am, and why?

Unknown number.

Yeah, they could fuck right off.

It hurt to roll over.Someone had inserted at least a dozen iron spikes into his shoulder and his neck felt as if he’d spent the night as a blood donor to Lestat de Lioncourt.He managed to press out a couple of painkillers someone had helpfully left on the pillow of the bed at the back of the tour bus, and grimaced as he was assaulted by a third wail.He really needed to change his ringtone.

“There’d better be a bloody good reason you’re calling me,” he grouched at the caller without bothering to look to see who it was.

“Is Jodi with you?”

Lee.

“Please don’t hang up.I know you have no reason to speak to us—” He wasn’t pissed off at the rest of them, only their vocalist.All the rest of the band had done was try to stop him.“—I just want to know if she’s there.You don’t need to put her on.I’m just worried.”