See You at the Show (37 page)

He threw himself down onto the sofa in the living room of his
L.A.
home, opening his second, or third – he wasn’t counting - beer of the day and it was only two in the afternoon.
 
They had a small gig tonight on Sunset Boulevard to promote the album and he wasn’t really in the mood for any of it but he’d get through it, he always did.
 
Even if he didn’t really want to anymore.
 
Black Rock Diamond had once been his life but the goalposts had shifted, the game had changed.
 
Without Stevie Black Rock Diamond meant nothing.
 
Without Stevie Mark
had
no life, and he could just sit back and accept that or he could do something about it.
 
But at that precise moment in time he had no idea which way that was going to go.

***

Stevie clung onto Daniel’s hand as the car made its way through the
London
streets, surrounded by the usual security that now accompanied him everywhere.
 
She wasn’t saying much, she was too nervous to speak; all she was aware of was her heart beating ten to the dozen and Daniel’s voice as he talked into his ‘phone.
 
He was attached to his ‘phone a lot these days, it was something she was having to get used to.

“It’s going to be alright.”

She turned to look at him as he slipped his ‘phone back into his inside jacket pocket, giving her hand a quick squeeze.

“Is it?
 
Look at me, Daniel.
 
How can I possibly fit into your world?
 
No-one’s ever going to accept me.”

He smiled, leaning over to kiss her gently.
 
“You look stunning.”

“I don’t feel comfortable.”

He hadn’t made her, and he hadn’t asked her to, but she’d felt obliged to cover up her tattoos, and she hadn’t missed the look of silent relief on his face when she’d shown him the dress she was going to wear.
 
She alone was going to be a big enough shock so she’d figured the tattoos were probably a step too far tonight.
 
But she refused to lose who she was completely so she’d chosen a long-sleeved but figure-hugging black dress, short enough to show off her long, tanned legs but not too short as to over-shock the stuffy political set.
 
She’d teamed it with high black ankle boots, her make-up light and natural, a black scarf tied around her white blonde hair in an Axl Rose bandana-style.
 
She still looked very much Stevie Stone, rock chick – albeit a more toned down version than usual.

“You look incredible, Stevie, really.”

“I’m having to get used to dresses, Daniel.
 
I’m having to get used to heels and I hate heels.
 
And I very rarely do dresses, you know that.”
 
She looked at him.
 
“What’re you
smiling at?”

“You have no idea how beautiful you are.”

“Jesus.
 
You are such a charmer.”
 
He laughed and she couldn’t help smiling.
 
“I’m glad
you’re
relaxed.”

He gave her hand another squeeze, running his fingers up her leg to her thigh.

“Daniel…what are you doing?”

“I love you, Stevie Stone.”

She smiled again; she couldn’t help it, despite the nerves.
 
“Yeah.
 
I kinda love you too, Mr. P.M.”

She closed her eyes as he kissed her slowly, letting his hand rest on her thigh, but as the car drew to a halt she pulled away, a wave of nausea washing over her as the nerves hit her tenfold.

“I can’t do this, Daniel.
 
I’m terrified.”

He squeezed her hand again, bringing it up to his mouth and kissing it gently, smiling that smile but it wasn’t helping.
 
She looked out of the window at the mass of people outside, the press and photographers, the cameras waiting to film their arrival and beam it round the world.
 
She’d dealt with stuff like this when she’d been with the band but that had been easy because none of it had ever been focused on her.
 
Even when she’d been out with Mark it still wasn’t her they’d been interested in and that was the way she liked it.
 
But this was different.
 
This was
all
about her and that didn’t make her feel comfortable.
 
She didn’t want to be in the public eye, she didn’t want people to know who she was.
 
For many, many reasons.

“Just hold my hand and it’ll be fine,” Daniel said, stroking the hair from her eyes, still smiling that smile.
 
“It’ll be fine.
 
I promise.”

She looked at him, into those trusting green eyes of his and her stomach settled a little bit, but not enough for her to feel any better about the situation.
 
It was too late to turn back now though.
 
It was too late to do anything except move forward into that frightening unknown.

So she did as Daniel told her, held onto his hand like her life depended on it and hoped beyond anything else that this wasn’t the beginning of something she just couldn’t control.

***

Luke Franklin looked up from his laptop as the noise of what sounded like a million camera shutters going off at once resounded from the screen.
 
He didn’t even know why the news channel was on, he wanted to watch the football.
 
His dad must have switched it over and he’d been so busy “social networking” he hadn’t realised.
 
Where
was
his dad anyway?
 
The least he could have done was switch the channel back over when he’d left the room.

He kept watching the screen.
 
He was distracted now, anyway, and his attention had suddenly been caught by the woman who was holding onto the hand of the new Prime Minister.
 
He wasn’t all that bothered by politics but nobody could have missed the recent publicity surrounding Daniel Madison’s new relationship.
 
The world and its mother seemed to be interested in who this new woman was and what she looked like, but Luke was absolutely certain nobody had expected her to look like this.
 
The woman holding onto Prime Minister Madison’s hand couldn’t have looked any further from the typical partner of a politician if she’d tried.
 
She was stunning!
 
Luke couldn’t take his eyes off her.
 
He’d never really taken any notice of older women before because they’d all seemed so boring, but this one looked so far from boring - how the hell had someone like Daniel Madison managed to snare someone like that?
 
And she had the most incredible legs!

Connor
Franklin
walked back into the room, his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his jeans, looking over at his seventeen year old son who seemed engrossed in whatever was on the TV.
 
Something had his attention, that was for sure.

“What’s happening?” Connor asked, moving round to where he could see the TV.

“Daniel Madison’s new girlfriend,” Luke replied, still staring at the screen.

Connor followed Luke’s gaze, looking at the crowds gathering around the P.M. and the new woman in his life, watching as she turned round, the camera focusing on the face of the most beautiful woman Connor had ever seen.
 
A woman Connor slowly began to recognise.
 
A woman he’d never thought he’d ever see again.
 
She was older, and she looked so different to the last time he’d seen her but it was definitely her.
 
Stefanie Fredriksen.
 
Unfinished business.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

As expected, the world wanted to know just who Stevie Stone was and under normal circumstances that would have annoyed Angus.
 
Anything that took the attention away from Daniel’s work was usually an unwelcome distraction but Angus figured that the more people knew about Ms. Stone, the quicker she’d be out of Daniel’s life.
 
He wasn’t going to give the press or media any help just yet though.
 
He was waiting to see what they came up with all by themselves first because surely they’d start digging now, wouldn’t they?
 
They’d already unearthed the naked photographs and that was just the beginning.
 
She was the P.M.’s new girlfriend, and look at her!
 
She wasn’t anywhere close to your typical politician’s partner; she was a journalist’s dream.
 

No, he’d wait a bit longer, see what happened.
 
He’d already made that all important ‘phone call and put the ball very firmly in someone else’s court but if things moved too slow then there was no harm in giving them a little nudge, dropping a few hints.
 
No harm at all.
 
But he had to play this carefully.
 
Should he have to give the press clues then Daniel must never know that anything had come from him.
 
Their relationship had to stay damage-free, Daniel needed him.
 
They were a team, and once everything was back as it should be, with Samantha re-installed as the perfect Prime Minister’s wife, then they could finally start running this country.
 
And Stevie Stone would be nothing but a very beautiful mistake.

***

Mark was excited to be back in
London
, and that hadn’t escaped Dave’s notice.
 
He’d been nothing but a walking cloud of misery over in the States, even when they’d hit
L.A.
, a place Mark usually loved to be back in.
 
He’d performed like the professional he was during the promotional gigs they’d done, despite the hours of drinking he was quite obviously putting in, but when they hadn’t been working he’d holed himself up at his home in Brentwood, preferring to be alone rather than hanging out with the rest of the band.
 
Dave thought he knew Mark Cassidy, he’d thought the longer Stevie was away the more Mark would get used to the idea and move on but it hadn’t been that simple, of course it hadn’t.
 
He hadn’t thought Mark was the kind of person to pine over someone or let himself get involved but obviously Mark Cassidy wasn’t the man everyone thought he was.
 
Stevie Stone had got underneath that rock star exterior and now it seemed more than obvious to Dave that not having Stevie around was doing far more damage than her being here ever had.
 
And it was giving him a headache.
 

He sat down on the edge of the Wembley Arena stage where Black Rock Diamond were about to begin a ten date residency, watching everything go on around him as they set up for a sound check.
 
And that’s when he realised something he should have realised a long time ago.
 
Stevie Stone was as much a part of this band as any of the guys were.
 
So what was he supposed to do now?

***

Stevie threw the paper down on the floor and lay back on the bed, flinging her arms up above her head as she stared at the ceiling.
 
The fact they’d discovered those photos from her modelling days, the naked ones, the ones where all she had on were biker boots and a bandana, that was no surprise.
 
They’d never been a secret.
 
She’d always known, once she and Daniel had become public knowledge, that they’d surface at some point.
 
She just hoped Daniel wasn’t getting too much flack during Prime Minister’s Question Time, but it was probably far too much to ask that nothing would be said.
 

She was fast learning about politics, about the fact that whatever ammunition people could get they’d throw at you, and she was one hell of a lot of ammunition.
 
The tabloids were having a field day with her, writing about her days with Mark and the band, giving her a reputation she never realised she’d had, and she felt bad for Daniel.
 
He was handling it extremely well; at least, in front of her he was but it couldn’t be easy, reading about your girlfriend’s past on the road with rock stars and everything that went with that lifestyle.
 
But if that was all they managed to dig up then she knew she could handle that.
 
They’d get through it somehow.
 
If that was the worst they had to go through then that was best case scenario for Stevie.

She closed her eyes and tried to muster up the enthusiasm to get up and do something.
 
But what, exactly?
 
She was finding it really hard having all this time on her hands.
 
She missed work.
 
She wasn’t used to sitting around watching daytime telly while waiting for her man to get home.
 
She was alone a lot too, given Daniel’s busy schedule.
 
He was hardly nine-to-five, she knew that, but she was starting to feel lonely and she hated that feeling.
 
When she’d been with the band she’d never really been lonely.
 
If she wasn’t hanging out with Johnny and the guys she was with Colin and the rest of the crew.
 
Back then she’d be alone only when she wanted to be, her choice, not something that was enforced like now.
 
Now she
had
no choice.
 
And if she wanted to be with Daniel she was going to have to get used to this new way of life, but it wasn’t easy.