Encore (The Black Eagles Series Book 2) (2 page)

Dale had mocked and called him a lightweight as Luke said his goodbyes. He’d felt torn by wanting to stay out but also worried about Melissa being on her own. He’d checked his watch, 1.28am, and knew his car would be waiting. He left, and as he passed a private door a security guy stopped him and advised him to take the private exit. The stairs led him to a small underground car park. It was empty other than what he thought was his car. Once he had climbed into the back, and the occupants of the car had revealed themselves, it was too late for him. Amber was at the wheel and Jay-Den was sitting in the back. Before Luke had any time to react, Jay-Den grabbed his head and smashed it into the car window, knocking him out. The mystery was solved: the car park was so private that unless you had lots of money, like Jay-Den, nobody knew it existed. The manager on that night had no idea it had even been used, the deal being done by the security guy who was keen on making a bit of money on the sly. Not surprisingly, no CCTV was used in that area, but luckily for Luke enough evidence was stacked against Jay-Den that it didn’t matter. “Burn” had been playing in the car when he had got into it, Amber singing along, smiling as she turned and locked the doors. It was a memory he couldn’t get rid of, and he now hated the song.

              Waking up the first time in that school had terrified him. At first he’d been alone, his hands and feet tied together, the ties cutting into him. It was dark apart from the dim glow from a candle in the corner. The drugs in his system blurred his vision and his mind; the confusion was the worst part. His phone was thrown in one corner too far away for him to reach. Every movement caused him pain as the plastic ties that felt like razor blades were so tight. He had felt his hands going numb through lack of blood. That was another thing that had taken time, as his hand movements had been temporarily damaged. He could use them but it had been painful. Thankfully, nothing lasting and he was playing again just a few weeks later. He too had lasting scars but his could be covered up, unlike Melissa’s.

              Then as his vision focused he’d seen her. Amber had been sitting rocking back and forth, the excitement on her face. His heart had sunk and he could have quite easily died at that moment.               He hadn’t enjoyed reliving those dark, lonely and painful five days. Now he could forget them forever, hopefully.

*****

Luke sat in his car outside their apartment wanting to take it in, silently, just for a few minutes. He switched off the radio. The news report had started and the first words were ‘Luke Black and Melissa’. He didn’t want to listen to strangers discussing them. He checked his phone – emails, messages, notifications from all his social media accounts were building up. He watched as his Twitter feed continued to build. It jumped from 600 to 5000 in seconds and made him sigh with frustration. He knew he should look, interact a little, but he didn’t know what to say or feel ready to ignore the idiots with their opinions. He decided today wasn’t the day to start all that up again. He jumped as the door opened on the passenger side jolting him from his thoughts as his dad got in beside him.

              Stuart Black looked proudly at his son but with a hint of concern showing on his face. ‘Son. You coming in or what?’ Stuart had seen him from the balcony and knew his son would be worrying still, letting things get to him.

              ‘Yeah. Just give me a minute.’

              Stuart shifted in his seat and patted Luke on the shoulder. ‘It’s over. I’ve always been proud of you. Today I’m choked to see the man you’ve become.’

              ‘Stop, Dad. Please,’ Luke said shaking his head.

              ‘No, I won’t. I’m proud of what you’ve achieved and how you’ve handled all this bad stuff. Now get upstairs. Melissa’s getting worried.’

              Luke put his head in his hands. ‘How can I trust anyone again?’ he asked angrily. ‘I’m still so angry. I’m glad he’s going to prison but I just want to wrap my hands round his throat.’

              Stuart stopped his son by giving him a stern look before saying, ‘Shut up. Now.’ ‘You will trust again. It might take some time but you will. Don’t dwell on the past. Move forward. You can’t let this continue to break you. You’re my son who I know will come back from this. Get your fire back. Show the world that Luke Black doesn’t give up. You’ve never given up. Please don’t start now. I know you feel like you let Liss down, but you didn’t.’

              Luke smiled at his dad – nothing like an honest chat with him. ‘What do I do now? The boys are all waiting on me and I’m not ready.’

              Stuart thought for a moment and scratched his head. ‘Take your time. They’ll understand. Band stuff can wait until you feel the time’s right. Tonight is about you and Melissa finally moving on. Move it. Sitting in cars on your own isn’t moving on.’

              Luke finally listened and made his way up to his apartment. When he opened the door the loud bang of party poppers made him flinch. The room was filled with all their friends and families. No wonder his dad was so keen on him getting home. Stuart grinned at him as he joined Luke’s mum in hugging him, their proudness clear in their actions.

              ‘You fucking did it,’ Dale shouted as he launched himself at Luke, releasing him from his mum’s vice-like embrace. They tumbled to the floor, fake wrestling. Everyone laughed and bottles of champagne were opened and quickly drunk. A party wasn’t what Luke had been planning on doing that night, but in some way it helped to end the day on a good note.

              After a few hours Melissa pulled him from the living room into their bedroom. She wanted to explain in private knowing Luke wouldn’t have wanted this party. ‘I had no idea. I got back and Beth had already organised it. I didn’t have the heart to tell them to go,’ Melissa said.

              Luke smiled as he stroked her cheek. ‘It doesn’t matter. It’s been kind of nice. They’ve been through a lot too, so let them celebrate. Let’s just stay here for a few minutes.’

              Melissa pulled him to the bed and they lay there together. After a few minutes Luke broke the silence. ‘I’m proud of you. But you’re still sad. Tell me what’s bothering you.’ Luke had noticed the spark hadn’t returned to her eyes, and that her smiles were forced. She wasn’t happy.
She still blamed herself and still had nightmares about it. Luke would go quiet sometimes and it made her fear he blamed her too, that he blamed her for Jay-Den, and for his career in tatters. He couldn’t write, not like he used to. He barely played his guitar, and it killed her.

              ‘Do you think I’m to blame?' Melissa asked, scared the answer might be yes.

              ‘No. None of this is your fault. Liss, you have to stop blaming yourself.’

              ‘It
is
my fault. I’m an idiot for letting him in, trusting him. I was so low and he had been really supportive. I just thought at the time I needed all the help I could get. I was sick of the awkwardness, and he used that to worm his way in. I’m still so confused over it all. I don’t know how this happened, what we did to deserve this. You can never understand how I felt when he said those things to me. Sex for your career. I’ve never felt so cheap and cornered in all my life.’

              Luke’s eyes narrowed, and rage flickered in his expression. ‘You have no idea how proud I am of you for telling him to fuck off. It could have been an easy option to agree. No, I don’t understand, but I know how brave saying no must have been.’

              Melissa looked him in the eyes. Tilting her head slightly, her blonde hair hung long and shiny over her shoulder and her blue eyes shimmered with tears. ‘It wasn’t brave, Luke. That part didn’t scare me. It sickened me. I would never do that, because I love you, and because you don’t need me to do that. He gave me a choice: lose my dignity and degrade myself and humiliate you, or take away the one thing you’ve dreamt off all your life. I was always going to lose and he was always going to win.’

              Luke took her hand and squeezed it. ‘He’s a monster. What made you decide to say no, really?’ He agreed she was right, that they would lose either way so he was interested in the reason for her choice.

              Melissa shifted forward taking his other hand. ‘You. Apart from that, I’d be cheating on you, which I could never do. You work so hard and put everything into it. I know you love me but you love what you do so much. How could I disrespect you like that? If I had agreed, done what he asked and the truth came out? I would not only humiliate myself, I would do that to you too. I could see in my mind the headline: “Luke Black: girlfriend fucked for his contract”. You would lose any respect you’d built up. It would ruin you in the end anyway. It was never worth the risk. Your dream is mine and I want you to have it for the right reasons.’ She hoped she had explained it right. It was hard to think straight when they had these talks: she was always paranoid she would say the wrong thing. Jay-Den had damaged her mentally more than physically.

              Luke hadn’t said a word while she spoke, waiting for her to finish. His face had softened and he was looking at her with admiration and awe. ‘You know me better than anyone. Everything you just said was spot on. That would have broken me. I would have lost everything, and I would have hated you.’ He had to be honest on that part and Melissa had known that anyway.

              ‘You hating me is my worst nightmare. I know that you could never have forgiven me. Why should you? So I put us before anything else. If Jay-Den had the chance to do what he threatened I knew deep down you boys would survive it.’

              Luke held his finger to her lips to stop her and leaned in to kiss her, softly. ‘You would have your dignity intact. Held your head up and known this was his evil games. We would have survived, and we still will. I still have you and you have me. We haven’t lost anything important.’

              Melissa finally smiled. ‘When you put it like that, I guess not.’ She pressed her hand against her cheek, frowning.

              Luke pulled it away, and kissed her scars, although he hardly noticed them. ‘You don’t have to worry about them either. You’re still the most amazing, beautiful girl in the world.’ He kissed her so sweetly, she melted and some of her pain slipped away.

              There was one other thing they did need to discuss, and Luke was being stubborn about it. Melissa on the other hand wanted to do it, she needed to know why? ‘I think you should meet with Dean. We should...’ she said. She saw his expression change, from calm to annoyance in a second.

              ‘No.’

              Melissa had expected that answer; it was always his answer. She didn’t blame him.  ‘Listen, I know seeing him will be really difficult. But I think we need to know why. I want to know, Luke. I want to know what made him betray us so badly. He’s desperate to explain, giving me the impression there’s more to this.’

              Luke sat on the side of the bed and sighed heavily, thinking it through. ‘I don’t think I want to know, or maybe I do. I don’t know. He was supposed to be my friend. I spoke to him through our split, he watched me fall apart, comforted me. Let me bang on about it. I-I pretty much cried on the guy’s shoulder. And all the time he knew the truth, could have changed it. He didn’t and that fucking hurts.’

              Melissa wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder. ‘I know. Babe, I know.’

              He grabbed her hand and kissed it. ‘He helped to break us. What if Kelsey had never told the truth?’

              ‘Don’t, Luke. Please don’t.’

              ‘You wouldn’t be here, would you?’ He didn’t look at her as he spoke. The answer to that question they both knew the answer to. Probably not.

              Melissa tightened her hold on him. ‘Chances are that neither would you. I want to know why he did it because...because
you
could be dead. There I said it...dead, Luke. Dead.’              

              Luke turned to look at her, and knew they both had questions that needed answers. His lips pressed against hers fiercely, full of desperation.

              Melissa pushed him gently away. They had a house full of people and it wasn’t appropriate. ‘House...full. Maybe, later.’

              Luke knew there wouldn’t be a later. Jay-Den had managed to ruin that for them too. ‘You didn’t do anything wrong,’ he whispered.

              Melissa didn’t agree. ‘Yes, I did. I let him in.’

              ‘That doesn’t give anyone the right to do that.’

              ‘I’m getting there, Luke. I’m…trying.’

              ‘I miss you,’ he said and the pain was there in his eyes.

              ‘I miss you too. Don’t ever think it’s you. It isn’t,’ Melissa assured him.

              Luke nodded and he let it go. Then he gave in to the Dean issue. ‘OK, I will meet with Dean. You’re right.’ He held his hand out, helping her off the bed, and they returned to the party to celebrate with those who needed it the most. Luke went to the kitchen on the hunt for a beer, finding Megan already on the case.

              ‘Miss May, get out of my fridge,’ he joked.

              Megan spun round, smiling, and putting down the beer bottles ran to him for a hug. ‘It’s not like you can’t afford a few beers, Mr Black,’ she responded in mock annoyance. Luke laughed and returned the hug. Megan felt elated, victorious too. ‘You both did great. I feel like Toby and I have some justice too. Thank you.’ Luke tightened his hold on her but said nothing. He still felt that what they had both lost warranted more punishment.