See You at the Show (7 page)

“Another time,” she smiled back, knowing she’d lost him for the day now and it was pointless trying to get him back.

Daniel took a quick gulp of his coffee and leaned over to quickly kiss her cheek.

“I’d better get into the office and wait for that conference call.
 
You have a good day, darling.”

And she would.
 
Even if she couldn’t be with him she’d have a good day.
 
It would just have been so much better if he’d been there too.

***

Daniel switched on his laptop and waited for it to start up.
 
He’d have the usual barrage of e-mails to read through no doubt.
 
It was going to be a long day but that wasn’t anything he wasn’t used to.
 
He thrived on it.
 
He hated having nothing to do, he couldn’t handle boredom.
 
Not that he’d ever experienced much of it.
 
There was always something going on in Daniel Madison’s life and that was just the way he liked it.

He leaned back in his chair, placing his mobile phone down beside the computer, knowing it wouldn’t be long before that started ringing too.
 
And as if it had read his mind the shrill tone of an incoming call reverberated around the large office space as Daniel smiled to himself.
 
His day was beginning.

He leaned forward to pick up the phone, logging onto his e-mail account as he spoke.

“Daniel Madison.”

“Daniel, it’s George.”

George Marshall was one of Daniel’s closest and most trusted business associates, and a very dear friend.
 
He was one of the wealthiest and most influential businessmen in the country and he’d helped Daniel no end with many of his companies, not to mention his political career.
 
Their families often socialised together, took holidays together, and Daniel and Samantha were Godparents to George’s teenage daughter.
 
They’d been friends for a long time.
 

“George, hello.
 
What can I do for you?”

“It’s a social call, Daniel.
 
It’s Audra’s eighteenth birthday soon, as you know, and I just wondered if you and Samantha were free to join us.
 
We’re holding a party for her at the Country Club and we’d love for you to help us celebrate.”

“And we’d love to be there, George.
 
Count us in.
 
We could do with a little light relief.”

George laughed.
 
“You won’t get much of that I’m afraid.
 
We’re hiring a rock band to play for her.
 
Not our cup of tea but it’s what she wants and you know Audra – what she wants she usually gets.
 
I know I spoil her far too much but what can I do?
 
It’s her eighteenth.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow.
 
“A rock band?”

“I know,” George sighed.
 
“But they’ll be outside so there’ll be plenty of places for us adults to hide away indoors if it all gets too much.
 
Never heard of the band myself but Audra loves them, or rather, she loves the lead singer, so Annabelle tells me anyway.
 
We’ve got Ashbury’s doing the catering though so at least the food will be exceptional, even if the entertainment won’t exactly be to our taste.
 
I haven’t put you off old chap, have I?”

“No,” Daniel laughed.
 
“No, you haven’t.
 
Tell Annabelle and Audra we’d love to join you for the party.”

“Fantastic!
 
We’ll get the invitation sent out today.
 
Oh, by the way, has Mitchell resigned yet?
 
I haven’t watched any news this morning.
 
I’m a bit out of the loop at the minute.”

Daniel sat back in his chair and pushed a hand through his hair.
 
“I haven’t heard anything as yet, George, but it’s definitely looking like it’s going to happen soon.
 
All we can do is wait.”

“Keep me posted, will you?
 
And you know you’ll have my full support.”

“Thank you, George.
 
We’ll see you at the party then.”

Daniel ended the call and placed the phone back down on his desk, looking out of the window.
 
The bright June sunshine bounced off the vivid green lawn and the colourful plants and shrubs dotted around their perfectly landscaped garden.
 
He felt quite calm as he watched the birds hopping about from tree to tree, the light breeze shaking the branches slightly.
 
He felt good.
 
Everything was in place.
 
He could do it, he had no doubt about that.
 
And he was the front runner, he knew that too.
 
But, like he’d told George, all he could do now was sit back and wait for Andrew Mitchell to resign.
 
Because when he did, Daniel Madison would be more than ready to take his place.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Why does Dave do this shit?”
 
Mark threw his ‘phone down onto the table in front
 
of him, swinging his feet up beside it.
 
Stevie looked at him, watching as he stared out of the bus window.
 
Sometimes he could act like a petulant schoolboy if things didn’t go his way and, in the middle of the most important tour of their lives, a private gig for some rich businessman’s daughter was something Mark evidently wasn’t in the mood for.

“It’s one night, Mark,” she said, sitting down next to him.
 
“Grow up and deal with it.”

They were on the tour bus, heading to
Manchester
and another string of sell-out stadium gigs.
 
But
Manchester
was somewhere Stevie was never that keen on re-visiting.
 
She just couldn’t tell anyone why, because she didn’t want to re-open those still un-healed wounds, she didn’t want to re-live the past.
 
But she could never stop the nerves and the fear hitting her every time they came back to this city because some things, no matter how hard you tried, could never be laid to rest.
 
Not fully.

The tour, however, was going incredibly well.
 
They’d played
Dublin
,
Glasgow
and
Sunderland
so far and the reviews had been amazing.
 
The fans had gone wild, the guys had stepped it up a notch and the atmosphere had been something Stevie had never experienced before.
 
Watching them out there, night after night, she knew they’d really hit it big now.
 
They’d hit it really big.
 
They were commanding the audiences they’d always craved and they deserved it.
 
All of it.
 

But they were all living on a mixture of adrenalin and lager at the minute and sometimes the strain began to show.
 
Mark especially was becoming edgy and temperamental and Stevie knew she’d have to try harder to keep him calm, because when he was like this he could so easily go off altogether.
 
And nobody wanted that right now.
 
But she could control him.
 
She was the only one who could, and everybody knew that.
              
“Think of the money,” Jack said, sitting down opposite them, his attention focused on a small hand-held video camera, concentrating on what was playing out in front
 
of him on the screen.

Mark looked at him, swinging his feet down from the table and leaning forward.
 
“We don’t need the fucking money, Jack.”

“We always need the money, Mark.
 
Come on, like Stevie says, it’s one night.
 
And think of the amount of eye candy there’s going to be with all those eighteen year old girls.
 
I’m gonna be like a kid in a fucking sweet shop!”

Stevie stared at him.
 
“You’re disgusting sometimes, do you know that?”

“Me?” Jack laughed.
 
“Have you
seen
this
?”

“Seen what?
 
Jack, what the fuck are you watching?”

He sat back and continued to look at the camera screen, a lit cigarette dangling from his bottom lip.
 
Stevie leant forward and grabbed the camera from his hands, flicking the cigarette out of his mouth as she sat back down.

“And you shouldn’t be smoking that in here when Ava’s about.”
 
She turned the camera round and looked at the screen.
 
“Jesus, Jack.”

“You could be in movies, Stevie,” Jack smirked, swinging his feet up onto the table that separated them.

“You’re a fucking bastard, Warner,” Stevie said, knocking his feet off the table in one swift movement.

“They have curtains round the beds in here for a reason y’ know.”
 
Jack put his feet back up.
 
“You don’t want to be seen, close ‘em.
 
But you can keep those incredible legs of yours
wide
open.”

She looked at him, poking her tongue out.
 
Jack Warner was like the annoying brother you couldn’t shake off but loved anyway.
 
He wound her up more than anyone but she could take it.
 
He never meant any harm.
 
He was just Jack.

Mark moved closer to her, looking at the screen.
 

“Hey, some of my best work that,” he said, a smile appearing on his tired but still incredibly handsome face as he watched the scene play out.
 
Because what Jack had caught on camera was Mark and Stevie having sex on the tour bus – no holds barred, everything out there sex.
 
“Christ, watching that’s making me horny again.
 
How about a replay, baby?”

“At least
you
get to go inside,” Jack said, lighting up another cigarette.
 
“The rest of us have to go it alone.”

“Exactly who has seen this?” Stevie asked.

“Everyone but Billy.
 
We didn’t think his missus would go for it.
 
And when did
you
get all shy?
 
You’ve given us all a floor show before.”

“I was drunk, Jack.
 
And I wasn’t having sex in public, I was lap dancing.
 
It was Mark’s birthday.
 
He deserved a special present.”

“And we all got the benefit.”

She threw the camera back at Jack and turned to Mark, smiling at him.
 
“We look quite good together, don’t we?”

“We look freakin’ amazing.”

She leaned forward and gently kissed his mouth, the cigarette and beer-tainted taste of him sending her head spinning again as his hand slid under her t-shirt, gently resting in the small of her back as he kissed her harder.
 

This was what Mark needed, he needed a release, he needed his Scandinavian girl to take away the stress that this tour was putting on him.
 
He loved every second of it; it was his world after all, up there on stage was where he belonged, but he needed Stevie more and more at times like this, when he couldn’t think straight, when he felt it all starting to become too much.
 
She was the only one who took him to a good place.
 
Nobody else could do that, nobody else could rein him in and calm him down; nobody else could make him feel in control, even when he was losing it.
 
Nobody could do that.
 
Not like Stevie could.

He pulled her over so she sat astride him, their mouths still joined in a deep, slow kiss as he let his hand wander higher, touching her warm, soft skin.
 
She began to push herself against him and it was obvious they were going to have to move pretty soon, although he’d quite happily fuck her right there and he couldn’t care who saw, he needed her that badly.

“We need to go,” she whispered, feeling him hard underneath her, and more than aware that Jack was still watching them.
 
With a video camera in his hand.

“Come on then, beautiful,” Mark said, taking her hand and leading her up to the beds at the back of the bus.
 
“Let’s go get ourselves some privacy.”

“No such thing in this place,” Jack shouted after them.
 
“Just keep the curtains closed this time, unless you want a sequel to this baby here.”

Stevie smacked him round the head as she walked past him.

“Get the camera,” Mark said.

“What?”

“Get the camera, come on.
 
Let’s make a movie of our own.”

She smiled.
 
Why not?
 
She was just in the mood, and if it kept Mark calm and relaxed then all the better.
 
It made
her
life easier.