Bad Boy vs Millionaire

by Candy J. Starr

  Hipster Chaz greeted us with a huge bottle of champagne in his arms. One of those novelty oversized bottles like they have for the winners at a sporting event. I bet it tasted like shit. I'd much rather have a beer. I mean, who amongst the four of us did he think he was impressing with that? Oh yeah, maybe Spud.

  “Come through,” he said.

  I got out my camera and started taking photos.

  “I'm taking promo shots,” I said. “For the website.”

  “Ah, usually we do our own in-house promotion but I'm not sure what the boss wanted with you guys. Anyway, take a seat and I'll work out the paperwork.”

  He ran off again. That guy must burn a zillion calories in a workday with all the running around he did. It'd be a killer if he actually organised himself.

  Then it struck me. He talked about the boss but we'd never actually met him. Even when Eric and I had checked out their website, all the management details were a bit vague.

  When Hipster Chaz came back, he gave each of the guys a copy of the contract.

  “Wait,” I said. “Before the guys sign, I'd like to know a bit more about the boss. Who is he and why does he want to sign Storm?”

  Jack had the pen in his hand, ready to sign. He paused.

  “The boss, he's a pretty cool guy. I thought you'd met him. He's only just taken over, bought out the whole company for an insane amount of money, then the first thing he did was insist we get you guys on the roster, like it was the most important thing in the world. I figured he must have seen you play and been blown away.”

  He scratched his head again.

  “That's strange indeed.”

  I caught Eric's eye. He seemed to be thinking the same thing as me.

  “So, is the owner a Japanese guy? Called Tamaki?”

  “Ha, you do know him then. I thought so. He was very insistent about this whole thing. I have to call him as soon as you sign up, so we should move things along.”

  His breezy persona totally slipped and he stared at the pen in Jack's hand as though he wanted to move it through the sheer force of his own will.

  Jack sat the pen on the table.

  “What's going on?” He turned to Eric.

  “We're not signing,” I said.

  “Huh? Stop being crazy,” said Spud.

  He picked up the pen while Jack looked at us with a puzzled face. Jack looked as if he knew something was wrong but just couldn’t figure it out. I was already about 10 steps ahead of him.

  “I'm not sure what's going on here but it looks like this is just a ploy to get you away from Hannah. It's as shady as fuck. It’s as shady as a bucket of fucks at a shady fuck convention.”

  “Calm down, man,” said Chaz. “It's all sweet.”

  “We're prawns aren't we? Prawns in your stupid game.” Spud thumped the table.

  “Pawns.” Sheesh, Spud could be dumb sometimes. But at least he’d gotten the main point. My heart raced. I’d worked out the “what” but I couldn’t work out the “why”. I felt like there should be someone with a mask we could rip off who’d fill in all the details like in a Scooby Doo cartoon. But there was only Hipster Chaz and I didn’t think his face would rip off. I could always try though.

  “Whatever,” said Jack. “It's all fishy. He owns the company. He has no interest in our band. He just wants her. I thought he could give her everything I couldn't but he's as bad as her father. That woman is so fucking complicated.”

  “We've got to tell her. We've got to get to the bottom of this.” Eric looked at the others for support. “We can’t sign this contract until we know what’s going on. I mean, it’s only two days until the tour starts and we don’t want to get bogged down in some mess.

  “Hell yeah.” Jack jumped up. “I stepped aside so she could be with him for what…”

  What the hell? So, all that maddeningly stupid behaviour of his had been on purpose? Not only on purpose but with noble and self-sacrificing intentions? All of a sudden, I was fully on Team Jack.

  “Shit, Jack, we have to get to Hannah. We have to stop her before she gets on that plane. Before she disappears from us forever. Who knows what will happen if she’s in their clutches. They are going to do bad things to her. Come on guys, we need to go on Operation: Rescue Hannah.”

  I jumped up and grabbed Jack by the arm. Even if it meant I’d miss out on my trip to Tokyo, it didn’t matter. So long as Hannah could be saved.

  “This is a joke, right. There's a camera somewhere and I'm being punked?” Chaz looked around us. “You people are smoking the crack pipe, right. With your conspiracy theories and the like, and I'm the butt of the joke.”

  “Yeah, you're the butt,” I said. “But this is serious.”

  “Angie, it's not life and death. Hannah's not flying out until later tonight and I doubt Tamaki is actually going to sell her to the white slave trade or anything. She will probably be safe until you get to Tokyo.”

  Eric tried to be the voice of reason but I had chills. I really didn't want her to get on that plane. Anyway, what was the point? If she found out about the plot, she'd totally dump Tamaki so there'd be no need for an engagement party.

  “We have to tell her, Eric. She has to know what she's getting into.”

  Chaz drummed his fingers on the table.

  “Hey, people, we are here to sign a contract, remember?”

  The hipster was definitely getting worried now. He had a sweat moustache showing through his beard. It made me wonder if he was getting some kind of reward for having us sign up.

  “What do you think, Jack?” Eric asked.

  “I want to find that bastard and get some answers.”

  I held my breath. That was like, wow. He really loved her. You just had to see the look of steely determination on his face. No one was going to keep him from her.

  Jack ripped the contract up into pieces.

  “Let's go,” he said. He put his jacket on and stood up.

  Spud sighed.

  “I knew. The moment I saw her, I knew it. She's trouble. We shoulda walked away from her then.”

  Eric and I followed Jack from the room while Spud lingered in the doorway.

  “Come on, Spud. You just have to deal,” I said, putting my arm around his shoulders to guide him out. He looked broken.

  “Just a minute,” he said.

  He ran back into the room and came out with the oversized champagne bottle.

  “If I'm losing out on everything else, I'm at least taking this.”

  He cradled it in his arms like a baby.

  ***

  Damn Hannah. She wasn't at her apartment when we got there and she wasn't answering her phone. I could actually hear her phone ringing from inside the apartment while I was ringing the doorbell. I hoped she was just asleep and would answer soon but I could hear nothing but that phone. No footsteps, nothing.

  “Wow, this is a fancy place,” Spud said. “Why doesn't she have one of those security entrances where you buzz from downstairs?”

  “She does, it doesn't work,” Jack and I both said at the same time.

  I didn't even know why Spud was still with us. It wasn't as if he had any interest in stopping Hannah from leaving and he was still carrying around that champagne bottle like it was his security blanket.

  I gave up and tried Tamaki's door but that was no use either.

  “Where could she be? Do you have Tamaki's phone number?” Eric asked.

  I shook my head. I’d had no need of his number before. They could be anywhere in the city.

  “I could shimmy up to the balcony and try to get in,” said Spud.

  As much as I'd have liked to see that, I didn't think it'd do much good.

  “The cafe?” Jack said, and I thought that was a good idea. If Hannah wasn't at her apartment, she was usually at the cafe. Or out with Tamaki and that could be anywhere. But even then, she'd take her phone with her. Unless they'd kidnapped her. They'd knocked her out and were going to take her on that plane against her will. That cou
ld be it. We definitely had to find her.

  We all piled back into Jack's car and headed for the cafe but it didn't help. Well, it helped in the way that we got coffee.

  I was really getting worried about Hannah. Tamaki had proven he couldn’t be trusted. I mean, maybe, just maybe, he had a good and ethically sound reason for buying the management company and offering Storm that contract but I couldn’t imagine what it was. If he was honest, he’d have told us right from the start.

  Still, if I was worried, Jack looked as if he was about to implode. He walked with his fist clenched and his face hardened. From the look in his eyes, if anyone could find Hannah, it’d be him.

  Chapter 34. Hannah

  I could've screamed, really I could. I’d sat through dinner with Tamaki trying to play nice while he talked but I just felt really cold. Something was not right. He’d called my dad to tell him about Angie. It was the one thing I wanted about the whole wedding and he didn’t want me to have that. Designer dresses, fancy cars, jewelry ― he’d give me all that but he couldn’t see I needed my friend.

  He wouldn’t even discuss it with me. He couldn’t see why it was wrong to bring that up with Dad.

  “I’m doing this to protect you,” was all he’d said.

  Protect me? Like I needed protection from Angie. It seemed as though he wanted to transplant me into a new life, with no connection at all to my old one. I’d thought life with Tamaki would mean security, but I was starting to think it might be a little too secure, like being in a high security prison. And I’d end up a prison bitch – a well-dressed one but still a prison bitch.

  I reached up and rubbed the guitar pick I’d hung around my neck. I’d found it on my dresser when I’d been packing and had slipped it on. I ran my finger around the edge and it gave me a sense of reassurance.

  Then I figured I'd slip out to the bathroom and give Angie a call. I needed to talk to her about it even if I wasn’t sure what to tell her.

  “Where are you going?” Tamaki asked.

  “To the bathroom,” I replied wondering why he'd even asked. Where else would I be going? He was doing nothing to alleviate my fears about him being overprotective.

  In the cubicle, I reached into my bag to get my phone out. It wasn't in its usual place. I walked out and sat my bag on the bench next to the sink and sorted through everything then I remembered hurling it onto the floor when Dad had called. What had I done after that? I’d gone to the coffee shop until Tamaki came home and we’d gone out to dinner.

  Damnation.

  I walked back to the table.

  “I've left my phone at the apartment. We'll need to swing by and get it before we leave.”

  Tamaki looked up at me with a strange expression on his face.

  “We won't have time. We have to go straight to the airport.”

  I leaned on the back of my chair.

  “We'd have time if you hurried up. Come on. A fast dinner is a good dinner.” Sometimes good manners are overrated.

  He shook his head at me.

  “Well, I can run down and get a taxi and meet you back here. It won't take long.”

  That seemed like perfectly good sense to me.

  “Sit down, Hannah.” His voice was thin and the words dragged out like I was a child in trouble. “What if you get delayed? We'll end up missing the plane. It's not a good idea.”

  “I need my phone.”

  “You can get a new one when we arrive,” said Tamaki. “Yours was getting a bit old anyway. Wouldn't you rather have the latest model?”

  He tried that grin on me but it didn’t work so well this time. It seemed too flashy. Not dazzling and sun-filled at all but overly bright. Maybe people aren’t meant to have smiles that are 100%, maybe they are meant to be tarnished with other things. His smile sparkled like a diamond but was really just cheap glass.

  “I have all my stuff on my phone though. It's super important to me.”

  Tamaki could talk. He'd been checking his phone about every 30 seconds during dinner. Doing it discretely, in that way you put your phone on the side of the table like you don't care but your eyeballs move in that direction just in case there is a message.

  “Don't you save your details to the cloud, isn't that what people do nowadays?”

  “I guess so but I need my phone.”

  “Hannah.” He said it in that tone, like it was the last we'd hear on the subject. What? Was I five years old? Was I being unreasonable? I didn't think it was being unreasonable to want to have my phone with me. Already my fingers twitched to touch its smooth surface and my arm jerked to reach for it in my bag.

  I sank back down in my chair, pouting.

  Tamaki patted my leg.

  “You wouldn't be able to use it on the plane anyway. And they’ll give you an IPad to use.”

  That didn't make me feel better. What if I wanted to listen to my music or play my games? What if someone was trying to call me? What if someone… then it hit me full force, like a huge great bulldozer smashing into me.

  I knew who I wanted to call me. I knew why the phone was such a big deal. All along I'd be waiting for Jack Colt to ride in like a conquering hero and stop me from getting on that plane. I thought he'd sweep me up and tell me I was his and no one else could have me and all kinds of caveman stuff like that.

  But that didn't happen in real life. I mean, it didn’t make any sense. I’d made my decision when I got engaged to Tamaki. Why would Jack even question that decision?

  I plastered a smile on my face and tried to make pleasant conversation while I forgot about Jack. I wouldn't show how much it hurt. I could be stronger than anyone.

  Chapter 35. Angie

  “We have to get to the airport. We aren't going to find her before she gets there. What time is her flight?”

  Eric sat in the front seat but his body twisted almost fully around to face me. I’d got all the bad luck and had to sit in the back with Spud.

  “I think she said 11. Well, around 11 anyway. Let's go.”

  “They aren't going to get there early and go to one of those swanky lounges and sit around drinking free cocktails for hours, are they? Because if I was rich, I'd sure as hell be doing that.”

  Eric and I looked at each other. We hadn't thought of that. And how come Spud was the one talking sense?

  “We have to go NOW,” I yelled. “We have to get there in time.”

  “Okay,” said Jack. “But you'll all have to chip in for petrol.”

  “Huh?” said Spud. “You’re the one that loves her. Why should we pay?”

  “Because cars can't run on love and I have no money. And I sure as fuck don't want to run out of petrol halfway to the airport. Now, you can chip in or you and your giant bottle of champagne can get out and walk.”

  Wow, I’d never heard Jack talk to Spud like that before. Spud looked all sulky too.

  “Okay, I'll pay. But this is only for the sake of my awesome bottle of champagne and not because I care in any way about her and your stinking love.”

  What a romantic. Jack shot him a dirty look in the rear vision mirror.

  “Faster, Jack, faster,” I urged.

  “We have plenty of time,” said Eric, “And we don't want to have an accident.”

  True words but, to be honest, I dreaded something going wrong. My fingers gripped the back of Jack's seat, hoping that would help get us there faster.

  “We have no proof anyway,” said Spud. “It's only going to be our word against his. She might just ignore us.”

  “She'll believe us. I mean, I'm her best friend. Why wouldn't she believe me?”

  Spud shrugged. “She's a weirdo.”

  I punched him on the leg.

  “There's no need for that.”

  There probably wasn’t any need but it did make me feel better.

  Jack swung his car into a petrol station and the three of us fumbled through our wallets trying to rack up some cash.

  “Come on, Spud, you can chip in more than,” I sa
id when he handed over a fist full of coins. “Don’t you have any notes?”

  He just shrugged. What a cheapskate. If Hannah ended up on that plane and involved with all kinds of dodgy shenanigans, it would be his fault.

  I passed the money to Jack. We had $9.65 between us.

  “Get us something nice with the change,” I said. “Chocolate is good.”

  He rolled his eyes and jumped out of the car. I figured it’d be the best time to try to get the seriousness of the situation through Spud’s thick head.

  “Seriously, Spud. Stop saying all that negative stuff. Jack’s as nervous as hell. You aren't helping.”

  “Well, maybe he should be prepared for rejection. What's the point of getting his hopes up? If she rejects him, he'll go back to being a jerk again. He'll mope around and not be able to rehearse and then he'll get drunk and fight me. That's the way it goes. It's okay for you, Eric. He never hits you.”

  “Maybe because I don't provoke him.”

  Spud looked out the window. Jack had finished pumping the fuel and had headed in to pay. I looked at the display on the bowser. He’d hit it at $9.60. Impressive.

  “It was better when it was just the three of us. We don't need chicks.” Spud muttered into the side of car, his body curled up in sulking position hugging his champagne bottle.

  “Spud, tell me, are you gay? This is a man-crush thing, isn't it? You can tell us.”

  “Screw you,” he said, turning right around with his back to me. “Anyway, why aren’t they flying on a private plane like rich people do? Do they even leave from the same airport?”

  Fuck. I hadn’t thought of that. The potential for everything to go horribly wrong just kept getting higher. Jack jumped back into the car.

  “He can follow her to Japan if that happens. Right, Jack? You could go and rescue her.”

  “Except he doesn’t even have petrol money and have you forgotten we have the motherfucking tour in a couple of days? If you walk out on us for her again, Jack, I will kill you.”